She tried to smile, but her expression twisted into a painful grimace, and she reached out and leaned one hand against the alley wall in order to take some of her weight off her injured ankle.
Deah looked at me again, her blue eyes as bright as Seleste’s always were. “No matter what happens, I want you to know something—that you’ve been more of a friend, more of a family, to me in the last few weeks than Blake and my dad have ever been. I trust you in a way I’ve never trusted them, and I’m trusting you to rescue me, my mom, and all the other Sinclairs. Do you understand, Lila? I’m trusting you to save us all. Promise me you can do that. Promise me you won’t let me down the way Blake and my dad always have.”
Her gaze locked with mine again and I felt every ounce of her cold sorrow and aching regret. But mixed in with those tense, sad emotions was blazing conviction. She really did think I could save her, Seleste, and everyone else.
My heart twisted, but I stepped forward, grabbed her hand, and stared back into her eyes, hoping that she could see my own determination.
“I promise,” I whispered, squeezing her hand tight. “I’ll find a way to rescue you and Seleste and all the others. Count on it.”
She nodded. “That’s all I needed to hear. Now go. Before it’s too late for both of us.”
Deah hesitated, then stepped forward and hugged me tight, just for a second, before letting go. She stared at me another moment, then raised her sword, turned around, and limped back down to the end of the alley. She looked up and down the street, searching for the guards. She froze for a second, then whipped around and started hobbling in the opposite direction. Excited shouts rose up in the distance. The guards had already spotted her.
I bit my lip, guilt, grief, fear, and worry churning in my stomach like acid, but Deah had sacrificed herself to save me, and I was going to honor her choice. So I took hold of the drainpipe and started climbing. A few seconds later, I was up on the roof. Even though I knew exactly what I would see, I still turned around slowly, dreading the sight.
Down on the street, Deah was still hobbling along, moving as fast as she could, with the Draconi guards shouting and running after her.
It took them less than a minute to catch up to her. The guards surrounded Deah, forming a tight circle around her and cutting off any potential escape. Blake swaggered up and said something to her that I couldn’t hear. Deah glared at her brother, but she threw her stolen sword down at his feet. I winced at the harsh clang-clang-clang of metal hitting the sidewalk.
Blake barked out an order, and two of the guards stepped forward and clamped their hands around Deah’s arms. She glared at Blake again, but he made a sharp motion with his hand and the guards dragged her away. A few seconds later, they rounded the corner and disappeared from my line of sight.
Gone. Deah was gone. Captured.
And it was all my fault.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Blake and the rest of the Draconi guards spread out, still searching for me down on the ground, but I kept to the rooftops, so it was easy for me to avoid them. Ten minutes later, I slid down a drainpipe into the alley where Devon and Felix were waiting.
Felix looked up, his dark gaze locked onto the drainpipe, expecting to see someone else come sliding down it at any second. But of course she didn’t.
“Where’s Deah?” he asked.
I swallowed, trying to clear the guilt out of my throat, dreading what I had to tell him. When I spoke, my voice was a hoarse, ragged whisper. “She let herself be captured so that I could escape.”
“What!” Felix yelled, his hands balling into tight fists, his bronze skin turning red with fear and fury. “How could you let that happen?”
I shook my head, tears stinging my eyes. “I’m sorry, Felix. So sorry—”
He snarled, turned away from me, and smashed his fist into the alley wall. Felix winced and shook out his hand, but that pain was small compared to the anguish filling his dark eyes. Devon squeezed his best friend’s shoulder, then gathered me up into his arms, hugging me tight.
“It’s not your fault, Lila,” he whispered. “It’s not your fault.”
I hugged him back, leaning into his warm, strong body, even though I didn’t deserve to be comforted right now. “Yes, it is,” I whispered back. “Yes, it is.”
“Tell us what happened,” Felix growled. “Right now.”
I pulled away from Devon, blinked back the rest of my tears, and told them about eavesdropping on Blake in the Midway, the guards chasing us, and finally Deah twisting her ankle and sacrificing herself so that I could escape. By the time I finished, Devon and Felix both had grim, worried expressions on their faces.
“I’m sorry, Felix,” I whispered again. “So sorry. I tried to help her, I tried to convince her that we could both escape, but she wouldn’t listen to me.”