The snakelike blade rising up from beneath Vincent’s robes coiled around him like a spring as his lone eye bore into them with undisguised interest.

“I am impressed,” Vincent said. He ran a hand along the flat surface of his blade in a practiced motion, never once so much as glancing down at the razor-sharp weapon. “It isn’t often that Nativeworlders are able to adapt fast enough to make it this far. 274-50 really is a curiosity. Even for Tier 1 worlds, this is rare.”

Alex’s eyes narrowed. Vincent’s tone made it clear he saw them more like a bunch of fascinating zoo animals that had escaped their enclosure than humans. There was no concern at all in his posture.

He doesn’t see us as a threat. But I’ve dealt with enemies a hell of a lot stronger than me before. This isn’t my first run around the track.

Adrenaline prickled as it coursed through his veins and gripped his heart. The drum-like pounding in his ears threatened to drown out all sound entirely. Even as sweat slicked his palms, he felt his body urging his mind to attack.

Vincent beat him to it.

The man’s snakelike sword flashed. It was little more than a shimmer of motion — and then it was gone. Alex didn’t wait to see where it would go. He activated his domain instantly, teleporting to the side.

He sent a mental command to Princess in the same thought. His feet hit the ground a dozen feet to the side near the edge of his domain. Three loud, ringing cracks echoed through the air.

Magical energy poured into his back in a prickling wave. Alex’s eyes widened. Princess was dead.

He spun in time to see the remnants of his monster fading away, all of her masks nothing more than broken ceramic scattered across a fading pool of dark matter. Wess laid several feet to the side, blood weeping from an enormous wound running from his lower left hip up to his right shoulder.

Are you kidding me? He’s that fast?

Princess had barely managed to shove Wess out of the way of the way of the attack, but that one move had cost her life. Vincent had somehow destroyed all three of her masks in the same attack — probably by carving her entire body apart in one fell swipe.

And then Vincent had stopped. He didn’t press the advantage his attack had create. He didn’t finish Wess off. He just stood there.

Vincent simply observed them from behind his mask, his lone eye still full of more curiosity and amusement than any other emotion. It was little wonder. If he was that fast… there was literally nothing that anyone other than Alex could do against it.

His jaw clenched. This was bad. Maybe worse than bad. Glint was already dead. It wouldn’t be long before Encore’s effects ran out and Spark disappeared as well.

Saying there wasn’t room for the smallest mistake wasn’t even accurate anymore. A mistake would change nothing. Vincent was ridiculously powerful, and he hadn’t even revealed his Soul Manifestation or any abilities beyond that of his sword. If the Starfallen wanted to…

He could have killed them all.

But Vincent hadn’t.

The man seemed more than happy to drag the fight out. And that didn’t make any sense at all. No matter how uninterested he was in the fight, there was no benefit at all to dragging things out. It wasn’t just a matter of being threatened by others or not.

Whether Vincent cared about somebody else showing up didn’t matter. He was just wasting time. And nobody as powerful as him would have the slightest interest in burning a resource as valuable as that.

Out of the corner of Alex’s eyes, he saw Claire hesitating. She’d realized the same thing that he had. Something was seriously off. There was no doubt that Vincent was strong. He’d taken Princess out instantly. But stalling like this made no sense at all.

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All he’s doing is inconveniencing himself… and the River King.

Alex’s eyes widened as realization struck him.

He’s here because of some deal he made with the River King, but he was pissed when the River King tried to order him around.

The sheer arrogance that would have been required for that to be true was positively astronomical. But the Starfallen were the strongest of the Great Families. It only took one look at Vincent to determine that they were probably the most arrogant as well.

Did he decide he has no interest in helping the River King and is just hoping we take him out so he doesn’t have to break the deal he made?

“What are you doing?” The River King asked, his voice considerably less confident than it had been a short while ago. “Deal with them! I can’t open the door until—”

“Why throw your lot in with this idiot?” Alex asked sharply, cutting the large man off before he could finish. “I can’t imagine the Starfallen need to take orders from anyone.”

Alex kept his eye on Vincent’s sword. There was always a tiny shimmer right before the weapon attacked, but he couldn’t react too early. This had absolutely no chance of working at all if he showed even the slightest amount of fear.

But Vincent didn’t attack him.

“There is little that we need,” Vincent said, the amusement in his tone evident. “And we do not take orders.”

“Then what does this guy even bring to the table?” Alex asked. “I’d imagine we can do anything he does better. He needed you to carry his ass all the way to the door, and the idiot can’t even open it without making you do that for him as well. Doesn’t seem like a very fair deal, does it?”

Fury warped the River King’s mouth. “Shut your—”

Metal shimmered.

Alex’s stomach lurched. His senses screamed at him to activate his domain, but he held off with every scrap of willpower he had.

Vincent’s blade slammed into the grass in front of the River King, passing so close to his foot that it split his boot open. His mouth snapped shut as his face went even paler.

“You are starting to annoy me,” Vincent said softly. His eye didn’t so much as leave Alex. “But one yammering Nativeworlder is no different than another. What makes you think you have any more worth to me than the fish?”

“We made it here on our own,” Alex replied. “And, unlike him, we don’t need to make you do everything for us.”

“He can’t open the door,” the River King said. “The only one able to do that—”

“Is Vincent, apparently,” Claire said. “Since you don’t seem to be able to do anything other than make him do things for you. Are you going to ask him to hold your hand when you sacrifice Alyssa? Can you even fight? Or will you make him sacrifice her for you too?”

“What proof do you have that The River King is the only one that can open the door?” Alex added. “I’m pretty sure that if a group of scraggly Nativeworlders were able to make it this far, then we could deal with the door a lot easier than he could.”

“Idiot,” the River King said with a snort. “The Starfallen are renowned for their word. They never go back on it. Nothing you say or imply will ever change the truth. I am fulfilling our part of the deal. That is all he cares about.”

“Reneging on a promise to someone so much lesser than I is… distasteful,” Vincent said, but his tone was such that nobody could have mistaken it for an actual agreement. It was more of a disdainful observation.

A smile split the River King’s features once more.

Vincent’s eye narrowed slightly. “But no part of the deal involved how fast I would come to your aid. For that matter, the promise was to protect you until we reached the center of the Ancestry.”

The River King’s smile faltered. “What?”

Vincent gestured to the door behind the River King. “We have reached the center. I will not kill you. It would be going against the spirit of our deal. There is no need for me to lower myself to such a level. Why would I care what Nativeworlders do? The boy’s words bear a point. He was able to make it this far without my help. I see no reason why your method is the only option.”

The River King’s smile evaporated entirely — and it found its way right onto Alex’s face.

“No,” the River King said, taking a step back. “You can’t—”

“Do not presume to tell me what I can or cannot do,” Vincent said, crossing his arms behind his back. His eye twinkled in amusement. “I am not your maid. And my end of the bargain has been completed. I do not care who opens the door. All I care is that it opens. Figure it out amongst yourselves.”

Derek cracked his neck. Wess slowly rose to his feet. Blood coated his body, but he brought his gun to bear as Alyssa’s angry gaze joined his in staring at the River King. Claire fangs pushed out from her mouth and her hand tightened around her whip.

Alex stuck his hand out. White links snapped into place around it as his anchor thunked down onto the ground at his side.

Then he bared his teeth and said what every single one of them was thinking.

“Jump his ass.”