Yuri looked slightly put out, but it was May who spoke. “No,” she said, pulling her hand from Ana’s. “I won’t leave without the others.”
It was as though, in a week’s time, May had aged years.
May’s mouth was a firm line as she gazed back at Ana, but her eyes were pleading. “Yuri and Dyanna planned this, and they saved me. They’ve saved a lot of other Affinites. And I want to…I want to help, too.” May reached out again, taking Ana’s hands between her own. “Remember the girl who gave me a ptychy’moloko at the Vyntr’makt? I thought of her every day I was here.” Her voice trembled, but Ana heard a hint of steely determination beneath. “You saved me, Ana. And I wanted to help her, and others like her. I want…” May drew a deep breath, and her eyes were shining as she looked up. “I want the whole Empire, every single Affinite, to know how it feels to…to have hope.”
The spark in May’s eyes and the strength in her words stirred something in Ana’s chest.
Before she could say anything, a noise sounded down the corridor to their right. A rhythmic clacking that grew louder by the second.
Ramson swore. “Guards,” he whispered, heaving himself up. “You, Poet. Where are the Affinites?”
“Corridor on the left,” Yuri said quickly. “The room at the very end.” He reached into his pocket and took out a set of keys.
“I can get them.” May stepped forward and took the keys from Yuri. She turned to Ana, her eyes bright, the torches carving her small, solid shadow against a world of flickering flames. “Wait here, Ana.” And then she was gone, a slip of light swallowed by the darkness.
Ana gestured at Ramson. “Go with her. Yuri and I will stay here and fend off the guards.”
Ramson hesitated. “Don’t die,” he said.
“Don’t get kidnapped,” she replied.
She heard his raspy chuckle and hid a smile even as she turned to face the approaching footsteps.
She felt Yuri’s gaze burning into her back. “You’re alive,” he breathed, and she finally let herself look at him. His eyes were wide, as though he were drinking in the sight of her. “I…I don’t believe this.”
“And you,” Ana said. “You’re a…a rebel.”
The footsteps thundered, just around the corner. “Later?” Yuri said, tilting his head.
“Later,” she agreed, and raised her hands.
Six guards appeared, just as Ramson had predicted. Their eyes widened as the torchlight exploded at them in two columns of flames. Ana hung back, watching in awe as the once-scrawny boy advanced on the guards, flames erupting from his palms and curling on the narrow stone walls of the corridor.
A shadow flashed to her left, on the steps leading down from the heavy velvet curtains.
Ana turned, sensing the powerful thrum of blood even before she saw the woman. Steel blades flashed as the newcomer stepped into the light, her black cat mask glittering in the torchlight.
“You,” Ana said hollowly.
The woman had changed from her skimpy courtesan’s outfit into tight-fitting black breeches and a shirt, but it was the same steel Affinite who guarded the doors of the Playpen every night, the one who had tried to stop Ana from entering. There was no sign of her companion, the Yaeger, as she stepped in front of Ana, blocking the path. Countless small blades lined the belt at her hips, gleaming like teeth.
Instinct screamed at Ana to hurl her Affinity at the woman, to fight with every fiber in her body.
But May’s words held her back. They were the same, Ana and this steel Affinite: feared for the qualities that marked them different, and persecuted by those with power.
Ana raised her hand. “Please, don’t do this.”
The woman’s eyes glinted. “If you’re not dead by the end of the night, it’ll be my life he takes.”
“Who?” Ana asked, though she suspected she knew the answer.
“Lord Kerlan.” The steel Affinite raised her blade. “I’m sorry.”
Ana didn’t give her another chance to speak. She seized the Affinite’s blood and slammed her against the back wall. The Affinite’s eyes widened in surprise, but she twisted, and a blade shot from her belt.
Ana dove to one side; the throwing knife lodged into the wall behind her with a plink. She rolled and pounced to her feet, but in that second, she lost her hold on the steel Affinite.
The second blade sliced Ana’s arm; she cried out and crashed against the wall, her Affinity diverted by the warmth leaking down her arm and