She’d just gone through torture, but the first thing out of her is concern that I’m not eating enough.
I can’t help smiling at her, in spite of everything. “I hope I get another of your meals, ma’am,” I tell her. “Let’s go.”
“Your language has improved a little,” she manages to say as I fold my wings away and hoist her onto my back. She lets out a groan of pain as she gingerly adjusts her cast against me.
As I head out, other guards catch up to us. I grit my teeth and lunge at the first one, knocking him in the head with my own. He stumblesback, losing his grip on his gun. I seize it from him and fire a shot back. It hits him hard in the shoulder, a huge, heavy bullet that does enough damage to leave him collapsed and screaming. This is the kind of weapon they were going to use on Talin’s mother?
Another swings a blade at us—I duck low, then encircle Talin’s mother with my arms and shield her with my body. We run down the steps.
An alarm is blaring somewhere, a horn that makes my head ring. I recognize the sound—I’d participated in drills for this when I was still a young soldier. It means all hands on deck. It means we are about to be surrounded by soldiers. Surely the word is being passed down in some urgent line somewhere—before long, Constantine will know that we struck the prison district. This will no longer be a secret. But if we can make it out, it won’t matter. Because we’ll have Talin’s mother, and Talin will be freed.
As I bolt down the stairs, voices echo from above the stairwell and below.
More and more soldiers are appearing. I hurtle into them at the bottom of the staircase, my body curling protectively around the woman in my arms as I extend my wings as far as they can go, striking out, slashing anyone in my way. The anger in me courses through my veins like fire.
Constantine will tear through families, over and over and over again, destroy our lives and loved ones all as part of his strategy to win. He will do it until the day he dies, unless we can stop him.
I turn my glowing eyes on a terrified soldier. So help me, I will get Talin’s mother out of here alive. Let this be the last time Constantine triumphs over our lives.
Another soldier manages to get close, his eyes focused on the precious prisoner in my arms, and stabs out with a dagger. I duck into a ball. The dagger slashes open the top of my shoulder near my neck. I growl at the sting of it before lashing out with my wing at him. A scream. Blood.
I hurtle through the bottom floor of the prison. The commotion has stirred up the other prisoners held here, and I hear their desperate pleas as I rush through the guards. Their hands reach out toward me, begging for someone to hear them. I catch glimpses of those injured, with their bandaged arms and faces, some scalded from working in the prison factories, others scarred or missing limbs from the dangerous work in the turbines. I force myself to look away, trying to stay out of reach from their outstretched arms as I cut and slash.
Then there is a whirl of a uniform, followed by a blurred figure charging into the fray. I pause in my assault long enough to catch a glimpse of Aramin’s vicious face, his expression wild and alight with battle fury. He seizes a blade from one soldier and hurls it straight into another. His lips are twisted into a warlike smile.
Ahead, I glimpse the front courtyard of the hospital. One look is all it takes for me to know that we can’t possibly make it out of the prison district with just the four of us fighting. Even with my help, I am still a broken Skyhunter, and there are too many soldiers crowding the front of the building. And soon, Constantine will get word of what’s happening here. Maybe he’s already sent more patrols our way.
My gaze darts wildly around at the space, searching for a way we can still escape. In my arms, Talin’s mother gives me a sad smile.
“I’m sorry, Redlen,” she says. “I’ve been the cause of so much pain.”
I glare at her. “Don’t say it,” I snap. “We’re going to get you back to your daughter.”
But even as I say it, I see Jeran standing against the wall on the other side of the hospital, facing a tight circle of soldiers all pointing their guns at him. Adena struggles toward me through the fray, cutting wildly at anyone who dares to come close until she stands in front of me, her back to me and Talin’s mother as we huddle against the wall of the hospital. She has her teeth bared, and her eyes are slits. She holds two guns outin front of her. Nearby, Aramin spots Jeran and shouts something desperate at him. The Firstblade then hurls himself at the closest soldiers as one of them fires a bullet that catches him in his forearm.
I’m not going to make it.
That’s when I see the giant storage shed ahead, one of the ones that we’d passed. The door to it is still ajar, but this time, I’m at an angle where I can see what’s inside.
This one doesn’t contain the giant turbine gears that the others did.
Instead, it contains the artifact that I’d seen loaded onto the train near Newage.
Hadn’t those guards said they needed to move it somewhere where it couldn’t cause significant harm? Of course they would store it here, in the prison district. Of course they would allow prisoners to work on dismantling the object, let them absorb the dangers of working near that thing. No significant harm if it’s happening to these people.
My gaze hitches on the exposed belly of the artifact.
I make the decision in a split second.
Everything seems to happen in slow motion. I put Talin’s mother down behind Adena. “Get down, as low as you can!” I shout to Adena. “And protect her at all costs!” Toward Aramin, I wave a hand at him, telling him to do the same. Jeran glances at me, meeting my eyes once.
Then, without looking back, I take off at a run toward the storage shed.
I feel the slash of blades against me as I go. I strike out with my wings. I don’t stop to think. I just shut my eyes and charge straight through the lines of soldiers until I near the shed. They’ve been dismantling the interior of the object, which is composed of hundreds of smaller cylinders. In its core, it emits a faint blue glow.
If you are going to die in a final stance, take this out with you.
So I skid to a halt and lift the gun I’d taken from a soldier. I aim it straight at the core of the object.
