“We’ll send rescue parties after we take the city.”
“If we wait, we’ll find only corpses.”
“Well,” Visha said, fixing her with a cold smile, “we better take this city quickly.”
“Did he know?” Elena said as Visha turned. The strategist froze. “Did you tell him?”
Before Visha could respond, a drone filled the air. At once, Elena felt her fury fizzle, die. She whipped around to see three Jantari warbirds rise from within the center of the city and race toward the broken wall.
“Shit,” Visha said.
“I thought—” Elena said, mouth suddenly dry.
“Shit, shit, shit.” Visha grabbed her arm, pulling her.“Run, Ravani.”
They barreled down the ruins as the jets roared. There was an earsplitting boom, like thunder cracking right above her head. Elena could not even hear her own scream. She slammed onto her back. The air rushed out of her, and for a moment, she couldn’t see. Couldn’t breathe. The world went black, then white. Elena blinked away bright, hot lights. The ground, the wall, everything was spinning.
A new section of the wall had been blown off. A gaping black hole, yawning into the dark canyons beyond. The warbirds circled overhead, no doubt searching for the mysterious army ensconced in the canyons.
We’re already inside, you fools, she thought vehemently.
Something grabbed her hand. She blinked. Visha swam into her vision, ash streaking her face. She was pointing up, up, up.
But Elena felt them before she saw them.
The red sandstone beneath her rumbled as a steady thrumming reverberated through the air. The blackwings streaked past her from their journey within the Agnee Range, silver serpents rippling on their black hides as if alive. They shot past the warbirds, who scattered. One blackwing peeled away to the south while the other swung around, chasing after the warbirds within the canyons. It opened fire, long-range pulses lighting up the sky like red lightning bolts. Two Jantari jets managed to get away—but one was not quick enough.
A pulse ripped through its wing, shredding metal and severing it in two. The warbird crashed into the deeper canyons. A ball of gas and flames belched into the air like the dying gasp of some twisted beast.
Visha whooped. “Blast them, boys!”
Elena could not look away, even as the explosion split the air and blinded her. It was brutish and elegant and terrifying all the same. All that fire. She leaned forward as if to feel the brush of that distant inferno. She could feel its heat sear through her as if she herself had summoned it. It filled her with a deep, carnal pleasure, and a desire toburn. To do so much worse.
Soon, you will want to take everything, Samson had told her.You will want everything to sing its song.
But then her gaze slammed back to the fallen wall, and Elena tasted something acidic and vile on her tongue. Hot shame flushed over her. She swallowed the prickly torridity pushing up her throat and forced herself to breathe, to bury that treacherous desire.
“Come on. We need to get you to the center,” Visha said.
Elena rose unsteadily to her feet, looking back to the wall. She wanted to stay. To sift through the rubble with her bloodied hands and rescue the survivors.If there are any left, she thought. How many were gasping for air right now, buried under rock? She almost took a step toward the wall when she felt a ripple, low in her stomach. A whine keened in her ears. And it began again. Thethud thudin her veins as her Agni gnashed and roiled in frustration.
It was beginning.
He was calling.
“Elena, we have to go.” Visha held out her pulse gun. “Come.”
When she still did not move, Visha stepped forward and pressed the gun into her hand with a gentleness that startled her.
“How many more will die if we stay here, searching for what few survivors are left?” Visha said softly.
Elena turned to her, eyes red. Her throat ached. “Don’t.”
But Visha was already moving. She preferred to stay in motion, always. “There are more Ravani trapped in the city center, waiting for their queen. But you can stay here, mourning the dead. Don’t bother with the living.”
The words felt like a slap.
Burn, the Agni within her begged. It was as if the flames pulsed in want.Burn.
