I turn and see the far door begin to buckle. A claw, sharp and long and black, cuts through the door from the other side—a metal door. A bolt explodes out and, with a whine, shoots past my head, out into the vast ether. I figure we’ve got about a minute left. Sixty seconds, before iron-hard talons eviscerate us.

I look out the open side again. “I can’t see any pathways,” I say.

BOOM!

Malik spins his smoking gun. “They’ll come,” he says. “They have to.”

We stare into the sky, waiting. Nothing comes.

SKKRAAAAA­AAAAA­AAAAA­AAAK!

The screech is close this time—inside the car.

I turn and see that a Reaper has broken through enough of the metal to shove part of its head into the space. Malik points his weapon and fires, point-blank.

The muzzle flash is close. The sound, earsplitting.

Then no sound at all, as if a wodge of cotton wool has been stuffed into each of my ears. I look at Vidhan. He’s shouting something.

Finally, his voice reaches me, tinny and faraway. “Look!”

I turn and see them—wavy lines, like heat rising. A dazzling vertical river, rushing up into the sky.

We step back together. Three. Four. Five paces. We stand in a line and face the open side of the carriage. I look out at the bottomless void. I look at the sky and I see Reapers. They’ve circled around and now bomb in towards us.

“Ready?” Malik says.

I nod and say nothing. Vidhan gives me a two-fingered salute. Akuji tips her head at me—a fleeting gesture, beyond any recognition I’ve seen from her yet.

See you on the other side, she thinks into my head.

“There’s just one thing,” Vidhan says.

“What’s that?” I ask.

He gives me a lopsided grin. “I bloody hope ya can swim.”

Akuji laughs. A sharp sound. It’s the first time I’ve heard her laugh. And then I realise, it’s the first time I’ve heard any sound from her at all.

“Now!” Malik shouts. And we run.

And we leap.

40

This happens as soon my toes leave the edge of the freight car:

—

First we lift. We’re not hammered by the fierce sideways wind I expect, or sucked down by gravity. We fly upward. Upward. I see Vidhan wielding his knife, stabbing, hacking at Reapers. Malik firing his pistol.

—

Then we float. The air becomes jelly and the Reapers blur and vanish. Here it is: the weightlessness, my stomach in my throat, the air warping. I look at Malik and grab his hand. His hair is a halo around his face. Time slows.

—