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They even wore full body armor: metallic black, that glinted underneath the shaky candlelight above. Their breastplates making it clear they were an organized army.

Sarah had been right in her retelling of what her team had faced; what Hunter had faced.

These beasts were clearly different.

Intelligent.

The leaders.

Leo’s soft scent of sea salt that usually eased me when I was near him did nothing to stifle the acidic scent of their rotting flesh. With at least forty of them spread throughout the room, the stench was eye-watering. The large space of the Dome having met its capacity with humans and humanoids alike—the humanoids with their guns aimed at the guards that stood protectively around their leaders, the guards with weapons of their own pointed back at the creatures.

I didn’t think the guards’ weapons would be enough, though; the creatures radiated power. Some of them already licked their lips in triumph, their tongues forked like serpents.

I expected screams of fear, or at the very least, the hair-raising shriek of the Decodons. But instead, there was only shocked silence. Somehow, the silence was even scarier.

Reaching within me, I searched for my light, then for the feeling of sand beneath my skin. But there was nothing there.

The Nullifiers had been reactivated.

I knew what that meant for Leo’s guards that had been stationed outside the door. The Decodons had successfully gotten hold of the remote that controlled the discs, most likely by bloodshed.

I hadn’t heard any commotion outside, though. They’d entered discreetly. The loss of my powers the only tell that something had been off.

Leo had sensed them quicker than I had. Had thrown me behind him the second I saw the first dark figure slink inside the room.

And it was the king who broke the silence first. His voice like a god’s, deep and furious. “You have no place here, beasts,” Leo seethed, his teeth grinding against each other. “I suggest you leave. Now.”

A low hiss echoed throughout the room as slits of skin, like gills on a fish, opened along the sides of the creatures’ necks in unison, air hissing out from the folds, their way of communicating with each other.

Stepping closer to Leo, I couldn’t stop my body from shaking at the sight of it, as the largest of the Deks stepped forward.

He was male and spoke as I’d imagined a snake would, his tongue darting in and out of his large mouth full of jagged yellow teeth. “Our only place is here, King.”

The creature looked at Leo, and to where I stood behind him, his empty eye sockets still seeing, glowing slightly purple in his sunken face; the absence of white disorienting. Then, he tilted his head back, shrieking, as the skin on his neck fanned out once more.

“You have ten seconds to leave, before I kill you where you stand,” Leo rumbled. His hands opened at his sides, reaching for weapons that weren’t there.

The creature looked at Leo with amusement, then flung himself at the king.

The sudden movement caused a ripple effect as fighting broke out across the room. The silence replaced with cries of war and continuous shrieking as sharp canines sank into human flesh. The air lighting with magma as guns fired, blood of both black and red spraying the floors and honeycombed panes.

I searched for anything I could find to make a weapon out of, as Leo met the leader’s attack with fists. But there was nothing around us, and I was out of time as a creature grabbed me from behind, its rancid hand covering my mouth as it tried to knock my legs out from under me, to take me down to the floor.

I clawed at its hand, trying to tear it from my face, its odor so overwhelming my eyes were crying. But the Decodon’s hulking frame was too strong against my average one.

I bit down as hard as I could, black blood spraying inside my mouth, and the creature snatched its hand back.

I pivoted quickly to face it, bringing my arms up in front of my face in a fighting stance, spitting its blood back at it. The taste unbearable.

I swiped my dark green sleeve across my tongue, trying to remove the bitterness, still wearing my uniform from Two. The color that represented one of my homes.

The Decodon charged me, banging its fists down on my head, then swatting its arm at me as if I were an annoying bug, before backhanding me across the room and into the panes of glass.

My body broke against the glass as it shattered, and I slumped to the floor.

I felt hands on me and kicked out, screaming, until I heard Sigrid’s voice in my ear, yelling above the noise. “It’s Sigrid! I need to get you out of here!”

I nodded, trying to stand, only to fall back down, a vicious pain stabbing at my thigh.