Chapter 34 · No Way Out

The blast took the ward fires out first.

One breath the hall was blue — those cold witch-lights the enforcers keep in the iron brackets, the ones that hiss when the wind gets in — and the next breath it was black, and the floor came up and hit me.

I couldn't hear anything but a thin ringing, like a mosquito trapped in my skull.

And under it, low down, something moved. A slow roll. Then a kick, hard, right under my ribs.

Like a fist against the inside of a door.

"Okay," I said, out loud, to nobody. "Okay. I hear you."

Smoke crawled along the ceiling, gray, then lit orange where the east wall was burning. And under the smoke, that smell. Copper and burnt sugar. Silver.

Silver burns cold in a wolf's nose. Even mine. Even after three years of being told my nose didn't count for much.

I got my knees under me and put my palm flat on my stomach. Habit now. The way you check a pocket for keys.

"Briar."

Torin's voice came through the ringing before his hands did. Then his hands — one at my jaw, one on my hip —