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"Let’s go hunting," he growls, and charges up the stairs Sentinels and Security follow, like a cloud of red-and-black s behind his flame They leave a a blood-spattered ballroom, hazy with dust and screams

In the center of it all lies Belicos Lerolan, pierced not by a bullet but a silver lance Shot froun, like the ones used to fish A tattered scarlet sash falls fro in the ind There’s a syone, sed up by the dark walls of a service passage The ground rumbles beneath our feet and Lucas throwsshakes, dropping pieces of stone down on us The door behind us explodes inward, destroyed by flame Beyond, the ballroom is black with smoke An explosion

"Cal--" I try to squirm away from Lucas, to run back the e came, but he throws me back "Lucas, we have to help hirowls,me forward

"A bomb?" That wasn’t part of the plan "Was that a boer "You saw that bloody red scarf This is the Scarlet Guard and that"--he points back to the ballroo--"that is who they are"

"This doesn’tto remember every facet of the plan Maven never told me about a bomb Never And Kilorn wouldn’t let er They wouldn’t do this to rowl "Killers don’t have to make sense"

My breath catches in my throat How many were left back there? How many children, how many needless deaths?

Lucas takes er

Anyone can betray anyone

Lucas leads h no less than three doors, each one a foot thick and made of steel They have no locks, but he opens them with a flick of his hand It reminds me of the first time I met him, when he waved apart the bars of my cell

I hear the others before I see the off therails, his words sending shivers through me His presence seems to fill the bunker as he paces up and down, his cloak flapping out behind him

"I want them found I want them in front oflike the cowardly birds they are!" He addresses a Sentinel, but theon!"

Elara sits in a chair, one hand over her heart, the other clutching tightly to Maven

He starts at the sight ofe to say, trying to communicate as much as I can But with Elara so close, I can barely allow myself to think, let alone speak "There was an explosion after the shots A bomb"

Maven furrows his brow, confused, but he quicklyTiberias hisses through gritted teeth "And what aboutdoesn’t mean Maven at all Maven takes it in stride He’s used to being overlooked

"Cal went after the shooters He took a band of Sentinels with hihtens me "And then the ballroom exploded I don’t knoelse, dear?" Co from Elara, the term of endearment feels like an electric shock She looks paler than ever, her breath co you remember?"