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Tamar hurdled over a pew and shot past me up the aisle "Come on!"

I watched her in confusion Just where e supposed to go?

She tore past the altar and grasped one gilded wood corner of the triptych I gaped as the water-daeway This was how the sun soldiers had gotten onto the grounds And how the Apparat had escaped froo?" asked David

"Does itshook as a loud crack of thunder split the air The chapel door blew to pieces Tolya was thrown backward, and darkness flooded through

The Darkling came borne on a tide of shadow, held aloft by monsters who set his feet upon the chapel floor with infinite care

"Fire!" Ta out The nichevo’ya writhed and whirled around the Darkling, shifting and re-for the place of another in a seamless tide of shadow He didn’t even break stride

Nichevo’ya were streah the chapel door Tolya was already on his feet and rushing to my side with pistols drawn Tamar and Mal flankedthe light, bracing for the onslaught

"Stand down, Alina," said the Darkling His cool voice echoed through the chapel, cutting through the noise and chaos "Stand down, and I will spare them"

In answer, Ta a horrible shriek of metal on metal The sun soldiers lifted their rifles, and I heard the sound of Inferni flint being struck

"Look around, Alina," the Darkling said "You cannot win You can only watch them die Come to me now, and I will do them no harm--not your zealot soldiers, not even the Grisha traitors"

I took in the night up against the inside of the do in a dense cloud of bodies and wings Through the s I could see ht sky

The sun soldiers’ faces were determined, but their ranks had been badly thinned One of them had pimples on his chin Beneath his tattoo, he didn’t look much older than twelve They needed a miracle frogers on his pistols

"Hold," I said

"Alina," Taet you out"

"Hold," I repeated

The sun soldiers lowered their rifles Taht

"What are your terms?" I asked

Mal frowned Tolya shook his head I didn’t care I knew ittheir lives, I had to take it

"Give yourself up," said the Darkling "And they all go free They can climb down that rabbit hole and disappear forever"

"Free?" Sergei whispered

"He’s lying," said Mal "It’s what he does"

"I don’t need to lie," said the Darkling "Alina wants to come with me"

"She doesn’t want any part of you," Mal spat

"No?" the Darkling asked His dark hair glea his shadow army had taken its toll He was thinner, paler, but soles of his face had only become more beautiful "I warned you that your otkazat’sya could never understand you, Alina I told you that he would only co"

"You rong" My voice was steady, but doubt rustled inshook his head "You cannot lie to ain, if you had been less alone? You called to me, and I answered"

I couldn’t quite believe what I was hearing "You … you were there?"

"On the Fold In the palace Last night"

I flushed as I reh ined it all

"That isn’t possible," Mal bit out

"You have no idea what I can make possible, tracker"

I shut my eyes

"Alina--"

"I’ve seen what you truly are," said the Darkling, "and I’ve never turned away I never will Can he say the sa about her," Mal said fiercely

"Come with me now, and it all stops--the fear, the uncertainty, the bloodshed Let hio"

"No," I said But even as I shook hed and glanced back over his shoulder "Bring her," he said

A figure shuffled forward, draped in a heavy shawl, hunched and slow-hra

My stomach twisted sickly Why did she have to be so stubborn? Why couldn’t she have gone with Nikolai? Unless Nikolai had never hra’s shoulder She flinched