Alyssa climbed down, and then Brendan jumped off the rungs to stand by my side. No one else moved as the six soldiers and the Mother climbed down last. She slid the manhole cover over the ladder and full darkness fell on the sewer, bringing my gray vision back. There were no lights in this section. On the other side of the guardrail, water flowed, carrying dead leaves and trash. Forest smells filled the tunnel. These soldiers had trekked through the woods and then the sewers to get here. It seemed they'd just arrived in the city.

  "Hold them," the Mother ordered, and our assigned goons took our arms again. It wasn't as if I could resist. That would kill Brendan and Alyssa, and possibly Xavier due to their bond. I wasn't sure how that worked. "We must move. There's not much time before dawn."

  But I found my gift of gab. "You can't get into the ATC building. There are ninja secretaries."

  "I'm not worried about Normals," Bathory said, a laugh in her voice. "Grimes might have armored that tower, but I'll reach him. Whether he or you will die first depends on your cooperation. Now march."

  The soldiers pushed me forward. Now that she had fifty of them surrounding us, she could tell the truth. "I thought I'd live if I cooperated?"

  "For longer," she reminded me. "I will also make your death swift and painless. I may allow your friends here to live."

  We walked at a normal pace through the sewers as the sirens peaked above. We left my old apartment and my piles of clothes behind. If Mom ever returned, she'd see the mess in my room and the splattered blood.

  Would she lose it?

  I still had her note in my pocket.

  At that moment, I knew Grimes would.

  Police talked to each other over radio but we left those sounds behind. I said nothing, and neither did Alyssa or Brendan. I couldn't even hold his hand.

  Bathory led the way. We turned corner after corner. She knew these tunnels or had studied them before. When we came up on the plywood that marked a door to the Underground, I feared the worst, but she didn't slow, instead walking past it as if she didn't know it was there.

  "Where's Primrose?" I asked.

  She didn't answer me. Instead, the Mother walked faster, quickening her pace towards a ladder on the far end of this tunnel. Traffic sounds crept down from overhead. It was getting late at night, and I detected not much out there. The authorities were distracted by the shooting at the apartment complex. That would help entry into the ATC Tower.

  The two guards out front wouldn't stand a chance.

  Bathory stopped by the ladder and waited for us to catch up. The soldiers didn't move as fast as she, so I had to walk at their pace.

  And then I heard it.

  An explosion not very far above us. Glass shattered and rained down on the sidewalk. We were underneath the street and the sidewalk around the ATC Tower. As if trying to mock us, Bathory stood there and cupped her hand around her ear, smiling and leaning towards the sound.

  "Ah. There's Primrose," she said. "She's ahead of schedule. Excellent. It should be easier for us to reach the top floor of the Tower. If you see any Normals, you may feed, but only if we are clear."

  The soldiers behind us shifted. Well, some of them. The liberated patients didn't. They were used to the whole thing.

  She climbed the ladder first.

  My captors let me go. They'd rehearsed this. I was to follow.

  I glanced at Alyssa and Brendan. Alyssa had stayed quiet for the walk, no doubt trying to reach Xavier. But it wasn't as if she could relay what was going on at the top floors by now.

  Another blast followed. The alarm went off—the same one that had gone off for me. Primrose would knock out the guards in the building so Bathory and her soldiers wouldn't have to. I climbed the ladder, trying to gather what info I could. I poked my head up into the empty street. Police sirens went off in the distance, answering the call about the shooting. A single cab drove past on a side street. It was late. We had waited for hours in my apartment.

  But how close to dawn?

  Another blast followed. I glimpsed violet light on the fifth floor. Many windows had already broken on the floors below that, including the ones Xavier had shattered to help me escape. I smelled smoke and the adrenaline of terrified Normals. There weren't many inside the building—or around downtown at this hour—but there were always people who worked late in the ATC building. And guards. From the smell, some of them had tried to stop Primrose with tasers.

  Bathory seized my arm and wrenched it so hard that my shoulder popped and a flash of pain followed. I seethed, but didn't cry out. She wanted to see me suffer, and that time was getting close. Up above, Grimes was waiting. Xavier was waiting, and so were other War Mages. I hoped they'd kill Primrose, which would kill Bathory, by the time we got up there. She'd drop dead and then I could tell the soldiers that Grimes could help them. He might not make them Normal but he could get them part of the way there.

  "Break away," she warned in a low, dangerous voice, "and I will kill the boy. You'll listen to his screams as I torture him first."

  I shuddered. "Okay."

  I was going up to the top with her no matter what. She tightened her grip on my arm. Numbness spread through my hand. If she squeezed any harder, my bones would snap. I tensed, waiting for the break, but it never came. So I waited as the others climbed out of the open manhole cover and stood in the street, waiting for further orders.

  In another building to my left, a man talked into a phone in an upper office. He must work late.

  "Yes...I think the missing soldiers are down there. They're in front of the ATC building."

  We were spotted. Things would get violent.

  Alyssa tipped her gaze up to the office building, arms still held by two of the soldiers. She could hear the guy, too. So could Brendan. Alyssa closed her eyes. I knew what she was doing: trying to relay what she could to Xavier.

  "Why did you Bind Primrose to you?" I asked the Mother as the last soldiers climbed out of the manhole and replaced the cover. Primrose going ahead of us might be to our advantage. I needed to make Bathory desperate. "You know, if she dies, then you die. What if they kill her once she gets to the top floor?"

  "They?" she asked, whirling on me. "They? Who are they?"

  "Grimes and his ninja guards," I said. "They're scary."

  "Primrose won't fall to them," she said, placing one finger under my chin. She tilted my face up, so I had to look right at her. The Mother was watching my face for another lie.

  I had to stop it. "But you will still die when Primrose does. Don't you know battle partners drag each other into death through old age? Sure, you might cause her to live longer than normal but if she has a stroke or something—and she might with her lovely personality—then you'll die, too. You might want to undo the spell she used to Bind you two."

  A flash of fear crossed the Mother's face, and it was obvious even behind her veil. But then she put on a mask of confidence. "Her mark is easy to remove," she said in a dark tone. "No magic necessary. I will take care of that when we're done. Soldiers, go in behind her!"

  It was working. The Mother stood in the middle of the street while every soldier who wasn't guarding a prisoner rushed into the front of the ATC Tower through the broken doors. They fanned out and vanished through the lobby, taking multiple ways to the next floor. Primrose walked up a main stairwell and onto the sixth. She was progressing floor to floor, knocking out guards and late-night workers.

  On the second floor, someone groaned. A soldier apologized.

  And then bit.

  I winced as the victim grunted in pain. I'd done that before, but never to someone who didn't ask for it. These people had just been earning overtime.

  "Move!" Bathory snapped, yanking my arm. It popped again. Now I'd mentioned the danger that Primrose posed, she wasn't messing around. Or I reminded her of it. There was no way she was this old and didn't know how the battle partner thing worked.

  She'd taken a risk after losing the dragon emperor.

  We moved. She bolted with me in tow and now moved so fast I had trouble keeping up. The others came up behind me. I glanced back. Brendan managed an encouraging nod.

  I might have changed things just by talking.

  This showed me that Primrose might be the key to her death. It was awful, but Primrose might not know Xavier was waiting to unleash his worst. I dared to eye the top of the tower. I couldn't see beyond the red ATC letters but the balcony was empty.

  They must be on the roof.

  We burst in through the doors. Not daring to try wrenching my arm out of this monster's grasp, I looked around and saw no one. The receptionist's chair had fallen back, and I smelled adrenaline and fast food. A sucking noise emerged. One soldier surrendered to their hunger behind the counter. I hoped the receptionist would survive.

  "The elevator is the fastest way up," Bathory said. She faced me. "Does Grimes have a control to snap the cables or stop the elevator between floors?"

  "I don't know," I admitted. "I hate the guy, remember?"

  She pulled me close. "Tell me the truth."

  "I don't know! And why would that stop you?"

  Bathory wanted no slow-downs. Primrose fired off another War Magic charge. She had made it up to the seventh floor. The building muffled the sounds. A taser fired but I could barely hear the spring extending from here.

  "Then we take the stairs," she said, pulling on my arm again.

  "Leave her alone!" Alyssa shouted. "What do you need Janine for, anyway?"

  Bathory ignored her. The black-clad monster shoved a door open with her shoulder, which came off its hinges. The soldiers who held Alyssa and Brendan paused, then followed. She took a nervous breath. If she'd just been hiding her nerves before, she couldn't now. I had a good point about the battle partner thing and she knew.

  Even though I knew it was dangerous, I spoke again as she pulled me up the stairs. I leapt from step to step, shaking with hunger. No Normal would have survived this. "It will take one gunshot to kill Primrose," I said. "Those secretaries up there have great aim. Hurry."

  And then the Mother paused. "Is this a trap?"

  "I don't want our leader dying because of you," I said, injecting as much hatred into my voice as I could. That wasn't hard when I thought of everything that had happened during these last days. "And now she'll die because of you!"

  I must have looked genuine because she tightened her grasp, making me bite back a cry of pain. My bones groaned, threatening to break. "Don't slow me down and your death will be fast."

  I didn't. Maintaining pace, I followed her past the second and third floors. I realized what Bathory was doing. She would cut in front of Primrose and reach those dreaded secretaries and whatever else she thought would end her new battle partner before anyone else did. She already suspected something was up she didn't yet know about but she thought nothing could kill her—and she could be right.

  Climbing the steps took about as long as the elevator would even though my legs trembled. We passed door after door, and cut in front of the eighth floor, which Primrose was ravaging with her War Magic. Agents radioed each other. More readied themselves on the ninth floor, but none of them came after us. As far as they knew, Grimes was still missing. Why worry about him?

  I could smell the faint scent of wood smoke. Xavier. The other War Mages. And the nerves of his father blended in. Bathory would kill the Normals first, and then the War Mages. That included Liliana.

  Alyssa and Brendan fell back as the Mother dragged me along. Their captors couldn't keep up. This was my battle now, and mine alone.

  At last, after we'd put five floors between my friends and I, Bathory stopped at the nineteenth floor door. We could go no further. I could tell by listening that no one occupied it. The Mother shoved the door open to reveal the empty security desk and the thick glass that separated us from the elevator entryway.

  “There's no one here,” she said, stating the obvious. Then she turned her gaze to me and smiled. “Grimes is on the twentieth floor, in my old friend's territory. He won't hide. I know all the places.” A new hunger filled her voice—a hunger for revenge, and I'd be a part. I was one reason that Grimes had left Bathory and hurt her.

  I sniffed. The secretaries had left. I didn't smell them on this floor or the next. Grimes had known they wouldn't survive confronting the Mother and must have sent them away.

  But then a new sound exploded above us.

  A helicopter. Its blades roared and spun, blasting wind against the roof. Until now, I had no clue that one was parked up there.

  Bathory looked at the ceiling. “Oh, Richard.”

  He was escaping.

  Without me.

  Maybe the rite wasn't ready, and the others had no choice but to leave if they would save themselves.

  But the Mother was emboldened. She pulled at my arm again and bolted to the double doors that led to the round, marble room. No one was inside. Just as we reached the stairs, the soldiers made it to the nineteenth floor behind us. One of them still carried our swords, which brushed together.

  “Janine!” Brendan shouted.

  “Take us through that hallway,” Alyssa ordered the soldiers. “That's where they're going.” She said nothing about the helicopter. So far, it hadn't taken off, but footfalls ran around the roof.

  The Mother pulled me onto the twentieth floor, and I braced myself. Wind blasted through broken windows that led to the balcony. The place was empty, leaving only the faint smell of the water that once occupied the portal.

  Everyone had escaped to the roof through the windows. A ladder hung just outside. A red glow reflected off the rungs from the glowing letters.

  Far below, another War Magic blast followed.

  “Up that ladder!” Bathory shouted. “Do not let him take off!”

  She needed me to stop Grimes from escaping. I could hear years of torment and anger in each word.

  Then she let go of my arm. Below, Alyssa and Brendan burst through the double doors.

  I wouldn't run now and the Mother knew. Bursting outside through the broken window, I found the ladder and climbed to the roof of the ATC Tower.

  Chapter Twenty

  Dawn was approaching. A faint pink glow appeared on the horizon.

  Even the angry red glow of the giant A and the T that I climbed between on my way to the roof didn't hide that. I climbed faster, aware of the dust the helicopter cast off the edge of the building. The City of Cumberland stretched out below, lit and sleepy. Police sirens filled the voids between the buildings.

  Grimes might leave without me.

  That thought propelled me more than the Mother coming up from behind. I scaled the ladder and looked up at my destination.

  And then I toppled onto the roof of the tower.

  The roof was expansive, with a raised helicopter pad in front of me. A black helicopter with ATC on its side idled, blades spinning and ready to take off. I spotted Grimes inside the open door, strapped into a seat opposite Liliana and Xavier's parents. The two ninja secretaries manned the pilot seats behind tinted glass. I saw no one else, but I smelled the War Mages. They waited behind filter boxes. Vents. Maintenance entrances. The trap was ready.

  “Janine!” Grimes shouted in shock. He hadn't expected to see me again.

  I needed to run. But if I did, Alyssa and Brendan would die. They deserved better. But if I stayed, the others might die.

  “Here!” Grimes shouted.

  Behind me, the Mother scaled the ladder and made it to the top.

  I'd risk it. I knew what the Mother wanted the most.

  So I ran.

  “No!” the monster shouted. She gave chase.

  I bolted across the roof as figures emerged from the shadows. A dozen sets of hands glowed with violet. The Mother scraped her hand across my back, unable to grasp my shirt. Grimes leaned out of his seat, holding out his hand.

  Fizzling balls of light fired at us from everywhere. The world heated to an angry magenta, and I came off my feet, sailing somewhere, anywhere. Bathory screamed somewhere in the fray. I landed back on the roof as stars exploded in my vision. Something cracked in my back and pain flared.

  Getting struck with twelve War Magic charges was something I wouldn't recommend. My ears rang and threatened another round of passing out. It wasn't as if the Mages had a choice. Next to me, the Mother groaned.

  I had to get up. My back crunched again as whatever I'd broken in my spine pulled together. Trying to ignore the spots in my vision, I pushed myself up onto my elbows.

  The helicopter waited.

  Grimes was getting out.

  “No!” I shouted, glimpsing Bathory on her stomach feet away.

  Ten Mages ran towards her, and one of them—Xavier—held the Infernal Iron chains. He was ready to chain her and kill. But if that didn't work—

  “Janine. Go!” he shouted.

  Grimes took my arm. “We need to take off!”

  I let him pull me back. Xavier would chain the Mother.

  And then we climbed into the helicopter. Behind me, Alyssa and Brendan made it up the ladder, the six soldiers behind them. One still held the swords.

  I wondered if he was hoping for this, and that he could hand Alyssa and Brendan their weapons.

  I backed into the center of the chopper and grabbed a handle as there were no more seats. Grimes strapped himself back into his. “Ladies, take off!”

  Bathory remained still.

  And rose. She blurred as she struck Xavier under the chin, sending him flying back into a metal air tube. The structure indented with the force of Xavier striking it. Alyssa stopped. So did Brendan.

  He looked right at me.

  And nodded.

  Even from here, I could see the sadness and resignation in his gaze.

  “You can't take off yet!” I shouted. “Brendan and Alyssa—”

  The chopper rose as the blades spun harder. Wind blasted against the Mother, making her look like a humanoid bat for a moment. She turned to the Infernal Iron chains Xavier had dropped. She seized them.

  And chucked them over the edge of the ATC Tower.

 

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