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“Where are they?” Roman asked above the din. “Who’d you see?”

“Travis.”

Roman paled. He grabbed the back of Shay’s chair, holding onto it so tightly, his knuckles showed white through his skin. Shay reached over her shoulder to grasp one of his hands. Steadying him.

“He’s in the South Coastal District,” Darien added. “He’s the only one I can see, but I’d bet you anything he’s got Max and the others with him.”

“My dad found out the helicopter that picked up Max and Dallas crashed in the ocean before the forcefield went up,” Loren said. Her words were for the benefit of everyone but Darien, who already knew.

Roman took his tense hands off the back of Shay’s chair and started to pace, running his fingers through his hair repeatedly. Shay looked like she was about to say something to him, when suddenly, Tanner spoke.

“Oh, holy shit.”

Darien sat up straighter. “Atlas?—”

“I got it!” Tanner exclaimed, a surprised smile ghosting across his lips.

Those who were in the living room—even Arthur—stood up.

“You got it?” Ivy and Lace asked at the same time.

Tanner’s smile spread into a proud grin, his eyes alight with hope. “I fuckinggot it.”

96

The Eyrie

YVESWICH, STATE OF KER

“What are you doing out here?”came a pleasant, female voice.

Travis looked over his shoulder.

Jewels was walking through the open gates of the House of Violet. Her hands were bundled in her coat pockets, her moon-pale hair blown back by gusts of frost-kissed wind.

“Just wanted some air,” he said, his breaths puffing out in the shape of small clouds. His answer wasn’t exactly a lie; he was starting to feel stuffy from being trapped in that house all day while the world around him slowly darkened and died.

She came to stand beside him, and sighed. “Yeah, I think we’re running out of that, hey?” She splayed her fingers across her chest, idly rubbing the skin right above her heart.

The city had grown quiet. The bomb blasts and gunshots that had shaken the streets every hour since the Well replica exploded had died off, leaving behind no sound but the roaring of monsters and the spine-chilling screams of the people who had fallen prey to them. Even the civil defense sirens had been shut off.

Surrendering. Yveswich was surrendering. Falling to the Void. Travis wouldn’t be surprised if he and the others were some of the last survivors. In the short time they’d spent at theHouse of Violet, more districts had succumbed to the shadow, leaving less than a quarter of the city untouched by blinding, supernatural darkness. Most of those districts were located near the coast.

The ones that were deeper inland, however…those were mostly dark. And quiet.

Travis had almost forgotten Jewels was there, when suddenly she whispered, “I’m sorry, Travis.” Her green eyes were fixed on the billowing mass of darkness. She was trying not to look at him—trying to keep him from noticing the shine in her eyes.

His brow furrowed. “You’re sorry? Why are you sorry?”

“I feel” —she swallowed— “partly responsible for you being stuck here. If I hadn’t…” She dropped her gaze to the frozen ground and toed at a rock.

“If you hadn’t what? Gone into cardiac arrest?” Travis said with an upward flick of his brows. “It’s not your fault, Jewels. It was my decision to stay, remember? Don’t blame yourself for something you didn’t do.”

She sighed. A tear slipped down her cheek, sparkling in the muddy glow of one of the only streetlights on this block that was still working. Soon, all the power would go out. Soon, they’d freeze or suffocate. He couldn’t decide which was worse.

“Hey,” he said softly, turning fully to face her. “Not your fault.” When she still didn’t respond, he pressed, “I mean it. ’Kay?”

It took her a moment, but finally, she nodded. “’Kay.”