J. Mitchell - Midnight City

“You sure are something,” he said.

Mira smiled and untied the bag. She pulled out a very large, very strange-looking artifact combination. It wasn’t a simple one like the others Holt had seen; this one was made up of over a dozen different objects (that he could make out), all tied together with linked silver chain and purple leather twine. The main aspect of the combination seemed to be an antique gold pocket watch on the exterior of the artifact. A silver δ was ornately etched into the watch’s metallic cover.

Mira held it in her hand, staring down at the thing that had cost her so much. Holt could sense her trepidation. “Want me to carry it?” he asked. Considering how much he disliked artifacts, it wasn’t a small gesture.

“No,” Mira said. “I made it, I should be the one to deal with it.” She stuck it in her pack and looked up at Holt.

Holt nodded, then glared at the unconscious form of Lenore. “What about her?”

Mira forced her gaze back onto Lenore’s still body. When she did, Holt couldn’t tell if she was frightened, remorseful, or angry. It might have been all three. “Leave her,” Mira finally said in a low voice.

“She won’t stop coming after you, you know, not after this. She’ll send the entire faction to find you.”

Mira looked down at Lenore, her face the same combination of emotions. “I’m not going to kill her,” Mira said firmly. “I’m not her, and I never will be. Let’s get out of here.”

“How are we going to do that without the invisibility thing?” Holt asked.

Mira smiled up at him. “It’s called a Shroud. And I said not to worry—we have a plan.” She took Zoey’s hand and quickly started moving.

“Okay.” Holt frowned after them. “Is it possible I could know the details of this plan at some point?”

“Trust me, you’d rather not.” Mira and Zoey ran through Lenore’s cavern toward the balcony at the opposite end. He and Max followed.

The view from the balcony was amazing. It looked out over the residence hall from above, the dozens of platforms circling down the steep walls of the cavern to the floor far below, and all the bridges and ladders that connected them. The waterfall was directly underneath, roaring up at them, and the cavern’s highest walkway passed just seven feet below.

From here, they were almost close enough to touch the two big Gray Devils banners that hung from the ceiling, and the static hum of the big Illuminators that were lighting them and hovering in the air a few feet away floated around them.

Mira slipped on her pack and looked at Zoey. “Get on my back, honey.” The little girl jumped up and wrapped her arms around Mira’s neck.

Holt stared apprehensively at the cavern floor far, far below. “Are we jumping?” he asked uneasily. “Tell me we’re not jumping.”

“The tunnel up here is tight and one-way,” Mira said. “It takes too long, and we need to get out now. Plus, if anyone’s coming up to check on us, we’re screwed. We jump to the banners, ride them down, jump off. They’re bolted into the ceiling—they’ll hold us.” Mira moved to the ledge, seemingly unbothered by the sheer drop below her. “In theory.”

“That’s comforting.” Holt groaned, looking down at the giant drop with trepidation. “And how’s Max supposed to get down?”

“I’m sure the mutt will figure it out,” Mira said, looking at the dog unpleasantly. He growled low back up at her.

“I bet he beats you down to the floor,” Holt replied.

“You’re on,” Mira said as she leapt from the edge, sailed through the air, and grabbed hold of the huge gray banner. The giant piece of fabric sailed backwards, propelled by her momentum.

Holt picked Max up, leaned over the edge, and carefully dropped him. The dog yelped slightly as he fell, then landed on the walkway underneath them. When his legs stopped wobbling, he looked back up at Holt.

“Go!” Holt said, pointing to the floor far below. The dog took off in a dash, circling down and around the walkway toward the bottom of the cavern in a blur of motion.

Mira was still hanging from the banner, gathering it all up into her chest. She wrapped her arms around it… and started sliding down it like a pole.

Holt frowned as he watched her, envying how easy she made it look. He studied the second banner, the same distance away. He exhaled his tension, long and slow, trying to work up the courage for the leap. “In theory,” he skeptically said to himself. Then he ran and leapt off the edge.

He flew through the air, felt it rush around him, saw the gray of the banner coming toward him.

Holt slammed into it, tried to grab it… and missed badly, kept falling.

In a panic, he felt the angle of his flight shift to a downward trajectory toward the ground. The gray fabric flared all around him, and he tried to get his hands around it, but it was going too fast now.

Any moment, he would run out of banner to grab, and slam right into the floor.

He did the only thing he could think of. Marcus’s hunting knife was still in his hand. Holt drove it down into the banner as he fell.

The sharp blade punctured it easily, catching the fabric. It jarred violently when Holt’s weight slammed onto it, and he almost lost it. But he held on, grabbing it with both hands.

The knife ripped through the banner as he fell, slowing his fall. And the sharp sound of tearing fabric echoed throughout the cavern.

The big knife sliced through the remainder of the banner; then Holt was free-falling again toward—

He slammed into a rope bridge just below him, and the whole thing shook loudly. Above him, the huge banner swayed and rocked, split in two… and tore loose from the ceiling, falling downward in a flurry of gray fabric.

Holt, wide eyed, tried to roll out of the way, but it was too late. The giant mass of falling cloth buried him as it crashed down, pinning him under its increasing weight.

He struggled underneath it, trying to breathe and get it off him any way he—

Someone yanked the remains of the banner away, and he stared up into angry green and black eyes. He braced himself as Mira opened her mouth to yell at him…

…and a dog barked under them. They all looked down to the floor below, saw Max there, staring up at them impatiently, his tail wagging.

“The Max beat you!” Zoey exclaimed.

Mira rolled her eyes, looked back to Holt. “Real nice work,” she said.

All around them, people were stirring. Lights were flashing on in the platforms that circled the giant cavern, and Holt realized he’d just woken the entire Gray Devils faction.

Mira was up and moving, pulling Zoey along with her toward the edge of the bridge. “Jump after me when I get down,” she told the little girl.

Holt pulled himself loose from the heavy banner as Mira crawled off the edge of the bridge and dropped to the floor about ten feet below. All around, he could hear shouts starting to ring out as the faction members slowly realized what was happening. Their prized captive was escaping, aided by a little girl, a dog, and a clumsy moron.

Zoey dropped from the bridge into Mira’s arms, and Holt ducked under its railing, falling as well, landing on the ground, and moving after them.

But Mira wasn’t running back the way they had come. Instead, she was running toward the waterfall.

The torrent of water thundered down in front of them, and Mira reached for a length of thick chain that ran up the side of the wall next to it.

When she yanked it, more chains above them began sliding through pulleys as counterweights fell downward. A large latticework of sheet metal that Holt hadn’t noticed before began slowly tilting down on the other side of the waterfall. He wasn’t sure what was happening, but whatever it was, it needed to happen fast.