The sky was on fire. Everywhere I looked, pink clouds burned red as the smell of smoking metal and plastic filled the air. The whine of engines screamed overhead, and I watched in stunned horror as an Eden ship’s turret dropped right in front of me and cartwheeled across the desert.
I screamed as the massive section fell—for myself and then for the people thrown from the dissected ship. One hit my balcony—a woman wearing Brahmin purple—but as I reached for her and missed, I realized she was already dead.
I stared down at the horrific wreckage below and tried for the hundredth time to contact Finn. Or Birch. I even tried for Finn’s Zonarre, but it was like pounding my fists against a solid wall.
Natalya joined me at the balcony just in time to see me reach for the Brahmin woman and fail. “No need to tire yourself, human. I have created a closed network— no data can go out or come in.” She grinned maniacally as she watched the sky falling and shouted, “Isn’t it beautiful?”
I shoved her. “You’re insane!”
She turned lazily toward me, leaning one arm against the balustrade, creating some sort of weird dichotomy as the sky fell behind her. “That is impossible. I am all rational thought and planning. Insanity requires a human mind with all its inherent weaknesses to fall apart.” She snorted and turned her head to watch the path of destruction the turret made as it struck the ground.
“Oh! Look, there. It is about time he got here.”
“What?” I demanded, straining over the balustrade to follow her line of sight. “Who’s here?”
She turned a disgusted look at me. “You really are dense. You know, I was the one who changed your placement scores, but I think they were wrong. You are no Kshatriya.”
I tried to hide my reaction, but relief soothed the part of me that feared I really wasn’t up to being Prem’yera, to being Finn’s bonded and all that would be required of me. After all, I seemed to go from one terrible situation to another, If I were smarter, wouldn’t I have been able to save myself?
Natalya’s smile was feral as she studied me. “Perhaps I will make you my pet. Humans find their mindless antics entertaining, Perhaps you could entertain me.” She let her gaze travel over me. “But I am not sure I could stand the incompetence.”
She returned her gaze to the ground. “Now, the Dì èr. He might be a more suitable pet.”
I leaned against the stone and looked down, willing the smoke to clear and let me see the ground below. Natalya had a clear shot, but I couldn’t bring myself to go near her.
“For star’s sake,” she said. She grabbed my neck and dragged me over until I stood in front of her. Then she angled my head downward. “There. See? It is no fun if you do not know what is at stake.”
I saw him then—Finn. “Finn!” I screamed, bringing Natalya’s strike to my temple.
As I flew, stunned, to the side and struck the edge of the balcony, Natalya glared at me. “Do not do that again, you stupid, worthless dog.” She took a step toward me, but a human body—or what remained of it—landed on the balcony at her feet.
She considered it, and I used the few extra seconds to scramble to my feet. I reached for Finn, out of desperation and tumbled into his determined, focused mind. Finn? I tried again.
I sensed him stopping short, his mind blossoming with hope. Wylie? Wy? Where are you?
I didn’t know if Natalya knew we were in contact again, but I tried to keep the relief off my face.
The space between us—his mind, or mine, or someplace in between—filled with love and relief and hope . . . and an overwhelming sense that now, now that we were together, we could do anything. Stop anything. Stop the Superiority and save our people.
Natalya stepped over the smoking body and was before me before I’d responded to Finn. She had me backed up against the end of my balcony, so when she gripped my throat with one of her impossibly powerful hands, I couldn’t resist her.
Oh, I kicked and squirmed and struck her several times, but she wasn’t pretending to be human anymore. She was an android. Powerful, unbreakable. Superior.
Her thoughts trickled down to me, but I don’t think she meant to broadcast them. A slow smile turned her lips. “Good,” she said. “Tell your little boyfriend where he can find you. He is awfully late for the party, but I suppose there is some truth to the old saying better late than never.”
She dropped me then turned to knock some falling debris away from us. Over her shoulder, she said, “Do tell him to hurry. I am just about out of patience.”
Finn, I started. I wrapped my hands around my throat, willing my nanites to heal me quickly, as I could barely breathe.
I heard, Finn said. His confident voice in my mind renewed me. I’m on my way, love. I’m almost there. Stars! I felt his fear and horror through the bond, and though I pressed to see through him, he refused.
He didn’t have to show me for me to know. I felt it in every one of his reactions, from the way his body jerked, the way his heart beat fast—sometimes too fast. The way his breath was steady one moment then gasping the next.
Be careful, I prayed—to him, to God, to whoever might be out there listening.
In front of me, Natalya jerked as if someone had smacked her across the face just as she’d done to me.
Did you do that? I asked Finn.
Do what?
I shook my head as I watched Natalya. Something weird’s going on with Natalya.
Not me, Finn said. But it might have to do with our friends.
I didn’t ask him what he meant because Natalya rushed to the balustrade, craning her neck so she could look upward. “No!” she screamed, and the entire balcony shook with the force of it.
I lunged for the balustrade and looked upward. The sky filled with smoke, streaks of embers, and burning bits. Then something streaked through the air, shining purple and bright beneath Lux’s ever-sun. A dragon?
Another joined the first, larger and darker. I couldn’t see where they were going, but Natalya obviously could as she continued to stare upward. She seemed to be frozen in position, but I didn’t dare touch her to see if she was out of commission.
I edged around her, my eyes glued to her face, watching for the slightest response. Her expression remained frozen in a rictus of horror, mouth open with lips pulled back, revealing unnaturally perfect teeth, hands clutching the banister. I slipped into the apartment with no reaction from her.
I ran for the door, hope spurring me faster. I sensed the door’s locks as I approached and broke them with my will. This was it—I was getting out of here!
Finn! I shouted in my mind. I’m almost out! I’m coming!
I threw the door open, and a pair of guards stepped in front of it, but I’d expected them. I reached for that part of my mind that had broken the lock and threw that power at them, my hands shoving through the air as if that helped. But it was all my mind. The power the bond with Finn gave me. The blood crown.
I felt it rushing through me, gathered and channeled from the space between us where it seemed to grow and pulse. Only the knowledge that Finn was close—so close I could feel his physical presence now—kept me from living in that space of power and seeing what else I could do.
The guards fell just as I reached the door, and I was all but out when something grabbed my hair and yanked me back.
The force was so intense that I went flying backward until I struck the couch, toppling it over and falling over on the other side. As I lay half-underneath the heavy thing, dazed, trying to make sense of what had just happened, a face came into view, standing over me.
I blinked, but I’d cut my eyebrow and blood dripped into one eye, stinging it and making my vision blurry. I closed it and peered upward with my good eye. Dom’s kind face greeted me, and I sagged with relief.
“Dom.” The words carried on a breath as I closed my eyes and felt all the fear and pain just whoosh out of me. “I’m so glad you’re okay.” Against my orders, tears sprang to my eyes. I wanted to break down and cry like a little girl. Dom was here. Finn would be here any moment.
“Everything’s gonna be okay,” I muttered.
“Dom?” Finn’s voice. It took a minute for that to register in my muddled mind, but then every part of me perked up.
“Finn!” I looked up to see Dom still standing over me, watching Finn. Pushing and squirming, I couldn’t get myself freed from beneath the couch.
Dom took pity on me and, with one hand bracing the couch upward, he reached for me with his free hand. I took it.
With one smooth motion that went too fast for me to react, Dom threw me behind him—out the open archway, over the balcony, and into the air.
I heard Finn scream my name, but it was outside of me, behind me. Above me. In my mind, I was alone.
Alone.
Alone.
Never alone. The voice was clear and true and oh so familiar. Hold on.
I laughed, but the wind pulling me downward ripped my breath away. Can’t quite do that, I said.
Worry not. I have grown accustomed to rescuing you.
The wind stirred, buffeting me, and a fresh wave of fear overwhelmed me until I saw the flash of red wing.
Fiarre soared up from beneath me, and I fell onto his wing. Hold on, he commanded. Use whatever you can to pull yourself up. You cannot hurt me.
I wasn’t so sure that was true, but I would take the chance this once. He banked slightly, so I slid toward his body. I screamed. Warn me next time!
He didn’t respond, but I felt his chagrin.
Still, the move had put the boney protrusions on his neck within reach; all I had to do now was find handholds between his scales for just a few feet until I could reach them. Fiarre did his best to stay level until I was in place behind his neck, but he had to dodge the falling debris. It had slowed considerably, but things were still tumbling from the sky.
When I finally had my seat, he banked and pumped his wings.
Where are you going? I screamed through our connection.
Away, was all he said.
But Finn! Finn is back there. In the tower!
He slowed and peered back at me.
We have to go back!
I will not let you go back in there, Fiarre said.
You have to! I can’t leave him. I slapped Fiarre’s neck, then beat it with my fists. We have to!
Finally, he turned and took us back to the tower.
Finn! I reached through our bond, through that space we had built between us, into his own mind—to find him under attack.
Dom was in his head, hacking away at Finn’s thoughts, at his memories. Finn fought back, but he was weakening. Natalya and Dom took turns beating him while Dom made his mental attack.
Wy—Finn tried.
I’m here! I’m coming!
Dom grabbed hold of the message and twisted it, tearing, cutting through more than the message and into my heart.
I withdrew, gasping, and slumped against Fiarre’s ridge.
What shall we do? Fiarre asked. I cannot land there, and I refuse to let you leave me.
No—I don’t know. Tears fell, but I didn’t care. I barely noticed them while I tried to think of how to save him.
When we flew past my apartment, both Fiarre’s head and mine turned to look inside.
They were near the balcony—Finn, stooped and unsteady, with Natalya and Dom, battering him. My love. My Finn.
Go back! I ordered Fiarre, and for once he didn’t argue. This time, as we drew near, I pulled on the power of the crown. This had to work, it just had to. There was no other possibility but this.
Finn! I screamed as we came level with the apartment. I reached and reached, trying with all my might to pull him toward me.
He moved, but not quick enough to break free of Dom.