The windows exploded.
Glass rained down on us. I threw up my arms to shield my face and the guests screamed, huddling against each other.
The nichevo’ya swarmed into the room on wings of molten shadow, filling the air with the whirring buzz of insects.
“Get the King to safety!” Nikolai cried, unsheathing his sword and running to his mother’s side.
The palace guards stood paralyzed, frozen in terror.
A shadow lifted the freckled boy from his feet and threw him against the wall. He slid to the ground, his neck broken.
I raised my hands, but the room was too crowded for me to risk using the Cut.
Vasily still stood at the table, the King cowering beside him.
“You did this!” he screamed at Nikolai. “You and the witch!”
He lifted his saber high and charged, bellowing with rage. Mal stepped in front of me, raising his sword to block the blow. But before Vasily could bring down his weapon, a nichevo’ya grabbed hold of him and tore his arm from its socket, sword and all. He stood for a moment, swaying, blood pumping from his wound, then dropped to the floor in a lifeless heap.
The Queen began to shriek hysterically. She shoved forward, trying to reach her son’s body, feet slipping in his blood as Nikolai held her back.
“Don’t,” he pleaded, wrapping his arms around her. “He’s gone, Madraya. He’s gone. ”
Another pack of nichevo’ya descended from the windows, clawing their way toward Nikolai and his mother.
I had to take a chance. I brought the light down in two blazing arcs, cutting through one monster after another, barely missing one of the generals who crouched cowering on the floor. People were screaming and weeping as the nichevo’ya fell upon them.
“To me!” Nikolai shouted, herding his mother and father toward the door. We followed with the guards, backing our way into the hall, and ran.
The Grand Palace had erupted into chaos. Panicked servants and footmen crowded the corridors, some scrambling for the entrance, others barricading themselves into rooms. I heard wailing, the sound of breaking glass. A boom sounded from somewhere outside.
Let it be the Fabrikators, I thought desperately.
Mal and I burst from the palace and careened down the marble steps. A screech of twisting metal rent the air. I looked down the white gravel path in time to see the golden gates of the Grand Palace blown off their hinges by a wall of Etherealki wind. The Darkling’s Grisha streamed onto the grounds in their brightly colored kefta.
We pelted down the path toward the Little Palace. Nikolai and the royal guards trailed behind us, slowed by his frail father.
At the entrance to the wooded tunnel, the King bent double, wheezing badly as the Queen we
pt and held tight to his arm.
“I have to get them to the Kingfisher,” said Nikolai.
“Take the long way around,” I said. “The Darkling will be headed to the Little Palace first. He’ll be coming for me. ”
“Alina, if he captures you—”
“Go,” I said. “Save them, save Baghra. I won’t leave the Grisha. ”
“I’ll get them out and come back. I promise. ”
“On your word as a cutthroat and a pirate?”
He touched my cheek once, briefly. “Privateer. ”
Another explosion rocked the grounds.
“Let’s go!” shouted Mal.
As we sprinted into the tunnel, I glanced back and saw Nikolai silhouetted against the purple twilight. I wondered if I’d ever see him again.
* * *
THE WOUND AT my shoulder 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 I can just reach the dishes. All of our plans, undone by Vasily’s arrogance.
I 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 mirror. Lying on its side was the shattered hulk of one of David’s dishes, a girl’s body crushed beneath it, her goggles askew. Paja. Two nichevo’ya crouched before the dish, gazing at their broken reflections.
I released a howl of pure rage and sent a fiery swath of light burning through both of them. It fractured along the edges of the dish as the nichevo’ya disappeared.
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 a doorway, knocking me off my feet. Mal slashed at it with his saber. It wavered, then re-formed.
“Get back!” I yelled. He ducked, and I sent the Cut slicing through the shadow soldier. I took the stairs two at a time, my heart pounding, Mal close on my 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 shout. “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. I threw the light high in a blazing whipcrack that split the sky overhead and bought us a few precious seconds.