Chapter 62
Already, my palms are slick with sweat, my clothes sticking to my skin.
Sitting in the common room of Murtagh’s safehouse, I close my eyes and try to center myself, blocking out the rest of the team waiting for the moment we have to jump into Paramount.
Our plan is beyond risky, but there doesn’t seem to be another way to do it outside of gathering an entire rebel army to storm the castle. Arguably, that would be even riskier.
The moonstone is in the pocket of my trousers, feeling heavier than ever as if it, too, understands the weight of this situation.
There’s an overwhelming feeling of urgency that overtakes me, causing nausea to gather in my throat.
We have a set time we’re supposed to jump into Paramount, but something is practically shouting at me that the time is now.
“We have to go!” I announce. Everyone turns to me.
Chiyo’s eyes are more kohl-lined than usual, her hair pulled back from her face, her vest adorned with a multitude of blades.
There’s a bow and quiver of arrows at her feet where she rises from the couch.
Ava’s equally armed though most of her hair still hangs down. She also jumps to her feet.
“Now?” she asks. “How—”
“Now,” I repeat as Isobel enters the room nonchalantly, as though we’ve not been waiting for such a scary plan. Even more sweat breaks out around my neckband and trickles down my sternum. “I know we had a time, but something’s telling me—”
“Then we go,” Ava interrupts, glancing at the others.
Chiyo grabs the quiver of arrows, slinging it across her back.
I spin the vanishing ring on my finger as Isobel holds her hand up and grabs her sibling, pulling them close.
We gather at the center of the room, Chiyo and Ava grasping hands before Chiyo grabs mine and I grab Isobel’s.
Sloan closes the circle, and I quickly take in everyone’s determined expressions.
“If all fails,” I blurt. “I love you all like you’re family.”
“Beautiful heartfelt words,” Ava says dismissively. “But let’s go!”
I close my eyes and all I can somehow picture in the moment is my old bedroom in the castle.
Now Winnie’s bedroom. We’re pulled through darkness and space, an endless somersault until our feet touch solid ground again.
We take a few seconds to get the dizziness under control before Ava says, “You know where you are?”
I nod and swallow back the nausea. “When we get out of here, we head right and keep going.” Everyone nods and we rush out of the bedroom, only to run straight into a group of soldiers dressed in midnight blue. Zenith members.
Weapons are drawn from both sides, but I contain my shadows, afraid to reveal myself. As a woman produces daggers of ice from thin air, Isobel blasts a gust of air into her face.
My head is still reeling from the transfer between locations, but Chiyo grabs my arm.
“Run,” she signs. She gestures over her shoulder to where Isobel and Sloan are fighting the Zenith members.
Ava joins us in running through the immense corridors, toward where I know we can find an exit from the castle.
My lungs already burn from running. We careen around a corner, and Ava yanks me back to jump in front of me, her sword raised to block another blade.
Chiyo flings a dagger into someone’s eye, and I resist the urge to close my own.
I turn as I sense a presence behind me. A man almost double my height comes at me with a long sword.
There’s no point in holding back, so I let loose a ripple of my shadows.
It’s enough to stall him before Ava’s sword slices across his stomach.
Then we’re running again. I try desperately to feel for Tiernan’s aura. For Winnie’s. It isn’t until we round another corner, so close to the exit, that an overwhelming sense of both Winnie and Tiernan rushes into me. It’s strong enough that I’m certain I can jump right to them.
“Grab Ava!” I shout to Chiyo as I snatch her hand back just as she’s about to throw a dagger at a new attacker. Chiyo grabs Ava’s hand, and we go tumbling into the abyss.