Chapter 36 · Deliveries for a Falling City

The ballroom ceiling came down in a rain of crystal.

Lio shoved Cael sideways as the chandelier tore free. It struck the marble where they had stood, exploding into a storm of light and razor-edged shards. Heat rolled across the room a heartbeat later. Somewhere beneath the floor, something vast dragged a claw through the foundations.

The entire palace groaned.

Not like a building settling. Like a ship splitting open.

Cael caught himself against a broken pillar, one hand clamped around his burned throat. The scar there pulsed red beneath his fingers. His face had gone gray, but his eyes stayed fixed on Lio.

—Midnight, he said. —How long?

Lio glanced toward the tall windows. The sky beyond them had turned the color of bruised steel. Veyra’s lower districts hung beneath the palace in layers of glowing platforms, bridges, and suspended neighborhoods. Normally, the city’s anchor chains shone gold through the mist.

Six of them had gone dark.

A seventh chain flickered once, then vanished.

—Less than an hour, Lio said.

A roar rose from below. The floor buckled. Tables slid across the ballroom, carrying crystal goblets and half-eaten food toward a widening crack. Blue fire leaked through the stone.