I look in and see a woman still breathing, lying exhausted with her head against the wall.

I’d hit the soldier right as he fired. He hadn’t managed a good shot. Talin’s mother is alive. I find myself staring into a face that Talin inherited—that fierce gaze, the proud tilt of her chin, a mixture of both fearlessness and vulnerability. It is the face that birthed the one I love.

What have they done to her? Her face is black and blue, and her left eye is swollen shut. One of her hands is bandaged, the cloth bloody, and her arm is slung in a cast as if it had been badly broken.

In an instant, I know this is what had caused Talin so much agony hours earlier. She had known what they’d done to her mother. I’m glad that Talin isn’t here to see her like this. My breath escapes in a rush as I hurry to her side.

Even though she is injured, that fire hasn’t died. At the sight of me, her mouth crooks up in a slight smile. The light of recognition flickers in her eyes.

“You,” she croaks out in Maran, then frowns. “You haven’t been eating well.”

She’d just gone through torture, but the first thing out of her is concern that I’m not eating enough.

I can’t help smiling at her, in spite of everything. “I hope I get another of your meals, ma’am,” I tell her. “Let’s go.”

“Your language has improved a little,” she manages to say as I fold my wings away and hoist her onto my back. She lets out a groan of pain as she gingerly adjusts her cast against me.

As I head out, other guards catch up to us. I grit my teeth and lunge at the first one, knocking him in the head with my own. He stumbles back, losing his grip on his gun. I seize it from him and fire a shot back. It hits him hard in the shoulder, a huge, heavy bullet that does enough damage to leave him collapsed and screaming. This is the kind of weapon they were going to use on Talin’s mother?

Another swings a blade at us—I duck low, then encircle Talin’s mother with my arms and shield her with my body. We run down the steps.

An alarm is blaring somewhere, a horn that makes my head ring. I recognize the sound—I’d participated in drills for this when I was still a young soldier. It means all hands on deck. It means we are about to be surrounded by soldiers. Surely the word is being passed down in some urgent line somewhere—before long, Constantine will know that we struck the prison district. This will no longer be a secret. But if we can make it out, it won’t matter. Because we’ll have Talin’s mother, and Talin will be freed.

As I bolt down the stairs, voices echo from above the stairwell and below.

More and more soldiers are appearing. I hurtle into them at the bottom of the staircase, my body curling protectively around the woman in my arms as I extend my wings as far as they can go, striking out, slashing anyone in my way. The anger in me courses through my veins like fire.