Alec’s frown deepened. “Point taken.”

As he went back to caressing his guns, Drake winked at me. He and Alec were the muscle on the team. Claudia was the muscle too, but her magic was pretty damn strong—as I’d learned back on the airship.

Our truck screeched to a stop on the sidewalk. We all hopped out and stared down the enormous tidal wave that loomed over the shore. It was so high that I couldn’t see the sun. I couldn’t see much of the city or the sky either. That glimmering, glistening wave blocked it all out.

A woman dressed in a blue dress and sandals stood before the wall of water, her hands raised in the air, her dark hair fluttering wildly around her. The elemental was clearly still growing the wave. As soon as she let go of it, it would crash over the city.

Basanti stepped forward. “I command you to stop in the name of the Legion.”

The elemental turned around to face us. Her blue eyes pulsed with magic. She waved her hand in an arc over her head, the swirls and bubbles of water responding to every flick of her fingers. Little droplets of water hung in the air, moving in slow motion around her. Her hair swirled in that same slow-motion stream. She looked like the personification of magic gone wild.

Basanti barked out another warning, but the elemental didn’t seem to realize we were here. It was like she was in her own world. Her eyes flashed again. They were nearly white now.

“See if you can talk her down, Pandora,” Basanti said.

“Me? I’m not a negotiator.”

“You have powerful siren magic.”

I stepped forward, my hands open, empty of weapons. I reached for the elemental’s mind—and hit a wall of pain, desperation, and fear. I tried to break through that wall, to influence her. “I can feel that you’re in pain. You don’t want to hurt anyone.”

“Help me.” Her voice cracked with agony.

“We’re going to help you,” I promised her. “But you have to stop the tsunami, or a lot of people will die.”

“They’re everywhere!” the water elemental shouted. Her eyes flickered wildly from one spot to the next. “I have to drown them!”

I kept moving toward her. “Who? Who is everywhere?”

“The monsters.”

“We’re with the Legion of Angels,” I said soothingly. “We will take care of the monsters, but you need to stop this wave before it destroys the city.”

Fear flashed in her eyes. “It’s too late. The monsters are here, lurking in the shadows. They’ve already taken over. There is nothing you can do.”

“Where are the monsters?”

“Everywhere.” Her hands shook. “There is no escape.”

A wall went up in her mind, ejecting me. My magic snapped around me, and I stumbled back.

“What happened?” Claudia asked me.

“I can’t influence her. She pushed me out. I have a feeling she’s battling for control of her own mind.”

“Demon possession?” Drake asked.

I shook my head. “No, it’s something else. I don’t know what it is that’s made her like this. Fear perhaps. Whatever these monsters she saw were, they have her absolutely terrified.”

I closed my eyes and concentrated, but no matter how hard I pushed, I couldn’t get back into her mind. I was cut off. I couldn’t influence her.

“The monsters won’t matter if she destroys the city. She is a threat.” Basanti waved us forward. “Take her down. Stop that tsunami.”

“She doesn’t want to hurt anyone,” I protested.

“Her intentions are irrelevant. If we don’t stop her, she will hurt a whole lot of people.”

Drake and Alec tackled the elemental. They slammed into her so hard that it would have knocked out most supernaturals, especially elementals, who had notoriously low physical resistance. But she didn’t pass out. She stumbled to the side, recovering quickly. Her arm swung out like a propeller, knocking them aside. Drake and Alec flew past us and slammed into the truck. No elemental should have had the strength to toss aside two of the Legion’s biggest, toughest soldiers like they were nothing more than paper dolls.

She pivoted, waving her hands around. The tidal wave mimicked her movements, crashing forward. Basanti blasted it with her magic. The wave stopped falling, but it didn’t dissipate. Surprise crossed Basanti’s face for a moment before she buried it beneath the rock-hard facade of her determination.

This was weird. Basanti had powerful elemental magic, so powerful that the First Angel had once offered to make her one of the Dragons, the Legion’s keepers of elemental magic at Storm Castle. But despite her exceptional elemental magic, she wasn’t able to wrestle control over the tidal wave from a water elemental? The world’s supernatural beings could best us in numbers, but one-on-one, a soldier of Basanti’s level beat them every time. What was happening here shouldn’t have been possible.

Drake and Alec were on the move again. They charged at the elemental. She didn’t let them get close this time. Her arm cut through the air. A whip made of pure lightning magic sizzled to life in her hand. She snapped at Drake and Alec, pushing them back.

This was even more bizarre. Some very skilled water elementals could also cast ice magic, but no water elemental could summon lightning—or any of the other elements for that matter.

This water elemental had not only demonstrated power over another element; she had demonstrated the strength and resilience of a vampire, which was another kind of supernatural altogether. The only people who had the abilities of multiple supernaturals were soldiers of the Legion. Or soldiers in the Dark Force of Hell.

Drake and Alec attacked her again, one from each side this time. The water elemental caught Drake in a whirlwind, then scooped up Alec. She thrust out her hands, and the wind funnel hurled them both into the ocean. The water bubbled up, churning around them, pulling them under.

I ran past Basanti, who was still battling the tidal wave, her brows scrunched up in concentration. She couldn’t hold off the elemental’s magic for long.

I reached for control of the whirlpool dragging the guys under, but its magic snapped me back. The water elemental had repelled my spell—and she hadn’t been gentle about it.

“Fine, be that way,” I growled at her and jumped into the water.

Alec had enough elemental resistance to push against the magic tide and breathe underwater for a few minutes, but Drake wasn’t at that magic level yet. I locked one arm around him and swam for the surface, resisting the magical turbulence. As I dragged Drake to the shore, Alec surfaced. He grabbed onto Drake’s other arm and helped me cut through the spell that was trying to pull us in deeper.

We stumbled out of the water, falling onto the lumpy shore. A whip of water burst out of the ocean and snapped at us. I jumped up and blasted a ball of fire at it. The tentacle dissolved—then quickly reformed. I blasted that one apart too. One after the other after the other, the tentacles kept coming.

A gunshot went off. I turned to look. Claudia had shot the elemental in the leg. The elemental didn’t even blink. It was like she was so lost now to the madness that she didn’t even feel it.

Through my battle with the water tentacles, I saw Claudia shoot her a few more times. None of her bullets appeared to have any effect. She couldn’t even knock out the elemental.

Basanti dropped to her knees. She was losing her battle with the tidal wave. It swelled again, pushing toward the city.

Claudia threw down her gun and drew her sword. She ran at the elemental, swinging her blade. The steel sang in the air, sparkling with magic fire. She slashed through the head with her burning blade. The elemental dropped to the ground, dead.

In an instant, the magic dissipated. The tidal wave receded, the water spilling back into the ocean. We all looked from the blood dripping off Claudia’s sword to the dead elemental lying on the ground.