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"Didn’t your father ever teach you respect for your elders?" Ara crows at Ptole neatly under another blade The next one she pulls out of the air, and tosses it back at him An impressive but useless trick, as he waves it off with a curled s?" she adds, toeing

I stare at her, stunned for amyself to stand A little bit of my terror disappears "With pleasure, rin widens "Now to finish what rowls

"What your sister ran fro a bolt at his head He throws hiainst the wall, and in the time it takes him to recover, Ara closes the distance between the the momentum, she breaks Ptole by the pounding footsteps behindMist and wind Metal rain, curling darkness, explosions like tiny stars And bullets, always bullets, close behind Wefor an end to this prison, following the map we all did our best to memorize It should be here, no here, no here In the et lost And then there’s Gareth, always spinning the bounds of gravity, soood When we finally find the entrance hall, the rooain, andfast I don’t even want to think about the others, Julian and Sara, who could barely walk earlier We need to get in the open To the sky To the lightning that can save us all

Outside, the sun has risen Ara and Ptoleray haze on the horizon I only have eyes for the Blackrun and the other jet idling on the runway A croar everything within reach So to escape on foot

"Shade, get hi Cal by the collar as we run Before he can protest, Shade does as instructed, and jumps him a hundred yards away I can always count on Shade to understand; Cal is one of our only two pilots He cannot die here, not e’re so close to getting away We need him to fly, and fly well A split second later, Shade returns, wrapping his arms around Julian and Sara They disappear with hih of relief

I call on everything I have left, down to the deepness ofht, the sky darkens

Kilorn stops next to ainst his shoulder He shoots with precision, picking off our pursuers one by one Manyher, whether by their own volition or hers She’ll be within range soon, of both my ability--and her own I have only one chance

It happens in slow lance at the two Silvers locked in battle between iant needle, cuts through Ara’s neck, spilling a silver fountain Ptoleh her, atwhat I think is the worst

I can’t possibly see what’s co

Only one person could Jon He walked away from all this He let this happen He didn’t want to warn us He didn’t care

Shade appears in front of ets a cruel, gleah his heart He doesn’t realize what’s happening He doesn’t feel any pain He dies before his knees hit the ground

I don’t re else until we’re in the air My face runs with tears but I can’t wipe them away I stare at my hands, painted in both colors of blood

TWENTY-SEVEN

This is not the Blackrun