Page 7 of Swords of Soul and Shadow (Gate Chronicles #3)

Blood. Enough that the uniform must have been stolen off a dead man. Nobody could have survived after losing that much blood, nobody could have survived…

Survived what Hallie had done to the fort.

Oh stars. Nausea turned her skin clammy, chilled with guilt, even if the man in front of her was clearly alive—and threatening her with a Cerl pistol, besides.

He hadn’t moved. Hadn’t shot. She stared at the unfeeling metal ring pointed at her forehead.

“Looking for a shilka who looks just like you.” He held the weapon steady, aimed straight between her eyes.

Hallie’s heartbeat thudded behind her forehead, pounding like a drum. She wasn’t sure what to do, what to say.

It was her fault. Her fault. Hers. The screams, the uniform, the blood… all her fault.

The fire in her core rose. The sparks clouded her vision.

She could do something. She could make him fall apart like she had done with the fort. She didn’t know how she knew she could do that, only that she could.

But ability did not make it the right choice. She hadn’t meant to kill anyone at Achilles. If she ruined this man the way she’d ruined the fort, she would know. She would be the reason he didn’t go home to his family.

Even a hearty lungful of Zuprium dust wouldn’t be enough to fog that out of her head.

All this she had time to consider, because the man still hadn’t pulled the trigger. He just stood in front of them, watching, blue smoke lazily leaking from the barrel of his strange gun. Niels shifted to block her from the line of fire. The man traced his movements with the weapon.

“Why?” Hallie managed to get out, though she’d much rather keep quiet. “Why do you need me?”

Half an hour prior, she’d been quietly deciphering the convoluted writings of her dead ancestor, thinking back to birthday gifts and books and the brother she’d lost. Now there was a very good chance she was about to be blown to bits.

She would never see her parents again. Not Petra.

Not Masie and Nole. Not anyone who mattered to her.

Not Kase.

The power within her raged at that thought of never seeing him again. Like Kase held a spark to the waiting fuse.

The soldier’s finger twitched on the trigger, but Hallie was faster.

Later, she wouldn’t be able to describe exactly what she’d done. All she knew was that she could not bear the thought of never seeing Kase again, that everything inside her rebelled against it, that she shoved the possibility away with all her might.

And the sparks that had nearly blinded her surged toward the soldier instead.

Niels ducked.

The Cerl bullet froze in midair, its blue fire crackling like ice—then retraced its path back into the barrel.

The power didn’t stop there. It bubbled and eddied. It languished upon its prey, drinking in the man’s very being. The weapon in the man’s hand unraveled like a skein of yarn. Then the hand itself followed suit.

The man’s skin and sinew turned to ash as it dropped to the rocky floor. Hallie’s jaw dropped with them, horror freezing her in place.

For all the rest of her days, Hallie would never forget how loudly the man screamed as he came undone before her eyes.

The unraveling didn’t stop. It wound up his arm, his shoulder, across his collarbone, untangling his neck like an impatient seamstress with a knot in her thread.

His sounds of anguish reached a fever pitch before his throat scattered into filaments of flesh, then crumbled to dust. Not a man any longer, but a knotty and tired sweater, its loose strands caught on a nail intent on tugging the weaving free.

Niels shouted at Hallie, but she could only stare, wide-eyed, as the soldier disappeared before her very eyes. No blood. No bones. As if he had ceased to be.

Blood pulsed in her face. Her throat squeezed tightly. Frigid air came in and out in squeaks. She fell to the ground, scrabbling at the smoke that had once been the man before her. She needed to fix this. She hadn’t meant to do that. She hadn’t meant to—to do—oh, stars—

Another soldier shouldered in just in time to see the last of the man’s body disappear in a wisp of smoke. The air was rancid, smelling like Yalvar fuel.

Before the newcomer had any chance to do anything at all, Niels fired his pistol, hitting the man square in the chest. He pulled Hallie up by the strap of her pack, practically throwing her toward the back of the tent. “Go!”

She wrenched the canvas up and stumbled forward, slinging the pack further over her shoulder. Her hands tingled so furiously they burned; she swayed, but Niels caught her before she could fall. “Don’t fall apart now. If they can’t find you here, they’ll leave.”

“But what if they don’t? What if they hurt them anyway?” Hallie was surprised she could still find the words as she wound past screaming children and the people trying to hide them.

Niels yanked her down as blue fire zinged overhead. He shot his flashpistol in the direction it had come from and shoved her behind a trunk-like stalagmite jutting up from the cavern floor. Blue fire raged around them. More screams.

Niels rifled through his pack and pulled out an electropistol. He shoved it in her hand. “Don’t argue. Just run.”

“But what if we can’t—what about—” Stars, she couldn’t even get a sentence out.

He dragged her along. “The tunnel is just ahead.”

“But—”

A hand reached out and grabbed her wrist, yanking her out of Niels’ grip. Without thinking, she shoved her pent-up energy into them.

She didn’t turn around to see if they’d unraveled just like the first soldier. She didn’t want to know—and the sight ahead of her held her attention too tightly, anyway.

Niels must have slowed to look back for her—he’d been surrounded by soldiers. His wide eyes found her over their heads.

Run. He didn’t have to say it again. She knew what he wanted.

The ground shook. Pistols fired. Blood ran down the stone. Hallie fell against the wall. Her hand stung.

The ground moved again, shaking hard and fierce.

By the time her brain registered that it was an earthquake—by the time she realized the force of it had knocked the soldiers surrounding Niels to the ground—it was over.

Niels tugged her up. They sprinted toward the tunnel, leaping over bodies trying to rise. Hallie’s knees rattled, her bones clacking together as she ran for her life.

Blue fire zinged behind them, ricocheting off the walls and floor and everywhere. Blood sprayed her face.

Niels went down, hand to his shoulder.

“No!” Hallie screamed, but he was up before she could help.

“We need to get to…get to the tunnel,” he panted. “It’s just a graze. Keep moving.”

They made it to the edge of the cavern and turned down the tunnel that would lead them to the ruins of Ravenhelm.

Something moved behind them. Hallie didn’t think—only thrust what little power she had left into the rock. The sparks in her vision dissipated.

And then everything finally went silent.