elixir in my palm and folded my hand closed gently.
“Take your prize,” he said. “Be careful getting back. Thank you for an unexpectedly exciting evening. It’s so rare, and the decades do get a bit predictable after a while.”
“Wait – what do you want?” I asked, before he could disappear into the shadows.
“At the moment, Emily Sharrow, you have absolutely nothing I want. But I have a feeling that may change in the future. Call it curiosity, at this point. But remember me, perhaps we’ll meet again in the future.”
I was halfway back to Penelope’s apartment when I saw the lanterns. White paper orbs in the shape of puffer fish, lifted by the heat of flickering candles, filled the air, drifting in the wind like dandelion seeds.
Trevor met me outside the door, his relief morphing into anger the moment he saw I was okay.
“The guards are swarming the city,” he said. “What did you do?”
“What I had to,” I said, holding out the vials of elixir. I pushed past him into the apartment, heading down the hall to our shared room. Camina was sitting near Jazmine on the bed, wiping her brow with a wet cloth.
The wound on her leg was swollen and red, and still oozing green pus. Penelope’s blood hadn’t been enough to burn off the poison completely. Her eyes lit up when she saw the vials.
The others watched as I lifted my hand, carefully tilting several drops of the sparkling blue liquid into her mouth.
Almost instantly, her eyes cleared. She sat back against the pillows, and took a deep breath. A minute later, the swelling and redness faded. Five minutes, and the wounds had begun to close.
That’s when the guards started pounding on the door. We heard them swing open and her mother call loudly, “they’re upstairs.”
I froze when the door opened, but it was Penelope’s father. He locked the door behind him and crossed the room quickly, pulling a rope ladder out of a drawer and tying it quickly around the balcony.
“I’m sorry,” her father said. “Your mother alerted the guards; they’ve lit the beacons. When King Richard sees them, he’ll send troops. You must go now.”
“What about you?” Penelope asked her father.
“We’ll be fine. But you must leave. Stay safe daughter. It would be better not to return.”
19
The rope ladder dropped us on the south side of the city gates, amidst a group of tall boulders and not far from the woods.
Trevor and Luke led the way through the darkness. They’d spoken to a few of the traders at the market and, after consulting the map, had a reasonably clear idea how to get to Sezomp, though we had to stay off the main trails. We hadn’t had time to change, but grabbed our gear and bundles.
We pushed on until nearly dawn, then took shelter under a thicket of thick brambles several miles inland. I hated to leave the dress behind, wishing I could give it to Amber in Algrave, but Luke said it was too impractical to carry with us, and I didn’t know when I’d get the chance to wear it again anyway.
We bundled the extra change of clothes behind a large rock, in case we ever passed this way again, and changed back into our dark travel clothes, before helping fix each other’s masks, sealing them tight to block out the ash.
We were still rationing elixir, and had been taking turns feeding Penelope, but it was a tricky balance. We all needed our strength, and if we were found by Richard’s guards or a pack of slagpaw, we’d barely have enough energy to run, let alone fight. We moved slowly, ducking for cover at the slightest sound.
I couldn’t imagine how Penelope must be feeling. Being chosen, then five years of luxury in the capital, and now – this. Tromping through the mud, a resurrected, exiled criminal. But it had been her choice, at least. She’d joined the rebels, for whatever reason. She had to know the risks.
But Jazmine and Camina would still be in the citadel, if they hadn’t helped me escape. They’d been trained to defend the elites, not kill them. Fought for the privilege and honor of being chosen. And it had all been taken away in an instant. Because of me.
Luke had grown up in Havoc, which was now destroyed and empty. And it wasn’t just us, I realized: hundreds of other survivors were out there as well, fighting for their lives, some for the first time. It was