All around me, pandemonium was breaking out. People were screaming, pulling off their masks, stampeding toward the entrance to the ballroom. Diggers lashed out with whips and knives on the unarmed guests, and within minutes the air in the ballroom stunk of blood.
I had to fight against the tide of panicking guests to stay close to the dais. Where were Madison and Nox? And where was Lang? I didn’t dare turn around and look. Dorothy didn’t know I hadn’t come to the wedding alone. If they could avoid her while I faced her down, they had a chance to get away. Leave me here, I thought at Nox ferociously, hoping in vain that he’d somehow added psychic powers to his résumé without telling me. Get Madison somewhere safe. Don’t try to rescue me.
Because this was my task. It was my responsibility. All of this had happened because I hadn’t been able to bring myself to kill her before.
I fought my way through the oncoming wave of people, trying to reach the dais. The Nome King hurled a bolt of red lightning at my head. I ducked and it hit the floor behind me with a sizzling hiss.
Okay, he was definitely targeting me first. And Dorothy was slinking toward the edge of the stage, her eyes on him.
I’d been right. This was all part of her plan—I was here to distract him while she made her escape. And the cavern must have a secret exit—the one she and the Nome King had come through. If she got away now, there was no telling if I’d have another chance.
Everywhere I looked, the Nome King’s soldiers were springing into action. Dorothy had caught them off guard, but they recovered quickly. I knew if I ended up in their grip, it was game over. I could fight off a few of them, but I was horribly outnumbered. One of them came at me, his knife raised for a killing strike. I ducked and twisted, but he followed my movements effortlessly. The Nome King took training his fighters seriously.
Then again, so did the Order. This was what I was made for.
I dodged him again, circling back to get enough room to strike. He stuck by me like a leech, lunging forward again and again with his knife.
But he was favoring his right side, where a huge map of scars suggested an old, still-painful injury. I feinted to the right and saw what I was looking for—just the barest hint of a flinch as he moved to protect his vulnerable side. And that was my chance. I leapt up and spun in midair, bringing my booted foot around in a powerful kick that connected solidly with his knife hand. The blade clattered to the floor and I kicked it away, going for my own weapons.
Before I could get to them, he’d already recovered from my attack and was launching one of his own. He leapt forward, wrapping lean but incredibly strong arms around my torso and pinning my own arms to my sides.
I kicked backward with all my strength and heard a satisfying snap as my boot connected with his knee. He bellowed in pain but refused to let go, dragging me to the floor with him as he collapsed. Dorothy watched the fracas with an amused smile. The Nome King glanced at her and she froze. A frown crossed his face.
He was starting to figure out she’d planned this, too.
And then I saw Nox fighting his way toward me. “Get out of here!” I yelled at him, suddenly feeling panicky. “I’ll take care of my own damn self!”
My exasperation gave me the extra surge of strength I needed and I broke the guard’s grip, elbowing him in the face with a satisfying crunch. “The dais!” I screamed at Nox, pointing. “It’s all that matters!” His expression faltered but, seeing that I’d broken free, he nodded at me and turned to fight his way toward where Dorothy was edging slowly but surely toward the secret exit.
The pandemonium in the ballroom was working against us, but at least it was slowing the guards down, too. A shrieking woman battering ineffectively at another man trying to tear the gold necklace from her throat lurched into the path of two guards headed in my direction. I shoved my way through the crowd and leapt onto the dais, where the Nome King stood, sneering.
“Well, well,” he said. “If it isn’t my old friend Miss Gumm.”
He raised his hands again, preparing to throw another bolt of magic at me. If he hit me directly, I knew he would kill me. My magic was still weak, but I dug deep within myself, and managed to throw up a defensive shield just in time.
Then Lang was at my side. She hit the Nome King square in the chest with a fireball that set his velvet suit ablaze with blue and gold flames. He made a fist and punched the air and I felt the impact myself as his magical blow thudded into her jaw, snapping her head back. But she held her ground, advancing toward him. He made a fist, and she cried out, clutching at the silver bracelet around her wrist. It began to glow red and the metal seared its way into her skin. I winced at the smell of burning flesh.
“You ungrateful little traitor,” he said, his voice dripping with hate. “I made you what you are. How dare you betray me?”
“You didn’t make me into anything,” Lang snarled through teeth gritted against the pain. She closed her eyes, screaming something I couldn’t catch. As I watched in horror, her whole hand began to smoke. I realized, too late, what she was doing.
“Don’t do it!” I screamed as her hand caught fire. The Nome King reached for her, but it was too late. The flesh of her hand blackened, sizzled, and peeled away, revealing charred bone and bloody gristle. The Nome King’s bracelet slid off her mangled wrist and fell to the ground.
“I’m free,” she said, panting. Her eyes were wild. The pain had to be unbearable. But Lang’s determination wouldn’t quit. “You can’t hurt me anymore,” she yelled. “No one can hurt me anymore.” There was no mistaking the triumph in her voice now. She sounded exultant.
I wondered what she could have been in a different world. A world that didn’t demand this kind of sacrifice. A world that didn’t punish people for resisting tyranny. A world that didn’t hurt you every chance it got.
It was too late for Lang. And now I would never know either.
The Nome King summoned another, enormous cloud of magic that hovered in the air above him, crackly with mystic fury.
He’s going to kill her, I thought desperately. This close, there was no way he could miss.
But maybe I could still help her defend herself.
“Let me combine my magic with yours!” I screamed.
She just ignored me. The rippling nimbus over the Nome King’s head glowed red-hot as the magic gathered into a single spear of jittery red light. He sent it hurtling toward her at the very second she lunged forward.
She was reaching for the knife at his belt. Her fingers closed around the handle as the bolt slammed into her body. She screamed—the most awful scream of pain I’d ever heard, and she crumpled against him.