“Oh, we’re getting out of here,” Virgil said with a forced airiness in his tone. “And then we’ll have a nice meal and the rest of that moonbrew back at the safe house and pretend all this unpleasantness never happened.”
A shout echoed down the hall. Rusli blanched. “Let’s go.”
Adrenaline shot through Emory, enough that she could keep up the pace with Nisha and Virgil, who were still holding her upright as they darted out of the room. At one end of the corridor were Regulators coming their way, forcing them to head in the opposite direction—only to come face-to-face with more Regulators.
Vines shot forth from one, wrapping around Ife’s ankle and making her fall. When Javier swung at another, his fist connected with a protective ward that the Regulator put up. And yet another told them to “stop moving,” his voice laced with Glamour magic.
A quick glance at the Regulators’ hands was proof enough that none of them should be able to wield these powers that did not belong to their lunar houses. They must have taken synths. And now Emory and her friends were unable to move.
Another Regulator appeared, his walk slow and deliberate as he advanced on them. There was an air of authority about him, and his beady eyes shone with gleeful malice as he called magic to him.
Emory would recognize the cold power of death anywhere. A Reaper’s touch, even if a fabricated one. He was going to kill them—and the other Regulators were going to stand there and let it happen.
She didn’t pause to think. She might have been Glamoured not to move, but no one said anything about not using magic. And so, before the beady-eyed Regulator could unleash death upon her and her friends, she called on every bit of synthetic power inside her, molding it into her very own Reaper magic, and sent it flying toward the man.
He fell with a grunt, clutching at his chest. And as the other Regulators flocked to him in concern and shouted for help—he wasn’t dead yet, the synthetic magic not strong enough to give him a swift death—Emory waited for remorse to seize her, but all she felt was numb.I did what I had to,she told herself. She caught Virgil’s eye and knew he understood.
Everything happened too quickly then as more Regulators surrounded them. Someone compelled them not to use magic, but it didn’t matter now anyway, because Emory had no fight in her, not a drop of synthetic power left. All she could do was watch, defeated, as one of the Regulators reached for damper cuffs, knowing she would be brought back to that sterile room, and her friends to wherever prison they’d been held in. And if it was true that Nisha had broken through to Romie, Emory doubted she would be able to do so again.
They were going to die here, she thought.
Her eye caught on a sign that pointed toward the Eclipse wing—the one where those who’d Collapsed were held. She knew othersmust be here. Maybe even those she’d come to see as allies and friends. Had Baz been taken? His father? Jae? Kai?
And what of Sidraeus?
If her fate was to remain here with them all, then so be it. She was one of them, and she wouldn’t leave them behind even if she could.
Before the cold metal of the damper cuffs could touch her wrists, chaos erupted around them, the floor beneath their feet trembling and sending them all tumbling. The power went out; darkness swept over them, the air full of dust. It had Emory thinking of Clover’s ash-umbrae. But as a familiar face materialized in the chaos, a man she recognized climbing out of the dust and dark holding an everlight lantern, she knew these weren’t allies of Clover.
Baz’s father heaved a sigh as he spotted them. “Thank the Shadow.” His mouth tightened as his eyes landed on the Regulators who’d been knocked by the blast. The beady-eyed one Emory had used Reaper magic on apparently refused to die; he was already up on his feet, still clutching painfully at his chest.
Theodore blanched. “Drutten.”
The Regulator blinked at the name, gaping at Theodore. His dazed expression sharpened into one of fury. “I know you,” he said. “Eclipse scum—”
Before he could utter another word or reach for his damper cuffs, a dagger embedded itself in his chest, drawing a muffled whimper from his lips as he toppled to the floor.
Behind Theodore, arm still outstretched from where she’d thrown the dagger with lethal precision, was a girl armed to the teeth, draconic wings tucked close against her back. And at Ivayne’s side stood Kai in armor of his own, looking like a vengeful warrior pulled from a nightmare.
Emory watched, half thinking she was still dreaming, as Ivaynemade quick work of the other Regulators. None of this was possible, and yet the blood staining the floor red was real, and so was the feel of Kai as he reached for her, grabbing her by the arms to force her to look at him. He was saying something to her, but all Emory could hear was the sound of her own heartbeat, the ringing in her ears, the little voice inside her that kept telling her this was all in her head, that no one was here to rescue her, that all of this was false, false, false.
A loud roar sounded from somewhere in the Institute, snapping Emory out of it.
“That would be Gwenhael,” she heard Ivayne say with a toothy grin as she wiped her daggers on her shin. “Tore the roof off the Eclipse wing. Couldn’t pass up the opportunity to be part of another jailbreak.”
Emory couldn’t begin to make sense of this. Draconics and dragons here in this world… “How is this possible?” she breathed, looking up at Kai.
As if satisfied she’d finally snapped out of her daze, Kai let her go. “Haven’t you heard the worlds got fused together?”
“Fused together?”Virgil repeated. “As in—”
“As in there’s no time to explain,” Ivayne interrupted, “just accept that we’re here to save your asses.”
“Come on,” Theodore urged them all, eyes darting to a corridor where they could hear the sound of Regulators coming their way. “We’re getting all of you out of here.”
They started toward the Eclipse wing. There, all the cells had been opened and people were flocking toward a tear in the wall at the end of the corridor, where gray skies promised freedom. Over their heads was Gwenhael, the dragon resplendent and so entirely out of place it might have been funny under any other circumstance.
While their group started to climb atop Gwenhael’s back, Emory turned frantically to Kai. “Where’s Baz?”
