And Ana had failed.

She stepped up to the tomb’s door, her grip so tight on the crown, the prongs left indentations in her palms.

Di screamed on the ground, curling into himself.

The crown fit perfectly into the groove, and she twisted it to the right. There was a thunk, and the dozens of turning tumblers began to shift and click, rotating into place like cogs in some of the ancient clock towers on Eros. As it revolved, she began to recognize the sharp lines and circles, the connecting dots and the strange angles.

It was a map of the Iron Kingdom, and the crown was the sun.

What have I just done?

When the last tumbler fell into place, the door popped open with a sigh.

And Di stopped screaming. He untangled his fingers from his hair, his hands shaking, and glanced up to her. And for the first time since he had been HIVE’d, Ana thought she saw something familiar in his face, only for a moment, before it disappeared and he rose to his feet.

Mellifare was smiling so wide, her eyes shone. “Now that was not hard, was it?”

“Why are you toying with me?” Ana asked, her voice shaking. “Why don’t you just kill me?”

“Oh, because I will enjoy turning you into a Metal all the more. You saw inside my dreadnoughts, did you not? It is so poetic—to trap the Goddess in an android. I could kill you twice then, and bring you back, and kill you again, and again, and again. It will be exquisite.”

She fisted her trembling hands. But I’m not the Goddess—I don’t have another life to try to stop you.

Talle’s grenade was growing heavy in her coat.

“I think the worst part of all this,” Mellifare went on, hands placed neatly behind her back as she came up beside her and looked down into the darkness of the tomb, “is that you still think you have a chance to win. Under all that skin and bone, somewhere in that fleshy heart of yours, you think you can still stop me.” Her voice lowered. “You could not even stop me from taking the Metal you loved.”

But a part of Di was still with her, tucked deep in her pocket, small and square. Love didn’t have to be a big thing. It just had to be present, and she carried him wherever she went, and it gave her all the hope she needed.

There is a 97.3 percent chance that you are about to make a terrible decision, she heard his voice in her head. Yeah, he would say something like that. Terrible decision or not, it was the only plan she had.

And she had to try.

So she shoved the ancient doors wide and ran down the steps, into darkness.

Emperor

“After her,” Mellifare ordered.

Obeying, he followed the Empress into the tomb and descended the steps. The tomb was much deeper than he’d thought. Mellifare followed, humming happily under her breath. He felt her, a soft and subtle pulse of song. His functions still felt jittery from the pain. Mellifare had summoned it without warning, and it left a strange, ringing sound in his ears. He could remember little else.