I want desperately to reach out to Red, but I don’t dare to. Not with everything up in the air, not with even Mayor Elland tense with the danger hanging over us. Over this whole city. What if Raina had never weakened my bond to Constantine? What if she’d been working this entire time to hand me over to Caitoman as his Skyhunter?
The memory of the Sun Dial banquet comes roaring back to me, and I see the moment when Caitoman had seized my arm and looked at me with those soulless eyes of his. Constantine forced him to back away, telling him that I was not his Skyhunter.
But that may soon change.
Are you okay?I want to ask Red.Are you hurt? Have you been captured? What about the others?
My guards are stoic, their faces turned away from me. I even find myself calling desperately to Constantine through our bond, my inner voice pleading.
I’m begging you, I say to him.Please, Premier. Please. What have you done to my mother?
Let him believe that I don’t know my mother has been taken somewhere else. But he doesn’t answer me right away.
Finally, when he does, his voice comes through our bond like an icy wind.
Soon it will all be over, Talin.
I don’t know what he means by that. But before I can ask, I can feel his emotions curling back in against him, hidden behind steel. He will say nothing more to me.
I don’t know how to feel. I don’t know what to do. I’ve been left adrift, and the feeling of being alone and unmoored makes my head spin.
As we pull to a stop under the arena’s looming arches, the soldiers open the carriage door for me and I step out, forcing myself to put one foot in front of the other.
What could Mayor Elland possibly do? What are her plans that I must trust?
I’m so tired of trusting. So tired of relying on others. Maybe it was a mistake all along, putting my faith in those who don’t put their faith in me.
The morning light sifting into my holding room tilts against thefloor. I pace like a caged animal, trying to keep the panic inside me from pouring out. As the time ticks on, the weight on my heart grows heavier, and my fear stirs like a living thing.
I count out each minute to keep track of the time. I pace some more, trying to keep my emotions from spilling over. I reach out to Red, with no luck. I reach out to Constantine.
No one answers me.
Another hour.
I pause over and over again to look out through my holding room ’s bars, certain I will see some familiar figure striding down the hallway—Raina, perhaps, or the mayor, or Constantine. Even Red and Jeran. Are they well?
I imagine Caitoman approaching and tighten my hands against the bars. But instead, all I see are guards.
Another hour. I bite back tears and wait. The light outside my holding room brightens as the morning drags on, streaming through the arches of the arena. The color against my floor turns from dark to pale gray. The sounds of the city stirring to life for the final solstice day reach my ears.
I wait for Mayor Elland to appear, to give me any final words or warnings. She doesn’t.
The crowds have gathered outside the arena by now, and I hear the stir of them echo throughout the entire structure. Within it are waves of unrest—a palpable sense of tension rising from the audience in a way that feels more tangible to me than before. There have been uneasy stirrings in Cardinia since I first arrived, but today… today feels different. There is a charge in the air, like the humidity before a storm.
The lightning is there, just waiting to strike. And when it does, it will illuminate the city like a match.
Then one of the guards is before me, nodding at me. “It’s time, Skyhunter,” she tells me, then gives me a bow of her head.
As she says the words, I hear the gate on the other side of my holding room start to slide open. I turn back and squint as bright morning light filters in from the other side. With it comes a blast of fresh air, and the roars from the arena suddenly turn deafening.
My heart feels like it might break. I am alone. I am going to look up into the stands and see Constantine standing there with the Chief Architect at his side, his brother on the other. Maybe I will see the other Skyhunters standing at the ready.
What will happen next, I can only guess.
Then the gate opens completely, the light engulfs me, the sounds of the arena suddenly amplify into chaos…
… and I find myself walking out into an empty arena floor.
