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Luke and the rebels turned on more UV lights and pointed them outwards in all directions, protecting us from the back and top. Steve lit a few piles of crates on fire, keeping them at bay. Others tore down whatever would burn, creating a tight ring of bonfires. The elite fell back, just out of reach of the fire and neon purple light.
Then the slagpaw attacked, drawn by the gunfire and noise; but they found easy prey nipping off the exposed elite on the other side of the large crowd. The rest of the elite stood in the shadows, their eyes bright. Pale faces and fangs, waiting for an opening. They weren’t wearing the fine clothes of the citadel, however, and these faces were familiar to me.
The recent immigrants from Algrave.
And we were killing them.
“They’re just regular people,” I said.
“Not anymore,” Jacob replied, lighting a cigar in the hot jet flame of Steve’s weapon.
So this was Nigel’s plan. His main supporters were safely locked inside the palace, and everyone else would die in the purge. Hundreds of new, hungry vampires, to thin the herd and root out his enemies. And now they were coming for us. Desperate for human blood.
“In a few minutes,” Jacob said, “this flamethrower is going to run out of gas, and my men will run out of bullets. I suggest, whatever it is we came here to do, you get it done before then.”
He’d changed clothes again: a white shirt, stained with blood. Gold chains, green cargo pants, black boots. I looked around at the scene, feeling a rising dread. The slagpaw wouldn’t attack us, not when they had plenty of better options. But my allies were boxed in, surrounded by hungry vampires. And soon, they’d be food.
“Some will die,” Tobias said, reading my mood. “But they’re here for you, to give you a chance to end it. You have to keep going.”
“We got this,” Steve said, nodding to me. He was wearing sunglasses that reflected the flaming, screaming bodies.
“You want me to go ahead alone?” I asked. “But what will you do when you run out of fuel and ammunition?”
“I’ll stay and try to get the others out,” Tobias said. “We’ll be right behind you.” He wrapped his arms around me and jumped into the sky. A moment later I was on the roof of the walled compound behind me, stumbling on the terracotta tiles. I could see the whole of the citadel spread out beneath me, the pockets of fire and smoke, the barricades studded with fallen bodies. My allies penned in down below; a small haven of light in a fallen kingdom. The wind rustled and then Camina was beside me. She kicked in a wooden door and crossed through the open apartment, then climbed down in front of the palace.
I followed, holding my breath. It was still quiet up here, and dark. We moved our way forward, up the final flight of steps, emerging onto the open courtyard below the palace. The courtyard where Penelope had been executed. The stones were empty and bare in the moonlight, easily illuminating the single person sitting alone, her head down, a spear through her chest. Around her, at least a dozen bodies, wearing the training uniforms of the chosen.
Master Svboda gasped as we approached, straining to look up at us, then fell back, her boots slick with blood, the spear piercing straight through her and nearly skewering her to the ground.
“Who did this,” Camina growled, holding her shoulder.
“They found out what you’d done,” she said. “They came for me.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said, curling my hands into fists, my fingernails biting into my skin. I felt a pain deep within me, blossoming like a storm. It hurt more than any of the injuries I’d sustained in battle. I hadn’t meant for this to happen.
“I had to stop them,” she said, stopping to cough blood. “He would have used them against you.” She pulled me closer, holding my arm. “This battle must be won. Finish what you started, girl.”
“I can heal you,” Camina said. “I have elixir.”
She raised a vial to her lips, pulling off the cork, but Master Svboda brushed it away.
“I can’t,” she said with a sad smile. “I’ll turn.”
“Then turn,” Camina insisted, a little too harshly.
Master Svboda reached out a bloody hand to Camina’s pale cheek, leaving a red mark. Like a blessing, or a benediction.
“I’m so proud of you both,” she whispered.
I dug into my satchel for the woven bracelet made of colored yarn that Kari had given me in Iklebot, hating myself that I’d forgotten to give it to her earlier.
I slipped it onto her wrist and tightened the ends.
“From your sister,” I said, with emotion in my voice. “She says it’s time to come home.”
Her eyes lit up for the last time, and she died with a hint of a smile. Then she was still. Camina didn’t want to leave, but I grabbed her arm. There wasn’t time to grieve, to even consider all of this. I had to keep moving, even though I felt tears blurring my vision. Every time I thought, I’d already lost too much, it couldn’t get any worse; every time Nigel had managed to tear more away from me, to increase the pain on my conscience. It was like he’d planted seeds of black thorns in my heart and was now pulling them out from the root, scraping out my insides as slowly as possible.
If I couldn’t stop him, no one from Algrave would survive the night. Unless I did something in the next few minutes, our revolution would play out exactly as Nigel predicted. Killing Nigel wouldn’t save my allies down below from the vampire hordes when their tricks ran out. But it was too late to stop now.
