“Did you think I’d let any creature live here without immunizing myself to its venom or toxins?” he hissed, then quickly pushed a button on his silvery bracelet and drew two long knives from his belt, pointing them at us. “Just because I’m not a Perfect doesn’t mean I’m not capable of chopping you all up into little pieces.”
Raphael moved to attack him, but my hand shot out to the side, blocking him. “Don’t. He’s already called for backup. If we fight him now, we’ll get stuck when it—”
I stopped myself before I revealed the existence of the explosive charges. It was bad enough that Ta’Zan had made himself immune to devil-viper venom. We couldn’t have him warn anyone about the bombs.
“Then we’re not taking him with us.” Raphael sighed.
He was obviously disappointed, and so was I, but we’d already lost our edge here, and there was less than a minute before it all went off. Ta’Zan was too alert for us to take him on, now. I glanced to my left, where Isda, Amane, and Amal were standing and shaking before Ta’Zan. They’d never be safe unless we ended him. There were three Faulties and only two of us Perfects to get them out of here fast enough.
But Ta’Zan still stood in our way. Every second was crucial now.
“No. We have to leave. Now,” I said.
Ta’Zan was too furious to follow our conversation at this point. He roared and charged Raphael—a foolish decision, in my opinion, but Ta’Zan was already off his rocker, destabilized by Amal’s betrayal on top of everything else. He wasn’t thinking rationally anymore. He was reacting solely based on his emotions.
It worked in our favor. Raphael dodged his knife hit and rammed a fist into his stomach. He then sucker-punched Ta’Zan right in the face and tossed him to the side. Ta’Zan landed on his back and slid on the diamond floor, until he hit the wall.
Raphael was quick to do the math between us, next.
“This place will be crawling with guards any minute now,” he said.
“North exit. We need to take the north exit,” Amal replied.
He nodded, then grabbed Amal and Amane by their waists and held them close. I took Isda’s hand, and we all ran out, leaving Ta’Zan behind. We heard him roaring as we dashed through the hallway.
It was a damn shame we couldn’t take him—but a conscious Ta’Zan couldn’t be abducted like this, not with seconds left on the clock.
As expected, Perfect guards poured into the hallway and came after us. Raphael and I increased our speed. The air crackled at our heels. Our wings snapped out, wide and white and flapping. Dozens of other Perfects and Faulties got out of the way.
The corridors were tall and wide enough for us both to fly through, but not with so many creatures around. The more Perfects were alerted by the incoming guards behind us, the more of them started coming after us.
“Get out of here,” Isda screamed at the Faulties we shot past along the way. “Get out! It’ll blow up!”
It was too late for the Perfects to do anything about the explosives anymore. They were too rattled and confused, not only by Isda’s screams, but also by our presence and Ta’Zan’s roars—still echoing through that part of the colosseum.
When the first boom ripped through the building, my heart stopped.
A moment later, it resumed beating, harder and faster than ever before.
The second and third booms rocked this level. The diamond pillars and bricks began to shake. Murmurs and screams erupted behind us as we continued our flight toward the northern exit. I briefly glanced behind us and saw the sea of Perfect guards coming to a halt, their eyes wide with horror.
The fourth explosion tore through them and that section of the hallway.
“Move! Move! Move!” I shouted.
Raphael and I whizzed past the last handful of Perfects still standing by the northern exit, with Amane, Amal, and Isda firmly in our grip. As soon as we made it out and shot through the jungle like rebellious arrows, all hell broke loose behind us.
Thundering booms erupted. Glass and diamond shattered. Thousands of Perfects were torn to shreds or crushed, as the entire colosseum moaned from the chain of constant explosions. The small charges had gone off first. The big ones destroyed a lot in their path. Where they broke through, flowers of amber fire and black smoke blossomed all around the colosseum.
“I warned most of the Faulties to get to safety before we got to you,” Isda croaked, her arms wrapped around my waist. “But the message didn’t get to all of them, I think…”
“I’m sorry, Isda,” I murmured, occasionally looking over my shoulder.
The giant diamond structure broke down. As expected, parts of it didn’t collapse, but most of it crumbled like a sand castle. Orange blazes and clouds of black smoke burst and spread out, where the bombs hit fuel tanks and chemical supplies by the hangars. Whatever ships Ta’Zan had been rebuilding in there, they were now gone.
Once more, his work had been destroyed.
His home, his palace, the beacon of oppressive Perfects… it was coming down, diamond chunk by diamond chunk. And the sound of that disaster was the wind beneath my wings as Raphael and I kept flying.
The pulse of the explosions caught up with us. We were fast, but not faster than the shockwave of such a detonation. We’d left the colosseum late…
It smacked us all from behind. I wound up crashing through trees and shrubs. I heard Isda scream.
Raphael grunted. I yelped from a sharp pain in my side, then rolled into the bushes. My wings broke before I could withdraw them and gather myself into a ball for a forced landing. I was thrown against something hard and cold. Maybe a rock.
Everything went black.
Somewhere in the background, leaves rustled. Bodies hit the ground. Bones broke. And explosions continued to tear through the colosseum, like drums beating in the distance in a solid rhythm. All I could think of was Dmitri as I faded from consciousness.
Did he make it out?
Elonora
Thoroughly creeped out by the moving, walking, and breathing copies of us left upstairs, I made my way through the tunnel, accompanied by Nevis and Varga. Ahead, Vesta was forging the rest of the tunnel. I wasn’t sure if it was just her awesome fae power or whether she had help from the Hermessi without even knowing it, but I had to give the girl credit—she could practically dig a tunnel with her bare hands.
When the explosions were set off, the ground shook. Beneath us. Around us. Above us.
“It’s begun,” Nevis said.
