“We need to move faster,” Iver’s command had me looking toward Finn, fear flashing in my eyes as the shouts began to grow louder, closer to the door as we neared the second floor.
“Orela,” Finn stated as he reached out, grabbing my sister’s arm. “We’ll move quicker if you let me carry you.”
I watched my sister’s eyes narrow, her lips moving silently as though she were weighing the options before she nodded her head, and Finn scooped her up. We were on the move once again.
I heard a door slam open higher up in the stairwell, and the RSG’s shouts echoed throughout the stairwell as they began to flood the space.
“Hurry.” Iver’s voice was a low whisper as he urged us down the last of the stairs to the first floor. I held the pulse omitter in my hand, jabbing the button, praying it would help hide our trail as we darted after the Remnant, now sprinting to get out of the stairwell before the guards caught up to us.
“Not right. Not right. Not right.” Orela’s voice was a feeble whisper as we opened the door to the first floor and darted out into the corridor, rushing toward where we’d first entered the temple.
“Over there!” a shout sounded from further down the hall, and we were sprinting as fast as we could through the corridor, matching Iver turn for turn as we tried to lose the guards on our trail.
My heart thudded in my chest, breaths struggling, as we ran for our lives, my feet skidding with each turn we made. Shoutssounded closer to us, and just when I thought we weren’t going to make it, Iver threw open a door, ushering us through the space.
“Go, go, go.” His voice was a sharp command as he shoved me through the doorway, my steps stumbling as I came up short in a small, dark space, the hint of a window in the distance.
“Let’s go. Let’s go.” Iver rushed toward the window once the door was securely shut. “We don’t have much time before they go door to door.”
Finn set Orela down as I rushed toward my sister, wrapping my arms around her, grateful to have her with me once more. The window groaned, a high-pitched squeak coming as the paneling unlocked and slid upward. Only this time, a loud blaring alarm began to sound, Iver and Finn cursing as we realized the window opening had triggered an undetected alarm.
“Shit.” The word fell from Finn’s lips as Iver was already scanning the window before climbing out. Finn began helping Orela next, lifting her through the window, careful of her leg as Iver helped pull Orela through.
Safe. My sister would be safe. We just had to get home.
Finn gestured toward me, but I shook my head.
“Go!” I demanded as the shouts grew louder, doors slamming near us. There was a frustrated huff before he moved toward the window.
“Who goes there?” The guard’s voice broke the silence just as Finn was slipping out of the crack in the window. My body froze for a split second, realizing that we’d been caught, and that I was the only onestillinside the temple. The space was still dark, the crack of the window barely visible as I motioned to Finn to go, to take Orela to safety?—
Then I slammed the window down, ensuring it was locked before I ran to the far corner of the small space, pressing my back against the wall and tugging on the water and earth affinities swirling inside me before I could second-guess mydecisions. I forced myself to think of every painful moment—of my father dying, of Orela when she was marked as a seer, of the bargain I’d made with Luc and the betrayal that followed. I thought of the worst moments of my life, reminding myself of what I was fighting for as the lights to the small space flicked on and three RSG entered the room.
“You there.” The guard’s voice was a sharp bark as he caught sight of me. “What are you doing here?”
I didn’t respond.
I pulled on every ounce of my affinities, harnessing the small amount of power I had, as I shoved my hands out, water and earth spiraling together as they cut through the air toward the guards.
And for one small moment, one flicker of a second, I had the upper hand.
I had caught them off guard.
I felt the moment a powerful fire affinity whipped through the room, diminishing the water I’d cast as it charged toward me, cutting off my circulation as smoke flooded my lungs. My eyes widened, just as another spiral came toward me. Cords of fire wrapped themselves around my wrists and ankles before I could resist.
“Bring her up with the others,” the taller of the guards said to the other two, before he exited the room. The remaining two guards stalked toward me, their eyes narrowed as they each grabbed one of my arms, hauling me out of the room.
My eyes teared up, the lack of oxygen increasing as I was roughly dragged through the hallways, unable to defend myself, unable to move, to break free.
All I could do was pray that Orela had made it out in time—that Finn and Iver got her to safety before the Quarter came crashing down tomorrow.
The guards brought me out and eventually deposited me in an empty room on the first floor of the High Temple, their affinities wrapping tightly around me as they ensured I wasunable to move before they left me there, in the dark, and stormed away.
“Butterfly.”The single name broke the silence of the night, and I froze as I recognized the voice. I sent up a prayer that Iver and Finn had gotten Orela far from the temple grounds by now . . . far from the male who was currently standing before me.
Everything in me screamed to run in the opposite direction as quickly as I could, my muscles tensing, preparing to fly—should I manage to break free—as Lucanus walked out from the shadows, his wings displayed in a powerful arc of onyx feathers. Behind him, four guards stepped out of the darkness on either side of him, lining the exit to the room I’d been left in as panic coursed through me.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
