by Jodi Meadows
“You’re the one who made her take her mask off.” Theresa huffed. “Make up your mind.”
Melanie flicked her little finger in Theresa’s direction. “Masked figures are equally exciting.”
“I told you.” I smirked at Tobiah. “The best mask is a face no one will remember.”
He managed a faint smile as we darted around a flurry of snowflakes clumping together.
As we entered the lowcity, threads of white drifted through the streets, twining around buildings and statues and trees. Gardens withered, and houses grew eyes. Bits of wraith clung to everything, making corners of buildings rot, storefronts melt, and paving stones liquefy. A handful of bodies—both in red and blue—sank into puddles of wraith, and vanished.
We hadn’t even reached the biggest mass of wraith. Not nearly.
Several times, we stopped to dispatch wraith beasts: cats and dogs, even birds. Nothing was safe from the toxic effects.
“Chrysalis,” I whispered. “Where are you?”
“Here.” The wraith boy appeared directly in front of me.
I skidded and crashed into him, but he didn’t budge. He grabbed my shoulders and held me upright while I found my balance.
Around us, everyone else stopped and stared. James moved close to Tobiah, who looked at the wraith boy with murder in his eyes.
“Where have you been?”
He tilted his head. “Trying to stop Patrick. Isn’t that what you wanted?”
“No!”
Chrysalis took a step away from me. “I’m sorry. I thought—”
“Send away the wraith.” From the corner of my eye, I could see James muttering to Tobiah. The lengths of everyone’s drawn swords gleamed in the wraith light. “Send it away now.”
The wraith boy cringed. “My queen—”
“Do it!”
He took another small step back and glanced over his shoulder where the hulking line of factories loomed like a wall between us and the fighting. Screams, gurgles, and pleas for help sounded in the distance.
And suddenly: silence.
“I’m sorry,” said Chrysalis. “I’ve lost control of it.”
FORTY-FIVE
EVERYONE LUNGED FOR the wraith boy at once.
He dropped to the packed-dirt ground, covering the back of his head and neck with his hands. Rocking side to side, he angled his face toward me and whispered something over and over, inaudible under the sound of my friends’ weapons being drawn.
“Wait!” I stepped closer, my arms outstretched. Everyone backed off.
“Wil?” Tobiah shot me a wrecked, confused look. His sword stayed in guard position, ready and deadly, but statue still.
I grabbed Chrysalis by the collar of his dirt-streaked jacket and hauled him to his feet. Sweat matted his hair, and small burns dotted his face, as though the snowflakes had injured him. “What were you saying?”
“It won’t hurt you,” he repeated. “The other wraith won’t hurt you. I told it not to.”
“What does that mean?” James’s voice was rough; he stood close to Tobiah, protective as always, no matter the ten-year secret raw between them. “That’s all wraith does—hurt people.”
Chrysalis glanced at Tobiah, something like shame crossing his face. “I know.”
“What do you mean, the wraith won’t hurt me?” I asked. This wasn’t the time to discuss the past.
“I told you I wouldn’t let it hurt you, so it won’t.” He touched the small red welts spotting his face. “It hasn’t hurt you.”
I mirrored his movements. It was true; I hadn’t been burned, though the others showed evidence of injury. “How, when you’ve lost control over it?”
“Control, yes. That’s lost. But not yet influence.”
Not yet.
Which meant I had to act quickly.
“The whole kingdom needs protection.” I looked beyond him, toward the now-quiet battlefield on the far side of the factories; the silence was deafening. Something had happened, and the wraith was likely responsible. “What happened there? Are the soldiers dead?”
He shook his head. “Not yet.”
My stomach dropped as I motioned at Sergeant Ferris and Oscar. “Go look.”
Ferris glanced at Tobiah for direction, but his king didn’t shift his glare from the wraith boy.
“Go!” I said.
Sergeant Ferris and Oscar took off at a run toward the factories.
I turned back to Chrysalis. “You need to regain control of the wraith. Those people need to survive. The kingdom needs to survive.”
A heavy flake of snow drifted between us, then toward me at a gust of wind. I moved away, but heat touched me—and then nothing.
The wraith boy nodded solemnly as a small burn appeared on him. “I will do as you wish, my queen.”
He flickered and vanished.
Melanie lowered her sword and rushed for me, while Tobiah staggered back and seemed to collect his thoughts. James didn’t leave his side.
“He took it.” Theresa’s voice was eerily loud. “When the snow struck you, the burn went on him.”
“It won’t hurt you,” Kevin murmured. “Because it will hurt him instead.”
Tobiah still gripped his sword, the leather of his gloves stretched taut around his knuckles. “Use it while you have it, Wil. You heard him; his influence won’t last.”
Ahead, Oscar and Sergeant Ferris disappeared around the corner of the water purification factory. Wraith light hung gloomily over the building, making odd shadows that shifted into the shapes of disproportioned hands and arms.
“This way. Stay close.” I didn’t wait for affirmation, just sprinted toward the factory. If I could get them out of the snow and tendrils of wraith for even a few minutes, that would be something.
At my approach, the wraith skittered away, making a path for the others.
The factory door hung open.
“Are we going in?” Kevin asked.
“Yes.” I checked the street. There was no sign of Oscar and Sergeant Ferris yet, but they’d return shortly. I hoped. “You and Theresa stand guard in the doorway and wait for the others. I don’t want anyone left alone.”
The pair saluted, and I led the remaining three inside the building where lights burned, both gas and wraith.
Queasiness made me sway as I took in the room. Pipes had grown talons or feet, and their claws scraped at the floor. Barrels had turned into feathers. Walls rippled like silk sheets in a breeze.
“It’s ruined,” I rasped. “The lowcity needed this plant, and now it’s ruined.”
Melanie’s voice came hard. “They won’t need it if we can’t all pull ourselves together and stop the wraith. Now let’s go.”
She was right. We had work to do.
In the main room, we found Claire. She’d been trussed to a wooden chair and abandoned, surrounded by a pool of blood.
Her foot sat in the blood, detached from the rest of her.
“Saints.” Melanie rushed to untie her. “Who—Patrick?”
Claire was pale, her sweat-dampened hair stuck to her face and neck. “Patrick.” She closed her eyes, and her head dipped as though she might faint. Someone had wrapped the stump on her leg, but not well. Blood dripped from the bandage.
“Is there anyone else here?” James asked, his sword at the ready.
“No. Everyone’s gone to fight. But I haven’t heard them in a few minutes. It’s so quiet now.” One of her eyes was bruised and swollen, and her mouth was split. “I meant to go to your coronation. I wanted to accept your offer. But the Militia got to me first. They knew I’d been talking with you. They held me until Patrick arrived.” She lifted her chin high, but the act didn’t fool anyone. “That’s why they took my foot. For straying.”
I motioned at the boys. “Check the rooms. Find anything that might help Claire. I want her taken to the castle. Connor might be able to heal her.”
“There are blankets in that office.” Her hands free now, Claire pointed to a nea
rby opening; the door was gone now. “And wood beams all over, though the wraith—”
“We’ll find something.” Tobiah waved James with him.
“Mel, grab another chair. We need to put her”—not her foot; that was on the ground—“leg up so she doesn’t lose more blood.”
I pulled Claire and her chair away from the puddle of blood and knelt so I could prop her stump on my knee. The bandage was soaked, so I drew a new one from my belt and tied it over the old, like Connor and the Gray brothers had taught me.
“Here.” I gave her a packet of powdered herbs to numb the pain. It wasn’t enough, but it was something.
Claire accepted the medicine and dropped her gaze to me, her voice low and slurred. “He planned to go after Colin tonight. That was his goal all along. But Colin moved against you.”
Prince Colin wouldn’t risk his nephew’s life, that much I trusted. But he’d malign and defame the vigilante king, if that meant he could take the throne. The Indigo Kingdom. Aecor. Either one. He just wanted power.
Melanie returned with a second chair and helped me arrange Claire’s leg. The movement was too much, and she lost consciousness.
“We can’t linger here,” Melanie whispered into the oppressive silence. Where was Chrysalis? Had he regained control of the wraith?
I shook away the questions. “Four need to go back with Claire. Two to carry her, one to carry”—I pointed toward her foot—“that, and one to defend.”
“James and I won’t leave you,” she said.
“Fine.”
Claire roused herself and blinked. “The Red Militia wants to defend your right to the throne,” she said. “They’ll destroy Colin for you.”
“I know they will. But they shouldn’t.” I straightened as Tobiah and James returned, their arms full of blankets, ropes, and wood beams. “Good, let’s make—”
Footfalls sounded from the purification room.
Oscar and Sergeant Ferris marched in, Theresa and Kevin on their heels. Everyone’s face was grim.
“What’s the news?” Melanie moved to meet them in the middle. “What did you see?”
“Both armies are there,” Oscar said. “Some of ours, too. Plus wraith beasts, mostly domesticated animals that were transformed.”
Tobiah and I shared a quick glance. “Then why is it so quiet?” I asked, unless the wraith had smothered all their sound or . . .
“They’re frozen.” Sergeant Ferris was ashen. “They’re frozen like the people you saw near Mirror Lake.”
FORTY-SIX
“THEY’RE STILL BREATHING,” said Oscar.
“The wraith hasn’t solidified the way you described at Mirror Lake.” Sergeant Ferris knelt to help build the stretcher for Claire. “But they can’t move through it.”
My head buzzed with horror. The wraithland, here in my city. “Did you see Patrick or Prince Colin?”
“No, but we couldn’t get a good look. Oscar tossed a pebble into the mist, and it stuck. If they’re with their armies, they’re trapped.”
If Chrysalis regained control over the wraith, everyone would be moving again. We had to find Prince Colin and Patrick first, force them to agree to call off their armies, and somehow send away the wraith.
“All right.” I rose to my feet. “You four, take Claire to the castle. Get her to Connor.”
“I don’t like leaving you,” said Theresa.
“Please, do this. And after you deliver Claire, take all the barrier pieces up to Radiants’ Walk—the overlook above the Red Bay.”
Oscar nodded. “The barrier will be there.”
“Good. Guard it with your life.” I dragged in a long breath, heavy with the heat of wraith and stink of blood. “Melanie, James: you’re with us.”
Outside, Melanie and James moved ahead, their weapons drawn, though the street was unnaturally still; even the snow had stopped, and was steaming in piles against the buildings.
“The wraith is changing everything so quickly.” Tobiah’s voice was low.
“Chrysalis brought it as a weapon.” Now that we were so close to the battleground, haze blocked out the moon and stars completely, but the flecks of light cast enough illumination to see by. “Chrysalis doesn’t think about consequences when he acts. I don’t know if he can. I want to hate him for doing this, but I know him now. I’m learning the way he thinks. It’s almost childlike.”
“He’s no child.” The words were a growl.
“No, he’s not.”
“But he loves you. He wants to protect you.”
“I don’t think he has a choice.” I waved the topic away. “We can discuss Chrysalis and his dubious humanity another time. Right now, we need to focus on making this city safe.”
“You’ve said it a hundred times: we’ll never be safe.”
Maybe not. But right now, we both needed hope. “We have to make it safe. If not for us, for the people who come after us.”
“Right.” He wiped his arm across his face, leaving a streak of sweat and dirt. “You were giving a lot of orders back there. Do you have a plan?”
“Yes.”
“Do you want to share?”
“No.”
“I see. You don’t want to be embarrassed if everything goes awry.”
I twitched my little finger at him. “Just because you have impeccable taste in clothes doesn’t mean you know everything, Black Knife.”
“Oh, nameless girl. When will you learn to trust me?”
“I do trust you.” I bumped my elbow against his, a pathetic attempt at levity, but he caught me, turned me, and held me in place. We stood dangerously close. “It’s myself I don’t always trust,” I whispered.
“That’s strange.” He released my arm and took a step backward. “I trust you, but I don’t always trust myself.”
“This seems to be a problem with kings and queens.”
“I think it’s a problem with people.” He smiled faintly, and we hurried to catch up with Melanie and James. “I always believed I was a monster hunting other monsters.” His voice remained soft.
Knowing what he’d done to bring back his cousin in a society that condemned all magic, I could imagine the cycle of self-loathing that must have taken hold.
“I never saw you as a monster, though. A criminal, yes. Definitely a troublemaker. But even when I learned you were a radiant, I didn’t see you differently. I thought maybe you were like me.” He didn’t meet my eyes. “Since then, I’ve fought actual monsters. Not just wraith beasts or glowmen, but the kind of people who come out of hiding when the world falls apart. I’ve traveled through the wraithland of my own home. I’ve seen things I couldn’t begin to describe.”
“Like this?” We’d come to the battleground: a huge park surrounded by shops, taverns, and food stalls. I’d been here once before; people had been planting trees and beginning the frame of some kind of stage or platform. Now vines covered the brickwork, growing every second. Broken glass windows glimmered like teeth.
“Dear saints.” Melanie pressed her hands to her mouth.
Mist writhed between thousands of men and women caught mid-fight. Wraith beasts, too, had been trapped with their claws raised or their jaws clamped around a leg.
Many of our people were turned away, identifiable only by the knives painted on their uniforms, but I caught a few faces I knew. They blinked and gasped, and struggled against the solidifying mist, but it was futile.
I stepped toward them, as though I could help.
“Don’t get too close.” Melanie raised her arm to bar me from proceeding. “Remember what Ferris said happened when they threw in a pebble. It’s there.”
Indeed, a small piece of rock hung in midair.
“You heard Chrysalis. It won’t hurt me.” When I lifted my palm to the mist, it seemed to melt. It was still wraith, but simply the kind that changed things, rather than trapped. With another step, the floating pebble hit the ground with a faint clack. “I have to free our people while this immunity still works. M
aybe they know where Patrick and Prince Colin are.”
“Fine.” Melanie crossed her arms. “In the meantime, we’ll just stand here, useless.”
“Don’t be foolish. Find a building to climb up and get a good look at everything. Or go around the edges and look for Patrick and Prince Colin there. Just don’t touch the mist.” That wasn’t a useful instruction; there was mist everywhere. “Look, you can see how this mist is different. It sheers off at the edge of something, and there’s a shimmer to it.”
“I see it.” Melanie scowled.
My smile was forced. “Take James; that way we’ll each have a boy to look after.”
James and Tobiah shot each other unamused looks, but after a moment, Melanie and James went off together, discussing their best course of action.
I took another step into the mist, which melted at my nearness. “Watch my back, Black Knife.”
“Intently.”
Another step, and then another. I reached the nearest soldier with a black knife on her uniform. She’d been trapped in a silent scream, someone’s blade coming toward her from behind. I’d seen her before. Met her once. Her name was . . . Denise something.
“It’s all right, Denise,” I murmured. “I’m going to free you.”
Her eyes widened as the mist cleared away. Her mouth moved. She dropped from the wraith’s grasp and pointed behind me.
I drew my sword and spun, letting the mist scatter and melt around me.
A figure in a shredded indigo uniform limped around a corner. Blood poured down his cheek and neck, and his skin shone with sweat. He kept one arm tucked against his chest.
“Uncle.” Tobiah moved toward him, but stopped as Prince Colin hefted a sword with his good arm.
“I should have known I’d find you with her.” Prince Colin’s glare cut from Tobiah to me, his eyes narrowed. “Flashers. Filthy creatures. You deserve to die in this stuff, not my people.” He brought his sword around, cutting through banners of wraith accumulating around him. It didn’t help.
“Is that why you attacked the city?” Tobiah sidestepped so that he was between his uncle and me. “Because of Wilhelmina’s magic? Or because you don’t want to give up Aecor?”
