"Percy! Grab my hands!" Omega yelled out from behind me.
My heart was thumping frantically. I spun around to find Omega's arms only a few feet above me.
He had switched his position from standing on top of the rooftop to dangling from it headfirst. The only support he had was his heels braced against the inside ledge of the roof—but he still looked as though he would fall if he helped me.
But I had no choice—only a few seconds left before instant death. I sprang into the air, instinctively grabbing Omega's wrists instead of his palms, praying that he could save me.
For a second, my weight seemed to surprise him—as though he was shocked I actually listened to him. But then his grip on my wrists tightened and with a grunt of exertion, he pulled me up onto the roof, then tumbled down next to me.
At the same moment—even before we could take a breath of relief—the sound of faint thudding came to my ears as half a dozen swords dug into the inn's wall.
And then I remembered Charlotte.
Even though I had been shaken from my near-death experience, I raised myself to my feet and stumbled to the edge. My eyes widened in shock.
The horses had disappeared.
And I didn't mean they'd been killed. They'd vanished into thin air.
The soldiers that had been restraining Fauvel were now looking at their hands in surprise as if wondering if they had made him disappear somehow. Meanwhile, the soldiers that'd started chasing me had stopped in their tracks. They glowered at me the moment I popped my head into view, not knowing how to get up to me.
Suddenly, the back door of the inn shot open.
The head chief stormed out, looking furious and waving his ladle like a weapon. "Get out of here you . . ." All at once, he trailed off and his face turned to one of fear as he realized he was yelling at a dozen armed soldiers—though half of their swords were out of their reach. Without another word, he spun around and walked back inside somewhat faster this time. The door slammed shut behind him.
I turned back to Omega, only to find him smiling. "Looks like I saved everybody's life today."
"Why didn't you make me disappear too?" I demanded. "That would've been nice for a change."
"Could Lady Void make you disappear when you were fighting her?" Omega asked.
Something struck me as odd about the example he was using, but I pushed it away. "No."
"Exactly. In the same way, I can't make humans disappear."
I opened my mouth to reply but was interrupted by the soldiers yelling at us: "Get down here and fight us!" "We won't spare you!" "Don't be cowards!"
And just like the genius cowards we were, Omega and I jumped to our feet and scrambled over the inn's rooftop, heading west—the opposite direction of the soldiers.
Fortunately, the building's roof was a wide, gently inclining expanse of slate, allowing us to run at full speed.
But because it was a wide expanse of slate—which wasn't the toughest material by any means and didn't seem to have regular maintenance—sprinting over it was almost as dangerous as being stuck with the soldiers. I would keep finding myself tripping over jagged pieces, teetering on the edge of huge holes caused by corrosion—and even walking across weak portions that bounced and groaned under my weight as though they would collapse inward and send me falling to the floor.
It seemed as if the roof only hated me since Omega barely had to change his path to avoid the obstacles—and when he did, he still kept his breakneck pace up. Within minutes, he was several yards in front of me.
Behind me, the roof started shaking as the soldiers climbed up behind me and raced towards Omega and me, hollering at the top of their lungs, their swords gleaming in the sun.
A piece of the slate roof broke under my foot and skittered off the edge of the roof. Even though the inn had only two run-down floors, there was still a disturbing amount of silence before the tile shattered on the sunny Aurelian street below, immediately followed by a yelp as a passerby barely avoided it.
I gulped and subconsciously lowered my speed. It would only take one false step for me to fall off and break most of the bones in my body. And with my luck, I figured I would probably still be fully conscious, meaning I would feel the agony.
Soon we reached the edge of the roof. After several minutes of getting used to running on the expansive slate, it was shocking—and I discovered the edge the hard way: at the last second. I skidded to a stop, teetering on the ledge—before Omega steadied me with a hand.
I spun around; the soldiers were close enough for me to see their faces. And given their angry faces, they were not happy with us. I quickly turned around.
Omega was studying the distance between the inn's roof, and the next roof. "Nine feet," he muttered. Then he turned to me. "This'll be hard, but if you help me, I can get to the other side. And then I can probably catch you . . ."
"Or we could just use this." I pointed to the east of the roof, where, a small distance away, the top rung of a maintenance ladder peeked out.
"That's a much better idea," Omega conceded, then strode over and began climbing down.
Unfortunately, even the maintenance ladder was ill-maintained. It was rickety and caked with rust, looking so flimsy that climbing down at the same time as Omega would be a significant risk. And so I found myself still on the roof, tapping my foot impatiently as I waited for Omega to reach the bottom.
The soldiers were drawing near. They still were running at full speed, meaning they'd reach me in a few seconds.
And this time, it didn't look as though they were playing around.
The ladder clanged loudly one final time, then Omega's footsteps grew quiet. "All good!" He called from the bottom.
That's all I needed. Within a moment, I was scrambling down the ladder. But I quickly realized staying on the roof and fighting the soldiers might have not been the most dangerous choice.
The ladder was more treacherous than I thought. It seemed as though the engineers had made it out of the least amount of metal possible; the support beams were slimmer than sticks. The rungs creaked and groaned under my weight—while some even sagged. My heart started beating wildly. It didn't take me long to realize going fast was probably going to make me fall—but going slow would mean more time on the ladder.
After a minute or so—which felt more like an hour—I finally reached the bottom. My feet touched the cobblestones just as the first soldier peeked his head over the ledge. Omega was a few inches to my right, with Fauvel and Charlotte next to him.
As I watched, the ladder literally disintegrated when the soldier touched it. Omega and I leaped back as the iron parts rained down, embedding into the ground we were just standing on.
I smirked tauntingly up at the trapped soldiers and opened my mouth to tease them—but realized they were expectantly staring at me.
No. Not at me. Behind me.
I spun around—but it was too late. The cold metal of a godly sword was immediately at my neck.
"I'm sorry," Omega—my attacker—said, "but you're officially under arrest."