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Shay watched them go—just for a moment. Watched them believe that her cutting herself was the illusion they’d asked her to cast.
She gave a little smile and started running the other way, the remaining Hounds following behind her with hungry roars.
And she found that she did not feel afraid.
The Control Tower was massive. Even bigger than the one in Angelthene. It stood in the center of Yveswich like a proud tree, the roots of the anima mundi tunneling deep into the earth. Pulses of color flowed through the channels, sipped up by the base of the tower.
As soon as they were close enough, Loren leapt off Malakai’s back and ran the rest of the distance to the tower, the cristala shining like liquid silver.
“You sure you know what you’re doing, girl?” the Reaper panted as he sprinted beside her.
“I’ll figure it out when I get here,” she answered.
Another wave of the Well replica’s magic forced Malakai to a halt. He clapped his hands over his ears. Bowed his knees.
Loren twisted around to face him. “Malakai—”
“Go, go!” He waved her away. “Go—I’ll be right there.”
She did not have time to get to the first platform like she had during the Blood Moon. She would need to pour her magic into it from down here and hope for the best.
With her conduit hanging from her neck, the tattoos on her palms shimmering as she rallied her magic, she stepped up to the humming tower. Shut her eyes…
And slapped both palms onto the cristala.
Travis and the others ran like hell for the way out.
Dawn had arrived, so he was able to see its glow coming from a bend up ahead. They were close, but even if they made it out of these tunnels, that didn’t leave them much time to get the hell out of this city. Either way, people were going to die. Whether they were in this group or not. The thought sickened him. Paxton, Roman… Darien, Tanner, Jack… Would he ever see them again?
“Faster!” Travis shouted, his breaths rasping through the tunnels. He grabbed Jewels by the hand, pulling her at a faster pace.
Another ten bounding strides, and they were through, sucking down the fresh air of an early morning. They didn’t stop for a rest—there was no time. They had to get to the truck.
He ran, pulling Jewels with him—
“Wait!” Ivy called.
He skidded to a stop, the others thumping to a standstill as well.
Ivy’s gaze tore wildly among the group, searching.
Someone was missing.
She exclaimed, voice ringing with alarm, “Where is Shay?”
118
The Elevator
YVESWICH, STATE OF KER
Since the night Max found out Maya was alive, he’d dreamt of this moment, this reunion. He’d thought about it so many times, he was convinced that when the day came, it would play out exactly like it had in his mind. He’d dreamt he would run to her, swoop her up into his arms and give her one of his bear hugs she’d always complained were crushing her.
Reality was, words escaped him, and so did his feet. Stunned into silence, heart beating all throughout his body, he lifted himself up off the ground, staring through the warped elevator doors at the sister he’d believed he’d lost.
Maya ‘MJ’ Reacher had grown up. She had lived in Max’s memories for so long that for some reason he’d not clued into how she would have grown and changed with the passing of time. She was no longer a teenager but a woman, and she was extraordinary. Her body was all fire, her hair spiraling upward like flame. Ignis in the flesh.
Beside her, the other Elementals took their own blazing forms, an assortment of colors all glowing in the dark. Yellow, violet, green, magenta…and the red one, burning at their center like a heart.
