43

Knights and the fallen passed in a blur. I sprinted across the sand, making it to the waves as the submersible propeller picked up speed. It pulled forward, but I leapt, using the harnessed power of my affliction to launch at the vessel. I landed next to its fin and grasped for it, slipping and sliding off the slick metal before finding a foothold.

The hatch opened and Arecibo leaned out, trying to fire at me, but the waves tossed the submersible and he missed, electrifying the water a moment after I pulled myself up.

“You’ve lost, girl,” he yelled, aiming again. “Know when you’ve been beaten.”

“Oh, I am just starting to fight back,” I screamed. Scrambling onto the fin, I held on with both hands and kicked the tracer weapon from his hands. It tumbled into the ocean. Clasping my hands around the hose at the opening, I fired the mechanica in my fingers, crushing the tubing. The hatchway hinges squealed to a stop, locking open.

“What are you doing?” the woman in the vessel screamed. She lashed out with a dagger, burying it in my shoulder. “Do you know who I am? The might of this entire invasion is under my command. How dare you—”

I screamed, grabbed her by the throat, and yanked her out into the ocean. I tossed her aside as if she were nothing. She tumbled into the waves, screaming.

“Christina,” Arecibo shouted, but I was already moving. Swinging with both legs, I slammed my boots into his chest and we both toppled into the submersible. I fell onto him, rose up, and straddled his form. He writhed, gasping for the wind I knocked out of him.

Christina’s screams sounded from outside, and his gaze snapped to the hatch.

“You take mine. I take yours,” I snarled, pulling the dagger from my flesh and burying it to the hilt in his side.

He gasped, his eyes going wide. The submersible’s engines whined, black smoke roiling up the corridor to the helm.

I rolled off of him and shouted for the governors. “Get off this ship,” I snapped, motioning for them to come forward. “Now! We’ll sink with this open hatch!”

First one, and then the other three stumbled for the opening. I nodded, helping the frailer ones to the lip of the hatch.

“Go, go, go,” I shouted, my gaze going to Arecibo.

He staggered to his feet, blood at the corners of his grimace. “The colonies are mine!” He shouted, lunging for the final man.

I pushed the governor out, blocking the doorway with my body.

“Nothing is yours,” I shouted back. “I’ve taken everything.”

A gutteral growl tore from his lips, and he leapt for me.

I dove to the side, running forward to the helm.

He spun, fighting the roll of the vessel to me.

We hit a jagged upcropping, sliding down its surface with a screech of metal.

“After I kill you,” he said and spat blood. “I will find all those whom you love. Wells, Riley, anyone you ever knew, and I will make them one of my mechanical slaves. Then,” he panted, spit dribbling from his chin. “I will take this wretched country and no one can stop me.” He lunged for the doorway, knocking me down.

I pulled him by his cloak, and we grappled on the floor, tangling as the ship tossed.

“You will never rule,” I spat and pushed him away, crawling for the door. I glared at him over my shoulder as I reached the hatch. “I will make sure of that.”

“Want to know something about your devices?” he shouted.

I turned to him, confused.

He leaned on the yoke, angling the vessel in a sharp dive. “They sink!”

The submersible dove, the nose arcing down. Water bubbled over the lip of the hatch, flooding the floor, racing toward us. I somersaulted back toward the helm, crashing against the control panel. I reached for the wheel, but he twisted it, tearing it from the shaft. Sea water poured into the vessel in a vast wave, filling every corridor, throwing us against each other and the walls of the ship.

“Water, water, everywhere,” he screamed maniacally, gurgling on the seawater as it rose to our necks. He flailed, his lips pulling back in a snarl. “Familiar, Charlotte? Feel it closing in on you?”

I shook as the seawater sucked the warmth from my body. Chattering, I struggled against the current trying to make it to the hatch.

Arecibo grabbed onto my boots, keeping me back.

I took a breath before the water rose over the top. My head came up in the air pocket at the ceiling. I trembled, shaking with cold and fear, the dark of the Atlantic closing in on me. I twitched, unable to think as the submersible rolled, spiraling as the water filled it. I banged against the walls, my breath coming in bubbles. We crashed into the upcropping again, stopping our descent. I sank, struggling, searching frantically for which way was up. A sob pushed out of me, I followed the air bubbles. They fled upward and I climbed the interior of the submersible after them. I surfaced in an air pocket.

Arecibo was there and lashed out at me, trying to dunk me under. “Heavy, aren’t they?” He snarled. “The metal in your body, fused to the bone will never let you float. I, on the otherhand, can swim. You are going to drown out here in the dark cold.”

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.

He had never left me. Had given me strength when I was undone. And I knew all at once, how I had made it through that terror. Words familiar on my lips trailed from me. A shield in this abyss of fear. I was made to survive this. Despite what Arecibo said.

All the terrors of my affliction wrought flashed in my mind. The clockwork cavern, crawling with Tremblers that never touched me. Their anguish that filled my head, allowed me to hear them, saving the lives of those I cared about. And the cold. The frigid blood that ran through my veins. I pushed his hands away, my mind snapping to focus.

“Swim?” I snapped back. “You cannot even feel your arms anymore, can you?”

A flash of panic flared in Arecibo’s eyes. His lips were blue, his body no longer even shaking. He hadn’t counted on succumbing so fast.

“I was made to survive this,” I growled. “You weren’t.”

The submersible shifted, skidding along the barrier. The water shifted and the air pocket flowed upward, disappearing out of the hatch. I held onto the side of the wall with an iron grip, Arecibo’s form blurring in the stinging sea. The mechanica sparked and I moved, grasping a handhold, and then pulling myself upward.

He floated, his eyes wide, arms flailing ineffectively in the frozen water. The last image I had of him were his cries rising in silent bubbles, chasing after me.

I pushed through the hatch, climbing along the craggy upcroppings. My leaded limbs firing of their own volition. The Solenium flared bright, lighting the way as I rose, the water lightening as the sun pierced the surface. My head broke through the waves and I gasped, choking, my face turned up to the sky. I had made it from the depths.

Thrumming engines in the distance pulled my gaze. A small air ship barreled toward me.

Ashton leaned on Riley and peered over the railing, his face a mask of disbelief. “Charlie,” he shouted. “Charlie, you’re alive!”