The Power

The fourth and final book in the Magnificent 12 series follows 12-year-old David "Mack" MacAvoy as he races to complete his team of magical children and stop the Pale Queen, an ancient goddess of destruction, from escaping her underground prison and enslaving humanity.

The book opens deep beneath the earth, where Princess Ereskigal, known as Risky, reports to her imprisoned mother, the Pale Queen. Bound by a spell that will hold for only a few more days, the Pale Queen demands to know whether Risky has destroyed the new Magnificent Twelve. Risky has failed, and because the Pale Queen cannot yet act on the surface, Risky remains the primary agent against the Magnifica, the prophesied team of 12 children destined to defeat her mother.

The narrative then jumps to Mack staked out on the ground in the Punjab region of India, pinned by creatures called Brembles and dying from ant stings, before rewinding to explain how he arrived there. Mack, a boy with 21 identified phobias, the worst being claustrophobia, was tasked in earlier books with assembling a new Magnificent Twelve. The Twelve must wield the enlightened puissance, a rare mystical power that fuels spells spoken in an ancient language called Vargran. The puissance depletes after each use and takes time to recharge. Mack has recruited six others: Jarrah from Australia, Xiao from China (secretly a dragon in human form), Dietmar from Germany, Sylvie from France, Rodrigo from Argentina, and Charlie from Britain. His bodyguard Stefan, a 15-year-old former bully fiercely loyal to Mack, accompanies the group despite lacking the puissance. The crucial missing member is Valin, a 12-year-old who possesses the puissance but pursues a blood feud against Mack, mentored by Paddy "Nine Iron" Trout, an elderly assassin serving the Pale Queen.

Regrouping in Paris, the seven Magnifica plus Stefan travel to the Punjab to resolve Valin's grudge. At the Amritsar airport, Mack's ancient spirit guide Grimluk, one of the original Magnificent Twelve, appears in a mirror. Fading and weak, Grimluk delivers cryptic clues about a golden gate, an orange bridge, and a warning about ants before vanishing. Mack later interprets these as references to San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. Moments after Grimluk disappears, Valin, magically enlarged to the height of a building, attacks the airport with a giant scimitar. The Magnifica use combined Vargran to enlarge Mack and then Stefan to match Valin's size, and Stefan charges Valin, who flees toward the city.

Meanwhile in Sedona, Arizona, a golem, a creature of mud and twigs that Grimluk created to impersonate Mack, attends a school dance with Camaro Angianelli, the Queen of All Bullies at Richard Gere Middle School and the only person who knows the golem's secret. When Tong Elves and Skirrit, minions of the Pale Queen, infiltrate the dance, Camaro rallies her fellow bullies to fight them. A Skirrit stabs Camaro through the chest, but the golem presses his own magical clay into her wound, saving her life. Risky then arrives, forces a reprogramming substance into the golem's mouth, and transforms him into the Destroyer, a 10-foot-tall armored monster who obeys her commands.

Back in India, Mack traces Valin to the Golden Temple of Amritsar. Using Vargran inside the temple, Mack, Stefan, and Xiao are transported through time to 1634, where Valin awaits with a band of Cossack warriors. Valin holds Stefan and Xiao hostage, forcing Mack to preserve a threatened engagement: Mack's ancestor, Sean Patrick O'Flanagan MacAvoy, is betrothed to Valin's ancestor Boguslawa, daughter of the Cossack leader Taras Bulba. Sean Patrick will soon abandon her, causing her humiliation and exile, and she will marry a performer named Izmir the Clown, condemning 16 generations of Valin's family to shame.

A parallel flashback thread woven through the book traces Risky's ancient love affair with a warrior named Gil Gamesh in Babylon. Ordered by the Pale Queen to build a temple, Risky fell in love with Gil, but when she warned him her mother would likely devour him at the temple's grand opening, Gil fled. Risky searched the ancient world for him but never found him, and her heart hardened until she met Mack, who reminded her of Gil.

In 1634, Mack's efforts to preserve the engagement backfire. An army attacks the Cossack camp, and when Mack rescues Boguslawa during the chaos, she declares she will marry him instead. Valin overhears Mack seeming to accept her affections and, believing Mack has stolen her, stakes him out for ant execution, bringing the story full circle. The crisis resolves when Sean Patrick charges in bravely to rescue Mack. Boguslawa witnesses his courage and declares her love for him. Valin ends the blood feud and pledges loyalty to Mack, while Paddy tries to stab Valin for this betrayal but fails and is left behind in 1634. Xiao privately tells Mack that Sean Patrick was apprenticing to become Izmir the Clown himself, meaning the clown heritage will happen regardless, but they agree never to tell Valin.

Now the Magnificent Eight, the group returns to the present to find a volcano forming off San Francisco, with a stone causeway growing toward the city for the Pale Queen's army. Valin suggests embedding a Vargran transport spell in a YouTube video so that remaining children with the puissance can teleport to help. The group chants the spell on camera, teleports to Golden Gate Park, and uploads the video.

The Magnifica sail toward the volcano and position themselves on the causeway to block the Pale Queen's army of monsters, shielded by an invisible barrier that deflects conventional weapons. Military forces are destroyed or repelled. Using combined Vargran, the team breaches the barrier, and Charlie designs a speargun weapon that four of them conjure into existence. The weapon inflicts heavy casualties but cannot stop the entire army, and the group retreats toward the Golden Gate Bridge. Three new Magnifica arrive via the YouTube spell: José from Brazil, Hillary from Canada, and Ilya, a boy who uses a wheelchair, from Russia. Now 11 strong, they summon a hurricane that devastates the enemy column. The Pale Queen herself then erupts from the volcano, a six-armed, insectoid colossus whose scream causes worldwide terror and against whom military weapons prove useless.

Camaro appears on the bridge, completing the Magnificent Twelve; in Sedona, Risky had cornered her in monster form, and Camaro spoke the transport spell from the video to escape. The Twelve join hands and chant the killing spell, but the Pale Queen leaps over the bridge and attacks the city. Xiao reveals a hidden dragon city beneath San Francisco's Chinatown, and dozens of dragons carry the Twelve to the Pale Queen. They land on her face and chant the spell again. Three shudders pass through her body, and ghostly wraiths, the consumed souls of millennia, fly free as she collapses. Risky, however, appears atop a skyscraper and shoots flame at the lead dragon, causing him to flinch and drop Dietmar, who falls to his death.

Mack leads the surviving 11 to Sedona for a final confrontation. The Destroyer slams a metal mailbox over Mack and crushes it shut, triggering his crippling claustrophobia. Risky demands Mack swear allegiance to her as consort, threatening to bury him alive, but Mack roars his refusal. When the Destroyer seizes Camaro, she kisses the monster and tells the golem inside that she loves him. No one has ever placed love in a golem's heart before, and this unprecedented act breaks Risky's control. The golem reasserts itself, punches Risky away, and frees Mack.

The 11 Magnifica, the golem, and Stefan form a semicircle around Risky and prepare to chant the killing spell. Risky offers a bargain: She will bring Dietmar back to life and permanently renounce her godhood, becoming mortal. Mack accepts. Risky restores Dietmar and surrenders her immortality, accompanied by supernatural signs. In the aftermath, the Magnifica disperse to their home countries, and Sylvie, the last to leave, plans to reunite with Mack. The golem, now calling himself Mick, develops his own identity and continues dating Camaro. Risky, now mortal, becomes popular at the local high school, and when she winks at Mack, he discovers his 22nd phobia: a fear of redheads.