“Walking is a plan.” Orion catches her incredulous expression and scowls, waving at the rising chaos all around us. “It’s not exactly like I expectedthis!”
Dani sighs. “Okay, move fast and stay right on my heels.”
I glare at her. “Onyourheels? Who said you were coming with us? Pretty sure I made it clear that you and I were done once my sisters were safe.”
“You call this safe?” She gestures to the chaos and then smirks when I have no real response. “Unless someone else in this little group knows every inch of the Shipyards as well as I do, you’re stuck with me, Valene Bruinn. Try to keep up.”
Dani takes off into the streets, Orion close behind her with Kelda on his back since she has the shortest legs. Halle is with him, one hand on Kelda’s ankle—for her comfort or for Kelda’s or maybe both. I bring up the rear, goggles back on so I can see a little better through the smoke; the air is thick with it, glowing a soft orange from all the fires. Dani leads us on a winding path through crooked passages, down alleys that barely count as alleys, her footsteps steady and sure on these Shipyard roads. Other paths are clogged with people fleeing wreckage and flames, but we flow past and around them on our hidden trails.
Halfway across the parish, I spot a flicker in the corner of my vision: a warden in a white longcoat and hat, aiming their golden pistol in our direction.
I’m gone in an instant and back seconds later, wiping Wrath’s blade on the leg of my pants and sheathing it without even breaking stride. Without having to time my breath or search for a drink of water. Fluid. Effortless.
Just like it had been at the Old Clock Tower, after that other flare had wrapped itself around me on the Copper Plains. That tingling that lingers on my skin and the sensation that I can phase much farther, much faster than I ever have before.
By the time we reach the edge of the Shipyards, the sky has gone quiet. Any ship caught in that flare has either crashed to the ground or disappeared into the yawning mouth of the Crater. Little drifts of smoke follow us, the wails of steam teams growing distant and muffled, the buildings and boardinghouses here all lit up with naphtha lanterns. The outage apparently hasn’t spread beyond the Shipyards.
Orion drops Kelda back onto the ground but holds her hand as we work our way through the chaotic stream of people going in all directions, Dani still in the lead. Halle stumbles, coughing a little from the smoke, and I put out a hand to steady her. She shoots me a hard, hurt look over her shoulder, but she doesn’t shrug me off.
That’s something, I guess.
Orion stops suddenly, frowning through the haze. “Atlas!”
On the far side of the street, the older Booker brother whips around at the sound of Orion’s voice and crosses to us in three long strides. He pulls Orion into a tight hug, exhaling with relief. “We saw that light in the sky and then all the smoke and fire and I thought…” Atlas steps back, holding his brother at arm’s length to look him over. “Are you all right? Are you hurt?”
“We’re fine,” Orion says, patting his arm. “But we need to get out of town fast. As in, right now, if at all possible.”
Atlas cuts his eyes over to me, and all the tension snaps back into his face. There’s an accusation in his gaze. Like,I knew you would make everything worse. I knew you would put him in danger. It’s the same look and the same thoughts I had three years ago, when I cut Orion out of my life because I thought that Orion’s ideas and decisions would get my sisters killed. He’s worried I may do that to his little brother.
And he’s right. I might.
“I can get me and my sisters out,” I tell him quietly. “Don’t worry about us.”
Atlas hums in the back of his throat, his gaze straying to Halle just behind me and Kelda next to her, dried tear tracks in her dusty, round face.
“It’s too risky,” he says finally, then adds with heavy emphasis, “forthem.” Just so I don’t get any ideas about him worrying about my well-being, I guess. He claps Orion on the shoulder. “Liren and I will grab mounts and meet you behind the dram shop in ten minutes. Keep your heads down and watch your asses.”
Then he jogs off in one direction, and we start off in another, taking a winding way to the meetup. Partly to throw off anyone who might be following, but mostly because we’re so tired and disoriented that I’m pretty sure Dani and Orion get mixed up about where we are once or twice.
By the time we make it to the abandoned side street behind the dram shop, nearly all of us are dead on our feet. Atlas and Liren are already waiting, each of them on one of the mounts that I recognize from our prison train rescue, with two other similar mounts, sleek and silver and glowing, on leads. Orion and Dani swing onto the free mounts, and I’m about to object again, point out that we’re clear now so there’s no need for Dani to stick around. But before I can open my mouth, Atlas’s voice cuts in.
“You’re missing one, aren’t you?” he asks me with a raised eyebrow.
I look around; Halle isn’t with us. She’s back out on the street, staring at something with a sad, distant expression.
I jog back over to her, taking her gently by the arm. “Hey, what are you doing? We’ve got to get going.”
“Look,” she murmurs. “There you are.”
I follow her gaze to the dailies, blaring bright on the corner of the intersection.
It’s footage of me. Flickering like a dark ghost across that rooftop. A storm-touched duster, cutting people down.
And over it all, the loud, triumphant voice of the announcer:
A NEW SAINT HAS BEEN FOUND.
THEN
