legs, then stabs deep into its neck as it stumbles, severing its crucial vein.
The edges of my vision are turning dark. We’ve failed. And now we are going to die here, on the soil of the Federation’s capital.
Through my fading consciousness, I hear the Premier issue another command and shake his head once in my direction. Two advancing soldiers halt in their steps, their guns still pointed at me.
From the sky comes the sound of wind. Through my bond, I feel Red’s presence turn overwhelming, his strength surging through my weakening body and filling me with heat. I instinctively tilt my face up to meet his, even though I can no longer see.
I’m here, he tells me.
Then he really is, a maelstrom of black metal and fury. I hear the Ghost scream as he barrels into it—and an instant later, I’m falling through the air to collapse to the ground. Get up, I command myself. I struggle to my feet, then stagger. My surroundings have become nothing but a streak of scarlet and night.
Suddenly, a force lifts me from the ground. Wind rushes against my cheeks. I can feel Red’s firm grip on my arms.
We’ve failed. The thought spins over and over in my mind until I can’t understand it any longer. It’s the last thing I remember before the world finally fades around me.
29
Our escape seems to happen in a series of still moments.
I recall the long corridor of the lab complex, crawling with soldiers and blinded Ghosts. There is the Chief Architect and the Premier, surrounded by their bodyguards. The courtyard is a scene of Ghosts, blind and enraged, corralled by their guards.
The world comes and goes for me. I remember Jeran helping Adena through the yard. I remember Red cutting through the soldiers, his wings extended, raining death on everyone in his path. I remember the fog, which had settled thick into the city the night before, now giving us merciful cover.
In the heavy mist, Red comes back to me, guided by our link. Then I recall the cold air whipping past us, the shroud of fog hiding our bodies in the air.
I remember silence, the weight of it pressing in all around me.
Through my flickering consciousness, the Premier’s words to me repeat again and again. My bond with Red can never be wholly severed. It is the only way he could have found me through the chaos.
The reason for our mission’s failure is the same as the reason for our survival.
* * *
The next time I properly wake, it’s almost dawn, and I feel the earth cool and damp beneath me. There’s a faint memory playing in my mind of my mother and father, the last remnants of a dream: My mother cuts fat slices of fruit, and my father rolls up my sleeves for me as we paint together. My father dips his brush into ink and sweeps it down the paper in an arc, and I coo under my breath, thinking it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. I try to copy it, over and over, until he laughs at me. Create what you want, he tells me. It will be even better. My mother walks over with the plate of fruit and feeds a slice to me, smiling at the juice that dribbles down my chin.
They vanish now, replaced by darkness. The cold is what must have stirred me, because I’m shivering uncontrollably. The air here is noticeably icier than what I remember from the capital. Yet it’s blissfully still. There is the sound of birds in the trees, then the splash of them fishing in some nearby stream. I let myself listen until the ache in my heart from my dream eases.
I shift, then regret it as pain lances down my arms and legs. Grimacing, I rub my limbs and take stock of my surroundings.
We’re out of the city—the oppressive smell of it, the throngs of people in the streets, the towering apartments and narrow alleys crowded with tents—nothing of Cardinia anywhere to be seen here. Instead, a cool mist hangs in this forest, and when I sit straighter, I glimpse a valley sloping in the distance through the trees.
Beside me, Red sleeps, still unconscious. He is covered in blood, some his, some from the soldiers that he’d killed. Now his breathing is slow and even.
My eyes dart around the makeshift campsite. Where are Jeran and Adena?
Then I spot Adena up in one of the nearby trees, her back against the