The guard who held her made a noise like sandpaper scraping against metal. The realization that he was laughing at her only made the noise more awful.
“This way,” he hissed in the same sibilant, heavily accented voice she’d heard the other guard use. Before she could even think to fight back, he was dragging her down the hall. She hung from his grasp, her face and shoulder screaming in pain while the tips of her shoes traced their path. Keira gritted her teeth. She forced back her screams, struggling against the shackle of the guard’s grip, but it made no difference. Desperate, she swung her feet up, meaning to kick him or, better yet, trip him. As soon as she lifted her feet off the ground, though, the wrenching pressure on her shoulder brought her to the very edge of unconsciousness. She dropped her legs, letting herself go limp in his grasp.
She gave up.
The guard grunted in approval. He finally set Keira on her feet in front of a huge pair of ornately carved doors. They looked out of place in the otherwise featureless building. There was something familiar about the pattern on them, the way the circles overlapped and intersected—of course. The door she’d seen in the road, when she was in Walker’s car, back when all of this started. It had been carved in the same style, if a bit less ornately.
Thinking back to those first visions was too much like thinking of home—too much like thinking of the life she was about to lose. Because if there was one thing she knew, bone-deep and absolutely, it was that the Reformers were on the other side of those doors.
She could feel them there, waiting with her death sentence in their hands. Eager to make her pay not just for her mistakes, but for her existence, too.
It was going to cost Keira her life, and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do to stop it.
? ? ?
The doors swung inward, revealing a room filled with shadows. A long bench, like a church pew, sat against the back wall, illuminated from above by Darkside lights. Guards ringed the room, as evenly spaced as if they marked a clock face. They each held a staff that looked heavy enough to smash in a skull if need be.
Walker and Pike stood off to one side. Walker’s hair was a tangled mess, but beyond that, he appeared unharmed. The relief of seeing him whole was so sweet it was almost unbearable. Pike stood behind him. His robes were ripped and he winced like something pained him, but if he was injured, she couldn’t see it.
Walker turned and looked at her. His eyes widened at the sight of her cheek. It must’ve looked terrible. She wasn’t surprised—it was throbbing like it had its own heart.
Still, at least it wasn’t her hands. They stung a little, yeah, but as long as they were fine, she was fine. She tried to reassure him with a smile, but the guard prodded her in the back. Keira stumbled forward.
“With the others,” he hissed.
She scrambled away from him, rushing to Walker’s side.
She clung to him, burying her face in his chest. He stiffened beneath her touch, gently pulling her away from him. His reaction was so cold that she shivered.
She looked up at him and saw that his gaze was focused behind her. The sound of footsteps broke through her confusion and Keira turned to see five robed figures, their features ancient and angular, making their way over to the bench.
“It’s the Tribunal,” Walker whispered. “Half of the Reformers—they’re Darkside’s judges. And juries.”
He didn’t say “and executioners,” but Keira heard it anyway.
She swallowed.
The silence that filled the room was so thick that it seemed to slow time itself. The moment hung there, suspended. It was only the beating of her heart and the pumping of her lungs that kept Keira from believing the universe had stopped entirely.
One of the members of the Tribunal cleared his throat. Keira couldn’t tell which of them it was—they were all as motionless as statues.
“We have in front of us,” the Reformer said, “a trinity of failure.” His voice rose and died oddly in the dark corners of the room.
There was a murmur of agreement from the rest of the Tribunal. The noise passed over Keira, leaving a sick sense of foreboding in its wake.
The voice continued. “And so today marks a chance to wipe out our past mistakes.”
Keira forced herself not to shudder as the center-most member of the Tribunal leaned forward to peer more closely at the three of them.
“Walker Andover.”
Walker nodded.
Keira could hear his breath, fast and shallow. He was scared.
“You were charged with the task of finding the lost Experimental and bringing it back to us.”