Sebastian races from the room, and before I can think, I follow after him.
He halts suddenly, and I jerk to a stop once I see what he’s staring at.
Two knights of the Force lie bleeding in the corridor.
Dead.
Sebastian marches to the end of the hallway and there he stops, staring at the open door to the lift. I come up behind him, then, without acknowledging each other, we both step inside. He presses the button to take us to Hart’s secret chamber.
A sharp pang seizes my chest when the doors part. I cover my mouth.
King Hart sits on his throne. One arm draped over the side, a dagger protruding from his chest.
The Rebel crest on the hilt stares back at me.
THIRTY-TWO
I grip the bodice of my wedding dress as I pant sharp, aching breaths. Everything around me happens as if in slow motion, but too quickly at the same time.
Sebastian runs to Hart. He extracts the Rebel dagger. Wires emanate from the open wound, sparking as wisps of smoke coil up from Hart’s chest. Sebastian kneels before his father and cradles his thin, limp body, blood soaking his tunic.
A giant metallic and glass machine beside the throne blares out a loud, steady beep. Sebastian rocks forward and backward, and yet, Hart is still dead—murdered—and not by my hand.
I hear the lift behind me, but I don’t recognize what’s happening until three knights of the Force enter. They run past me toward the other end of the huge, open room. This whole time, my eyes have been trained on Sebastian curling his father to him. As my eyes trail after the knights, I finally look around and gasp.
There are no walls.
I’m standing on top of the castle—in the sky. I glance down at the lake, the court, royal village, the town. I can see all of Karm. Electric-blue grid lines streak the dark sky all around me. Then I look down as fear spikes my blood. There is a floor beneath me. I sink to it, trying to get my bearings.
How long have the Rebels speculated Hart’s secret chamber to be far from the castle? How much time have they wasted searching? All this time it’s been right here. I’ve spent these past weeks with Hart in my very presence, right above me, in his secret chamber in the sky.
I become brave and stand, then walk to the edge of the room. I keep my hands out, fanning the air, and when I reach the edge, my hands hit something solid. A wall. The walls are made of something so clear, so pure it’s as if nothing surrounds us at all.
My mind blanks at the impossibility. My head jerks toward the court grounds. How is it that no one can see this room? Then I think of the birds, lying around the castle, no one able to explain why they simply drop out of the sky. I imagine them smashing into an invisible room.
I take in Hart’s dead body again, registering that part of it is machine. Before I’m able to catalog my own ponderings, a knight approaches Sebastian.
“Your Highness,” the knight says in a low but forceful voice. “Excalibur has been attacked.”
Sebastian’s head whips up, and he stares vacantly at the knight.
The mainframe.
It’s here also. I try to spy the control room as the knight continues. “A disk has been lodged in the computer, and it’s decoding the system.” When Sebastian still looks at him as if he’s speaking a foreign language, the knight points outward. “The barrier is coming down.”
I stare out past our glass encasement, but I don’t see… The air shimmers. Panicked, I look above my head. The sky starts to open up. A splinter of black at first, then the bright blue lines mix with the darkness and begin to melt, peeling down all around me. I spin in slow circles as blackness replaces the once-illuminated sky.
I look to Sebastian, a solid lump fixed in my throat like a stone. It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. I was meant to have time. He was meant to have a grieving period before the barrier was taken down. And the antidote?
Where is it?
Carrying out the mission seems pointless. How can I convince Sebastian to command an army when he’s wracked with grief? His eyes are on his father, empty. The Rebels are unaware of everything.
And Outside is opening up all around us.
I have to get to Devlan.
The barrier is coming down. Soon, the monsters that roam the wasteland will be coming for us. I dash toward the lift. There’s no time to waste.