TANGLED, genya safin

chapter twenty-three.

❂♕

The coin in my hand burned and throbbed, driving me faster as we raced along the path. My mind was reeling— if they had a chance to seal themselves in the main hall, if they had time to man the guns on the roof, if Alina could just reach the dishes. All our plans, undone by Vasily's arrogance.

We burst into the open, and my slippered feet sent gravel flying as I skidded to a halt. I don't know if it was momentum or the sight before me that drove me to my knees.

The Little Palace was wreathed in seething shadows. They clicked and whirred as they skittered over the walls and swooped down on the roof. There were bodies lying on the steps, bodies crumpled on the ground. The front doors were wide open.

The path in front of the steps was littered with shards of broken hulk of one of David's dishes, a girl's body crushed beneath it, her goggles askew. Paja. Two Nichevo'ya crouched before the dishes, gazing at their broken reflections.

I released a howl of pure rage and sent a fiery swath of water that sliced through their bodies with a poof of glistening sunlight as they exploded. Fragments of my sun-summoning power sizzling in their bodies as they burst into the raw air.

I heard the rattle of gunfire from up on the roof. Someone was still alive. Someone was still fighting. And there was one dish left. It wasn't much, but it was all we had.

"This way," said Mal.

We tore across the lawn and in through the door that led to the Darkling's chambers. At the base of the stairs, a Nichevo'ya came shrieking at us from the doorway, knocking me off my feet. Mal slashed at it with his saber. It wavered, then re-formed.

"Get back!" Alina yelled.

Mal ducked, and Alina sent the Cut slicing through the shadow soldier. Alina came up to me and pulled me to my feet and started for the stairs, my heart was pounding, Mal close on our heels. The air was thick with the smell of blood and the bone-shaking clatter of gunfire.

As we emerged onto the roof, I heard someone shouting. "Away!"

We just had time to duck before the grenatki exploded high above us, searing our eyelids with light and leaving our ears ringing. Corporalki manned Nikolai's guns, sending torrents of bullets into the mass of shadows as Fabrikators fed them ammunition. The remaining dish was surrounded by armed Grisha, struggling to keep the Nichevo'ya at bay.

David was there, clinging awkwardly to a rifle and trying to hold his ground. Alina stepped forward and threw up her hands and in a blazing whip crack that split the sky overhead and brought us a few precious seconds.

"David!"

David gave two hard blasts on the whistle around his neck. Nadia dropped her goggles, and the Durast manning the dish moved into position. Alina didn't wait— she lifted her hands and sent light streaming at the dish. The whistle blew. The dish tilted. A single pure beam of light blasted from the mirrored surface. Even without the second dish, it skewered the sky, slashing through the Nichevo'ya as they burned away to nothing.

The beam swept the air in a gleaming arc, dissolving black bodies before it, thinning the horde until we could see the deep Belyanoch twilight. A cheer went up from the Grisha at the first sight of stars, and a thin sliver of hope pierced my terror.