Wolf vaulted over the crate. Gunshots blared, bullets pinged, the walls shook.
Iko roared and launched herself past Cinder, tackling a guard who appeared in the corner of Cinder’s vision. His gun fired; the bullet struck the ceiling. Iko punched him and his head cracked against the metal floor. His body stopped flailing, unconscious.
Cinder jumped to her feet, holding her cyborg hand like a gun, and spotted the second guard creeping around to their other side. His face was blank—unafraid. Then, as she watched, it cleared. His eyes focused on Cinder, bewildered.
The thaumaturge had lost control of him.
The moment was fleeting. The guard snarled and aimed his gun at Cinder, but he was too late. Already she had a grip on his bioelectricity. With a thought, she sent him spiraling into unconsciousness. He dropped to his knees and collapsed face-first to the floor with a crunch. Blood spurted from his nose. Cinder recoiled.
A scream echoed through the bay.
Cinder could no longer see Wolf, and terror struck her. In taking control of the guard, she’d forgotten about protecting Wolf’s mind from—
The screaming stopped, followed by a thud.
A second later, Wolf appeared from behind a shelf stacked with suitcases, snarling and shaking out his right fist.
Pulse thrumming, Cinder turned to see Iko with her arm wrapped around an extra-pale Cress.
They ran for the ramp, and Cinder was grateful that it was lowered to face away from the palace entrance. As they crept downward, she scanned their surroundings, with both her eyes and her Lunar gift. In this wide-open space, she could sense a cluster of people in the distance and she could tell there were both Earthens and Lunars in the mix.
Their route to the maglev doors, at least, was unblocked. If they were careful, they could stay hidden behind this row of ships.
At least, until one of those Lunars picked up on Wolf’s sizzling energy and questioned what a modified soldier was doing here.
She waved her arm and they skimmed around the side of the ramp. A breath passed while Cinder waited for a sign they’d been noticed. When none came, they darted to the next ship, and the next. Every thump of their feet pounded in her ears. Every breath sounded like a windstorm.
A shout startled her and together they ducked behind the landing gear of an elaborately painted ship from the African Union. Cinder held her hand at the ready, the bullet still loaded in her finger.
“Over there!” someone yelled.
Cinder peered around the telescoping legs of the spacecraft and spotted a figure bolting between ships. Thorne, running away from them at full speed.
Not yet controlled by a Lunar.
Heart leaping, Cinder reached out for his mind, hoping to get to him before one of the Lunars on the other side of the dock …
Success.
Like with Wolf, she thrust an idea into his head.
Get back here.
Startled, Thorne tripped and fell, rolled a couple times, and sprang again to his feet. Cinder flinched with guilt, but was relieved when Thorne changed directions. He skirted around a couple podships, dodging a volley of bullets from a cluster of guards that had emerged from the main ramp of Kai’s ship.
“I’ve got him,” said Cinder. “Come on.”
Keeping half her focus on Thorne, the rest on her own careful movements, Cinder stayed close to Wolf as they ducked in and out of the safety of the spacecraft, weaving their way to the wide platform that stood shoulder height around the perimeter of the docks. Their exit loomed before them. Enormous double doors carved in mysterious Lunar runes. A sign above them indicated the way to the maglev platform.
They reached the last ship. They’d run out of shelter. Once they were on the platform, they would be on raised, wide-open ground.
Cinder glanced back. Thorne was on his stomach beneath the tail of a solo-pilot pod. He waved at them to go ahead, to hurry.
“Iko, you and Cress go first,” said Cinder. If they were seen, they at least couldn’t be manipulated. “We’ll cover you.”
Iko put herself between Cress and the palace doors and they ran for the short flight of steps. Cinder swung her embedded gun from side to side, searching for threats, but the guards were too focused on finding Thorne to notice them.
A hiss drew her attention back to the platform. Iko and Cress were at the doors, but they were still shut.
Cinder’s stomach dropped.
They were supposed to open automatically.
But—no. Levana had been expecting them. Of course she had taken precautions to ensure they wouldn’t be able to escape.
Her face contorted, desperation crashing into her. She struggled to come up with another way out. Would Wolf be strong enough to pry open the doors? Could they fire their way through?
As she racked her brain, a new expression came over Cress, replacing her wide-eyed terror with resolve. Cinder followed her gaze to a circular control booth that stood between the maglev and palace entrances. Before Cinder could guess her plan, Cress had dropped to her hands and knees and started crawling along the wall.
A gun fired. Cress flinched but kept going.
It was followed by another shot, and another, each making Cinder duck down farther. With the third shot there was a shatter of glass.
Cinder spun around, her heart in her throat, and sought out Thorne. He hadn’t moved, but now he was holding a handgun, and had it aimed behind him. He’d shot out a window on Kai’s ship.
He was causing another distraction, trying to draw more attention to himself, to keep it away from Cress.
Throat dry as desert sand, Cinder looked back to see that Cress had made it to the booth. She was clutching her portscreen, the fingers of her other hand dancing over an invisi-screen. Iko was still by the doors, crouched into a ball, ready to spring up and run at the slightest provocation.
Beside Cinder, Wolf was focused on Thorne, ready to rush into the fight the second one broke out.
Footsteps came pounding down the ramp of Kai’s ship and additional Lunar guards swarmed the aisles. It wasn’t the guards that concerned Cinder, though. They wouldn’t be skilled enough to detect Thorne in their midst. It was their thaumaturges that worried her, but she couldn’t find them.
Doors whistled. Wolf grabbed Cinder’s elbow before she could turn around and dragged her up to the platform.
Cress had gotten the doors open.
Iko was already on the other side, her back against a corridor wall, waving them on. She had drawn her own gun for the first time and was searching for a target.
“There!”
Wolf and Cinder pounded up the stairs. A bullet pinged against the wall, and she ducked and stumbled through the doors. They slammed into the wall beside Iko.
Cinder looked back, panting. Their pursuers had given up trying to catch them off guard and were now running toward them at full speed. But Thorne had a head start, and he, too, had given up secrecy for speed. Cinder fed images into his mind—his legs running fast as a gazelle’s, his feet barely touching the ground. She was too afraid that to turn him into a puppet would only slow him down, but the mental encouragement seemed to work. His speed increased. He bounded up the stairs in two steps.
Over his shoulder, Cinder finally saw the thaumaturge, a woman with short black hair and a red coat.
Gritting her teeth, she raised her arm and fired. She didn’t know where she’d hit her, but the woman cried out and fell.
Thorne threw himself across the threshold as the guards reached the base of the platform steps. The doors slammed shut behind him.