“No, it isn’t,” she says, hope coursing through her voice. “We’ll find a way to close it. We always find a way. But we have to get out of here now, before Blaze—”
“What about me?” asks the white-haired Leonine, cutting through the rapidly dissipating mist. “Nice outfit,” he tells Nishi, a sardonic smile on his face. “I didn’t think you wore anything that wasn’t couture—”
He notices Aquarius’s body lying beside Ophiuchus.
“What—”
He runs over to Aquarius’s side, shaking him. “No, no, no,” he moans, and soon sobs choke his words. “How—why—what happened?”
He whirls on me, and Nishi instinctively raises her Murmur and points it at his chest.
“He killed himself,” I say, “and he activated the portal. Blaze, if you know how to undo it, you have to tell us.”
But he doesn’t seem to be listening. “He . . . he killed himself?”
The Leonine’s explosive russet eyes are far from the conversation, far from logical thought. “Then it was a sacrifice. . . . He did it for a reason.”
He focuses on me again, and a new emotion begins to line his face. It looks a lot like hate.
“You. This is your fault. I did everything he wanted, I’m a better speaker than you, I’m much more like him—and yet he chose you.”
“Blaze, whatever he made you think or feel, it wasn’t real,” I say, too ashamed to admit that I’ll miss the way he made me feel sometimes, too.
“Let’s go, Rho,” says Nishi, but I’m looking at the Thirteenth Guardian, who is too weak to move on his own. Do I abandon him here?
Blaze turns his back to us, and he drops down beside Aquarius again. Since he doesn’t seem intent on stopping us, I say, “Let’s grab Ophiuchus. We can carry him out together.”
“You can leave alone, right now, with your lives,” warns Blaze, twisting his neck to look up at us, “but if you try to take Ophiuchus, this place will be surrounded by Marad in seconds, and you’ll never make it out.”
“Fine,” I say, eager to get Nishi out of here. My only priority is that she survives. “We’re going.” I grab her arm and pull, but she doesn’t budge.
“No.”
I turn to her in alarm. “Nish, come on!”
But she’s watching Blaze with a calculating look. “The portal’s already open. Why do you need Ophiuchus?”
“I’m going to count to ten,” says Blaze steadily, taking a step closer to us even though Nishi’s still pointing her Murmur at him. “If you’re not gone, I will sound the alarm through the Psy, and you’ll never get out again.”
My heart catapults into my throat. “Nish, please, let’s go, we’ll worry about him later—”
“He’s how we close the portal, isn’t he?” she asks Blaze, her reasoning outspeeding mine as usual. “If it takes a star to open it, then logically it must take a star to close it.”
I look at Blaze’s hands—he’s not wearing his Ring. Aquarius was careful about limiting access to the Psy from his stronghold. “I think you’re bluffing,” I say, now taking Nishi’s side. “I don’t think you have a way of calling out to everyone. And since the plan was for you guys to take off now to Black Moon, I’m fairly certain most people are already on their way—”
Blaze lunges at Nishi, knocking the Murmur from her grip. They both fall to the ground, and the cylindrical weapon clatters away from them. His hands wrap around Nishi’s neck, and I grab his shoulder and try pulling him off my best friend, but he’s too strong.
I run for the weapon instead, and then I swing it across his head. There’s a loud thwack as it cracks against his skull, and he instantly crumbles into a heap on the floor.
I help Nishi to her feet. “Stellar,” she says, breathless but smiling.
I return the grin, and we run to Ophiuchus, who seems to be regaining some of his energy. We each lift one of his arms and manage to pull him to his feet.
“Where do we go?” I ask.
Just then, an engine’s deafening roar rumbles through the crystal room, and Nishi and I duck to the ground, dropping Ophiuchus with us, and we cover our faces as the wall farthest from us shatters. When we look up again, the nose of a familiar bullet-ship has blasted through it.
Equinox can’t fit inside the hall, but a round escape capsule disengages from its side and shoots inside, hovering beside Nishi and me. Hysan must be controlling its flight.
Gusts of wind blow more shards of crystal into the air, and I shout at Nishi, “Get in!”
“Ophiuchus first!” she shouts back, and we each pull one of his arms around our shoulders and drag him into the capsule. It looks like it’ll barely fit the three of us, but we’ll make it work. He seems to be growing heavier as I shove him through the opening, but I push harder, using all my strength, until he’s in. Then I wheel around to tell Nishi she’s next.
But Blaze has her in a one-armed headlock, one side of his head bleeding.
His other hand is holding the Murmur.
“Step inside that pod, and she dies.”
“Okay,” I say, walking away from the capsule. “I’ll go with you anywhere you want. Just let her go.”
“I don’t want you,” he spits out. “Or her. I want him. Bring him out of there, and you two can go.”
“Rho, DON’T DO IT!” cries Nishi. “Remember, this isn’t about us, it’s about the Zodiac—”
Blaze’s hand muffles Nishi’s mouth, cutting off the rest of her words. “What’s it going to be, Rho?”
“I’ll do it!” I say, my heart going too fast to give me any space to think or breathe. “I’ll get him out! Just, please—don’t hurt her. You can have Ophiuchus, okay?” I look into Nishi’s sparkling amber eyes. “Nish, it’s going to be fine. We’ll find another way. I promise.”
I poke my head inside the capsule. “Get out here,” I command Ophiuchus, but he doesn’t move. I can’t even tell if he’s conscious anymore. So I step into the pod and go around him to shove him out—but the moment I cross the threshold, a glass door comes crashing down, sealing me inside and muffling every sound.
“NO!” I shout, pounding on the glass, my voice too loud in this small chamber. “Let me out! HYSAN, LET ME OUT!”
Blaze throws Nishi away from him, and she stumbles to the floor. Then he raises the Murmur at me and shoots blue light at the ship, but it does nothing.
The pod begins to rise into the air, and I’m pounding desperately against the glass, my throat raw, my fingers clawing at every button to try to open the door again. But the capsule just keeps going higher, and I look down in despair as my best friend watches me go.
Maybe Blaze won’t hurt her. After all, she’s his only leverage. Maybe he’ll reach out and offer a trade.
I’m still hitting every button in sight, and suddenly, the glass door slides down.
I shout in triumph. “Blaze, it worked! Don’t hurt her!”
“Push him out!” he demands.
The pod is hovering in midair, but Ophiuchus is tall enough that it’s just a small jump for him. I turn and tug on his arm. “Please, you have to go,” I beg him.
“Rho.”
I look down to see Nishi staring up at me, with Blaze behind her, his weapon aimed at her head, executioner-style.