Page 151 of Under the Iron Sky

While Soraya had been distracted, Raina had rolled onto her stomach and was now dragging herself across the flight hangar floor. “Stop, Raya.” She sobbed every word. “Please don’t do this.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Soraya caught a glimmer of her reflection in the jet’s metal body. Saw a monster with wholly black eyes and blood splattered all over her face.

Raina’s head frantically whipped from one end of the room to the other, searching for a weapon. She eyed the rack on the far wall where guns and spears and dozens of Links hung from small hooks, the only thing that could dampen this power ravaging through Soraya’s blood.

All of it completely out of her reach.

A wave of Soraya’s hand, and Raina was flipped onto her back. There wasn’t an ounce of her face that wasn’t twisted with pain. “Please,” Raina sobbed, tears spilling down her face. “Whatever he’s done to you, I … I can fix it—we can fix it. You … You just need to stop.”

Every word was a separate rope wrapping around Soraya’s chest, each tear pulling and pulling until she was sure her body was going to crack right open.

She was going to kill Raina.

Soraya’s vision blurred as she stared down at Raina. She felt a tear burn a path down her cheek.

This was wrong. This was horrific.

The Hex did not care.

Soraya stared down at Raina, blood arrow hovering at her side just like Ikarus and his daggers—

The temperature suddenly plummeted. Soraya felt something wrap around her waist, a cord of power that felt like she was being held by a giant hand—

Then she was flying through the air.

Soraya crashed against the wall, guns and Links clattering to the ground around her in a flurry of metal. She’d hit the wall so hard she couldn’t breathe. Chest heaving, she rolled her back, pain pulsing across her shoulders and down her spine.

The Hex wasn’t done yet.

It dragged her to stand. Dragged her magic into the very tips of her fingers to turn that puddle of blood a few feet away that’d been an arrow only seconds ago into a tall blade that cleaved toward Raina’s head.

Someone took hold of her wrists and slammed her against the wall, and Soraya was sure she was weeping as Ikarus’s horned helmet was suddenly clouding her vision.

He’d stopped her. She didn’t know why but he had—and right now that was all that mattered.

The Hex was screaming inside her head. What was he doing?! She didn’t have the Arch yet. She needed to keep going. Needed to kill, kill, kill until that thing was in her hands.

She writhed beneath him, screaming and kicking, despite the tears of joy sliding down her face.

Ikarus touched a gauntleted hand to her forehead.

Like ointment poured onto a burn, the Hex immediately retreated. She could feel it try to hang on, its claws raked down her arms and tendons as it was dragged back, back, back, like black smoke being sucked through an air vent leaving echoes of pain in its wake. Like it was unwilling to be caged once more.

When it was gone, Soraya sucked in a sharp breath, lungs burning and head spinning like she’d been trapped underwater for a long time on the brink of drowning.

The floor swayed beneath her. She fell to her knees, her head and heart throbbing with a pain so intense she thought she might die.

“Where … Where’s Raina? I didn’t … Oh Gods … I couldn’t …”

Ikarus pulled her back to her feet, gauntleted fingers gently pressing into her arms. “It’s all right. You didn’t kill her.”

A clattering noise to their left, and Ikarus’s head snapped up. He raised an arm, the air around him humming with gathering magic.

Soraya followed his gaze, heart breaking again as she beheld Raina, who’d somehow dragged herself to the base of the jet and was trying to climb the ladder into the cockpit despite how much pain she was clearly in. Her spine looked so much worse.

Soraya had done that.

She grabbed either side of Ikarus’s helmet and pulled his face toward her. “Don’t kill her!” Pathetic or not, Soraya no longer cared. Wasn’t above begging if it saved Raina’s life. “Please! You’ve got what you wanted—take the piece of the Arch and let her go! Just this once! Just spare one person—please!”