Both twins laugh at that. Anger pulses through me, a rising heat in my chest burning away my resolve to avoid violence. The twins may be bigger than me now, but they have no idea what I’m capable of. If I take down Drom first, I can end this quickly. Then they’ll listen to reason. If I take her by surprise—

No. No. I take a deep breath, cold air stifling the flames. These are my siblings, not soldiers I need to put in line. As tempting as it is right now, I don’t want to make them fear me. Surely there’s a better way. I always managed to calm them before. I was the one who taught Momma the best way to talk them down from a tantrum.

But those memories seem very far away now, and when Drom jabs a finger into my back, it takes all of my willpower not to pivot and punch her in the throat. Perhaps noticing the growing rage in my expression, Scorpia finally steps forward, hesitating for a moment before she pushes between me and Drom, her hands held up. She puts her back to mine and forces our sister to take a step back. Some of the tension in my shoulders eases once I’m no longer surrounded.

“Okay, this is stupid,” Scorpia says, swiveling her head to make it clear she’s addressing both twins and myself. “You guys seriously think Momma needs our help? She’s smart, she’s resourceful, she knows people in this city. There’s no way she’s still around. She’s probably back at the ship already, wondering why her idiot children haven’t joined her yet. You guys can punch through your issues later; we need to go.”

Relief hits me. She’s stepping up, and it seems to be working. But though her words look to be calming the twins, they cause a spike of panic to break through my simmering anger. What she says could be true—Momma may have found a way back to the ship already. If the air-strike team made it safely, they could have dropped her there. And if so—if so, she could have left us behind already.

My comm beeps in my pocket. Another news update.

Fort Jaalis is down.

My pulse quickens. One fort stands between the spreading destruction and Drev Dravaask—the fort where I left my team—and we still need to make it through this tunnel and to the ship.

“Let’s get the hell out of here before Momma decides to take off without us,” I say, turning my head to speak to Scorpia over my shoulder. “We should—”

I cut off as pain explodes in my jaw. I stumble back into Scorpia, sending her staggering into Drom. They fall to the ground in a pile of limbs, both cursing and struggling, while I whirl to face Pol.