Saving the world is one thing . . . saving the multiverse is another. Alex Wise returns in the third book in this thrilling fantasy series all about finding your inner hero. Alex may have failed to stop the Cosmic Shift, but that doesn’t mean he is giving up on saving the world. The only problem is . . . he has no idea what world he’s even in. A rip in the multiverse has stranded him and his best friend Loren in a mysterious realm—without his sister Mags, or demi-god crush Liam, or even his kinda cool, kinda annoying stepbrother Nick. Like Earth, this world is at war, and Loren and Alex will have to use all their wits and magic to escape space pirates, an underground rebellion, and advanced technology with terrifying consequences. But even if Alex manages to find a way to return home, it will be nothing like the home he once knew. His nemesis Ezra is stronger than ever and, along with War and Famine, is turning Earth into a violent, chaotic dumpster fire. Alex never asked to be a superhero, but with the weight of not one but TWO worlds resting on his shoulders, that’s exactly who he needs to be. “Never has the apocalypse been so fun!" —Mark Oshiro, author of THE INSIDERS and co-author with Rick Riordan of THE SUN AND THE STAR: A NICO DI ANGELO ADVENTURE. TERRY J. BENTON-WALKER is the bestselling and award-winning author of the young adult contemporary fantasy series Blood Debts, the middle grade contemporary fantasy series Alex Wise vs the End of the World, and Terry also edited and contributed to The White Guy Dies First , a young adult horror anthology. He lives in Atlanta, GA, where he can usually be found gaming, eating ice cream, or both—when he’s not writing. 1 ENTER THE MULTIVERSE I failed. Cosmic Shift is happening. Loren. My best friend . . . is lost. Somewhere in the limitless multiverse. And Liam . . . I . . . I think Liam might hate me. Janet-or should I say Calamity-is also gone. Consumed by Ezra after they were revealed to be a divine being from Paradisum. I really messed up this time. I didn't save anyone. Not Loren. Not Janet. Not even Didi, the dragonfly dragon whom Pestilence turned to ashes right in front of me. And I also think I might've broken Liam's heart. When the fight with Ezra in Calamity's bunker went left and Loren got sucked into that portal, I panicked. I still don't know if I made the right decision, but I couldn't abandon her. Not after having lost so many others. But to save her, I had to leave the rest of my friends and family behind. Including Liam. He begged me to stay. I refused, so he demanded to come with me. And I wanted nothing more than to take his hand in mine and leap into the dark abyss of the multiverse with him. But I couldn't be that selfish. Because that's not what superheroes do. That's not what Alex Wise does. We couldn't leave Earth undefended-especially now that Ezra's kicked off Cosmic Shift. I couldn't leave my mom, my sister, and the rest of my family with no one to look after them. I swallow past the knot in my throat at the thought of what Mags and the others must be feeling right now-as volcanoes erupt, earthquakes shake the ground and break apart our cities and neighborhoods, the moon blots out the sun, and Ezra reshapes Earth in his own twisted vision. Dear gods. Liam Ambros, you're our world's last hope. The entire multiverse is depending on you now. Especially if Loren and I don't make it back. Footfalls echo from somewhere down the darkened corridor on the other side of the thick metal floor-to-ceiling bars before me. I tense, then stumble backward, disappearing into the shadows in the corner of my cell. Someone's coming. I grimace as I concentrate, honing my Sense, but the response is . . . strange. I can Sense them, but it's as if the signal's dampened. All I can feel are tiny glimmers of anger and frustration that amp up my pulse to an unnerving pace. Where in the multiverse am I? I'm not even sure exactly how I got here, wherever here is. The last thing I remember after falling into the portal was spinning in the dark until something grabbed me by the back of my neck and dragged me up what felt like a waterfall. Icy waves slammed into my body, so intense, it was as if they were flowing through me. Then I blacked out. And I woke up . . . in this prison cell. Two people(?) step into view on the other side of the bars. Their forms are humanoid, but they glimmer in the dark as if minute stars shine beneath their skin, tiny glittering pinpricks on their brown skin. They're both swathed in dark-colored robes of soundless flowing material, like silk. One of them reaches into their robe and produces what appears to be a small metal wand. When they tap one of the bars of my cell with it, the wand glows with pale yellow light, and a door-sized section of the bars explodes into a bajillion pieces that vanish like smoke. Is that . . . magic? Okay . . . time for backup. Orin? I blink and suddenly find myself