Fear churned in August’s stomach, but his feet moved forward, almost unconsciously, toward the city and the looming shadow of the tear. Felix and Marlow followed without a word.
Good. He didn’t want to talk to them, didn’t want to hear Felix’s voice right now.
There were too many Watch officers to walk through the front gates, but August knew he could get them inside. What hedidn’tknow was why he came back. Why he was still here when he’d had plenty of opportunities to escape. It was masochistic. How many times would he put up with Felix trying to kill him before he’d had enough?
He was such an idiot.
But Lottie’s words kept repeating in his head.If you don’t, it will kill everyone.
He had to fix this, and Felix was determined to get him to the tear. So he’d let him.
August still wasn’t sure what would come after, if he’d go back to the castle or to his cottage. If he’d start over somewhere new. But he supposed that would only matter if he survived this.
They reached the city walls as the sun dipped beneath the horizon. He tore open a doorway and stepped through. Felix and Marlow followed. It wasn’t far to the nearest gate, and once inside the city, he grabbed their hands and they stepped out onto a small street, the wall behind them.
The others took a moment to gather themselves. August leaned against the wall, arms wrapped tightly around himself as he fought against the sickening pressure in his chest.
Though the street around them was empty and their arrival unnoticed, August could hear the nearby crowds ahead. The city wasn’t deserted, like Bedwyck.
In the distance, the fractured veil writhed and twisted over the cityscape, an expansive swath of churning darkness. Cracks stretched outward like crooked tree branches, corrupting the calm grey of the sky as the tear reached greedily for more.
A longing like homesickness urged him forward. It was beckoning him.
“Come on,” Felix said, pushing past to lead the way.
The sporadic crowds on the main street held an underlying current of nervous energy. People walked in quick steps, their eyes down, and the usual buzz of excitement Fallowmoor used to carry at this time of the evening was absent. No night markets. He’d destroyed the market square.
The Watch were out in force, and like Haverglen, signs covered entire walls, declaring dozens of new laws. They hadn’t gone through the gates, so no one tried to send them to registration, but the signs made it clear it worked the same way here. They needed to stay out of sight.
Luckily, Fallowmoor was much larger than Haverglen, and they could blend in with the crowds.
They’d entered on the south side of the city, somewhere in the Copperhill District. The buildings were cramped anddilapidated. The smell of unwashed bodies and something acrid, like burning garbage, clung to the back of August’s throat.
He hurried his steps, trying to keep up with Felix and Marlow, but three City Watch officers poured onto the street, dragging behind them a woman in wielder cuffs, and they both slammed to a stop.
Not City Watch. Ministry.
Felix muttered a curse and grabbed August’s wrist, pulling him in the opposite direction.
The officers looked up before they rounded the corner of a building, and guessing by the shouting that followed, they’d recognized at least one of them.
So much for staying out of sight.
“I’ll distract them,” Marlow said as they slipped around another corner into a small alleyway.
“Absolutely not,” Felix answered, stubborn as always.
She rolled her eyes. They didn’t have time for this argument. August looked like he’d drop at any minute, and the footfalls were getting closer. “I’ll be fine. I know Copperhill like the back of my hand. Plus, I wasn’t asking.” She held out her hand. “Gimme one of your guns.”
“Marlow—”
“Solach,” she snapped, tugging a pistol from his cross holster. “You’re getting on my nerves.”
Felix opened his mouth to respond, but she cast him a sharpened glare, and he shut it again.
“Go!” she urged with a sweeping gesture. “You’re wasting time. I’ll meet you at the storehouse.”
He’d know which one she meant. It had been empty for as long as she could remember, and they had used it to practice fighting when they were younger. It was the place they used to meet when they needed to lie low.
