Zelus burst through the roof of the palace, destroying the entire east wing of the royal compound. Around them, the metal wings of the ship screeched through remnants of the palace, bones, wood, brick, and gold tumbling into the gardens below. With a rev of the engines, the ship jolted through the air.

“Clo.” Nyx clutched the armrests of the seat. “I said break down the wall, not break down the whole godsdamn palace.”

“I’ll take your advice into account next time. Shut up and let me fly.”

Unmanned Tholosian military ships launched from Macellan hangars all over the city—One’s tertiary protocol in case of foreign invaders. In the wait for more soldiers to arrive, the Oracle sent up ships to attack and quell a possible invasion before it started, and to keep loss of life to a minimum. They were already getting into attack formation in the skies. Never mind the citizens below. No time for them to evacuate. A sacrifice for the greater whole.

They’d be programmed to feel it was their honor to die.

Do something, Ari, she told herself. There’s an answer here. Concentrate. Focus on your numbers, on your counting. One, two, three, fourfivesixseven—

“Fly through the city streets to evade,” Ariadne breathlessly ordered, slipping her hand inside her jumpsuit to grab her tablet.

“The ship’s too big,” Cato argued. Zelus was meant for a hundred crew. “Maybe if we had something smaller . . .”

“Don’t remind me,” Clo said with a glare. “You’re the one who blasted Asteria into the aether.” She sped the ship up. Not fast enough.

“We don’t have time for this,” Ariadne snapped. “Find the widest streets!”

“Are you sluiced?” Clo’s panicked shout echoed through the command center as she evaded projectiles from the attacking Tholosian ships. “They’re streets, not asteroid fields, Ari!”

Ariadne’s fingers flew over the tablet as she pulled up the schematics for the tertiary-protocol ships on Macella. “I’m going to try to hack into the ships’ mainframe to turn off the Oracle the way I did for Zelus when I escaped with Nyx and Rhea. Since it’s remote, it won’t be for long, but it should give us enough time to run.”

“How long?”

Ariadne paused briefly to consider. “Thirty seconds.”

“One minute,” Clo insisted.

“Forty-five at most,” Ariadne argued.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Clo muttered, thrusting the throttle forward. She took a breath as the ship sliced through the air toward the towering tenements of the city. “Say a prayer, marshholes.”

Clo dodged more projectiles and swooped through the streets of the capital. Outside the palace’s walled compound, the roads were more winding.

“Left, Clo,” Ariadne commanded. “Go left!”