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Still, Soshi had the files, which meant even if we fell, it wasn’t over, not yet. We might die, but our mission might still work.
Kit let out another of those dark sounds before he shot his clawed hand out at a guard, raking the sharp talons across the man’s throat. Wouldn’t it be funny if after all of this, Kit was the only one to survive?
Somehow, I couldn’t imagine him falling. No matter what was thrown our way, nothing touched him.
Then again, in some ways, he was the opposite of Larkwood, like some dark twin. Larkwood had stood here for so long, and he’d been here for it all. He’d seen those who had suffered, outlived the guards and the shades and the wardens over the years.
Wouldn’t it be oddly fitting if at the end of it, only him and this damned building stood?
My distraction cost me, and something slammed against my side. I went down, struggling with the other person. They were well trained and strong, and a burning in my side said they had a knife they didn’t mind using.
Still, I threw them off me, giving me space.
The guard rolled, and I stilled as I recognized him. I recognized all the guards—other than the North Tower ones—but this one I’d spoken to quite often. I’d trained this one, in fact.
“You traitor!” he yelled at me, his fingers clutching the handle of the blade which had my blood on it.
“Being a traitor to something evil isn’t such a bad thing,” I threw back.
He laughed, the sound hollow and strained. It showed how much the fight had taken out of him already. “What did you think would happen? You’d show up here with your little shade friends and that would be the end of it? You know how hard we all work, how prepared we are, and you thought you could come in here with some rag-tag team and come out on top?”
As he spoke, his words hit me as almost embarrassingly true.
I’d known how many guards there were, how they trained for just this sort of thing, but in my arrogance, I thought we could overcome it. We’d succeeded time and time again, and I’d assumed we would again. The way we lagged said that wasn’t true, screamed that they were gaining the upper hand.
“I’d rather die here with these people than live the rest of my life with you all,” I spat.
“Well, at least that’s something we can agree on. The Warden said we can use lethal force—seems she’s done with these stupid games, with letting you all do whatever the hell you want. And when this is over? After we put down this little rebellion of yours? Oh, I have a feeling the other shades here are going to get a wakeup call about just how good they had it before.”
His words brought the truth home.
As much as I’d framed this as our fight, it wasn’t just ours. No matter how hard we worked, we couldn’t do it on our own, and we wouldn’t suffer the consequences alone.
Instead, I hit the button on my radio. “Wade, patch Kit into the PA system.”
“What?” Wade’s voice made it so I could almost see his sarcastic expression. “I love a good serenade as much as the next guy, but is this really the time?”
“Yeah, it really is. You said it yourself, this isn’t going well. We need help.”
Silence crackled back through the radio at first.
“We can’t ask the other shades to jump into this,” Knox said. “They’ll just get killed along with us.”
“It’s their fight too,” I countered. “If we lose, they pay the price, too. It should be their choice. If they want a future, they need to step up and help create it.”
“Even if we ask, they won’t come,” Wade said finally. “In case you’ve forgotten, they mostly hate us. Calling them is only going to add more enemies to this fight.”
“Well, I’m not sure it can go a lot worse than it is right now,” I shouted as I dodged the guard, who it seemed wasn’t willing to just wait for my conversation to end any longer.
“Why me?” Kit asked, his voice making me turn to realize he’d somehow ended up right behind me. I stared up into his black eyes, the moon illuminating the bone of his face. “People don’t trust me. I am not the one to rally troops.”
“You’re the only one who can,” I told him.
When the guard came at us again, Kit reached out and wrapped his clawed hand around the man’s face, smothering the sounds of his screams as he turned to dust.
I ignored the rolling of my stomach as I went on. “You’ve been here from the start. If anyone knows what this place is, it’s you. You’re the only person who can talk to them.”
He opened his hand, nothing left of the guard but the ash that caught on the breeze and spread out like some funeral service. He nodded after a moment.
