by Sarah Fine
“The Captain will go first!” called Treasa in a loud, clear voice.
Even though both Malachi and I had been given that title at various times, I knew exactly who she was referring to.
The Tanner frowned. “I think the girl should—”
“She wouldn’t last two seconds.” Treasa smirked. “It wouldn’t be that entertaining. Let her watch Sil disembowel her love.”
The Tanner stroked his hand down her arm and gave her an admiring look. “Feeling hungry yet, dear?”
She smiled, something cold glittering in her eyes. “I’m getting there.”
I shuddered and held Malachi tight, all my systems switching into panic mode. “Can you beat him?” I whispered.
“I don’t know,” he said as he bowed his head into my hair. “But I’ll try.”
“Remove them from the cage,” said the Tanner.
Treasa brushed her fingers against his face. “Allow me.” She stalked toward us.
“Don’t watch.” Malachi tipped my face up to his. “And no matter what they do to me, remind yourself that I will survive.” He smiled, like this was nothing, like everything was simple, but I could see the exhaustion that shadowed his face. “Then you can fix me up.”
Before I could reply, his lips descended on mine, desperate and hard. His words might have been light, but his kiss told me he didn’t want to let go. His fingers clutched at my skin, a bruising pressure that I welcomed and returned. Our cage door swung open, and Treasa stood before us. “Your opponent awaits, Captain.”
Malachi kissed my forehead and released me. “Will I have a weapon?” he asked as he crawled from the cage and stood up.
Treasa shook her head.
I followed him out of the cage, using all my energy to hold myself together. I didn’t want to make this even harder by losing my shit while he fought. I would not distract him. The other guards surrounded Malachi and led him to the spot where Sil was bound. They formed a large circle around the two enemies. Treasa took me by the shoulders and began to guide me toward them. I flinched away from her, but she wrenched one of my arms behind my back and forced me across the floor until we came to a stop in the middle of the crowd, halfway between the portal and the throne. Behind it, the giant Mazikin grinned down from its mosaic, and I realized how naive I’d been, to think the Mazikin were the only evil creatures in this city.
The Tanner and his men pressed in closer. Looking over the crowd, the Tanner’s face lit up when he spotted Treasa. He waved her forward, but she merely nodded at him and grabbed my chin, forcing it up so I could see Malachi facing off with Sil from between the shoulders of the men in front of us. A guard was unlocking the shackles on the creature’s feet. Sil’s hands were already free and scrabbling at the bone floor, his razor-sharp claws leaving long divots. Malachi stood watching, his pink and silver scars standing out on his olive skin. His expression was one I’d seen him wear so many times before. Utter calm, total concentration. The spider waiting for the vibration in its web.
And then Sil’s feet were free. He leaped at Malachi, who quickly sidestepped him, sending him barreling into the Tanner’s men, who pounded on the beast and shoved him back into the circle. Their attention was entirely riveted on the action, their eyes alight with bloodlust. It made me want to scream. Or stab someone. I glanced over my shoulder at Treasa. Her gaze didn’t leave the fight as she pressed something small and cold into my palm.
My heart stopped as my fingers closed around it.
“Eyes front,” she hissed.
I obeyed her and nearly cried out as Sil swiped at Malachi, leaving four red gashes across his forearm. Malachi grimaced in pain before blocking another slash and kneeing Sil in the bottom of his jaw, then driving his elbow into the top of the beast’s head. But as Sil fell, he raked his claws along Malachi’s thigh. Malachi’s pants were instantly soaked with blood, and he fell to one knee, within reach of Sil’s snapping teeth. They closed around Malachi’s wrist and jerked him toward the floor, where the two opponents became a blur of blood and hatred.
Malachi was going to get ripped to shreds.
I lunged forward, only to be pulled back almost instantly by Treasa. “No, you little idiot. Go now. Ana said you’d know what to do with it.”
I whirled all the way around, gaping at her as she released my arm. “What did you say? Where’s Ana?”
“She was injured when she fell through the toilet hole, but she’s alive.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“Believe me or not. I really don’t care.” Her gaze flicked over my shoulder at the fight. “This is your chance,” she hissed, nodding toward the grenade I now clutched against my chest. “Takeshi said it was powerful, and Ana said you could use it to get us all out of here.” She raised a pale eyebrow. “Were they lying?”
A million questions flew through my mind, about Ana and Takeshi, about Treasa. But then Malachi shouted with agony from behind me, and I knew I had a choice. Try to save him . . . or take this chance to destroy the portal. I shoved past Treasa, away from the fight and toward the swirling, shimmering blue. There were so many humans gathered to watch the carnage that everyone was pressed back to front and shoulder to shoulder, but they seemed too distracted by the brawl to pay attention to me. I could see glimpses of the portal’s wall not ten yards away. The crowd was sparser there—no one wanted to risk falling in and losing their soul.
I knew that once I pushed the button on the grenade, I had about ten seconds to get clear, or else I’d probably be destroyed by the explosion. That might not be a bad thing—if I was blown up, I’d appear at the city gates as Raphael opened the dome. It would be easy to get out.
The problem? It would mean leaving Malachi to fend for himself. And there was no way I was going to do that. Which meant I had to wait until the last possible second to push the button. And then I had to run—and to try to get Malachi to safety. From the ravenous cheers behind me, I knew he was suffering. I knew he was hurt. It only made me more determined.
So determined that I didn’t see the looming shape that blocked my way until I ran into it, face-first.
The Tanner leaned down, his hot, rank breath right in my face. “What are you doing, little girl?” His huge hand clamped itself around my neck as he scanned the crowd. “What have you done with Treasa? How did you get away from her?”
He squeezed, turning my world red. I focused everything I had on keeping my fingers closed tight around the tiny globe in my fist. He didn’t seem to know I had it, which was my only advantage at the moment. Well . . . not the only one. I opened my mouth like I was trying to say something, and his grip loosened.
“Thanks,” I said, sucking in a huge breath. And then I kneed him in the balls. His eyes went round, the veins at his temples bulging. As the crowd shrieked and Sil roared, I threw myself to the floor and skidded along the smooth surface, dodging the red-faced Tanner as he grabbed for me. I scrambled along on all fours, keeping low as he shouted for someone to stop me, his words lost in the snarls and cheers from the mob. His heavy footsteps shook the ground as he chased me. I reached the wall of the portal just as the Tanner plowed into me, crunching me against the stones. Searing pain zapped through my ribs, and my fingers tingled and went numb.
The grenade rolled to the floor. The Tanner grabbed a fistful of my tunic and dragged me off the wall. I went limp, pitching forward, my head lolling as I frantically searched for the small black sphere. Finally, I found it, right next to the portal wall. I kicked at the Tanner, forcing him to pay attention to my feet, while I swiped it off the floor.
With a grunt, he lifted me in the air. My body felt like it was being broken in half as he hefted me over his head. I heard someone calling my name, but it sounded so far away, like a voice from a dream. I stared up at the bluish salt crystals on the distant ceiling.
“You wanted to get to this portal so badly, littl
e girl. Well, here you are,” said the Tanner between rattling breaths. “I’ll let it deal with you.”
I craned my neck, trying to get one last view of Malachi, but the crowd was too thick. A few people were now facing us, watching with fascination. The Tanner took a step toward the whirlpool, bracing as he prepared to toss me in.
And I was overcome by the same impulse I’d had so many times in my life. Survive. Fight back. It was the same feeling I’d had that night I’d retaken control of my body and myself after months of abuse from Rick. It was the same thing that drove me to slam a rock into Juri’s head in the dark city. I had never surrendered, and I wouldn’t let this evil bastard be the first one to make me. I reached back and grabbed two handfuls of the Tanner’s tunic right as he hurled me forward. My fingers curled tight, securing the grenade between my palm and his sleeve. He staggered against the wall as my body flew over his head and crashed against the inside of the portal, a few feet above the deadly gelatinous goo. Beneath me, the lifeless, soulless bodies of my mother, Zip, and the Queen swirled slowly. My mother’s hair billowed around her like a cloud. Her eyes were wide open.
The Tanner grimaced, trying to pry my white-knuckled fingers from his tunic as all my weight pulled him down. He was a huge, burly man, but I wasn’t a waif. I slammed my toes against the stone wall, digging them into the cracks and using my leverage to drag him toward me. My eyes met his. “If I’m going in, you are too,” I said, a grim sense of victory filling me like a raging flood. I didn’t care if I was about to lose my soul forever—as long as he went down with me.
“Guards!” he called out, but from somewhere above and beyond me, I heard the sound of cheering and a high-pitched yelp.
I pushed all worries for Malachi away and yanked on the Tanner, succeeding in pulling him a few inches farther over the edge. “Come on,” I huffed. “You wanted to escape through the portal. This is your chance.”
But he was loosening my grip. With a crack, he broke one of my fingers. Pain blazed along the top of my hand. He broke a second finger with a crunching twist, and my hand fell limp. My other hand, the one still holding on to him and to the grenade, began to slip. He gave a pained chuckle as he reached for it. “What do you have here, little girl?”
He grinned, showing me all his black teeth. But then that smile vanished, replaced by a grimace of fear. Malachi landed on the portal wall like some kind of avenging demon, covered in blood, his eyes dark with fury. His muscles stood out in sharp relief as he raised his arm and hurled one, two, three blades into the Tanner’s body, each movement sending ruby droplets raining down on me. The knives hit with deep thumps, penetrating the man’s tunic and his flesh. The Tanner let out a strangled groan as his muscles went slack. Malachi’s gaze locked with mine.
And then I was falling.
TWENTY-TWO
INSTINCTIVELY, I CLUTCHED AT the grenade as I slipped, and one of my fingers sank down on the button.
Instead of plunging into the blue goo, though, I slammed into the portal wall, arms and legs flailing just inches above certain death. Together, Malachi and Treasa yanked me out. I had only a moment to see the wide-eyed faces in the throne room, the blood, the Tanner’s body sliding forward into the whirlpool, and then I tossed the grenade into the portal. “It’s activated,” I gasped.
“This way,” snapped Treasa as the Tanner’s people stared in shock, unsure of what to do.
Completely unaware that the whole place was going to blow.
We lunged for the back hallway and bolted for the bathroom as Malachi counted down. “Six,” he said in a strained voice as we dove into the tiny, stinky space. Shouts in the hallway told us the Tanner’s men were in pursuit.
Treasa moved viper-quick, lifting the wooden frame over the toilet holes. “Only way,” she said—right as Malachi said, “five.” He swayed on his feet, and his shoulder hit the wall, which was when I realized that most of the blood he was wearing was his own. Sil had torn him open, and his strength was fading fast.
Treasa touched my shoulder. “Trust me.” Then she jumped.
I looked down with a flash of worry, wondering if Malachi’s shoulders would fit, but then he shoved me toward the black pit as he said, “Three! I’ll be right behind you!”
I plunged downward, sliding and falling and drowning in stench, my head and hips and shoulders and knees bumping against the slimy surface. From above came a massive bone-rattling explosion, and then the whole world began to shake. I fell forever, dimly aware of a flash of red fire, wondering if I was imagining the screams that rolled over me in a wave, and praying Malachi had made it.
I broke into the open air for a bare moment before hitting the water. It filled my lungs as I gasped. I spread my limbs and kicked frantically, unsure which way was up. Something splashed into the murky river next to me. I opened my eyes.
Malachi. Blood swirled in crimson ribbons around his body as huge chunks of rock landed all around him. The palace appeared to be collapsing on top of us. Forgetting my own panic for a moment and the fact that I was still underwater, I reached for him. Someone yanked at the neck of my tunic, and I glanced over to see slender fingers clutching my shirt. My head emerged, and my body heaved, water flowing from my mouth as my stomach clenched. Ana was kneeling on the rocky shore, trying to help me onto the bank. I jerked myself away from her and forced one word from my mouth. “Malachi.”
I thrust myself back underwater, relying on sheer instinct. Malachi had lost a lot of blood, and I wondered if he’d hit his head on the way down. His arms floated at his sides, his head bobbing, his eyes closed. With my unbroken fingers, I grabbed the waist of his pants and pulled with all my strength. White-blond strands of hair on my periphery told me Treasa was also there, and she wrapped her arms around his torso and kicked upward. Together, we wrestled him to the bank, Treasa’s sure strokes keeping both me and Malachi moving. With Ana’s help, we pushed him onto the stone ledge. The cavern shook, and slabs of rock pelted the water only a few feet away.
“We’ll be buried if we don’t move!” shouted Ana.
“I’ll take his chest. One of you take his feet,” I yelled, barely able to process my own relief at seeing Ana here, alive and unharmed.
I locked my arms around Malachi’s chest. His head lolled on my shoulder. Ana grabbed Malachi’s lower legs and looped her left arm around them; her right arm stuck out at an unnatural angle from her body. We heaved him up, both of us groaning at his staggering dead weight. His sides, back, stomach, chest, and arms were a mess of deep claw marks, revealing torn muscle underneath. His left arm had been shredded by Sil’s fangs. I could see his ribs through the torn flesh on his left side.
Treasa led the way, and we made surprisingly rapid progress along the path to the tannery. I was grateful for the physical effort and clear goal, which left no room for worry or indecision. While the whole world roiled and trembled, we carried Malachi until our arms twitched and the path became too narrow to risk going on. The water beside us turned white and frothy, and we looked back at where we’d been, where we’d jumped through the primitive plumbing system and into the river. It was a wall of rock now, as if the entire Bone Palace had caved in on itself and sunk into the ground.
“There’s a cavern here,” said Treasa from up ahead. “We’ll need Malachi awake and mobile if we want to make it much farther.”
Seeing as I was about to collapse under his weight and my own exhaustion, I gratefully helped Ana get Malachi into the shallow cave only a few steps from the trail. We set him down, and I pulled him close, holding his face against my neck. Treasa squatted at the mouth of the cavern and produced a small lantern from behind a pile of stones. She lit it with a flint lighter and set it on the pile. Ana scooted near me and laid her left hand over Malachi’s shin. We gazed at each other. “We can both help him,” she said.
I smiled. She loved him, too. He’d been her brother-in-arms for decades.
&n
bsp; I smoothed his hair and pressed my other palm over the flayed skin at his ribs. My broken fingers throbbed but were already healing. “Sil did this to him. The Tanner made them fight.”
Treasa looked grim. “If I had tried to stop it, or even delay the spectacle, the Tanner would have known.”
“Known what?” I asked sharply.
Her eyes were focused on her slender white fingers. “That I am not his, and I never have been. That I have been working for a long time to bring about his doom.”
“You knew what he was, didn’t you?”
She wrapped her arms around her knees and nodded. “He had become very hungry,” she said. “And he brought many men and women around to his way of thinking.”
“Which was?” Ana asked.
“That there was no way to grow strong with mercy, or kindness, or patience, or sacrifice. That the only way to thrive was to become as brutal as the Mazikin.” She met my gaze. “I believe in a different kind of strength.”
I glanced at Ana, who shrugged. “I believe her,” she told me. “She could have taken me out after she shoved me down that toilet hole. I broke my arm on the way down and might have drowned.”
“I’ve never been your enemy,” said Treasa. “Although I couldn’t reveal my true allegiance, I have always been on your side.”
“And your true allegiance is to . . . ?”
“I serve the Smith.”
“Great,” I said. “The guy who wanted to publicly torture us.”
“He lives to protect his people,” snapped Treasa.
Malachi moaned, and I held him tighter as I said in frustration, “We asked him to help us! I told him we could get his people out, and he stabbed me for my trouble.”
Treasa’s eyes narrowed. “You can’t dig out of here or break the dome. He has tried all those things, determined to save the innocent condemned to this hell. But he realized that unless he wanted to give up his soul and become evil like the Tanner, there was no way out. He gave up on finding one a long time ago. When you showed up making those claims in exchange for his help, surely you realize what that must have sounded like to him. You wanted him to risk the people he protects for what he knows to be impossible?” She scoffed. “He has done everything within his power to preserve their souls and spare them pain—but also to spare their goodness. This is why he sent me to spy on the Tanner, to gain his trust and find a way to stop him.”
