Thayen might say once he learned this horrible truth. Once he saw his mother for the monster she truly was. They were all sociopaths and murderers, but still… Corbin scared me. I’d been so wrong about him.
In retrospect, he’d played his part well. I hadn’t seen him coming. It made the Darklings even more dangerous, because if Corbin had proven himself so foul as to be the Master of Darklings… could we really trust anyone?
My sole objective was finding a way to tell Sofia about all this. But I was stuck in a tiny cell with no way out. The Master and two of his Whips watched me in silence, while my friends were out there somewhere, struggling to protect Valaine and stop the Darklings. What a mess this was…
Esme
We flew under the airships, trying to decide what to do. We’d seen the pulse from the woods and how it had revealed Ridan’s shuttle. Sweat dripped down my temples as I watched the inevitable unfold.
Fires burned brightly behind the airships as the Aeternae gathered in groups of three. They spread out, gradually preparing for an attack. Ridan’s shuttle still flew in a straight line, but I knew it would dip at some point.
“How are we going to handle this?” I asked Tristan. “They won’t leave Ridan alone.”
“You heard Sofia. We can’t fire at them,” he replied, equally stressed.
The last wisps of smoke rose beneath us as we left the imperial city’s airspace. We were headed east, unseen by the Aeternae above, and we had zero idea how to distract them, to stop them from taking down Ridan’s shuttle. This was one of the moments when I detested our protocols, though I begrudgingly accepted their logic—we didn’t need a war with the Aeternae when all we were trying to do was stop the Darklings.
“We can’t just hold back,” I said.
“I know, sis, but we’re outnumbered here. If we reveal ourselves, we’ll just end up in their crosshairs, too.”
The impossibility of it all made me grunt, frustration testing my resolve. Then the first projectiles were shot, narrowly missing Ridan’s shuttle. I watched the incandescent trail they left behind as they exploded somewhere in the dark and starry distance.
“Tristan.”
“Yeah, I see it.”
I was about to reiterate that we had to do something, when I heard the engines roar on several airships as they launched another round of explosive projectiles. I’d had enough. “That’s it,” I said. “We’re not hiding anymore!”
I reached for the invisibility cloak control while Tristan eyed me nervously. He didn’t say anything, though, and I knew he was on my side for this. But the view ahead suddenly turned black, and I froze.
“What the…” My voice trailed off.
We couldn’t see anything. Tristan worked his magic on the steering controls and swiftly brought our shuttle to a slow hover. “Let’s not do anything yet. Hold on,” he muttered, looking ahead.
There was nothing to see. Just a pitch blackness so intense it seemed to swallow us whole. A streak of white light cut through the dark canvas. I heard the moaning of metal being torn apart. A second flash revealed an airship split in half, and an orange plume of fire rose, blooming smack in the middle of it. The vessel exploded and fell into pieces before the darkness covered it again.
“What is going on?” Tristan breathed.
“I… I have no idea…”
A third streak, promptly followed by a fourth, worked its way through the remaining airships. Farther to the left and right of our field of vision, more flashes appeared, disabling the entire Aeternae fleet. Each burst of white was followed by an explosion and an airship ripped to shreds. The fiery debris landed in the woods below.
Ridan’s shuttle was intact, stunned in a hovering position like ours. I realized then that Tristan’s reflexes had paid off. Whatever this mixture of bizarre darkness and light was, it only targeted the Aeternae’s airships. And as strange as the sight before us was, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of relief.
“What are those things?” I asked, watching as the flashes multiplied. They were merciless against the airships, slicing through them, chopping each vessel into bits and pieces and leaving the damaged engines to do the rest.
One by one, explosions adorned the darkness, and the remaining airships fell.
“Holy crap!” I yelped.
Tristan jumped. “Let’s get back to the hilltop. Now!”
I didn’t wait to be told twice. We steered the shuttle away from the aerial disaster and headed back to the hilltop, where Sofia and the others