The walls around us had started to hum again, faintly, the way they had been doing before. Beforethe burst. I didn’t think about that, of course, because we had time. Wehadto have time.
Right now, to me, there was no version of this where we wouldn’t make it.
Then we heard the voices.
I wasn’t sure how many stories we’d climbed—the stone walls all looked the same, the rails rusted everywhere equally—but then we heard the voices.
We stopped, pressed against the wall, breathed slowly so we could better focus on our ears. Definitely voices—and they were coming from right above us. They were close, possibly one flight up.
That’s because we’d made it almost all the way to the top—the landing in front of the Distribution Room door.
Two men, by the sound of it. Talking casually, lazily, like they were in no hurry. And they’d definitely stopped in front of the door. They hadn’t gotten in. They hadn’t even opened it—because if they had, they’d have already sounded the alarms.
“...told Corrin he’d cover the next shift, but you know how he is.”
Laughter, low and easy.
“He still owes me for last week. I swear, the guy’s clock runs backward.”
“True. Did you hear what they did to Taliah, though…”
We looked at one another, and Silas brought a finger to his lips to tell us to keep quiet. I could almost read the words going through his mind—or maybe I was just imagining the whole thing. But for a moment there, I could have sworn that he, too, was thinking—hopingthat the guards only stayed out there and then left. He was hoping they wouldn’t open the door at all.
I prayed and prayed—to Time and the moon and anybody who cared to listen.
Then…
“We best get down there. The charge will start soon,” said one.
My heart jumped.
“Let me just check the Distributor real quick…”
Footsteps.
Silas was already running, no longer bothering to keep silent.
Everything happened so fast. Silas ran up the stairs, and March was right behind him, and Mimi was behind them, too, while I was still pressed against the cold stone wall, trying to get myself together.
Noises. Shouts. A bright teal light pulsating from somewhere over me.
My instincts finally kicked in, and then I was running, too, up the stairs and onto the landing, just in time to see the ribbons of teal magic extending from Silas’s hand, shooting straight for the faces of the soldiers.
Definitely soldiers—with silver armor decorated with red, and wide eyes and open mouths, one of them by the half open door of the Distribution Room, the other in the very middle.
Safe to say they didn’t see it coming. Safe to say, when Silas’s magic—his magic is teal-colored, his magic is teal-colored, his magic is teal-colored—attacked them, they tumbled back and fell, on their knees first, and then on their sides, eyes blinking, mouths moving without sound.
Mimi and March were already on them, grabbing the swords attached to the belts around their hips. A scream gathered in my chest for a split second when I thought they’dkillthem, but died on my tongue when they used the handlesof the swords to knock the soldiers out. Both at the same time.
The sound of the metal rang in my ears.
Silas turned to look at me, breathing heavily, barely standing now, and said, “Go!”
I ran.
Time could have passed slowly or fast and I wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference. I felt each time my feet hit the floor, and my eyes were locked on the half open door of the Distribution Room, and my ears were full of that humming that grew louder and louder, but my step didn’t falter. I wasn’t afraid. I wasn’t distracted.
The room was vibrating when I went through the threshold. I felt the shift in the air clearly, but even that didn’t make me stop. The humming was deeper in here, stronger, but it made no difference. Gravity still held, and I was moving, and I’d be long gone before the charge was done. Long gone before the burst happened.
