Taavi is a few steps behind us and her mother’s on a cart with wheels being pushed by a Macazi. She can walk, but she’s very weak and very slow. So after Taavi had argued me down that her mother had no business going with us—and me not budging at all on the topic (because who leaves their mother living like that!?)—Taavi came up with the cart as a solution. It’s how they move around large amounts of goods underground. And the Seer is so petite, she fits right in. I don’t like that it’ll slow us down immensely. But I wasn’t leaving her behind. She has some sort of magic, she knows things, and I want her by my side.

“Give her some water,” Taavi says to someone as if she can read my thoughts. I slow up to walk beside her.

“There’s food, too, if she’s hungry.”

Taavi cuts a glance at me. “She eats at sunrise and dusk.”

I mean, there were definitely days back home a syrup sammich for dinner was about all I ate, but that wasn’t because we had food. “Uhhh… because?”

She purses her lips. “Because she doesn’t have much of an appetite the rest of the day.”

“And—”

“Look, she’s my mother, alright? I’ll handle making sure she’s okay.” She reshoulders her bag. “Worse than Totsi, I swear,” she says under her breath.

“I mean, you keep her locked away like a prisoner. She’s lonely, can’t you tell?”

“I don’t have to explain myself to you. She is my mother and that wasn’t part of our agreement. Drop it.”

There’s that steel resolve she had when we first met.

“She’s your mom, but she’s rolling with me. Make sure she has everything she needs. I’m not asking.”

And there’s mine.

“You don’t know her,” Taavi says as I walk faster to catch back up with Bri and Julius. “Don’t be so quick to make assumptions about her. She’s done terrible things.”

Something about her tone doesn’t sit right with me, but I keep walking. Their relationship is a tangled web of emotions… clearly.

Crack.

The ground buckles beneath my feet, a rift zigzagging toward me, and I freeze. Screams ring out from the masses behind me.

Crack.

A trap.

Shit.

The ground shakes again and pops spark like someone dropped a firecracker next to my foot. What in the— Heat rises through my shoes like the pops or whatever are burning holes in my soles. I inspect the rubber and steam rises off it. Oh my god!

“What’s happening?” someone screeches. Crack. Crack. Lights pop all over the pavement with every step we take like we’ve stumbled on a magical land mine.

The sounds of screaming and howls of pain scratch my ears.