My ears popped from the sudden change in pressure, the semi-sterile scent of the church mingled with burning fuel and blood. A chunk of something impacted my head and sent me reeling, stumbling backwards until I caught myself on a wall, blinking painfully through a wave of blinding dust so thick it acted like a smokescreen.

When it faded, Mantle was frozen in the center of the room. There was an oversized messenger bag on his shoulder that hadn’t been there before, filled with the lux from the crate. He must have assumed we were under attack and moved quickly to secure it when the ceiling caved in—but that decisiveness under pressure evaporated the moment he looked up.

Two giant orange eyes stared down at us, framed by an endless mass of craggy blue skin. For a split-second, I had an uncanny urge to scream. How the fuck had it found us?

As if answering my question, the creature’s eye centered on the lux in Mantle’s bag. It roared, and a scaly hand reached down towards him.

I reached out with

MOVE

“Shit, shit, shit!” Mantle threw himself to the side, one of the black nails on the monster's fingers puncturing carpet and floor inches from where he landed.

I toggled the on and used the wall to launch myself forward. Despite the mental sluggishness, my physical movements felt light and nimble. I looped a hand around Mantle’s arm and dragged him upward, half running, half staggering towards the door frame. screamed, and I forced Mantle downward, both of us flat on our stomach as the reptilian hand swung through the air above us, landing with enough force to shatter the closest wall.

“Go!” I yanked him back up again and sprinted for the long hallway.

The lizard, seemingly tiring of trying to grab us through the building, took a more direct approach. Gigantic fists reigned down massive blows that obliterated the surrounding architecture.

I danced between the falling debris, pinging every few seconds as I threaded needle after needle, dragging Mantle along with me. But there was too much happening at once for that method to be effective. A wooden beam fell like a toppled tree, smashing against my shoulder and sending a wave of numbness down my left arm.

If the beam had hit my head, that would have been it. Out cold at best.

Mantle was full-blown panicking. He’d fallen after the beam struck me, and was scrambling ineffectively to return to his feet, slipping on the dust. The messenger bag’s straps had fallen down his arm, and the bag itself stuck out towards me, as if it was daring me to take it.

Survival of the fittest whispered gleefully

The thought was tempting. It would be child’s play to tear the satchel off Mantle’s shoulder. In the chaos, he probably wouldn’t even notice until I was gone. Securing all ten lux was the safest way to guarantee my receptacle was filled. But something stopped me. Probably because, among a myriad of unknowables, that was at least one purpose of the transposition. To push us to the brink. Make us turn on each other. Expose us for who we really are.

Not for the first time, my mind went back to the people I’d met. How Miles—a fed, and one of the few people who knew what a necromancer was capable of—had come back for me, when anyone in their right mind would have left. The way that Kinsley had my back, going far above and beyond the terms of our agreement. And the tragically short-lived cohesiveness of my first group: Sae, Jinny, and Nick. We’d only been together for a moment in time. Maybe, in some alternate universe, that group would have cracked as time went on. Turned on each other.

But I didn’t think so.

Even now, it was so easy to picture them at my side. Jinny, unloading spell after spell into the massive lizard, covering us as Nick stood at the front emitting that golden glow, shielding us from debris. Sae hanging back and making snarky remarks about how useless Mantle was, as she used her abilities to buff our weapons.

Mantle wasn’t the Overseer. Or a suit, or one of the assholes from region three. He was just some guy trying to make sure his region was safe. Just like the rest of us.

I hauled him up again. “Come on.”

“There’s nowhere to go.” Mantle’s face was a grim rictus of panic.

I glanced around, and found that he was right. Piles of rubble from the decimated upper level had added up, collapsing both connecting hallways. Either accidentally or intentionally, the giant lizard had trapped us.

There was only one avenue left. Above us was the decimated second floor, revealed through one of the many holes in the ceiling. A collection of broken walls, rubble, and shattered floors led upwards, to the roof of the cathedral.

“No choice. Have to go up.”

“How—“ He spotted the half-hazard obstacle course from hell. “Are you insane?”

I shoved him hard towards it, pivoting as the lizard roared. The path was as temporary as it was unsafe. Any more damage to the building and the path would collapse completely.

Mantle jumped, hauling himself onto a shattered wall and moving slowly. I used to ensure he landed safely during the more perilous maneuvers, prodding him forward with when he hesitated. My belt made navigating the path behind him easier, though easier was a relative term. I glanced up at the lizard. Hungry orange eyes stared down. It had stopped attacking the church, and it wasn’t hard to understand why. If its intention was to flush us out, we were already leaving. All it had to do was wait.

I clambered upward, clinging tightly to the steep angled roof of the cathedral behind Mantle. For the first time, I had a clear and unobstructed view of the lizard. Now that I saw it, I realized how inaccurate that descriptor was. Luminescent blue skin aside, when you factored its angular head and scaly wings that couldn’t possibly support its weight, the creature was really more of a dragon.

It reared back with a triumphant roar, rising to its full height. A dull blue glow at the back of its throat grew unimaginably bright.

I tackled Mantle, sending a mental command to Audrey. She unfurled, returning to plant form, and looped a vine around the crucifix mounted on the cathedral’s steeple and another around my waist and Mantle’s upper-body as we slid down the opposite side of the roof from the dragon. The vine snapped taut, leaving us dangling several feet from the rooftop in open air. There was a sheer drop below. Long, but survivable.

”Drop us, then get the hell out—“

The surrounding temperature must have climbed fifty degrees. An unbearable heat washed over me. Audrey’s vines went slack immediately as a growing wreathe of blue fire spread over the rooftop.

I fell hard, barely managing to keep my feet beneath me. Grass cushioned the fall. My vision blacked out for a moment, returning to me slowly as I tried to steady myself. Somewhere in the distance, I heard a car’s engine.

“We… need to get… to the road.” When no one answered, I looked around for Mantle. I saw him sprinting for the front of the cathedral, casting a nervous glance over his shoulder. The guilt in his expression told me everything I needed to know.

Motherfucker

I took off after him, closing distance quickly. Either he wasn’t particularly high-level or hadn’t put any points in agility. But something was wrong. My vision began to tunnel, the wide cone of narrowing to a circle no larger than a flashlight beam.

A maroon SUV with untinted windows screeched to a stop, the side panel door sliding open as Mantle leapt into it. I drew and threw it towards the car. My throw went wide, but Talia reacted perfectly, emerging from the knife in a cloud of smoke and snarling, racing towards the car.

She got halfway in, blocking the door with her body as Mantle tried to slam it closed. I heard panicked voices within, as the SUV started, then stopped, then started again. Somehow, I had the cognizance to change my angle of approach, aiming for where the SUV would be, rather than where it was.

A boot to the face dislodged Talia from the SUV, sending her into a painful looking tumble. But she’d bought me the time I needed.

As the dragon roared behind us, I launched myself off the asphalt and through the still open door.