Zane led me straight toward Lake Calumet.

  But we didn’t make it there.

  Waypoint Dungeon Entered

  A dungeon containing a Waypoint Beacon has been occupied.

  Dungeon Seals In: 59:57

  I stared at the message. He’d outmaneuvered me. “Zane, we have to—“

  “No, we don’t.” The fire mage watched the sky for a moment. Smoke had filled it, and it was blowing…west. West…that was wrong. The wind usually came from across the plains, except when Lake Michigan made it act weird. And right now, the wind wasn’t blowing. So why was the smoke traveling west?

  It wasn’t just traveling west. It was coming from there, too. “He’s there,” Zane said.

  “Where?”

  “Lake Calumet. There’s a dungeon there. Has to be.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Yes. I’m sure. He was going there, and I was following him. Then I lost him.” Zane shrugged. “He’s there somewhere. Must be in a dungeon there.”

  He was already walking, and I fell in behind him. He wouldn’t stop looking at the columns of smoke swirling around the island—or at the bright orange light that touched down after five minutes had burned off the timer. I didn’t need him to tell me that the entrance was marked; the Consortium had no interest in letting Taven Liu get the Waypoint Beacon without a fight.

  Neither did I.

  Lake Calumet’s shore was a mess. It had been built up as an industrial hub and barge harbor, and massive fingers of land reached out into the water along its shore. The orange light led us to one of those—and to a massive barge that had half-Grafted with a pile of boulders the size of skyscrapers. Inside the barge was a door—a door blocked by a familiar fog gate. But this one wasn’t gray. It was deep, dark orange, matching the beam of light.

  “Should we get Tori and Carol?” I asked.

  Zane shook his head. “No. They’re safer out here.”

  Then he stepped through the gate and into the dungeon.

  Tier Two Dungeon: Urban Sprawl (Floor One)

  Objective: Exit the Grasslands (0/1)

  Objective: Defeat the Summersent (0/1)

  Objective: Survive (0/1)

  Completion: 0%

  Open Floor: Once triggered, the dungeon’s bosses will roam freely.

  Fragile Walls: This dungeon is close to breaking. Its inhabitants will be freed if a threshold of Delver deaths inside is reached.

  Break Counter: 0/5

  Decayed Seal: You cannot leave this dungeon until its exit condition is met or it is completed.

  We stepped out of the fog gate and into…

  I’d grown up on a farm, then worked mechanics’ jobs when I could. I thought I was used to smells—the worse the stink, the hardier I was. But I wasn’t ready for the Urban Sprawl’s smell.

  It was beautiful—springtime on the plains. The scents of flowers blew past me, almost intoxicatingly crisp and fresh. I wanted to close my eyes and let myself drift; I’d only smelled anything similar back home, and on one ill-fated trip to the gardens around the Field Museum, before Integration. After it, it smelled like people, fear, and desperation.

  But the message that popped up took all of my focus.

  New Objective: Secure the Beacon (0/1)

  The Waypoint Beacon is Currently Contested. Claim it to exit the dungeon early.

  After a moment, I got a good look at the dungeon. In contrast to its name, it was a field. A long, far-reaching field. It reminded me of the second floor of the Seared Wilds Tower, but in place of the half-dozen bosses was only one—the Summersent. The grasses and flowers reached up to my knees, and in places, high enough to block my view.

  Somewhere, in this open space, was the Waypoint Beacon and Taven Liu. And I had a feeling that securing the beacon itself would require killing him—or getting him out of the dungeon.

  “Right. Let’s get to work,” I said, hefting the Siege Hammer over my shoulder. “Tori, Carol, and Calvin will have to hold down the fort out there by themselves for a while. We can’t leave, and even if we could, we couldn’t.”

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “Right.” Zane’s eyes seemed unfocused. I ignored it; the kid needed a therapist, but we didn’t have one. He’d be okay until we could get him back to Carol—and to Jessica. She’d been trying to help him.

  We set off across the fields of flowers, following a pair of heavy footprints that had pressed into the ground and scorched the grasses black with every step. As we went, the completion percentage kept ticking up. Clearly, the Fireborn Crusader wasn’t wasting much time fighting the dungeon’s monsters. He was even leaving behind experience orbs, and I had no idea why. Neither Zane nor I was likely to level from a Tier Two dungeon’s regular monsters, but even so…neither of us was complaining about getting a little closer to our next levels, either.

  The one thing we didn’t find was any sign of the beacon.

  It wasn’t until we’d walked for five minutes or so that we saw why the dungeon had its name. A line of smokestacks belched black smog over a fetid, polluted lake…a very familiar, polluted lake.

  A lake with a very familiar, abandoned ship smoking its way across, and a very familiar, angry-looking man waiting at the silos lined up against the shore. Taven Liu raised his sword, and fire erupted along its edge. “Hal Riley, I won’t be opposed. Not here, not now. The Crusade will be victorious.”

  “You sure about that?” I said. My hammer hummed as I pushed Charge through the Heart on my gauntlet and into it. I couldn’t beat him. Not alone. But with Zane here, I might have the edge on him. Then two clouds of red-black smoke formed next to him, and his Firecallers emerged, their bony, burning bodies slithering along the silos.

  “Yes, I’m sure about that,” the Fireborn Crusader said. His sword rose up, and fire swirled around the two flaming snakes. It arced high, and his eyes went wide as it connected not with Zane or me, but with the ship’s smokestack. Sparks rained down around us—and into the grass around the fire mage and me.

  The Summersent awakens. All Dungeon Delvers in the Urban Sprawl, use caution.

  Taven Liu laughed. “That’s how that works. I’d been wondering.”

  I threw myself to the left, landing in the curling, browning grass and rolling. Zane hit the cement to the right. He rolled too, putting out his burning clothes, and took one look at the creature that had appeared in the field of flowers. Then he rolled two more times and came to a stop against the massive row of grain silos.

  I took a look, too.

  Flaming eyes. A body made from smoke that seemed to swirl around it from the field that had once been wildflowers, but was now covered in quickly spreading wildfire and smog. The smell of ash hung in the air around its two gigantic, flame-lined arms, and a burning battle axe appeared in one hand. The other burst into flame, the tongues of it licking the air a hundred feet in the air.

  Taven Liu laughed.

  The Summersent: Level Thirty-Five Boss

  The prairie used to be cleansed by flame. Long ago, the locals set fires themselves to rejuvenate the land and restart the cycle of growth. Now, the Summersent comes to end that same cycle.

  Ephemeral: This boss cannot be harmed or interacted with.

  Myriad: This boss’s Elite state consists of innumerable members of a swarm, and will continue swarming until conditions change.

  Oppressive: This monster’s lair oppresses intruders, reducing their damage dealt.

  Before I could react, the Fireborn Crusader’s sword flashed out. Blood spurted from his arm, evaporating before it could even hit the ground. Then it flashed a second and third time, and both Flamecallers hit the ground, dead where they stood. Taven didn’t stop laughing the whole time, and the boss’s nameplate changed.

  The Flameborn Summersent: Level Seventy-Five Boss

  As the fiery monstrosity crashed down on me, Taven Liu’s laughter cut through the roaring flames.

  Tori was out of ammo.

  As far as she could tell, she hadn’t killed a single Fireborn Crusader with her bombardment. And that irritated her. They were here to hurt her friends—and her mom. The cubes full of shrapnel should have been full of something worse. But no. No, Calvin insisted that the people on the receiving end of her telekinetic bombardment had to be given a chance to survive. And Jessica-Mom had agreed.

  And then, worse, Hal had built exactly what they asked for—a nonlethal weapon for Tori to use.

  It wasn’t fair. She just wanted to protect her people. That wasn’t too much to ask, was it? And if she could get some experience while doing it, all the better.

  Pedro sat on the bumper, waiting. He’d fallen silent halfway through, and now all he’d do was look at his feet. Tori didn’t get it. Didn’t he know this was war? Sure, she’d hurt some people—but she hadn’t stopped them. Not yet. It wasn’t over for any of them until it was over. With enough Body points, anything short of death wasn’t enough.

  A hand touched her shoulder, and she jumped, a Push spell half-cast. Then she stopped. “Oh. It’s you. Hi, Carol.”

  Carol stood there for a moment, hand out. Then she reached out and put her hand on Tori’s shoulder. “You’re shaking.”

  “Am I?” Tori took a breath. It went in like a rattle, and it came out the same way. “Huh. I am.”

  “Are you okay?” Carol asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Are you lying?”

  Tori stared at the Skirmisher. Her spear was leaning against the technical’s armor, and her face was covered in dirt and mud. She’d been pushing hard and fighting hard. It wasn’t fair. Carol’s muscles were shaking, too. She was tired, too. She’d been fighting, too. But it wasn’t Tori asking Carol if she was okay. It was the other way around.

  And why was she on the ground, anyway?

  “Hey. Pedro, right? How about you take the technical and get out of here?” Carol said. “This whole lake’s about to be crawling with Fireborn guys, and you don’t wanna be here for that. You did a good job, though. Go meet Calvin; he’s set up northwest, along the interstate. He’ll give you a job to do.”

  Pedro said something. Carol nodded and waved, and Tori heard the technical start up almost silently, then start rolling away.

  Then Carol was down on one knee. “Tori, you did good, too. You saved a lot of lives with your spells. Probably mine. Maybe Zane’s, too. I don’t know.”

  “I didn’t do enough. They’re all still alive out there.” A tear ran down Tori’s cheek. She tried to wipe it away, but Carol had her in a one-armed hug, and she couldn’t lift her arms, so she just had to cry instead. “They’re still alive. We’re not done yet.”

  “No, we’re not. Zane and Hal probably went to that beacon.” Carol pointed down the harbor-lined lake with her free arm. “You’re hurting, Tori. Do you want to be done, or do you want to go after them? Because I’ll help you get back to Calvin, too, if you want. But if you want to keep fighting, we have to do it the right way. Those guys out there, they’re not the problem. The Fireborn Crusader—he is. And he’s in there with Zane.”

  Tori tried to shrug off Carol’s arm, but the older girl had her in a vice grip. She struggled a little, thinking how ridiculous it was to be trying to get rid of Carol’s embrace instead of looking forward to it. None of this was fair. Then she nodded once. “Yeah. Yeah, let’s go get those two idiots.”

  Carol smiled. It was a beautiful smile, but Tori couldn’t see any joy in it at all. “That’s what I was hoping you’d say.” She stood up, reached out a hand, and pulled Tori to her feet.

  “Let’s go.”