She looked back at the darkness looming over Fallowmoor. Hopefully, the next time she checked, there would only be a dull grey sky as far as she could see. But there was nothing she could do to help with that problem, so she focused on the massive walls before them.
“The alarm bell’s up there,” Marlow said, nodding to an officer on top of the wall. “We need the alarm to sound, so leave him alive. The rest are all yours.”
“Brilliant.” Lark bounced with excitement, her smile radiant.
“Niall, as soon as she takes out the ones at the gate, you tear a hole through it.”
He gave a playful salute and flared the orange rings around his pupils. “Got it.”
Menders were known for their ability to fix, to clean, to mend, but they were just as skilled at breaking and disintegrating. Not much use for that skill in the current job market, but he was a hell of an asset to the resistance.
“Remember, we’re not actually trying to get in,” Gideon added. “The hole’s for show. Make it big enough to squeeze through, then leg it out of there. They’ll go mad searchin’ the place for whoever broke in, expecting us to be working on the inner wall.”
Marlow eyed the guards again. “Soon as the alarm goes, we get back to Felix and get the hells out of the city.”
They stood in silence for a moment, then Marlow shot Lark a look that she hoped saidI’m readyand notI’m out of my head terrified.
Either way, Lark got the point. Her rings shone the pink of an elemental, and she tossed a handful of lead balls in the air. Marlow couldn’t keep track of a single one as they flung out away from her.
One guard dropped, and then three in quick succession. The officer by the alarm bell didn’t even notice.
Marlow glanced at Niall. “Go.”
He bolted for the gate. The last officer spotted him, and the clang of the bell split the air just as Niall reached the door.
Come on.
Marlow bit her thumbnail, eyes scanning the wall. How long before every officer inside the armoury came pouring out?
But Niall was fast. He disintegrated a hole in the heavy wooden door and was back at their side before reinforcements arrived.
The instant his hand closed around Lark’s, they were running.
When the first alarm bell tolled across the city, Felix and August set off toward the tear. It was part of the plan, but Felix still bristled at each furious clang. They’d spent so long trying to avoid drawing the attention of the Watch, and the sound made him want to duck into a building to wait it out. It was a tough habit to break.
Dawn was breaking, but the sky was still hidden behind sullen grey clouds, the air heavy with the scent of impending rain. The city was coming awake. Shutters flew open, curious faces peering out at the sound of the bells.
As they neared the edge of the darkness, a restless mist of rain danced through the air. The temperature plunged, frigid like the necklace in his pocket, and the air crackled with an unnatural energy that raised the hairs on the back of his neck.
The edge of the tear had spread far from where it had stopped that night, and the streets here were empty, the buildings abandoned.
August’s steps faltered. Felix spun and grabbed onto his arm as his legs buckled, fighting to keep him upright.
“I need to sit,” August mumbled. “Just for a minute.
Felix lowered him carefully to the street. “Sure, yeah, grand time for a rest.” He glanced back in the direction of the alarm. The others had bought them time, but he didn’t know how much.
August folded forward, arms squeezed tight around his middle, like he was trying to hold his insides in.
Clang. Clang.
Felix searched the street, hand on his flintlock.
Finally, August looked up. “I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t this.”
Felix followed his gaze up to the twisting darkness. It was a horrifying, oppressive thing that stretched beyond sight in either direction, blocking out the sky. And being this close sent fear creeping under his skin.
This thing had taken his ma from him. His home.
