Flor turned, warm brown eyes catching the light of the moons above. “This isn’t your mess.”
“Harlow literally said?—”
“Harlow murdered people to bring you back to the city out of guilt. It’s a trap because he knows you care. That’s not your fault.”
“If I hadn’t?—”
“Hadn’t what?” Flor said, her voice sharp and eyes hard. “Hadn’t had your life torn from you by him? Hadn’t joined the resistance to try to make things better?”
Sofia’s mouth snapped shut, because what could she truly say to any of that? Perhaps Flor was right. She couldn’t be blamed for Harlow’s actions, but it didn’t mean she could stand by knowing she had a chance of making a difference.
“I’m not going to walk into a trap,” she said. “But I’m not leaving everyone without knowing what’s happening.”
She couldn’t simply run off to the mountains, even though she’d been dreaming of finding the dragons since she was young. She couldn’t abandon her people over her childish dream.
“I go where you go,”Chalia said in her mind. It didn’t even startle Sofia. She felt the dragon in her mind as a constant presence now. It was a soft comfort not to be alone with her thoughts.
“We’ll leave once we come up with a plan,” Flor said, intertwining Sofia’s fingers with her own.
“You don’t have to,” Sofia said, throat going tight.
“I’m not letting you go alone.”
“I’m coming, too.” Lumi’s human form twisted into existence beside them, skin luminous in the moonlight. Flor stared for a beat too long before she turned, cheeks going red.
“I thought you didn’t want to get involved,” Flor said, turning to stare back down into the cenote.
Lumi’s lips were thin, pulled tight into a line. “You didn’t see the bodies. There were so many Dragonborn lying among the rubble, still wearing their bedclothes. I saw one woman clutching her baby even in death. This isn’t about your king anymore. This is about people.”
“And if we need to fight? You’re just going to get in the way.”
Lumi’s eyes narrowed. “I know how to fight,” they said, voice a low hiss. “I just choose not to. I will fight if we need, but I believe the plan is to sneak in and not be seen.”
Sofia placed a firm hand on Flor’s leg. “We don’t have a good plan to get into the city yet.”
“I have an idea,” Lumi said, their eyes almost hopeful.
Sofia waited, her breath held as she watched the war play out across Flor’s face. They would need to work together.
“Fine,” Flor said, standing and pushing past the shapeshifter. “Be ready to leave at sunset and be dressed. They don’t take kindly to naked bodies running around the city.”
“I know how to dress,” Lumi bit out, but Flor was already gone. Lumi followed her, muttering words in dragon-tongue that Sofia couldn’t quite make out.
“You should rest and prepare,”Chalia said in Sofia’s mind, the unspoken message not lost on her.Go eat. Get warm. Stop punishing yourself.
She heeded the dragon, but not before she sent a prayer up to Quelia that her parents and all those killed in the bomb would be protected. She would leave an offering on the altars tomorrow before they left. Tonight she needed to tell Micael and the others she’d made the decision to go into the city.
The rest of the resistance and shapeshifters would start the journey to the mountains, and the three of them would meet them there afterward. After Sofia had a chance to see the devastation she’d unintentionally brought to the city.
The flightback to the city felt shorter than it had on the way out. But Sofia had been half in a daze. As the gas lamps running along the wall came into view on the horizon, they shifted to the west until they met the sea. Chalia flew slowly and swept down until they were skimming just above the water, just another undulation of the waves along the surface.
Lumi had spent time surveying the city they’d first flown to speak with Ian, and they knew where the guards were and where they weren’t. There was no going over the wall unseen. Instead, they were going to sneak into the city by climbing up the cliffs.
Chalia would get them as high up as she could without being spotted by prying eyes from the houses along the edge.
Though this approach didn’t solve all of their problems.
“This is good,” Sofia said, eyes staring up at the cliffs towering above them. Chalia carefully perched along the thin rocky beach that separated the cliffs from the sea. They were tucked in a small alcove made by the curvature of the cliffs, hidden from both the shrinking mangroves to the west and the drowned quarter port to the east.
