She’s going to die. What did Constantine’s soldier inject her with? I stare in horror at Talin’s face, the bluish hue of her lips and the tips of her ears, utterly helpless.

The gate opens for us, then quickly closes. Guards swarm the path protectively behind us. Several servants rush immediately toward the carriage as it comes to a halt in front of the estate. But even though Talin is the one barely conscious, no one dares to approach her.

At last, I see Mayor Elland rushing down the steps and hurrying toward us. “Aside, aside!” she says impatiently as I step out of the carriage with Talin in my arms. Beside the mayor runs a young woman in a lab coat, one of the Chief Architect’s former assistants.

And with them, her white hair pulled tightly back, her broken arm still in a sling, is Talin’s mother, rushing to be with her daughter.

“The soldiers injected her with a poison,” I say in a rush as her mother reaches us.

Talin’s mother chokes out a sob at the sight of her, then starts ushering us inside. “She’s still breathing,” she says in a rush.

“She’s ice cold,” I add.

“It’s a calming serum,” the lab worker tells us as we burst into the estate’s main hall and into a dining room. A table has already been cleared for us.

“What for?” the mayor asks.

“The Chief Architect used to keep it on hand in case any of our Skyhunter candidates became overwhelmed and aggressive,” the worker answers. “It’s designed to put them into an unconscious state. Not to kill.” She tightens her lips as I gingerly lay Talin down. “But it will if she doesn’t receive a tonic soon to counter it. It’s not a formula meant to stay in her bloodstream for long.”

Talin’s mother looks sharply at her. “Do you have some of it?”

“We have some supplies from the lab complex,” she says hurriedly, waving at another worker in a white coat to run. “We couldn’t grab everything before the city went to pieces. Go. Go!” she snaps at the other assistant.

Beside the table, Talin’s mother grabs her limp hand and leans down to whisper continuously in her ear. On her other side, Adena stands helplessly, looking on while Aramin keeps a hand on Jeran’s shoulder and watches, the two of them pressed gently to each other side by side. I can only watch.

After a while, I step out. It’s too much to see Talin like this. She had seemed unstoppable, had saved me so many times that, even after all she’s suffered, I’ve come to see her as invincible. And yet, here she is, pale and blue, her skin as cold as the ground.

“She’ll make it,” the mayor says as she approaches my side.

“I know,” I answer, my voice a growl. I still don’t dare look back.

“Raina told me how few of you make it into the Skyhunter program,” she goes on, folding her arms in front of her and giving me a stern look. “None of you go easily. It’s your defining trait. She’ll pull through, if only by sheer force of will. And if she’s anything like that mother of hers, she’ll be up and ravenous by dinnertime.”