Page 134 of Under the Iron Sky

Ikarus did what he had to do to protect those he loved—and so did she. It didn’t change any of the awful things he’d done. Didn’t lessen any of the blood on his hands—but for the first time, she understood. Saw that he didn’t kill and slaughter for mere enjoyment but because he needed to.

They were so different in blood and upbringing, on different sides of the war facing opposite directions, but more alike than she’d ever expected.

And maybe she did have a bleeding heart like Noreen said, or maybe she’d just been fighting in this war for so long, spilled so much blood, that for once—just this once—she didn’t want to be the source of someone’s pain, Soraya wasn’t sure, but she found her hands sliding up to cup his face, found herself leaning forward, his ashy and burning coal scent washing over her, and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

“What was that for?” Ikarus asked when she pulled away.

“You looked like you needed it.”

Ikarus stared at her, his eyes dancing between both of hers. “Does that mean that you don’t want to kill me anymore?”

“I do, but it’s a lot harder to fantasize about stabbing you in the heart when I can see the reason why it’s so broken.” She let her hands drop and turned away—

Ikarus grabbed her wrist, gently pulling her back so she was facing him again.

His hand slid up her arm to rest against the side of her neck, thumb sweeping across her jaw as he studied her face, seeming to search for something. “You aren’t what I thought you would be.”

“Neither are you.”

His eyes drifted to her mouth. Soraya’s did the same, and she suppressed a shudder when his fingers tightened on her jaw, holding her in place—

A loud crack tore through Illieck. The ground started to shake, sending the soaps and shampoos in the alcoves by the shower toppling to the floor. Soraya would’ve joined them if Ikarus hadn’t pulled her into his chest just before the ground stilled and the first cheers rang out.

They ran to the balcony, Soraya’s heart dropping into her stomach when she saw that the Astro Temple doors were wide open, dozens of fairies and Dar’rak pouring in.

She couldn’t breathe. The enemy was in the temple. They were going to get the piece of the Arch, and when they did, it would mean there was only one more left for Ramapheal to find.

The cheers below gave way to disgruntled groans. Ikarus frowned down at the doors below. “Something’s wrong.”

The movement below reversed and instead of charging in, fairies were suddenly running away from the temple. “There’s no one in there!” someone on the ground shouted.

“There’s clothes and fresh provisions inside but no humans!”

Even with all the Astro Temple’s protections, there was no way Noreen would’ve left a piece of the Arch there unguarded. Standard protocol was at least ten soldiers on shift at each time, so where were they all?

A flash of pure brilliant Light like a shooting star shot across the ground below, slicing straight through the chest of one of those fairies coming out of the temple.

All heads snapped toward the source, where a Vordellian soldier stood at the mouth of one of the larger burrows on the ground, flanked by three rusting Sentinels, each with the words FLAMING SWORD carved in a large sprawl across their chests next to the image of a rising sun.

Beside her, Ikarus had gone eerily still. Teeth flashing, he grabbed her arm and sneered, “How did you do it? Did you send a distress signal? A tracker?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“Then how did your friends know all the machines from the metal graveyard had been moved to the caves beneath here?”

The pieces quickly slid into place in Soraya’s head. And as she watched the first soldiers charge out of that burrow, each one with a weapon bursting with pure Light that they fired at attacking fairies and Dar’rak alike, everything made sense.

She’d thought it was bizarre that her mother had put a piece of the Arch in the Astro Temple. That after years of trying to preserve as much Light as possible, she’d just waste it to funnel power into a building when there were much more secure options available.

Because a piece of the Arch had never been in there.

It’d all been a ruse to get a team of humans safely into Illieck, and while all the fairies and Dar’rak were distracted trying to break into the temple, they could sneak into the caves below, and take back all that Light that’d been stolen from them.

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Soraya’s people were here. They’d been hiding here all this time, waiting in the dark. She had no idea how they’d managed to get to the machines below but they had, and finally—fucking finally—after so many years of sacrifice and hiding from this enemy that’d taken over so quickly and completely, they had the power to fight back. Real power.

Fighter jets shot past the balcony, slicing through anyone who got close with bullets of Light while three Sentinels did the same to those on the ground. Vordellian soldiers rushed forward with weapons of burning golden Light, bows, guns, swords. All of it pure and beautiful and yes—yes!—this was what her people had been once. What they could be again.