Her body jerks midair, balance lost, and she crashes shoulder-first into the stone instead of into me. She screams as the daggers skitter away.
My heart pounds at the unleashed chaos around us.
A burst of flame explodes against the wall to my right.
Heat washes over us.
Inferno Domain.
Someone stronger has joined the chase.
“Move!” I bark.
We sprint into a wider avenue—and immediately regret it.
There are more waiting.
A group of six blocks the path ahead, armed and ready, their expressions grim.
“They’re trying to cut us off!” Moe cries.
I see it now.
The others behind us are not attacking recklessly anymore. They are spreading. Flanking. Driving us forward.
Herding us.
By the Seven.
Someone is organizing this.
We veer sharply right into a narrower side passage just before the group closes in. A spear grazes my ribs as I pass, slicing through my shirt and skin. Heat blooms along my side.
Pain can wait.
The alley narrows until only two people can run abreast. Good. That limits how many can reach us at once. Bad. It also traps us if they close both ends.
Boots thunder behind us.
I risk a glance.
There’s at least fifteen of them, with more joining at every moment.
“They won’t stop,” Moe says, breathless.
“No. We just have to find a way to survive until the time is up.”
Another turn. Then another.
We leap over fallen stone, shove through broken archways, dart between collapsed ruins. My lungs burn. Sweat stings my eyes. Every step grows heavier.
A hammer slams into the wall beside my head, showering me with stone dust.
I whirl and catch the wielder’s wrist, using his own momentum to hurl him into the men behind him. Three go down in a tangle of limbs and curses.
Like starving beasts, more come toward me. Like I am already dead and they are fighting over the carcass.
We burst into a ruined square half the size of the market, and my stomach drops.
