Page 87 of Shardless

“Think, think, think,” Taly muttered, fiddling with a socket that used to hold a shadow crystal. There had to be a way to fix this.

“Taly?”

Taly jumped, banging the back of her head on the edge of the frame. “Ow,” she groaned, rubbing at the rapidly swelling lump. The pain, though intense, quickly receded.

Opening her eyes, she saw Kit’s sheepish face peering at her through the opening of the controlpanel. His hair was damp and clung to his forehead, and there was a thin, jagged line marring his cheek. The skin around the half-healed wound was swollen and red, standing out in stark contrast to his otherwise boyish features. “You know, Kit… thirty seconds ago I would’ve been glad to see you. Now, I’m not so sure.”

Kit chuckled, his lips quirking to the side. Even after coming face-to-face with a living nightmare and witnessing the death of a comrade, he could still smile. “You’re not the first woman to say that.” His face grew serious as the boy melted away and the Gate Watcher stepped in to take his place. “Lord Emrys sent me to assist you. I’myoursto command.”

Turning back to the control panel, Taly smirked. “You sure you’re okay being bossed around by a human?”

Taly felt Kit shift beside her as he dropped to his knees and grabbed the lantern from her hand. “It’s funny, but for some reason, I don’t find the idea quite as painful as I would’ve when I woke up this morning. But then again, I’ve never had a problem taking orders from a beautiful woman—human or otherwise.”

“Seriously?” Taly barked out a laugh. “You know, Kit… I’m starting to think the only criteria for making it into your bed is having two legs.”

“Well, there are a few other requirements. But you wouldn’t be the first woman to accuse me of that,” came his reply. Though she couldn’t see his face, she could hear the smile in his voice.

The voices of Skye and his team still filtered through over the comm. The creature had deviated from the path they had laid out, but they were starting to bring it back around, circling closer andcloser to the wall.

“Okay, Kit. Unless you have a sophisticated working knowledge of firearm-crystal circuits, I need you to shut up and let me think,” Taly snapped, staring at the wiring.

“As my lady commands.”

Think, Caro. You need to see this from another angle.

Ivain’s words from long ago came to her mind unbidden:If you can only see one way to accomplish a task, little one, then odds are you’re not doing it right. No one was ever remembered for doing something the same as everyone else.

She wasn’t going to be able to repair the circuit for the firing mechanism. That was out.But maybe… Yes! That just might work.If she could split the aether flow that fed into the ammunition’s aether-transformation circuit, she might be able to bring the firing mechanism back online if she got Kit to overcharge the circuit with aether. Without the proper aethostats, the gun would probably still overheat, but she just might be able to eke out a few minutes of steady fire.

Quickly finishing the repair, Taly pushed herself out of the casing and grabbed Kit’s arm. “Okay, aether battery—”

“Wait… what?” Kit asked sharply. “What the hell is an aether battery?”

Taly’s lips quirked. Apparently, Kit’s education hadn’t included mortal science. “It’s not important. Just be a good aether battery and put your finger here.”

Positioning his hands inside the socket for the shadow crystals, she said, “Now push aether into the circuit.” Kit’s hands began to glow, and Taly couldn’t stop the loud, excited squeal that rippedfrom her throat when she saw the arrow on the power gauge start to move. “Good. We’re going to need more than that. I need the arrow to stay here.” She pointed to a position on the gauge. “If your hands start to feel hot, don’t worry. I’m expecting that. And if the wiring sparks, don’t worry about that either.”

“Is it supposed to spark?” Kit asked dubiously, his eyes following her as she hoisted herself back onto the platform and started pulling at various levers on the console.

“No,” Taly said distractedly. Lights flickered to life across the barrel of the gun, and the platform began to vibrate and hum as the old tower gun powered up for the first time in over two centuries. “But I fully expect this thing to blow up.”

“Excuse me?”

Taly wiped at the scope with an old cloth. “Don’t worry. Sparks are fine. When it catches on fire, that’s when we have a problem.”

She heard Kit grumbling in the background, but she paid him no mind. Her eyes were trained on the battle still raging down below. From the top of the tower, she could see Skye and the other shadow mages racing toward the wall, the creature not far behind. They would occasionally switch off, taking turns as they pulled the rampaging beast closer to the compound walls. Eula was next up, running a blade across her palm as the other mages in her team manifested their aether in bright, violet clouds of magic.

The haze of magic around Skye’s team abruptly extinguished, and the beast stopped, lifting itself up, almost like it was sniffing the wind. Its grotesque heads swiveled as it trained itsattention on Eula and her team, changing course and barreling toward the mages.

It’s drawn to their aether. Just like the other magical creatures on the island that went wild from their unquenchable thirst for magic.

Once they had its attention, Eula’s team lashed at the monster’s body with long whips of water drawn from the tips of wands. The magical attack wasn’t nearly enough to hurt the beast, but it did enrage it, kept its attention from wavering.

“Skye,” Taly said into the comm. “I’ve got the gun online. Did you find the crystal?”

There was a screech of static, and then Skye’s voice drifted into her ear. He was breathing heavily, and his tone was clipped. “I did. It’s dead center—somewhere deep in its chest.”

“Of course, it is,” Taly muttered. She didn’t know how it was even possible, but the monstrous creature had become even more massive as the battle raged on. It had grown at least two or three feet since the unfortunate death of Lord Aryn, and it was still grabbing at the bloodied stumps of dismembered arms and legs scattered across the ground, incorporating them into its body as ripples of shadow magic coiled around its form.

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