"The truth is often one's best shield."

-James Rollins

The roar of the audience that pierced Adira's ears when she stepped through the giant sliding door almost made her shrivel back into the darkness of the tunnel. She looked at her friends - at Wren tucked into Obsidian's arm, her whimpers echoing through the air around them - and was filled with a fierce anger she had never known. How was Wren supposed to fight when her power was nothing physical? She'd only just arrived and they were throwing her in to be slaughtered like cattle.

It all had happened so fast.

One minute Adira was startling awake in Wren's bed, with everyone staring at her like she had come back from the brink of death; the next she was being escorted down a tunnel leading to the Pit.

She didn't have much time to tell Ryder and company about Soren and what they had to do, but she tried her best to explain, despite their confused gazes. Wren seemed to be the only one who understood, but Adira guessed that she knew everything in general.

The tunnel was dark. The shadows pressed in on her, reminding her of the shadow that took Soren. Where was he? Was he okay? What had taken him? Her mind had shuffled through so many possibilities, but she wouldn't know the truth until she saw him. And she would see him. She couldn't live with the fact that he might be dead or hurt because of her.

But now, as she stood in front of the screaming audience-the ground mud beneath her feet-her anger was a festering wound, burning inside of her. It wouldn't heal until she unleashed it.

She clenched her fists as her eyes locked with Ryder's, feeling the terror he felt while fighting the mist bodies surrounding him. For each one him and Taliyah made vanish, another took its place.

To her left, Obsidian growled. He scooped Wren up in his arms and ran her to the only rock that wasn't complete rubble. Adira stepped forward as she watched him whisper something to Wren then place himself before the mist battle that was still taking place.

"This isn't fair!" a shrill scream came from across the Pit. Adira found the source of the voice-a girl she recognized from the cafeteria. "Five on two?" The sky darkened, and rain poured once again, thunder cracking in the air.

Adira sprinted through the mud, feeling it splatter on her legs, arms, and face. She reached Wren who was shaking violently behind the rock. She had never seen someone who looked so frightened. Draping her arms around her, she whispered to her, promising that everything would be okay, that she would be safe and no one would hurt her.

But as lightning struck the tip of the rock they were hiding behind, she knew that she had to do something.

She gave Wren a squeeze, and stepped out into the open. She glanced to her three friends fighting in the mist. Ryder's eyes flicked to hers between the swipes of his arm, and Taliyah was a blur, popping in and out through the fog.

Obsidian was utterly still in the middle - white wisps curling around him. Adira squinted her eyes and saw them. Behind him rose new bodies made of shadow. The audience went mad, and Adira touched her ears to make sure they weren't bleeding from their screams.

Lightning struck. This time only a few yards from Adira. She was blind and deaf, stumbling through the mud until she tripped, tasting the brine as her face hit the ground.

"Adira!" Ryder screamed. She lifted her heads, her eyes open, but she couldn't see him. Only a fading white.

The hairs on her arms rose, her neck tingled. She could feel the air around her charging, the lightening readying to strike again. Rising to her knees, she crawled, letting the mud cover her body. The charge grew thicker, making her gasp for air, but it wouldn't come.

The lightning was going to strike her. She would never find out what happened to Soren. She wouldn't get to tell Ryder how she felt. She was going to die before she saw the sun again and the feeling sucked the life out of her. A strangled sob escaped from her lips as she dug through the mud.

"Taliyah!" Ryder yelled, his voice frantic. "Get to her!"

But there wasn't time. The blinding white that had been fading now re-lit, electrifying the air before the strike even touched the ground.

She didn't want to die. Not that day. A warmth grew in her belly.

She gritted her teeth, digging her fingers into the mud, and pushed the growing tension outwards until she felt it explode out of her.

She didn't feel the charge anymore. She didn't feel any pain. She didn't die.

Cracking open her eyes, the white that had been blinding her faded, although her vision was still slightly hazy. Everything had quieted - the cheering of the crowd, the rolling storm, the mist battle - all was gone.

Lifting her head, she saw a glimmer, separating her from everyone else. She realized the rain no longer fell on her, but instead cascaded around her, as if the glimmer was a barrier. Protection. A shield.

The Wielders in the Pit stared at her, their mouths agape. She was wondering the same as them, she was sure. How had she done it? She didn't channel anyone, for the power, it was just there - buried, but there.

She finally breathed and the shield vanished, its glimmer disappearing with a blink. She could hear again, the crowd still stamping and roaring like wild animals. A charge began to stifle the air around her again, but this time she was ready.

Her arm shot into the air, just as the lightning cracked out of the dark clouds. It didn't strike her though. Instead, it was reflected by the translucent shield she knew branched out from her closed fist.

The bolt zoomed off of her shield, back through the storm and struck the top of the kraenite dome that encased their powers. Then she was running across the puddles, passed trembling Wren, and right through the battle of mist and shadow.

Ryder grabbed her wrist, stopping her in her tracks. "Where are you going?" he asked, then let go of her to punch through a mist being.

"I know what I have to do," she said breathlessly. "I know how to break through the dome."

He nodded, brushing his fingers against hers. "Be careful."

Then the mud was flying off of her shoes again as she made a direct bee-line for the weather Wielder. Adira was sure she was a sight to see as she burst through the fog and shadow, covered in mud, her hair wild and whipping through the air.

The girl wielding the storm stepped backwards, her eyes wide in fear as Adira came barreling toward her. She looked up and saw the clouds spinning along with the girl's hands that circled around each other. The air charged once more, preparing another lightning strike.

"No!" Adira yelled, still not fully trusting her new found shield. "Stop!"

The girl's brow twisted in confusion. She opened her mouth as if to say why before Adira reached her.

Adira flung out her hands, gripping the girl's wrists like her life depended on it. And at that moment it did. So many Wielders' lives depended on it.

"What are you doing?" the girl bit out, tossing her shoulders back and forth, trying to release herself from Adira's grip.

But she didn't let go. She held on tight, determined, reaching out with her power, trying to find the girl's storm inside of her.

Having her hands on her was much easier than trying to find an aura in a room. They were directly linked. Adira found that spiraling chaos in an instant and latched onto it, pulling it into herself.

Now she could wield the storm. But it would be pointless without Ryder's immunity.

She closed her eyes, blocking out the thunder, the grunts, and the cheers from the crowd. He was a beacon of aquamarine - like the calming sea, like a sky with no clouds. The girl's power was already coursing through her, fueling her, but once she pulled Ryder's power into her, it was too much.

If she held on too long, she felt like it would explode out of her, and it that happened, she didn't know if any of them would survive it. Sweat laced at her brow, but she opened her eyes and looked directly at the weather Wielder.

"Help me," Adira said murmured, hoping she understood. "Help me."

Then it was as if the girl purposely pushed her power into her. She could feel the sun, taste the rain, hear the blustering wind of a blizzard. It was all there inside of her.

Breathing deep, she focused on the storm above while also keeping her hold on the girl and Ryder. She pushed-she pushed with everything she had-but she wasn't strong enough.

Soren's flailing body as he was whisked away by the shadows filled her mind. She heard Ryder's voice as he talked about his sister. She remembered Obsidian calling Wren, Little Bird. And she felt Taliyah's pain when she blamed her parents' deaths on herself.

They needed her. All of them. And she would be damned if she let them fall because of her.

With one final effort, she lashed out, screaming from her gut as a bolt of lightning finally shot up from the cloud. It was the largest, most powerful strike she had ever seen as it connected with the top of the dome.

Crack.

The sound brought the whole arena to a dead silence. The mist and shadow beings dissipated and every head turned up towards the top of the dome.

Another, louder crack.

Adira watched as a fissure crept across the kraenite like the roots of trees, branching off in different directions, all connected at one point in the center.

Someone screamed. Then another. Then the whole audience was screaming.

Black dust fell down from the cracks until pressure won and the kraenite came tumbling down. Sun streamed through the gaping holes, making Adira still. She basked in it-the glory of it-and didn't even think to shield the group from the oncoming boulders that would squish them like bugs.

It was as if time flowed in slow-motion. The group was running towards Adira, screaming, yelling things that she couldn't understand. Did she have time to reach inside of her? Could her shield even reach over all of them?

Wind brushed her cheek, blowing her mud-splattered hair across her face. She knew that scent. She had smelled it before when she was at the Den.

Aeron. He was there.

The wind picked up, harder and harder, until in the middle of the Pit, a tornado began to take shape. The crumbling kraenite was picked up in the spiral, but as the wind picked up speed, Adira was afraid that it would drag them up along with it.

"Quick!" Taliyah screamed as the group finally reached her. "Everyone hold onto me."

All hands were on deck the moment the words left her mouth and Taliyah flashed them into the scrambling audience.

"Follow the crowd!" Taliyah directed. "I can't blink all of you too far."

They all stayed together, even the mist and weather Wielders. The group was shoved, hit, and one person almost trampled over Wren before Obsidian was in their face, reminding them that he was a Wielder.

They were almost through the opening to the lobby of the dome, when a voice stopped them in their tracks.

"Ryder!" a girl yelled.

Adira knew it was his twin, Marina, before she even turned around. Her blonde hair was almost white against the sun, her eyes were bright with unshed tears. Her chin was bruised scabbed, but other than that she looked exactly as Ryder had described her.

Ryder left Adira's side and ran across the distance between him and his sister, scooping her up in his arms. A young man with brown hair stood close, a smile stretching at his lips as he watched the siblings embrace.

The scene in front of her made the fight, the pain-every bit of it-worth it.

A/N: Oh my gosh, I can't believe we have finally reached this far in the book!

Playlist ~ They Hit Without Warning

Image - Magic shield

What did you think of the battle?