I lunge to buffer his fall, and we thud to the ground in a tangle, my head thwacking against the stone, skull-splitting pain throbbing to agonizing life.
“Are you … okay?” I grind out.
He groans, climbing off me. “Yeah. Got my cloak, I’m good. What about yo—”
A blaring horn sounds above the howling wind, followed by aboomthat rattles my bones. A single bright seed shoots up into the bulbous clouds, turning them blood red when it bursts with such violence the entire sky seems to shake.
Dread drops into my stomach like a boulder, some innate intuition flaring to life.
Cainon’s awake.
That voice inside screams louder than it ever has before …
“Run.” I roll to my side and nudge Zane to his feet, scrambling after him. “Run!”
We explode into action, feet slapping against the wet stone.We hurry down the steep stairs, then launch onto the pier, and another bolt of lightning ignites the churning waves splashing up the sides, dousing the planks in a foamy residue.
The pier is empty aside from us, the ship churning with the ocean’s heavy rise and fall. Kolden is standing on deck, next to the gangplank, yelling words I can’t make out over the roaring wind. But when the deep vibrato of clanking chains rattles across the bay, even the wind seems to pause.
Tolisten.
They’re lifting the sea gate.
Fuck.
“Push off!”I scream through the icy torrent of rain battering my face, waving.“We’ll jump!”
Kolden seems to hesitate, and I think I hear a woman shriek before the gangplank is raised.
A streak of lightning rips across the sky as the ship begins to crack away. “Faster, Zane!”
For a battering moment, the rain becomes a sheet of white, drumming upon the pier, smearing my sight ofeverything.But I sense we’re getting close.
Almost there.
“We’re going to have to jump, okay?” I reach for him. “Take my hand, we’ll do it together!”
No answer.
I look to my side—
There’s nothing but the rain and the wooden poles and the churning sea clawing at the pier.
I spin, pulse scattering at the sight of Zane pinned to the ground beneath the boot of an armored guard, cheek flat against the wood, eyes wide and wild.
Scared.
My dome creaks and groans as more Gold Guards swarm around Zane like a clanking river of crushing might.
Five—eight—tenof them.
All the fight bleeds from me.
I fall to my knees, gasping breath, holding Zane’s stare through the shifting obstacle of golden shin guards. This hopeless feeling grips hold of my shoulders and shoves me down so hard I’m certain the pier’s going to splinter beneath me.
There’s theswishof loosening weapons, gold-tipped spears glinting in sporadic bursts of light ripping across the sky. Again, that woman screams in the distance, farther away than before—similar to the sound my mother made when that axe swung.
Struck.
