And crashed on the ground in front of us.
Emily swept them behind us, and I knelt down to heal them. Bruised and bloody from the fall but nothing serious. Until Eliza stubbornly rose to her feet and tried to set off again. Nothing happened. She frowned in confusion and looked to the raven woman, who was watching her ravens abandon her. Then we both looked up to see Shirin, busy with shielding George, being caught by the leg from behind and flung over the wall into the inner ward.
“Remove the traitors’ powers!” someone yelled.
Dammit. That’s what they were doing. Putting them in view of the White Tower, where Captain Goode could see them and shut them off. Maybe he wasn’t hiding. Maybe he knew the outcome, and it was in his favor.
“It appears they have a plan, too,” I said.
And like that, the battle shifted. A group of five more emerged from the battlements to the north and strode down to the passageway to join the others. An ear-shattering scream came from one of them, tearing up the rocky street and knocking us back into the wall. In our daze, we found them raining everything they could down upon us. Electricity, acid, water, smoke, and steel.
Miss Rao responded by sending back the strongest winds she could. The air screamed, and I could barely hear my own thoughts as she and Emily pushed the Society’s own attacks back on them. But nothing seemed to land. A man in the front had his hands out, encircling his group with a sort of shield blocking everything that came at them. They marched toward us, against Miss Rao’s wind, as if they were taking a pleasant stroll through Hyde Park.
Some of their attacks, however, got through our defenses. I straightened up to guard my friends the best I could. I felt the sting of electricity hitting my cheek, the burn of the acid through my dress, even the lash of the steel hair cutting my arm.
“I’d rather have died at Captain Goode’s house,” Miss Chen yelled. “At least it wouldn’t have been due to such a pathetic power!”
And that’s when I noticed there was someone at the back of their group. Someone who hadn’t used his power on us yet. Someone who had been up close to do it at Captain Goode’s.
“Miss Chen, I have a terrible idea,” I yelled. “Do you remember that man in the back?”
Miss Chen squinted through all the chaos, trying to place him. Her eyes widened in realization. “This is the least terrible of all your terrible ideas.”
“Thank you.”
“Miss Kane, as soon I remove that dark-haired man’s shirt,” Miss Chen yelled, “please throw him into his companions, one by one.”
“All right,” Emily said, as if that were a perfectly normal request.
I watched the metal man kneel down and shift the rocky street to steel, a path headed straight under us. As the electric girl took aim at the trail, I found it harder to swallow down my panic. “Miss Chen, they … are about to electrocute us.”
Mr. Dunn’s shirt ripped off, followed by the sleeves of the electric woman. They paused in shock, and Emily used the man like a billiard ball, tossing him against the others in turn. She knocked him into the electric woman first, and then Mr. Seward, Mr. Shaw, and the others as Miss Chen ripped their shirt sleeves and trouser legs open, revealing their limbs to be paralyzed by Mr. Dunn’s touch. They had nowhere to run, the small shield their only sanctuary.
Not one minute later, as Miss Rao’s wind died down, the bruised Mr. Dunn was the only one standing. Mainly because Emily was holding him up. A strange silence fell upon the castle. By instinct, my body braced itself for the next attack, but there wasn’t one. They remained on the ground, unmoving.
“That should do it,” Miss Chen said. “Keep a tight hold on him.”
“How long will they stay that way?” Miss Rao asked.
“A day, I believe,” Miss Chen said, adroitly stepping over them. She noticed Mr. Shaw’s hand reaching out with faint clouds of smoke and seized it. “Oh, we missed this, Miss Kane.”
Emily floated Mr. Dunn down to render Mr. Shaw’s hand unusable. “What shall I do with him now?”
Miss Chen observed Shirin, waving from Beauchamp Tower. “I think they could use some protection.”
We followed George and his depowered friends to the tower, where he sent up a vine for Shirin to climb down. He was the only one with a power left. While I healed Shirin, Emily floated Mr. Dunn to George. He wrapped his vines around the man, holding him like a shield.
“Thank you for your help,” I told them. “We’re going to go get Captain Goode now. Make sure the other people you’ve restrained are no longer a danger. And stay out of sight of the White Tower.”
“How are you going to get to him?” Shirin asked.
“We have a plan,” I said.
Thunder rumbled as a storm churned overhead, and the clouds blocked the moonlight.
“Miss Rao, do you do those ominous rolls of thunder on purpose?” Miss Chen asked.
“Perhaps, destroyer,” she replied.
Thunder rumbled again.
In pairs, Emily floated us up into Beauchamp Tower, which provided a clear view of the west side of the White Tower. We climbed to the top, staying low and hidden in the shadows as we peeked outside. Light flooded the entire tower green area. Trees had been cleared, and there was nowhere to hide. No one stood in any of the three floors of windows of the White Tower, but I could feel Captain Goode watching, waiting to catch us.
After a minute, Miss Chen explained why. “Bastard’s put an illusion on the tower. I can’t do anything.”
“What do you mean?” Rose asked.
“He’s covered up everything. I don’t know where the lights really are,” she said. “So I can’t break them. And the windows only look empty so we can’t attack them from here.”
Thunder rumbled again, and we watched as Miss Rao’s winds picked up within the inner ward. The stubborn lights seemed to be well protected. And if we tried to cross the lawn like this, our powers would be gone. We’d be helpless. And Sebastian wouldn’t survive tomorrow.
“There is one alternative,” I said slowly, feeling like I had said it before, like I had always known it would come to this.
Even in the dark, I knew they were all frowning at me.
“Ev, we didn’t go through this whole plan so you’d charge after Captain Goode on your own again,” Rose said.
“I won’t be alone,” I said. “All of you will help me from the outside.”
“He’ll still turn off your healing.”
“But he wants me alive,” I said. “He needs a healer. This is the best way I can think of.”
Everyone sat in silence for a moment, thinking of something better. Nothing came.
“Are you sure?” Miss Chen finally asked.
I looked back at the path of destruction we’d carved across the Thames and through the tower to this spot. The path Rose, Emily, Miss Chen, and Miss Rao had made with amazing use of their powers. They had to keep them.
“I am.”
As my friends spread out on the rooftops and battlements to find the right angles to watch the tower, I climbed down into Captain Goode’s domain and stepped into the light. He could easily see me now. As I crossed the lawn, I tried futilely to raise my power, hoping my noble, self-sacrificing attitude or my Sebastian-focused mind might trigger something new. Of course, it did not.
There was no sensation, save for the chill that ran through me as he turned my powers off.
Chapter Twenty-Three
I FELT ANOTHER strange chill as I entered the White Tower and quickly received an explanation for it with a cold slash across my face. I pulled out my dagger fan and found myself facing that damn ice guard who refused to go away.
“Not so tough on your own?” Miss Quinn asked.