Page 36 of The Dark Mirror

‘Does it look like a fucking trick?’ I snarled back. ‘You think I would risk my life for a trick?’

‘Hold on, Paige.’ Verca grasped the sides. ‘Hold on.’

One of the railings was already starting to strain in my grasp. My left wrist throbbed, and my arms were tired out from the climb. I fought to keep my elbows on the walkway. I hadn’t feared heights for years, but my hands sweated as I thought of the death thatwaited down there. The cold black lake would hit me like concrete, shattering my bones.

This might have been a bad idea.

As Verca approached, the railing snapped. Without hesitation, she dived for me, seizing my arm just in time. I clung to her with one hand and clawed for the walkway with the other.

‘I’ve got you. Come on,’ Verca urged. I hooked a knee on to the bridge. ‘Paige, what were you thinking?’

‘I had to separate you. We need—’

Fire erupted at the end of the bridge, followed by gunshots. Almost blind in the dark, without the æther to guide me, I scrambled to my feet and pushed Verca in front of me, shielding her.

Our footfalls made the bridge shudder. As Maria wielded flaming spirits on her side, one of the masked bruisers barrelled past Harald.

‘Back off,’ I shouted at them. ‘Back off !’

Too late. With athwang, a cable gave way, and the bridge swung loose with a screech of rusted steel. It careered to the right, pitching me with it. Verca made a desperate grab for a railing.

A strangled cry went up as our pursuer fell. Harald was bellowing for all he was worth, but I couldn’t hear over the deafening shriek of metal, the wind, my laboured breathing.

We lunged forward, trying to both move and hold on, as the bridge started to list, tilting us towards the chasm. Verca let go of the railing to our left, only to stumble and slam into the other side. A metal rod broke under her weight, but the others held, stopping her from tumbling off the bridge altogether. A moment later, I lost my balance and joined her against the railings, teeth clenched. If the bridge leaned much farther, we would be hanging over the drop by our fingertips.

Now the whole thing was coming apart. With a twist that uprooted my stomach, it rolled left, dumping us back on the walkway. Before it could steal our footing again, we picked ourselves up and sprinted for the end. Verca made it, right as two more cables sprang free.

I was too far behind. Realising what was about to happen, I wrapped an arm and a leg around the railings – seconds before thewind ripped through my hair, and I was weightless, holding on to one half of a torn bridge.

When it struck the cliff face, I lost my grip. I plummeted for two heartbeats, and then I caught myself.

The shock washed off me. As I heaved for breath, the other section of the bridge gave a groan before it crashed into the lake. The explosion of water soaked me to the skin. Somehow I fought off the panic and held on, kicking for a foothold.

The ruin made an ominous sound. Blinking water off my lashes, I stared up twenty feet, craning my neck. My side was still attached to the cliff. I was going to have to scale this skeleton of a bridge like a ladder.

I reached up and gripped a railing.

Cramps shot through my hands. My wrist was on fire. As I shinned between handholds, losing strength for every gain, I remembered climbing a ladder in Paris, saving myself from death once more. I had been tired then, as I was now. So tired I could hardly see.

No matter how far I ran, I always seemed to end up like this, trying to stop the world shaking me off, into the æther. The temptation to let it loosened my fingers. The thought of Arcturus firmed them again. If I didn’t do this, I would never know what had happened.

Just as I thought my wrist would fail me for the last time, I glimpsed Maria and Verca at the top, shouting my name. Their hands found mine, and together, they pulled me up. I collapsed into their arms, shaking all over, as the rest of the bridge left its moorings and fell.

‘You,’ Maria said hoarsely, ‘are the luckiest woman alive.’

‘I strongly disagree,’ I croaked.

Two bodies were on fire nearby. I turned to face the cliff where Harald Lauring must still be.

‘Do you think this changes anything for me?’ His voice came from the darkness, carried by the wind. ‘Yes, well done, you got away. Well done, Underqueen!’ Maria drew us both closer. ‘I cannot, will not, let my family die. So now I will have to betray all of Domino! I will have to handeveryoneto her, to Grapevine. Don’tyou understand that I know everything about Command, as their courier – where they are, who they are?’

‘No,’ Verca breathed.

‘And now I will have to kill you,’ Harald roared, ‘so you don’t warn them!’ Maria wiped blood from her chin, panting. ‘I told you all what was at stake. You made me do this!’

Before any of us could move, bullets sparked off what remained of the bridge. The entire valley reflected the din as we hit the ground, Verca smothering a cry. With all my might, I tried to dreamwalk, but all I did was give myself a nosebleed and a blinding headache. Instead, I went for the corpses, their weapons. Harald might be shooting blind, but one stray bullet could still find us.

On our side, a clipped gunshot rang out.

---