Page 49 of Under the Iron Sky

Pure, icy rage stared up at her, staining every part of that near-perfect face like a crumpled piece of parchment.

Without dropping his gaze, Ikarus vanished, and Soraya barely had time to turn around before he was towering over her, almost nose to nose, violent, seething magic crackling the air around him, so potent and tangible that every bar in this dungeon groaned as they warped in on themselves in a desperate attempt not to be pulled in by this black hole that was him. Even the torches in the walls winked out, as though they too feared what he’d do to them if they dared to burn in his presence.

Pitch black swallowed the room, then a cold hand shot out to wrap around her throat. Fear speared through Soraya’s system like a bolt of lightning, replacing her blood with fire, and without thought or being able to see him or anything else, she brought her left arm back and punched the air in front of her as hard as she could.

Something crunched. Ikarus doubled over, letting go of her throat with a low hiss.

Soraya fell to the floor like a stone into water, a short burst of pain flaring across her right hip and down her thigh.

She ignored it, pushed all other thoughts aside except for one—he’d damaged the cell. In his anger, his magic had lashed out and pulled the bars up from the ground like weeds.

She scrambled over him. Heart hammering in her throat, her chest, her ears, she blindly felt around the bars for an opening large enough to squeeze through—

Ikarus grabbed her calf and dragged her backward. Soraya screamed in frustration, nails breaking as she clawed at the filthy stone floor, desperate for something to hang on to.

“Oh no you fucking don’t.” The words were a vicious growl. “You’re not winning twice today.” He flipped her onto her back just as all the torches relit.

Twice? What did that mean?

She only had one heartbeat to mark the anger still crackling in Ikarus’s eyes, then the print of her knuckle-duster across his right cheek before he grabbed her face and speared into her mind.

It’d never hurt like this before. Even inside her own mind, Soraya was left panting and gasping for breath on the floor, her vision blurring from the building pressure in her temples.

Boots clicked behind her, then a chill ran down her spine as Ikarus stepped over her crumpled body and marched toward the nearest door.

He was almost vibrating with rage. Soraya could taste it in the air, lingering like rotting battery acid.

This was bad. This was—fuck. He shouldn’t be in her mind when he was this angry. Who knew the type of damage he could do to her psyche when he was this volatile.

She tried to go after him, to crawl across the floor, but it was like the wires in her brain that connected to her body hadn’t quite caught up.

Come on. Move. Move.

Soraya forced herself onto her elbows, trying and failing to push the dizzying ache away and focus on what Ikarus was doing.

Now in front of the door, he raised both his hands, slicing them through the air like he was gutting a wounded animal as he’d done so many times. It’d never worked before—but he’d never been in her head when he’d been this angry.

A loud crack swept through the space, echoes of it ringing between Soraya’s ears.

And right there, in the place where a steel and gold door had stood strong all these days, was a hole into the past.

15

This could not be happening.

Head ringing, Soraya dragged herself to stand, grabbing Ikarus’s forearm before he could walk through the doorway, and yanked him back with all her strength.

Pain speared into her palm where a small spike on his armor had pierced her skin. She didn’t care. He couldn’t get in. Couldn’t see.

She couldn’t stop him.

He didn’t even need to look at her for his magic to slam into her chest and send her flying back into the hallway in her mind. She fell flat on her back, hard enough to knock all the air from her lungs.

Spluttering, Soraya rolled onto her stomach and looked at the doorway. He was gone.

No. No. No.

She forced herself to stand and sprinted after him. Blinding light, so bright Soraya thought that she must’ve gone blind. She blinked, blinked, blinked, and then—