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A grin spreads across my face as I cut down the crazed beast with the head of a hog and the body of a human.

“I have found them!” I roar.

Seven’s head swings my way. Gideon, armor dripping with blood, his helm long gone, pulls up at my side.

“Guide us,” Seven says.

Fawn

I’m terrified. This tiny room with a cot and lamp represents safety of a kind. I don’t want to leave it. But I also know that I must. Our mates are out there, fighting to get to us.

We have to meet them halfway.

Eiden opens the door. With my hand held tightly in his left hand and the sword in his right, we step outside.

The strange, crab-handed man is waiting. “This way,” he says, bowing. “I will take you to the street.”

We splash along a maze of wet stone tunnels, climb iron ladders, and traverse yet more tunnels. Doors lead off left and right. Sometimes, the ceiling is high and the passages wide, and sometimes, they are so low, even I must stoop. A sense of claustrophobia crawls under my skin—I did not realize how deep we had gone.

Just as my panic is about to consume me, we enter a wooden structure that appears to be a warehouse.

Beyond the grimy windows, I see flames.

“I feel him,” Eiden says. “He is coming.”

“Good luck,” our curious benefactor says, and then he removes a sturdy wooden bar from the door, and we step out into the cold streets and bedlam.

Eiden

A mob is hurtling past us, moving from the left to right. The door has barely shut on us when a thug shoulder barges me. I shove Fawn behind me and parry his blow.

Fawn screams.

My fist swings up. A crack follows as it connects with his jaw, lifting him off his feet and then crashing to the ground.

To the right, a roof collapses in a blazing building, burning wood and embers crashing to the narrow, cobbled street. It breaks up the crazed mob and scatters every which way.

“Eiden!”

“I know.”

A fight breaks out among those fleeing. I yank Fawn out of their way, ducking into a neighboring doorway. I shove the nearest man aside, his trips, and the others fall on him. I don’t wait around to watch, pushing away from the wall and barging my way through the fleeing tide of monsters and humans.

My mind is hyper-focused, alert to the danger but also thepull.

We run a zigzag path between the rabble until we reach the corner. A break in the rush allows me to orient myself. There, in the distance, is the dome of the palace. “See the dome?”

“Yes,” Fawn says, breathless, her eyes wide.

She is so fucking brave. I am heartbroken that I’m the cause of her being here. “If we head for the dome, it will lead us toward the gate.”

“Okay,” she says. “We can make it. We have to.”

We press on, heading steadily northeast, dodging trouble where we can and fighting where I must.

A crossroads is looming. I can no longer see the dome for guidance, but instinct tells me we are nearing Nox, and where Nox is, so will the others be.

A distant horn sounds.