“Wait.” Estel’s voice freezes me, and I whirl to face her. The particles shift rapidly over her face, her expression lost beneath the movement.
“What is it?” I ask.
The particles go still, revealing a look of deep concern. “Franco said you lost your Chariot.”
I nod. “Mr. Duveau stole it from me.”
“Where did he go?”
Dread fills my stomach, but I don’t know why. “To safety, I assume. Once I destroyed the transport boat, he knew he couldn’t get me to the warship. It was over for him.”
“But you aren’t certain where he went?”
“Of course not.” My heart hammers in my chest as the particles begin to shift and swirl over her face again. “What are you getting at, Estel?”
With a quick stride, she closes the distance between us and thrusts out her palm, revealing a silver disc. “Take this and return to Irridae at once,” she says, voice trembling as she presses the Chariot into my hand.
I accept it, although I don’t understand the urgency. My eyes seek hers, then the others, who all look equally as perplexed as I feel. “Me? Alone? You already used this once to get here, haven’t you? That means it only has one more use left tonight. Shouldn’t we use this to return together?”
“Go to Irridae right now. Let the Chariot charge by starlight and return to us at dawn.”
“But why?”
Estel releases a shuddering breath and lowers her voice. “Go to Irridae. Travel straight to the weapons room.”
“The weapons room,” I echo. Then the horrible truth dawns on me. My legs tremble as I grasp the source of her fear. “You think Mr. Duveau used the Chariot to take the Parvanovae.”
She nods. “Your Chariot was not used to arrive here, which means it has two uses. Mr. Duveau has been to Irridae. He’s very likely been inside the weapons room itself. Now that Fehr has opened the palace, the councilman won’t need to attempt an invasion from the courtyard. If he wanted, he could travel straight to the bomb. In the next second, he could be safely back home.”
My stomach churns. When I stalled him on the boat with my questions, I all but confirmed I had the Parvanovae at my palace. That’s why he didn’t kill me when he had the chance. That’s why he grabbed the Chariot instead. “No, no, no.”
“Go,” Estel says, voice firm as she ushers me forward “None of us can come with, not as weak as we are right now. Your molten river would debilitate us.”
“I’ll go,” Amelie says, coming up beside me and lacing her fingers through mine.
I nod. With the Chariot in my free hand, I flip open the cover with my thumb. Recalling everything I know about using the Chariot, I focus on the golden light as it grows around me, the energy that pulses and hums through my bones.
Estel steps out of the radius’s light, just as it blocks my view of everything around me. Closing my eyes, I picture the weapons room at Irridae Palace, fueling my need to go there with every ounce of my will. I repeat the name of my destination to myself over and over. When I open my eyes, the light grows brighter, brighter. In a blink, the light goes out, plunging us into darkness.
I squeeze Amelie’s hand to confirm she’s still with me.
“I’m here,” she whispers, returning the squeeze.
As my eyes adjust to our new surroundings, the glow of my molten river illuminates the weapons room. I stand at the center of the room with a few boxes of explosives to my left. Those were the only weapons, aside from the selection of daggers I claimed, that I hadn’t melted. I turn in a slow circle, seeking any sign of a small wooden crate.
But there’s nothing else there.
The Parvanovae is gone.
35
Idon’t sleep a wink that night, opting instead to stare blindly out my bedroom window, waiting for the first light of dawn to creep over the horizon. Amelie sleeps in my bed while Lorelei dozes on my couch, her soft snores falling upon my ears.
After discovering the star bomb gone, I barely had the energy to carve a path through my molten river for Amelie and me to get through. Once we made it to the atrium, I collapsed, both from exhaustion and grief. That’s where Lorelei found Amelie and me, covered in blood and sand and looking near-death. She’s refused to leave us since.
She wasn’t the only one worried. After Lorelei coaxed us into the bedroom to get cleaned up, Foxglove and Fehr peeked in on us, asking the same questions Lorelei had.
What happened?
