think, sending the word as strongly through our link as I can. If Red reacts to my pain, it will be the proof that the Premier wants to see.
One of the soldiers holding me down doesn’t wait. He grips my right arm tightly and positions his dagger.
Then he digs the blade in against my skin and cuts one long, jagged line.
Pain blooms in my mind. I suck my breath in sharply as blood trickles hot down my arm.
Behind the glass, Red’s eyes flare, glowing silver white. Through our link, I see a flash of his memories. Suddenly, I’m staring into the eyes of his sister and father as if I were he, looking over my shoulder at their wide-eyed stares as the Chief Architect leads him away from his home.
The Premier nods in grim satisfaction. “So silent, this one,” he murmurs to himself.
I keep my head bowed, my body trembling, my mind filled with Red’s seething thoughts. The Chief Architect says something to the Premier, and he looks at me curiously.
“My Architect tells me this bond you have with my Skyhunter shouldn’t be possible,” he says. “She tells me that severing the bond by force may damage my Skyhunter’s mind. It may make him impossible to bond again.” He frowns. “That would be a waste.”
He bends down to my eye level. I want to cut through his body with my blades. But all I can be is helpless as I watch his lips thin into a line.
“You don’t speak, do you?”
I don’t know how he makes this assumption about me, but I only scowl back at him. It makes his lips tighten in satisfaction.
“A gifted killer,” he says, rising back to his feet. “I was wondering when you and your companions would actually show up here at the complex.”
His words take a second to sink in. I look up at him, startled, trying to understand. Had he been expecting us?
As I puzzle over this, one of the soldiers asks him a question. He shrugs, shaking his head, but his eyes never leave mine. “No,” he says, “I’d like to keep her.” He tilts his head toward Adena, who is slowly stirring back to life. “And that one seems gifted enough to apprentice to our Architect here. She’ll learn quickly.”
Then several things happen at once.
A boom sounds from the front of the lab complex, accompanied by shaking earth. The lights flicker violently, setting off every single Ghost in the room. In an instant, soldiers form a protective barrier in front of their Premier.
Adena twists free from her guard’s grasp, one of her knives held at the soldier’s throat and another pointed at Constantine. She gives him a smile.
And in that glorious instant, I know she has succeeded in her mission.
28
Everything seems to happen in a blur—the Ghosts stirring to life all around us, their snarls triggering one after the other, the soldiers drawing their guns in unison.
Adena’s daggers flash in her hands. Before anyone can react to her, she whirls and slashes one of her guards hard across his chest. She looks so alive in this moment that I wish I could shout. Adena, our savior.
From the corner of my eye, I see a shadow dart through the corridor.
Then I’m moving before I can even register the thought. I spring up from my crouch on the floor. My guards, taken aback for an instant by everything around them, aren’t ready for my lunge. One of my arms comes free from their grip—I seize a dagger from my belt and stab it straight into one guard. I yank my other arm free and jam a dagger hard into the second guard’s chest, then dart toward the Chief Architect, who’s standing the closest to me. Before any of the other soldiers can stop me, I throw an arm around her neck, pressing a blade against her throat hard enough to draw blood.
Before me, the Premier stands stiffly and watches me. When he holds up a hand, the guards advancing on me freeze.
“You think you can threaten my Architect,” he says to me.
I tighten my grip and press the dagger harder. In my grasp, the Architect trembles, then shuts her eyes and mutters what might be a prayer. Is it my imagination, or is there a subtle smile on her face? As if she were almost relieved for death.
“Go ahead, then,” the Premier continues. His eyes glitter like a pair of gemstones, hard and refined. “You think the Federation cannot continue without her? Take