I was still reeling from the surprise of seeing Velnias upstairs with Laughlan and Vesta. Zane and I had been the first to reach the top side, just a few minutes ahead of the rest of our team. We’d yet to hear about how he’d made it safely away from the daemons hunting him, but there wasn’t any time for chitchat at this point, anyway.

Once we were all reunited in the cloaking spell, Vesta hugged her parents, while we briefly confirmed what each of us had accomplished, though most of it was clear as day, since we had all the delegation prisoners safe with us, as well as Zane.

“We let some of the pacifists loose and left them with our skeleton key,” I said, prompting Harper to chuckle.

“We did the same,” she replied with a grin.

“Great minds think alike, obviously,” Zane chimed in, smirking.

“Okay, we need to go. Now,” Vesta cut in, then nodded at Laughlan and Velnias.

From what I could see, they’d connected all the fuses to two thick bundles. They held both of them up, motioning for Caia to do the honors.

“Once these babies are lit, we’ve got a couple of minutes, tops, to get as far away from the palace as possible,” Laughlan said.

We could hear the rumbling of boots and angry growls echoing through the tunnel. More daemons were coming, but we’d managed to significantly slow them down, given the pile of charred bodies that Caia and Blaze had left behind.

Caia then flipped her lighters on and sent out two wisps of amber fire at both fuse bundles. They lit up in white flames, burning fast as Velnias and Laughlan dropped them on the floor. I watched the fires consume the dozens of strings, then vanish beneath the faux-bookshelf door.

“Go!” Vesta breathed.

We slipped through the cloaking spell and ran fast. We glided down the palace stairs, having one last look at its beautiful interior architecture. It was truly a shame that it all had to come down, but we had no other choice.

The first moon was up, with the second one gleaming somewhere in the east, just above the horizon. There were plenty of daemons out roaming through the city, too, but we were all invisible and fast. Harper used her True Sight to scan the surrounding area, looking for red lenses as we left the palace behind us.

As soon as we reached the bottom of the stairs, I heard the first boom. It was low, seeming quite distant, but the ground shaking beneath us reminded me that it came from inside the library. The second boom followed, reverberating throughout that entire section of the city, swiftly followed by the third, which prompted us to hold still while trying to stay upright.

The tunnel collapsed, the thundering of stone crashing and crumbling sending shivers down my spine. The screams of daemons echoed out of the palace but were muffled by a fourth explosion. That one took place in the palace. The shockwave caused the stained-glass windows to explode outward. The walls started coming down, disintegrating like sandcastles, as bright orange rolls of fire swallowed everything in their path and cast an amber light against the tourmaline sky.

I held my breath, watching the splendor of Kerentrith’s palace consumed by fire. Ashes and black dust sprayed out through every possible hole, as if the building had suddenly turned into a volcano, spewing its fiery bowels outward.

“The secret is figuring out where the structural pillars are,” Laughlan said, staring at the disaster unfolding before us.

When the ground floor collapsed and the rest of the palace came crashing down, I understood what they’d done with the explosives. Sure, they’d rigged the tunnel halfway through, sealing the daemons and condemning them to death by crushing, but they’d also loaded the palace’s main pillars, the ones supporting the upper levels, with the same mix of explosive powders.

It brought the entire building down in a process similar to that of a controlled demolition, only much louder, more dramatic, and downright fiery. On top of that, the flames were quick to spread into the surrounding areas. The blaze traveled through every wood beam, every tree, plant, and bush growing carelessly through the city.

“Keep moving, kids,” Velnias said. “It’s not over yet!”

I immediately understood what he meant, when the angry roars of daemons rippled through the other parts of the city above us. We headed down to the ground level, just as another throng of daemons poured through the central market and spilled through the cobblestoned alleys.

“There’s at least three hundred more of them,” Harper breathed as we continued to run down the main street. “Blaze is still injured and we need to keep the prisoners safe, but I think running away is still our best option!”

“We’ve got the horses waiting for us, hidden on the western side, right?” I asked, occasionally stealing glances at Zane running by my side.

The surface alarms started blaring. There were still too many daemons out there, and the alarms served to call back any of the grunts still patrolling the city and the areas around the hill base. Soon enough, they were all going to converge on our location.

“Dammit, we underestimated their remaining numbers,” Vesta cursed under her breath.

The fire from the palace continued to spread, giant orange flames licking at the sky behind us. The daemons were less than a hundred yards away, and it was only a matter of time before they got to us. The shrills of Death Claws made my blood curdle. The winged beasts climbed out from different corners of the city, then took flight, gliding toward us. Collared pit wolves snarled as they got ahead of the daemon horde, rushing down the street and rapidly closing the distance between us.

“We can make it,” Harper replied. “We can still make it!”

“Blaze, hop on Zane’s back,” I shouted at the dragon, who gave me an offended look. “Yeah, save your ego for later! Get on his back!”

“What about my ego?” Zane shot back with a raised eyebrow. I mirrored his expression, and it seemed to be enough. He put his arms out while running, in perfect sync with Blaze, who jumped and climbed on his back. Zane then coiled his arms around Blaze’s thighs and, unsurprisingly, started to pick up speed.

I glanced over my shoulder and noticed that, out of the delegation prisoners, Rayna and Ryker were the weakest, while Caspian was almost back at full capacity. “Rayna, jump on my back!” I said.

The fae didn’t wait to be told twice and hopped on. She was petite and light as a feather, poor thing, making my run virtually indistinguishable from before. If anything, both Zane and I were running faster than before, and getting ahead of the group.

Ryker jumped on Jax’s back, while the rest managed to keep up as we increased our speed. Harper pushed out several barriers, and Caia delivered an angry flurry of fireballs at our pursuers. Even Laughlan and Ryker released several orbs of blue fire that burst white hot when the pit wolves inadvertently ran through them.

It was enough to cripple the beasts, leaving Caia some room to focus on firing blazing projectiles at the Death Claws, which were now getting dangerously close. The city grumbled and trembled in our wake. Walls and towers collapsed as the flames from the demolished palace continued to spread.

“The winds!” I said, noticing the thick columns of black smoke billowing from the palace. “Vesta, the winds!”

Vesta nodded and put her arms out, the air rippling around her slender fingers. As a fae, Vesta had control over more than one element. While Caia fired at the Death Claws, Vesta was able to manipulate the winds around the city, pushing the smoke toward us. A sheet of dark fumes soon covered us, obscuring the view of the remaining Death Claws. It even made it difficult for the daemons and pit wolves to reach us, as the smoke reduced their visibility to one, maybe two feet in front of them, at most.

They were so desperate to get to us that they continuously scrambled against, bumped into, and tripped on one another, as they struggled to catch us before we hit the bottom of the hill. I looked ahead, watching the road get covered in black smoke. Gusts of warm wind continued to spread the plumes of smoke around, aiding us in our escape.

My heart thundered, my breath was cut short, and sweat covered my sooty face, but I had plenty of strength left. Almost there. I felt Rayna’s grip on me tighten. She was afraid, and I couldn’t blame her, but even an entire army of daemons and their monsters didn’t stand a chance against my will to live.

“Don’t worry, Rayna,” I muttered softly. “We’ll be out of here soon.”