Chapter 25 · Wanted by the Whole Sky

The city screamed before it began to fall.

Veyra’s warning bells erupted from every tower at once, a metallic storm that shook dust from the rafters of Finch & Fetch. Outside, the floating city lurched hard enough to throw a row of parcel crates across the station floor. Glass burst from the upper windows. Somewhere below, an entire street groaned as its anchor pylons tore against the wind.

Lio caught Mara before she slid from the worktable.

“Easy,” Lio said, bracing her with one arm. “Don’t move too fast.”

Mara’s fingers closed around Lio’s jacket. Her face had gone gray beneath the blood drying at her temple, but her eyes burned with a new copper light. It pulsed beneath her irises like molten metal under thin ice.

“I’m not moving,” Mara muttered. “The whole shop is.”

Another tremor rolled through the station. The ceiling dipped. A shower of plaster rained down between them.

Cael slammed one hand against the nearest support beam. Black veins of energy crawled from his palm, wrapping the timber in a dark, glassy shell. The beam stopped shuddering.

For half a second, he looked at Lio.

His skin was bloodless.