we are going to have any chance of getting out of this place alive, we can’t afford to stop and think.
I feel like I’m back in the dark field my mother and I once ran through, only now I’m running the other way, into the throngs of the Federation’s killers, cutting through their ranks just like they had once cut through ours. Don’t look back, Talin.
And then, suddenly, I feel the shock of cold air against my cheeks. We’ve made our way through to the outside of the lab complex.
It looks nothing like how it’d been when we’d broken in. Now the courtyard is full of soldiers trying to keep the Ghosts from escaping. One glance across the space tells me that we may not make it out of here alive. There are too many soldiers for us. We number four. There are dozens of them.
Still, I move forward. Somewhere behind me, back in the complex, Red is wreaking havoc. Even with his strength contained here, he is a fearsome sight, his teeth bared and flashing. I cannot turn around to get him. All I can do is sense the bond between us as I continue to fight, to push forward.
I’m here, I tell him. I’m here.
He answers back with a fierce tug.
A blade catches me on my leg and slices deep through my thigh. I gasp in pain—through the link, Red senses my wound in alarm. I stumble, but slash out even as I fall to one knee. My sword catches the soldier who had tried to cut me down. My blade stabs hard into his stomach. He grunts in shock. I twist my blade, then stab him again. He collapses.
Suddenly, a giant fist closes around my neck.
My eyes pop open. The fist belongs to a Ghost—the monster narrows its milky eyes at me as it lifts me off my feet. Its cold, cracked fingers tighten around my throat.
For an instant, I’m a child again, being dragged by rough hands out of my home. For a moment, I forget who I am and how to fight back. I claw helplessly at the Ghost gripping my neck.
Through my panic, I hear the rasping voice of the Premier echoing in my memory.
You are too good to fight for Mara.
Then he is here, standing near me as the Ghost holds me still. The tips of my boots barely touching the ground, forcing me to stare at him. He’s on the back of his horse now, surrounded by a patrol of soldiers as he surveys the damage around us. The cheekbones of his thin face jut sharply in the light, and his eyes glint like a predator’s.
“Your reflexes are remarkable,” he says, tilting his head at me.
I clench my teeth. You’ve lost your war beasts, I want to say. And yet, here is a Ghost beside him, doing as he bids.
He only gives me a grim smile in return. “I didn’t think anyone could engineer something to disrupt the links formed between our Ghosts and Skyhunters, and our Federation. Yet here you are, with your team of allies.” He narrows his eyes. “You don’t think my Architect didn’t make plans to fix our Ghosts after the Speaker told us about your mission?”
His words blur through me as I continue to struggle against the Ghost’s grip on my throat. It continues to obey him, despite the serum Adena had created.
To save his own life, the Speaker of Mara had destroyed our only chance to take down the Federation.
“No one can sever the bond completely between two linked souls,” he says. “It’s the same trouble we ran into with you and my Skyhunter.”
And that is when I finally realize that we’ve failed.
There in the courtyard, I can see glimpses of a changing scene. The Ghosts that had seemingly been released from their links with the Federation … already, some of them have started to back away from the soldiers they’re supposed to obey. Their erratic, blind attacks have ceased. The Ghosts aren’t tearing free of their bonds with the Federation. They’re gradually snapping back into place.
The serum that Adena had created only worked temporarily. Our mission had failed before we even arrived here—the Chief Architect must have injected the Ghosts with something to counteract Red’s blood.
No. Everything around me spirals. We’d always known this mission’s success would be a miracle. But I had still hoped.
Jeran whirls into an attack against a Ghost that has targeted Adena with wide-open jaws. He cuts it hard in its