The balcony shakes. Wha—
Stone crumbles beneath her feet, plummeting into the gardens below.
No. No. Nononononono. I run for her, arms outstretched.
Her smile falls before she does.
My eyes blink open, heart beating in my throat. The phantom terror of my dream clings to me like thick smoke.
The room shakes. Mayah rests on my chest, warm and asleep andalive.
A low rumbling shakes the bed.
The bed sways, the jerky motion eerily similar to the time a ten-year-old Lev thought it’d be funny to shake his cottage by wrapping roots around the base and jostling it.
“Mayah!” Her eyes flutter open, bleary with sleep. The room shakes again, dread pooling in my gut at the violent rumbling.
The lantern on the dresser rocks onto the ground and shatters.
I sit up, bringing Mayah along with me.
“Earthquake?” she asks, voice panicked.
“Earthwielder.”
We need to escape before we’re buried beneath rubble. I rise from the bed, tugging on a shirt and tossing one of my spares to Mayah. There’s no time for anything else.
But first…
I rummage through the dresser drawer, quickly finding where I’d stashed the betrothal ring. I shove it into my pocket before turning back to her.
Hands laced together, we hurry into the hallway. The rumbling never stops. I bang on every door we pass. Dust falls from the ceiling. I walk faster, dragging Mayah with me, but she jerks her hand free and slams her fists against Sura’s door.
“Sura!” she shouts, voice ringed with panic. “Tumaas!”
The floor shakes violently.
“There’s no time,” I growl, reaching for her. But the building shakes again, knocking her off-balance and onto the floor.
Sura’s door flings open, but it’s Tumaas standing in the doorframe.
“Where is Sura?” Mayah asks, staggering to her feet.
“She said she was with you!”
Fuck, we don’t havetimefor this.
“We need to go.Now,” I bite out. I reach for her again when—
The building rattles wildly, an earth-shatteringcrackcutting through the air. I fall backwards. Mayah staggers the other way.
The floor splits open between us, giant roots erupting from the widening crack. She vanishes from my sight.
“Mayah! MAYAH!MAYAH!”
I scream her name again and again, feet scrabbling for purchase as the building falls out from beneath my feet. The floor shudders before it gives away, and then I plummet.
A wooden beam slams down onto my shoulder with a bone-rattlingthud. Dust invades my eyes, nose, mouth, but I manage to claw towards what I hope is a doorframe. It’s solid beneath my grasp, unyielding beneath the weight of the mayhem—thank the Skies the responsible earthwielder had the foresight to wield wood around metal beams.
