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Lila took up one of the flares—a device like a firework that, when struck against any surface, produced a strea enough to cut the darkness like a knife Each flare was supposed to last a quarter of an hour, and the different colors had their own code on the open water: yellow for a sinking ship, green for illness aboard, white for unnamed distress, and red for pirates

She had one of each, and her fingers danced over their ends as she considered her options She eyed the rising water and settled on the yellow flare, taking it up with both hands and striking it against the side of the little boat

Light burst forth, sudden and blinding It split the world in two, the violent gold-white of the flare and the dense black nothing around it Lila spent half a htness as she angled the flare up and away froan to count Just as her eyes were finally adjusting, the flare faltered, flickered, and went out She scanned the horizon for a ship but saw none, and the water in the boat continued its slow but steady rise up the calf of her boot She took up a second flare—white for distress—and struck it on the wood, shielding her eyes She counted the ht beyond the boat for signs of life

“Come on,” she whispered “Come on, come on, come on …” The words were lost beneath the hiss of the flare as it died, plunging her back into darkness

Lila gritted her teeth

Judging by the level of the water in the little boat, she had only a quarter of an hour—one flare’s worth of ti

Then so with teeth

If there is a god, she thought, a celestial body, a heavenly power, or anyone above—or beloho ht just like to see me live another day, for pity’s or entertainood time to intercede

And with that, she took up the red flare—the one for pirates—and struck it, bathing the night around her in an eerie criht It reminded her for an instant of the Isle River back in London Not her London—if the dreary place had ever been hers—or the terrifyingly pale London responsible for Athos and Astrid and Holland, but his London Kell’s London

He flashed up in her vision like a flare, auburn hair and that constant furroeen his eyes: one blue, one black Antari Magic boy Prince

Lila stared straight into the flare’s red light until it burned the iht now The water was rising The flare was dying Shadoere slithering against the boat

Just as the red light of the pirate’s flare began to peter out, she saw it

It began as nothing—a tendril ofdrew itself into the phanto black sails reflected the night to every side, the lanterns aboard sht Only when it drew close enough for the flare’s dying red light to dance across the reflective surfaces did the ship come into focus And by then, it was nearly on top of her

By the flare’s sputtering glow, Lila couldthe hull Is Ranes Gast