A third knife flashed, but Ana was quicker. She grasped the steel Affinite’s blood and squeezed. The woman gave an agonized scream, which quickly cut off into a choking noise as blood began to fill her lungs.
“You don’t have to do this,” Ana rasped. “Come with us. Fight with us.”
The steel Affinite shuddered. Her head was bent, and a puddle of blood had gathered on the floor beneath her. When she lifted her face, her eyes were bloodshot, red dripping from her nose and lips. “I…”
Pressure clamped down on Ana’s mind, so absolute that she cried out. The world dulled as her Affinity vanished; her head throbbed against a familiar, cold wall.
A shadow parted from the velvet curtains. The yaeger stepped into the torchlight. For the first time since Ana had seen her, though, she looked afraid.
Ana didn’t know why until a silky voice caressed her like the night. “Kill her, Nuryasha.”
A figure stepped partially into the torchlight, lurking behind the yaeger and the steel Affinite. But even from there, Ana could see the glint of the broker’s pale, icy eyes as he regarded her.
The steel Affinite—Nuryasha—coughed blood and palmed her blade. She hesitated.
“Kill her,” the broker ordered again. The yaeger’s eyes narrowed. The pressure on Ana’s head increased. She sank to her knees, dizzy with pain, grasping for something—anything—that would save her. One thought comforted her: that May was safe with Ramson.
Nuryasha flung the blade.
A small blur shot out from the corridor to Ana’s left, crashing into her middle and knocking her aside. Ana collided with the wall, pain erupting in her back and her injured arm.
Blinking through the dark spots in her vision, she looked up.
May stood where Ana had been moments before, the sheath of a throwing knife protruding from her abdomen. A dark patch was rapidly spreading across her dress, crimson seeping into her fingers as she tried to stanch its flow with her bare hands. Her eyes were wide with surprise as she met Ana’s gaze, her mouth puckered in a slight O.
She staggered and fell lightly to the ground.
Time seemed to stop, and the rest of the world dissipated until there was only the image of May’s small figure slumped on the reddening floor, seared indelibly into Ana’s mind. Her ears filled with a strange ringing silence as she clawed her way to the child’s side; she thought she heard screaming, but nothing made sense anymore.
Ana lifted May into her arms. Had she always been this light?
“May,” Ana whispered. Her hands came away sticky and dark.
The world crashed back in a whirl of smoke and blood. It took Ana a moment to realize that the yaeger’s barrier on her mind had lifted.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ramson shove the yaeger aside, his dagger protruding from her back. Nuryasha lay at his feet, motionless in a pool of her own blood. The broker was gone.
Ramson’s eyes latched on to May, and he swore softly.
“Ana,” whispered May.
“Hush.” Ana clasped her shaking hands over May’s, pressing against the wound. “I’ll stop the bleeding, and we’ll get you bandaged up.”
May’s chest hitched in short, shallow breaths. A dizzying amount of blood hit Ana’s senses; her Affinity shuddered, and she bit back her nausea.
“My ma-ma said,” May murmured, and drew another rattling breath, “ ‘We are but dust and stars.’ She told me…before we separated…to look for her in the earth and in the stars.”
A sob choked Ana’s throat. “No,” she gasped. “We’re going to find her, May—May!” She cradled her friend’s head as her eyes fluttered. “Listen to me. Your ma-ma is waiting for you out there. Waiting to see you. We’re going to find her together, all right?”
“I don’t…I don’t want to go.” May fought for breath, tears drowning her eyes. “I want…to live.”
Ana scrabbled at May’s wound, desperately grasping at the blood and pushing it back. It leaked through her fingers and her Affinity. She’d never learned to use her power this way. For her entire life, she’d learned only to hurt and torture. She had never learned to heal.
A gut-wrenching scream tore from her throat. “I can’t,” she gasped. “Ramson—Yuri—someone! Help!”
“The Revolution.” May’s small fingers curled around Ana’s, tugging gently, insistently. “Promise me, Ana, you’ll make it better. For my ma-ma. For all the Affinites. And promise…you’ll find her.”
“I will, I will,” Ana sobbed. She would have promised anything in that moment to keep May talking for a little while longer. “I’ll