“No.” I grasped my knees, trying to catch my breath. “Unless—”

“Unless?”

“12. The oracle, the red-jacket. He said something about an alternative plan.”

“Let’s just focus on getting out of here.” Nick glanced at Warden, then looked back at me. “Where’s the entrance to the tunnel? It was light when we arrived.” The meadow was pitch-black now, too dark to navigate.

“Not far,” Warden said.

“Right.” Nick looked at his old Nixie watch. He wiped his upper lip with a shaking hand. “Did Binder make it?”

“You can use his real name, Nick.” I could feel sweat running down my neck. “He knows.”

“Mr. Hall and three of your companions are in the meadow, waiting for you,” Warden said. His eyes stayed on the city. “Paige, I recommend you use one of those flares. You still have time.”

Nick went to the sally port, where Jaxon seemed to be studying the ethereal fence. I went to stand beside Warden.

“I am sorry about Liss,” he said.

“So am I.”

“I will see to it that Gomeisa does not forget her death.”

“You didn’t kill him?”

“We were interrupted by the explosion. Gomeisa was much stronger than us, having fed, but we did weaken him. The fire in the Guildhall may have done the rest.”

He was still wearing gloves, even now. Something twinged inside me: hurt, perhaps. Had I thought he would change so easily?

Warden didn’t take his eyes off mine. The golden cord shivered, just a little. I didn’t know what he was trying to transmit, but I was suddenly more focused, more resolute. I grasped the handle of the flare gun. Warden took a step back. I found a point above the meadow, cocked the hammer, and turned my head away.

The flare hung above the meadow, bursting out signal after signal. I watched it scorch and smoke as I stood beside Warden. Red light flickered in his eyes, and at our feet.

I looked past the flare, to the stars. This might be the last time I ever saw the stars like this, in a city without light, without smog. Or perhaps one day the whole world would look like this. The world under Nashira’s hand. One great dark prison city.

Warden placed a hand on my back. “We must go.”

I walked with him to the sally port. When he opened the gate, the voyants and amaurotics—eight of them—moved through into the meadow. When we were on the other side, he pulled the gate wide open and took out another vial. He had more vials than a gallipot.

The contents were pale and crystalline. Salt. He poured a thin line of it across the port. I was about to ask about the Emim when Jax grabbed me by the arms and slammed me against a post. I could feel the power of the fence, so close my hair crackled.