Renzo stared at her with wide eyes.

“This is war,” she said, her voice calm, her mind calm. She was going to get her battle, her rebellion, after all. And it began now. “If the guards live, they can sound the alarm or attack us from behind. They have to die. Do you understand?”

He nodded, but his face paled.

When everyone was free from the heavy metal cuffs, Serina addressed the women, low and urgently. “We planned to go to Azura, but plans change. All of you who wanted to fight back, this is your chance. We’re going to take Asa down. Kill any guards or soldiers you get your hands on, but don’t touch the courtiers and servants. Collect all the weapons you can. Every soldier you kill, take his firearm, his knife, whatever he has.”

Anika sidled up to Serina and took one of Renzo’s knives. “You think we can do this?”

“We fight back.” Serina tightened her hand on the hilt of her knife. “Always.”

She’d rather die fighting than on display, like Ember. This was for Ember.

And for her family.

Serina and Anika slipped into the hall, leading Renzo, Val, and the rest of the women of Mount Ruin out of their prison. And together, when a guard rounded the corner, Serina and Anika took him down. Anika grabbed his firearm, Serina his dagger.

They were just getting started.

THIRTY-FOUR

NOMI

NOMI’S SLITHER THROUGH the secret passage went faster this time, with the lamp to guide her. And yet, her feet dragged all the same. Her heart beat so loudly she was sure the people in the rooms she was passing would be able to hear it.

She reached the ladder and kept walking. She counted the doors. Dusty, cobwebbed. Small square panels, tall thin ones, all with tiny doorknobs. She stopped before the final faint rectangle, the entrance to the Superior’s rooms.

She took a deep breath. Closed her eyes, thought of Serina. Of Renzo, safe on his way to Azura. Of her parents, dead on the floor of their apartment.

She thought of Malachi and the hope she held in her heart. Hope that he would be a different kind of Superior, that he would help the women of Viridia. Please, she prayed.

Then she doused the lamp and opened the door.

Moonlight shone into the Superior’s bedroom from a doorway that led to an open terrace beyond. A vast bed took up the right half of the room. A gilded armoire loomed against the other wall below a display of dangerous-looking weapons that gleamed in the dim light. The bed was hung with sheer gold-flecked curtains, partially obscuring the bed itself. She couldn’t tell if Asa was inside, nor if he was alone. What would she do if he wasn’t alone?

A shiver whispered along the back of her neck.