“Call Tieran. I’m going to get Netta here. We can bust through them ourselves while we wait and get people out of here,” he said, calm in the face of danger.

A plan. Yes, she could execute a plan. She wasn’t helpless here anymore. That was in the past.

Kerrigan braced herself to slip into the spirit plane and call Tieran, but then the Red Masks lobbed black orbs into the crowd. One fell right in front of Clover and Hadrian, who had been huddled together, waiting for direction. Black smoke exploded out of the shattered orb, wrapping around Clover and Hadrian and the people nearest them.

Fordham jerked her cloak up over her face. “Don’t breathe it in.”

Kerrigan couldn’t see anything, but she could hear the shouts as Fordham wrenched her backward, away from the smoke.

“Clover,” she screamed, pulling the cloak down.

But Clover and Hadrian were gone.

Kerrigan turned in a circle, panic seizing her. “Where did they go?”

“I don’t know,” Fordham said. “Gods.”

More buildings were coming down. Kerrigan couldn’t see anything in front of her. The smoke was everywhere. More of the orbs being lobbed into the crowd and taking out the demonstrators.

“I can’t reach Netta. She must be too far away. Tieran?” Fordham asked as he continued to pull her away from the smoke and toward the opening.

“No,” she said. Her throat was scratchy and painful. She must have inhaled some of the smoke because, suddenly, she was coughing and couldn’t seem to stop. Her eyes itched, and tears welled in them. “We need to get out of here. We need to get the others out.”

“Charge the line with me,” he said.

She pulled her magic to her, weak with terror, and followed behind Fordham as they approached the Red Masks at the entrance. But they must have seen them coming because one threw an orange orb into the nearest building. People screamed as it tilted sideways.

“Fordham!”

His eyes widened in fear. Then, in a second, he had his arms around her. Black smoke enveloped him. This was an altogether different feeling, like being trapped in darkness. Secure and content. One minute, the building had been falling on top of them, and the next, she was in shadow.

She dared not breathe as Fordham’s magic swept them away.

33

The Smoke

CLOVER

Clover couldn’t breathe.

Smoke filled her lungs and burned her eyes and choked her throat. Everything was hazy with the substance. Fire burned in the distance, a fiery blur. Screams and screams and more screams. All around her. Coming from her.

“Clover!” Hadrian yelled next to her over the cacophony.