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“No… No, no!” she cried, shaking the door.

She tugged on the lock. Hopelessly, she scanned the frame drilled into the archway for any weakness. Her flimsy pistol didn’t have the stability to break it or shoot it off.

A breeze tickled Lily’s fingers. She glanced up, peering through her visor at the space beyond the barrier. Directly in front of her was another bend of dug out rock with a sconce on it. Lily pressed as far as she could into the side of the tunnel to see past the corner, and the breeze hit her hard. It was cool and fresh.

Outside air.

This was the emergency route out of the estate. The large tunneled exit to the armory itself wasn’t far, and there was one man stationed at it.

“Croll.” Lily stifled her call, immediately firing a glance over her shoulder. She didn’t know how far she ran or how well the void could hear, but when nothing came to tear her to ribbons or to her aid, she yanked off her helmet and screamed, “Croll!”

Lily refrained from looking behind her, pressing her forehead between a gap, eyes pinched shut and hands gripping the bars.

“Evelian?”

The sound of his crackly voice was like a cherub plucking a harp. Lily lifted her gaze, finding he had a hand on the wall, cautiously leaning around the corner.

“Croll! Thank the sun!” Lily exclaimed. “Bring me a gun. Ghosted.”

He examined the area, slow to understand what was happening.

“Croll!” she shouted. He flinched and looked at her. “A gun! A rifle if there’s one to spare.”

“You need it to help those women?”

“Yes. I need to get out of here. Get me—”

Croll’s eyes flashed dark. He quickly slunk behind the wall, out of sight.

“Don’t… You better not—” Lily stuttered, clawing at the bars and peering around them as far as she could. “Don’t you leave me here!”

When his footsteps vanished, Lily whirled around as if the void was coming for her, but all she met was menacing darkness.

“It’s not smart to cross an Ashin, let alone the fucking Wraith! If I die now, I’ll haunt whatever family you have for eons, and if I get out of here, I’m going to—”

Something jabbed her in the back. Lily spun around to Croll—looking more like an angel than an imp—poking her with the most beautiful compacted ghosted rifle she’d ever seen. Lily laughed and pulled it through the bars. With a lift of a hatch, the barrel clicked into place, and she manually lifted the grip until it was assembled and functional.

It was shining, sleek, and cut to sharp perfection. The bulk of it was black, the rest decorated with finely engraved gold trim. A golden metal flower sat against the casing of the weapon just ahead of the trigger.

“Thank you… Thank you, thank you!”

Croll kept silent and backed away from the door. Lily knelt to the ground and fished up a rock with a pointed edge. She set the rifle down, held steady, then quickly and harshly cut herself along the top of her thumb, right beside her other marks.

Lily dribbled blood onto the rifle and for extra precaution, pressed her palm against the droplets until the gun lit at the creases, gleaming with iridescent light. It faded away, and Lily stood, familiarizing herself with the weapon.

She took a few steps away and aimed at the lock. She fired, and in a blink, the lock disintegrated. She pushed open the door past Croll to peer around the corner. A gentle wind ruffled the brush and trees. She couldn’t see the armory’s exit or their cart for the guns.

Novak was still loading weapons. Jarek must be in the estate keeping an eye on Caiven, who was sure to have arrived by now. He was doing his part, and Lily needed to rectify hers. There wasn’t time to wait for him.

“There’s a void in the tunnels,” she said, pain weaving through her chest at her next admission. “Gwyneth knew it was there. She turned it on.”

Croll’s features worried. “If that’s the case, I insist you—”

“Aarin’s still back there with it.” Lily sucked up her courage and turned back. “I’ll return to help Jarek.”

Lily jogged back to the musty darkness, her rifle charged and steady in her hands. Her newly found confidence disappeared upon hearing absolutely nothing. No movement, no rhythmic pulsing, or clattering of rocks. She lingered, resisting the urge to press into the rifle to set it aglow. When she was sure the void wasn’t blocking the opening, she stepped through.

Lily swallowed.