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Oh, fuck.
Maybe we had walked into a slaughter.
All around me, sand dunes rose and fell. This was nothing like the jungle we’d been dropped in the first time, and as scary as that had been, somehow this barren landscape was way more terrifying.
There was nowhere to hide, no place to take cover. In the distance, I could see mountains rising up, and when I looked the other way, I noticed a forest of scraggly trees on the horizon.
If we can get into the trees or up in the mountains, we’ll have a better chance.
All around me, students continued to appear, stepping out of the ether and glancing around in fear as the wind whipped up little dust devils at their feet.
My heart beat hard and fast in my chest, and I stepped closer to Merrick as Lachlan and Trace came to join us. Eden caught my gaze and gave me a solemn nod as she went to gather her own team.
As pissed as Wesley had been about the guys and I working together during our first challenge, it was truly the best way. It hadn’t taken too much convincing to get the students we had trained to see it that way too. Facing the prospect of going up against the gods, most of them were only too happy to have backup.
“We’re almost all here by now.” Trace glanced around, his blue eyes squinting slightly against the wind and the sand. “The last few will be through soon, and the portals will close. We should be ready for anything.”
“Ye can say that again.” Lach snorted. “After those fuckin’ earth monsters and the damn bird Wesley unleashed on me last time, nothin’ would surprise me.”
As if to punctuate his words, five more students appeared out of thin air, and the portals fizzled into nothingness behind them.
That was it. We were all through.
The men and I fell into a battle formation as easily as if it were second nature. We formed a tight circle, each of us facing out, our hands raised and magic thrumming between our fingers.
But it wasn’t monsters that attacked.
It wasn’t magical creatures.
Nope.
It was the gods themselves.
One moment, there was nothing around us but sand and the occasional rolling tumbleweed.
Then, in a flash, over twenty gods appeared, arrayed around the large group of students as if they were trying to box us in.
I jolted, adrenaline surging through my system, as the gods raised their hands.
“Shields!” I screamed, and the call went up among the rest of our allies, who had bunched into tight groups like me and my men.
All of us threw our arms up, sending out bursts of magic that twined together, creating a dome-like shield around our entire group.
Purple and blue and red magic hurtled into the shimmering dome, and I swore I could feel the impact down to my soul.
Shit, the gods were strong.
I fed more of my magic into the dome surrounding us, trying to strengthen the spots where the blast had weakened it.
The gods barely even hesitated, sending another attack right on the heels of the first. I screamed as the dome around us shook, but I kept pouring my own magic into the barrier, doing what I could to strengthen and fortify it.
And incredibly, it held.
Is that because of my power? Is godly magic strong enough to repel other gods’ magic?
Whatever the cause, I wasn’t going to question it. This was keeping us alive, but we couldn’t hold it up forever. We needed to break through the gods’ ranks so that we could find that damn gem. We were sitting ducks here, but once we spread out, we’d have a better chance of evading them until we could find the prize.
The gods around us raised their hands again, and I scanned my gaze over them quickly.
