SERINA

SERINA HELPED THE women on the balcony secure the handful of surviving guards with their own shackles. One of them lunged forward, shouting.

Anika shot him in the face.

The rest were quiet after that.

“We should kill all of them,” Anika said. Her cheek and one of her arms were streaked with blood, and a bruise marred her temple.

“We can’t.” Serina put herself between Anika’s firearm and the guard she was pointing it at. “We might need them for leverage. They might have special ways they communicate with the mainland, or codes to unlock the rations or something. We should wait.”

Anika lowered the weapon, a little too slowly for Serina’s taste, seeing as it was pointed at her belly now. “Fine,” the girl said. “I’ll wait for now.”

But she spit on the nearest guard as she stalked over to help lead them down the stairs.

Serina collected all the guards’ weapons and left them in a pile in the back corner of the balcony. She’d have to ask Val if there was a safe place to store them in the guards’ compound. She prayed no guard had remained behind during the fight. She had no desire to continue this war.

Serina turned back to the carnage. Slash lay crumpled over the body of a guard, her eyes unseeing. Serina knelt next to her body and put a hand on her shoulder. Today was Slash’s victory.

Serina helped carry body after body down the stairs. They laid each out carefully on the stone stage, now sticky and red with blood.

Thirty-two guards were dead, including Commander Ricci.

The death toll among the women was higher. Oracle lay with at least forty other women. Ember sat in the blood next to her and held her hand, sobbing. Serina had never seen the fierce woman look anything but in control.

Val stood a few feet away. He didn’t move much; maybe he didn’t want to draw attention to himself, now that he was the only guard not dead or restrained. The women seemed to understand he was on their side. But Serina noticed from a distance that he kept a hand on his firearm.

Serina stumbled across Jacana’s body at the edge of the stage. She was curled into a ball, looking even smaller in death. Tears slipped down Serina’s cheeks. The girl had been so scared of the fights, so convinced she would die here, and Serina hadn’t been able to save her.

Val made his way to Serina. They stood with Jacana’s body between them, and Serina wondered if it was a distance they could breach.

“I should have—” she began.

“I couldn’t leave—”

They stopped.

“They used her as bait,” Serina said. The tightness in her chest hadn’t loosened. “To get to me.”

Val’s jaw tensed. “I shouldn’t have told you what to do. I should have respected your choice.”

Serina walked around Jacana to meet Val on the other side. “You didn’t leave without me.”

He held her gaze. “You launched a rebellion.”

She wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

Had she saved lives by upending the system? Or cost more? What happened when the Superior found out and sent forces to take them all out?

Serina looked around. A lot of women were milling around without purpose. Others were wrapping the bodies in sheets retrieved from Hotel Misery. There no longer appeared to be separations among the different crews.

“We’ll need a system to distribute the rations Commander Ricci was hoarding,” she said, staring at the gaunt faces. “And a place to keep the captured guards. And a way to deal with the boat guards when new prisoners arrive.” Maybe, somehow, they could keep the Superior from finding out. At least until they were ready to defend themselves.

“I can get you access to the rations, and there are a few holding cells in the guards’ compound. The boat… well, we probably have a week or so before the next one arrives. We’ll figure it out.” He gave her hand a brief squeeze. “The worst is over.”

Serina eyed him, but didn’t reply. The worst might be over on Mount Ruin. But she wasn’t planning to stop here.

She led him to the far side of the amphitheater, where Anika and several other girls from Hotel Misery were training firearms on the captured guards.

“Anika, this is Val,” Serina said. “He’s going to show you where to take the guards. He also knows where there’s extra food. Bring it back here and we’ll split it evenly among the crews.” She expected the girl to question her, to smile a dangerous smile. But to her surprise, Anika gave her a short, businesslike nod.

“Traitor,” one of the captive guards hissed, glaring at Val. Anika elbowed him in the nose. With a moan, he subsided. The other guards stared into the barrels of their own firearms, still trained on them by Anika’s comrades.

“You’ve got this?” Serina asked, shifting her gaze from Val to Anika. Would Val be safe with these women, who were so ready to kill all the guards who’d oppressed them?

“We’ve got this,” Val replied firmly. He ran a hand through his unruly hair.

Anika nodded. As Serina turned away, the girl added, “I thought you were weak. But you had a plan this whole time, didn’t you? It only took you a few weeks to take them all down.”

Serina would never have expected Anika to look at her with respect. And she knew enough not to tell the girl the truth—there had been no plan, save getting the crews to talk to each other. There was no plan now.

“Mount Ruin burns the weak out of you,” she said instead.

Anika smiled a little. They were both fighters now.

With a last glance at Val, Serina headed back down to the stage. She found Cliff sitting on a bench a few feet from the array of bodies. She was twisting her hands together, triumph and fear flitting across her wide, plain face.

“Cliff,” Serina called, drawing the woman’s attention. “You know any of the women in the other crews?”

Cliff nodded, returning her focus to the dead.

“Can you organize a group to take the dead guards to the cliffs and commit them to the sea?” Serina asked.

Cliff stood up abruptly. “I can do that.”

Serina patted her shoulder. Then she went looking for Ember.

The hike up the mountain was harder that night, with the weight of Oracle’s body on her shoulders. But Serina felt lighter too. The stars burned holes in the sky, and the greasy flicker of torches lit a long line through the darkness. There were many sisters to honor tonight.

But Oracle was first.

Fire, breathe

Water, burn

Terror, wane

Your reign is over.

Fire, breathe

Water, burn

Stars, lead the way

Your sister is here.

Serina sang the words for Oracle and Jacana.

But they were also for Val’s mother, and Petrel, and Slash, and all the women who’d fought and died here.

And they were for the living too.

When the last body sent up its last shower of sparks, a voice, hoarse from singing, asked, “What do we do now?”

In the red glow of the volcano, Serina saw face after face turn to her.

She took a deep breath. She’d managed to survive Mount Ruin by bringing these women together. But there was still so much more to do.

Someday, when she saw Nomi again—it was when now, not if, she was certain—she would apologize. She’d always thought there was no value in fighting back, that it did no good.

But Nomi had been right to rebel. It was worth it. Fighting back could change the world.

No. It would change the world. Serina would make sure of it.