I WRENCHED MYSELF away from the wraith boy just as the first pieces of stone fell. “Everyone get out!”
My cry was lost in the cacophony of screams and collapsing stone. The whole cathedral was cracking open like an egg. Chunks of gold and marble plummeted to the dais, landing in the empty pool with a deafening crash and shudder. Frigid night wind blew in, and the whole space stank of wraith.
Priests fled, their robes fluttering. James dove for Tobiah, who was reaching for his mother. The three of them, along with another handful of guards, made their way into the aisle. More stones from the roof crashed down, spraying white dust like snow. Their clothes were coated with it.
On the stairs above, people packed so tightly there was no way to get out.
“Wil!” Connor screamed for me as Sergeant Ferris heaved him into Kevin’s arms. Half covered in white rubble, my bodyguard picked his way toward me, drawing his sword as though he could do anything against the wraith boy. It was too late.
There was no way we could escape before the building came down on us.
I spun and grabbed the wraith boy’s forearms, giant and straining against the clothes I’d given him. “Stop it.”
“I can’t.” He grinned down at me, too wide, too wild. A fist-sized stone dropped overhead, but he batted it away before I had the chance to move. “There’s no way to stop it.”
Streams of people poured up the aisles. The gap overhead widened as the building shuddered again, shaking loose a chandelier. The fixture smashed into the bench where Tobiah and his family had been; I couldn’t see them anymore, not through the debris and a fire that raged upward. Heat blasted through the cathedral.
“Stop the building from collapsing.” I gripped the wraith boy’s wrists. “Put out the fire.”
“That’s not within my power.”
Thousands of people were going to die because of him—because of me.
Unless I did something.
People trampled one another in their efforts to reach the stairs. Real starlight shone through the gap in the roof, faraway points that lined up exactly with the gold constellations.
My Ospreys were leaping across the benches, heading toward the exit. I couldn’t find the royal family, but several more chunks of the roof had fallen in. Another crashed downward, crushing nearby benches. The floor shook, but I stayed on my feet because of my grip on the wraith boy, who wasn’t bothered by the chaos he’d caused. He calmly stepped sideways as a head-sized chunk of roof broke off and flew at me; he blocked it with his own body.
I had to stop this.
I dropped to the floor and pressed my hands against the stone. “Wake up,” I said, and immediately, my breath grew short. My vision turned to fog. “Stay together. Do not break. Do not fall. Do not shake.”
One last stone thudded to the floor, creating a new plume of dust, but the building stopped moving. The constant low rumble ceased. Wind sucked the smoke and dust from the upper reaches of the sanctuary, revealing the impossible.
Great hunks of marble clung to the jagged crack in the ceiling. Chandeliers clutched the golden constellations like iron spiders. The splayed-finger tops of the columns crept out and linked with one another, as though in prayer.
My heartbeat was hummingbird quick in my ears, but the cathedral had animated. It had done as I’d commanded.
Slowly, bracing myself against a bench, I stood and whispered, “Now smother the fire.”
Debris slithered across the floor and rained from the ceiling, focusing on the burning chandelier. The air began to clear as dust settled. The intense heat faded as flames died.
“Get off any people trapped. Make a path so everyone can escape.”
There were voices all around, people sobbing and screaming, but they were distant now—or maybe it was just me. Black shapes dotted the edges of my vision with that last command, and all I could see was the wraith boy’s enormous grin as he looked around the chamber.
My arm trembled as I sucked in deep breaths, but my head wouldn’t clear. It was too much, bringing the entire building to life, commanding it again and again. I had to get out. I had to put the cathedral to sleep.
I groped for the next bench, ready to drag myself out.
White hands fell on my shoulders, and I jerked away. My elbow caught a stair as I landed and glared up. “Don’t touch me. You did this, so don’t touch me. Go back to your closet.”
The wraith boy scowled but vanished, leaving me to regret the command. Now I was alone, on the floor, and unsure whether I could actually get up on my own.
The building groaned with the strain of keeping itself together. I groaned, too, as I turned over and began crawling up the stairs. Masses of bodies writhed up and ahead, people escaping the doomed cathedral, but they were just blurs of color against the white. They were all so intent on escape that no one would look back. No one would notice I wasn’t with them.