I scrambled up and out of the corner I had tucked myself into when the first charge hit, the jolt of purple sending an explosion of violet flames and wooden shards outward. I managed to make it behind the second partition before they impacted, but I felt the rush of heat behind me, scorching despite the heat-resistant properties of my uniform. I sped up the stairs on all fours, but the second hit caused the entire staircase to shudder, and I lost my balance and fell to one side.

I glanced over my shoulder to see a wash of purple flames consuming the staircase only a few steps below where I had landed, and practically shot away from it as the liquid plasma bubbled from where it clung to the edges of the impact site. Molten drops of the viscous fluid flicked out as one of the bubbles popped, spattering against the steps, several drops hitting just inches from my boots. As soon as they impacted, the drops turned a deep crimson and the wood began to burn, the plasma hot enough to create more flames—orange in color—that began to spread.

I climbed away from it in a belly crawl and reached the top of the stairs. Smoke was beginning to form as the fire grew, and I used a patch of it for cover as I came around the corner.

Lacey was more or less where I had left her, only she had managed to push herself into a sitting position under the desk. “Well, you certainly know how to piss people off,” she said. Another round whizzed past overhead, blasting through the wall behind us. I ducked under the roiling heat of it, and then moved to keep any of the splatter from hitting Lacey.

“I need to take out those guns,” I told her, once the initial shockwave had passed. “But if you stay up here, you’ll burn to death before I can get back to you. Can you move?”

Lacey looked down at her blood-soaked coveralls, and then back up to me. “I think so,” she said. “Are the stairs intact?”

I shook my head and glanced over my shoulder. The last shot had ripped a hole right in the side of the building, and we were only about ten feet off the ground outside. Granted, the wall was on fire, the edges of the hole being melted and burnt away by the plasma, but it was really the only way to get her out safely.

Thank Scipio my lash lines were coated with an iodizing material that made them heat resistant. I just hoped they were up to the task.

“Lacey, I am really, really sorry about this,” I said, jerking a length of line out of my sleeve and giving it a little spin to build up a static charge at the galvanized ends. I snapped it down against her coveralls, avoiding the dark patches of blood.

Her mouth widened into an O, but I ignored that and snapped my other line toward the wall, aiming for a few inches above the hole. I reached out to grab a fistful of Lacey’s uniform for extra support—the lash line on her serving to hold her weight—and then retracted the line that had attached over the hole, surrendering my weight completely to the lash harness so that I was the pulley. There was a sharp tug as the gyros in the harness sprang to life, and suddenly we were hurtling toward the wall.

I winced as we drew near it, eyeing the distance and calculating the odds of us hitting the plasma that clung to the edges of the hole, and then we were swinging through it and out into the darkened space beyond, where the only light was the blue glow of the Core, and the purple-and-orange fires burning behind me. I jammed the hand controls to force the gyros in my harness to begin feeding me slack as we hit the apex of the swing, and we quickly began to descend, swinging back toward the wall. I lifted both legs to brace myself against the wall and kicked off, grunting when Lacey’s weight forced me to go into a deep squat for extra power first. I looked over my shoulder at the ground below, and then slowed our descent speed, timing it to stop just as Lacey’s boots hit the ground.

I let go of her uniform and detached the line holding her, then reversed the controls and shot back toward the hole, courtesy of the line still attached to that inner wall. As much as I wanted to slip away with Lacey, I had no idea what was happening with Dylan and my other Knights, and I wasn’t about to leave them behind to deal with two sentinels. Besides, I was going to need as much help as I could get rushing to the Citadel, and they were the only Knights within spitting distance.

I was also worried about what Alice would do if she didn’t find my body in there. There was little doubt in my mind that she would update Sage, and he would order her to hunt me down. I wouldn’t get too far if they thought I was alive. So if there were any sentinels still in the room, I had to find a way to destroy them, because escaping them was impossible. I wasn’t sure it would help. For all I knew, all the Alices saw what one saw, but at least this way, I could buy us some time to get a lead before the next group of sentinels showed up. If I could, I should try to grab Sadie again. Sage had said he needed her in the Core, so taking her might mean delaying him. But that meant taking out both sentinels.

And with the entire Council Room locked down, the best way to the antechamber was back through the fire.

I tucked myself into a tight ball as the hole loomed closer, the flames much larger than they had been seconds ago. The heat they were emitting was searing, and I could see that the fire was moving even more quickly than I had anticipated, consuming the delicate, three-hundred-year-old wood.

I wanted to weep at the destruction of something so precious, but I couldn’t. Things were going to get a lot worse than that, and soon. So I hardened my heart against it and focused on what I needed to do right now. I squeezed my eyes shut as the heat became sizzling, threatening to boil all of the liquid in my body, and then it was gone, signaling that I was through the hole.

I quickly flipped my momentum forward, planted a steady boot on the first patch of clear floor I could find, and disconnected the line, then took several low steps. Hazy smoke was filling the small space, and though Scipio’s sensors were equipped with thermal scanners, they weren’t going to be working well with the heat being kicked up by the plasma fires. I didn’t think he’d even know I was still here.

I winced when another purple shot tore through the black smoke encompassing the center of the room, and then froze when I saw that it hadn’t been directed at me, but at the door to the antechamber.

“Once more, Scipio,” Alice commanded, now in two voices. “We are almost through.”

Another shot, this time from a different gun, suddenly cut a path through the smoke, and smashed into the door. I realized then that they must’ve assumed I was dead, and then frowned, my fingers moving up to the back of my neck. Scipio should’ve been able to sense that I wasn’t, but for some reason, he didn’t seem to notice. None of the shots were being directed at me.

Which meant he either couldn’t see me, or he was ignoring me. I wasn’t sure which it was, but I wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

“Again!” There was another blast from a third gun, followed by a horrendous tearing sound. “We’re through!” Alice declared gleefully.

“HOLD THE LINE!” Dylan roared through the smoke and fire, and I grew very still, realizing that the sentinels were going to tear through Dylan and the Knights to try to get Sadie out, as per Sage’s orders. I needed to do something to stop them, and quickly.

I swallowed and then peered through the smoke toward where I had seen the last round go off. What I was thinking about was stupid and risky, but it was the only thing I could come up with to save as many of those people as I could. After all, those were my Knights in the next room.

I stood up and spun the lash line in my hand around several times, then threw it up over my head. I didn’t see so much as feel the end hit, and I used the hand controls to launch myself into the air. I flew straight up, and then threw the second line to connect a few feet away, continuing upward.

The smoke here was thicker—which was only one half of the stupidity of the equation—so I held my breath and threw one more line, this time toward the shadowy outline of one of the plasma guns. The lash end hit right next to where the gun was mounted in the ceiling.

I let go of the other line and swung toward the gun, both legs outstretched. It continued to fire, the gun shifting back and forth as Scipio followed Sage’s orders and expended the power reserves of the room, and I landed on it with my feet against the side, then shifted with it for a second while I examined the mounting. The gun was maybe half my height, but I could tell it was made of a lightweight material, given how easily it swung back and forth. There was about three feet of space between the top of the gun and the ceiling, and I quickly straddled what I deemed to be the safest part: a piece of metal just before the ventilation ducts that were radiating heat from the plasma being pumped inside. The vents were angled back, away from where I was sitting, but it was still warm enough to tell me that I couldn’t hold this position for long. The gun sagged under my weight—a promising sign—and I quickly threw a second lash line a few feet away, and then retracted the line.

The gun bucked under me as it fired a shot through the smoke, but I dragged it to the left, moving toward a purple glow that I could barely make out through the haze. The smoke was starting to make my eyes water, and my lungs were already begging me to take a breath, but I ignored all that and continued to move the gun into position. It bucked again, the glowing glob of super-heated plasma cutting a hole through the smoke.

My heart beat once, twice, and then the ceiling across from me erupted in purple flames, illuminating the lines of the opposite gun through the explosion of plasma that I had set off right next to it. I had missed, yes, but the plasma burst had exploded, and lines of plasma were dripping along the sides of the gun. It shook in its mount, starting to swing around to me, but I could see that the plasma was cutting through the metal. The gun was halfway through the spin when it suddenly gave a hard shudder and froze in place, then exploded, chunks of metal and a plume of smoke erupting from where it had been.

I didn’t waste any time resting on my laurels. In fact, I was already retracting the other line and dragging the gun back to the right. Any second, Scipio was going to realize that—

A glimmer of purple to the left of me caught the corner of my eye, and I yelped, detaching the line on that side just as a volley of plasma erupted from the smoke, and threw myself to the right. The burst slammed into the opposite side of the gun, and I had just enough time to throw a second line and start to surrender my weight to it before the gun exploded, the heat and concussive force physically changing my trajectory.

I cried out as the world spun for a second, and then sucked in a deep breath, my lungs begging for oxygen.

I immediately began choking on the smoke filling the air and took a moment to reach into my pocket for the black rubber mask. I hadn’t wanted to use it earlier, knowing that the mask would show up as a dark spot on thermal scans. My body heat would be difficult for Scipio to see through the plasma fires, and a black moving spot on his sensors would only give him a target, but I needed to breathe. The mask went on smoothly, and I took a breath of fresh air as I threw another line, knowing that every second I was still was a second for Scipio to target me.

I was two lash lines away from the gun behind me when another shot came for me, but it missed narrowly, and I could see my next target looming up ahead. It was swiveling toward me, but I was faster, and I slammed into it with both legs, putting as much force as I could into the blow.

It worked. The gun turned away from me—and toward the gun that was shooting at me. There wasn’t much time to aim, but the plasma burst was large. Hopefully large enough to hit the other gun. As long as the containment chamber was breeched, it would explode like the others had.

The gun jerked, firing a round, and I held my breath as I watched it. For a second, it was swallowed up by the black clouds now filling the room. Then another explosion rocked through the decimated Council Room, clearing some of the smoke long enough that I could see that the gun was still there, the shot having missed by several feet.

I gritted my teeth and pushed off the gun, expecting Scipio to take another shot at me, but instead I heard a static pop, followed by, “Liana, I’ve got control of the guns.”

“Rose!” I exclaimed, surprise rippling through me as I threw another lash. “I thought Scipio took you!”

“He did. I willingly copied myself before he could take me, so that a version stayed here. I thought you might need some help.”

I was descending when a serious concern hit me. “Rose, why isn’t Scipio stopping you?”

“He’s distracted. Now, hurry up. Three out of the seven humans in the other room are already deceased. You let me handle my sister.”

I dropped to the floor and landed in an inferno. The fires here raged, the color no longer purple but a bright orange that seemed to consume everything. I could see the door. The hole Dylan had been cutting was open and had been made wider by the plasma shots Alice had been urging Scipio to make.

I didn’t see any sign of the sentinels as I raced across the floor toward the hole, but that didn’t stop me from grabbing my gun from where I had stuck it in my belt earlier, and chambering a round. I only had seven left in the magazine, and I doubted that my little gun would do much against one four-hundred-and-fifty-pound death machine, let alone two of them, but my Knights were dying, and Sadie was going to make her escape. I had to do something.

I stopped just short of the hole and peered through the flaming wreckage to the scene beyond.

“Carnage” was the only word to describe it. The table in the center had been overturned—likely by Dylan, in an attempt to create cover—and smashed to pieces. Blood was splashed everywhere, along with the limbs and body parts of the Knights I had brought with me to help make the arrests.

A wet gurgle caught my ear, and I took a few steps forward and saw Dylan on her back, Emmanual Plancett straddling her. His hands were locked around her throat, the veins on his muscular forearms practically jumping out from under his skin with the intensity with which he was strangling her. She was grabbing his wrists, her legs and hips struggling beneath him, but I could tell she was losing strength.

Standing with its back to me was one of the sentinels. I couldn’t see the second one, but I couldn’t see Sadie, either. They were either hiding in a blind spot on the other side of the room, or they had already escaped.

It didn’t matter. I raised the gun, took a slow breath in, and then exhaled and squeezed the trigger.

I caught Plancett right behind his ear. The effect was immediate. He went limp and slumped to one side, tumbling off Dylan like a puppet whose strings had just been cut. The blond woman jerked to her side, exhaling sharply, but then the sentinel was turning.

The red of the fire behind me turned the silver lines of its body crimson, and they glinted wetly, as if it were dripping rivulets of blood. The gold of its eyes flared.

“Target reacquired. Exterminate with extreme prejudice.”

Then it was sprinting toward me, exploding into motion faster than I thought could be possible. I backpedaled, my finger tensing on the trigger, my sights dead set on its eye. I squeezed the trigger, but the bullet ricocheted off the left side of its head.

I fired again, and this time it streaked along its cheek, creating a trail of sparks.

The sentinel raced toward me, drawing close enough that I could see my death reflected in its silver hide, and I clenched my finger around the trigger and squeezed again, trying to hit its eye.

Miss.

Another miss, sparks flying across the silver dome of the sentinel’s head.

Stumbling on something behind me—a burning piece of debris—I fell on my butt just as the sentinel stepped through the door. I scrambled back, checking over my shoulder to make sure I wasn’t about to crabwalk through any plasma, but was forced to stop when the fire coming from the walls became too intense.

I looked up toward the guns, and then back at the sentinel. “Anytime, Rose!” I shouted, my voice muffled behind the mask.

The sentinel began to run, taking great, bounding leaps across the floor, and I brought up the gun, and remembered how to pray.

The plasma shot caught it in the side just ten feet before it reached me, making me leap back in surprise. The machine slid a few feet and then dropped to its knees, the purple plasma clinging to its body. I stared at it, waiting for the metal underneath to melt away, but to my surprise, the metal only grew red.

“Is it dead?” I asked, slowly getting to my feet.

“I modified the plasma charge intensity so that I didn’t do too much damage to the sentinel. But Alice’s control over it was fried by the EMP that a plasma burst generates. It was a gamble, but I didn’t want to destroy it if I didn’t have to. I need a way out of here.”

That made sense. But it also filled me with unmitigated fear. “Rose, the last time you were in a sentinel…” I said, trying to keep the pain out of my voice as I spoke. I intended to say more, but that was as far as I got.

“I realize that, but Jasper and Leo have been working tirelessly to restore me to what I once was. I’m not going to hurt you, Liana. I intend to protect you. But I need your help. You have to hook the sentinel up to the terminal. And quickly. I’d prefer not to burn to death.”

Suddenly I remembered that the entire Council Room was burning down, and realized she was right. This wasn’t a time to argue. I needed to move—to start her download, and then go check on Dylan and Lacey. Get them all out, and then head up to the Citadel to help the others.

“Tell me what to do,” I said, putting my gun in my pocket and stepping toward the terminal.