by Tara Sim
Still, Daphne could feel something tremble inside her at the thought of leaving him here.
Akash opened his mouth, brows furrowed, but stopped himself. Taking a deep breath, he swallowed with a nod.
“That’s fair,” he mumbled. He finally met her eyes again, and Daphne wished he hadn’t; his gaze seemed to delve straight into her chest, tightening it to the point of pain. She couldn’t help but remember what it felt like to hold him under the stars, the safety that had enveloped her as his mouth found hers. Akash took a hesitant step toward her, because he could read her all too well. She burned with both fury and grief, wanting so badly to touch him, and also wanting to keep him away.
Before she could make up her mind, the ship lurched and they stumbled into each other.
“What the—?”
It happened again. Sirens began to blast through the speaker systems.
“Is the ship under attack?” Akash turned to her, but she was already running down the hall. “Da—Miss Richards! Wait!”
She hid around a corner, waiting for Akash to pass her. Then she ran to where Danny had gone, nearly colliding into him a minute later. His eyes were wild, his face ghostly pale.
“Did you do something?” he panted.
“No, I thought you did!”
“Then Meena—”
But the girl joined them then, out of breath as she rested her hands on her knees. “That girl’s room is a den of terrors,” Meena gasped. “But I found my gun. What is this ghastly noise?”
“I don’t know, but we can’t waste the distraction,” Daphne said. “Get to the hangar.”
The siren was loud enough to partly cover Meena shooting at the lock. When it broke away, Daphne pushed the door open and hastened the other two inside. Danny paused on the threshold, staring down the hall. His face was contorted with pain.
When she had first told him about escaping, he had demanded to bring Colton with them.
“He’ll be locked in his room,” Daphne had pointed out. “And Zavier keeps the key. He never shows up to meals, so there would be no way to sneak it off him.”
“I won’t leave without Colton.”
“Danny.” She had gripped his arms, looking him straight in the eye. “When we leave, we’ll find the British army and get all of their airships to attack the Prometheus. We will free him, I promise.”
But now Danny had started to breathe strangely, like his panic was strangling him. Daphne touched his arm.
“I’m leaving Akash here,” she said softly. “But I plan to drag him from this ship once we attack with real soldiers and a real defense.”
Danny didn’t look convinced. “You two go and find help. I’ll stay here with Colton.”
Footsteps sounded nearby. Daphne squeezed Danny’s arm tighter. “We don’t have time for this,” she hissed, pulling him along behind her. “Come on.”
The hangar was unmanned, and Daphne pushed Danny inside as Meena blocked the door.
“We can’t leave him here!” Danny yelled. He tried to shove past Meena with no success.
The door to the landing plane was open. Daphne hopped inside and was immediately dizzied by the controls. Her hands hovered uncertainly above the panel.
“Can you start it?” Meena called, hands pushing against Danny’s chest.
“I can try.” Thankfully, when Ivor had taken her and Meena up in the plane during the Lyallpur mission, she had been paying attention to what he was doing. After tinkering with the controls, it came alive with a rumble beneath her.
After wrestling Danny into the back, Meena and Daphne closed the doors and strapped themselves in.
“Daphne, I swear to God,” Danny was yelling. She ignored him as she flipped the control to open the hangar door.
“Are you sure you can fly it?” Meena asked as the sky revealed itself before them. Her eyes were wide, her hands trembling. She must have gone up in planes countless times with her brother, but Daphne at the helm was an entirely different matter.
“I’m fairly sure.” Daphne eased the plane forward and her stomach jolted with fear and elation.
Danny cursed as the plane rolled out of the hangar, dropping a few feet. Meena shrieked, but Daphne pulled up and leveled out. Her entire body seemed to come alive with the motions, as if she were meant for open air and singing wind. A smile came unbidden to her face, full of victory and delight. They had made it.
Daphne was one step closer to home.
Her breath was beginning to come more evenly when it was stolen again by what she saw.
In the sky, two behemoths were engaged in battle. The Prometheus, dark and brooding, against a newer airship, sharper and leaner. Sinister. The boom of a cannon reverberated through the air, making their tiny craft shudder.
“Who are they?” Meena asked.
Focused on the controls, Daphne couldn’t get a good look at the scene playing out behind them. She wasn’t sure where they were going, and glanced at the compass every three seconds. Alarm quickly replaced her elation.
Danny had twisted around to stare back at the ships. He suddenly lurched forward. “Look out!”
Something slammed into the hull of the plane. Daphne yelped as she tried to steady the aircraft, but they were losing altitude fast.
“Do we have parachutes?” she called out to Meena.
“I—”
The plane shuddered again as it took another hit. Another plane, smaller than their own, had risen from the clouds to ram them. Daphne couldn’t see the pilot, but she didn’t need to. The plane wasn’t one of the Prometheus’s.
“Daphne!” Danny yelled.
“Hold on!” She flipped a couple of switches and tried to climb higher, but the other plane knocked into them again. Something tore into the hull.
“Oh God oh God oh God.” She couldn’t tell if the chant was coming from Danny or her own lips, Meena yelling in Hindi beside her. Daphne struggled to keep her sweaty hands on the controls.
Another hit. Another scream.
“Daphne!”
The controls were too erratic, the plane’s nose dipping toward the ground.
They plummeted to the trees below.
Something sharp poked Danny’s cheek. His eyelids fluttered open, and he released a low groan. His head was killing him.
For a long time he just lay there, cheek pressed into the prickly ground. He had no idea where he was or how he had gotten there; the only thing he could process was the firm earth beneath him.
As his blurry vision cleared, something caught his attention: a tan snake slithering through the undergrowth not two feet away from him.
Danny jumped up, almost blacking out again. Gagging and gasping, he scuttled as far away as he could from the vile thing and watched it glide soundlessly through the forest floor.
Forest?
Blinking, he looked up. He was under the shade of tall coniferous trees, the tops of which were illuminated with bright sunshine. Down here, however, the light was filtered through the branches into something more ominous. And it was cold as hell.
Danny blew warm breath onto his chapped hands. His palms and face were scratched and stinging, no doubt from falling through the branches. They’d been passing over India, hadn’t they? Maybe they were north. Very, very north.
God, his head. He touched it carefully and, sure enough, found a tender bump near his temple. He must have hit it when …
“Shit!” He looked around again. There was no sign of Daphne or Meena, or even the plane.
What if they were stranded? What if they were hurt?
Calm down. I’m sure they’re around here somewhere.
Danny leaned against a tree until his head stopped spinning. Then, feeling fuzzy and strange, he walked slowly through the trees and around large gray rocks, dried needles and twigs crunching under his boots. Birdcalls echoed through the canopy above him. The spot would have been peaceful had it not been for the jitters coursing through his body and the heavy sense of dread welling in his chest.
Wal
king helped cut the bite of the air a little, but a forest was never truly quiet, and every so often a rustle would make his shoulders tighten. He startled at a sound right above him, looking up just in time to see two beige monkeys leaping from branch to branch. He had never seen monkeys outside of the London Zoo. They were furry and snub-nosed, almost comical.
But there were probably more lethal creatures lurking out here, like that snake. He alternated between keeping his eyes on the ground and scanning the trees, searching for signs of Daphne and Meena.
One of the boulders looked different than the others, and Danny moved closer to inspect it. Someone had carved a likeness into the rock, a long face with closed eyes and extended earlobes. It looked familiar, like something Meena would have pointed out to him. The Buddha, perhaps.
He put a hand on the Buddha’s cold nose. “Think you could help me find the others?” he asked of him. The stone was silent. “Thought not.”
Something crunched to his left, the unmistakable sound of a footfall. His heart leapt as he turned.
“Daphne?” he called. “Meena?”
Three people emerged from the trees. They wore jumpsuits like Danny’s, only theirs were more like uniforms, better fitted and a dusky blue. The person leading the group was a woman with blond hair cut like a man’s. The two men who flanked her looked like they would be a match for Anish.
The woman gave him a brief smile, but it was all wrong and didn’t reach her brown eyes. Newly awakened dread shot up Danny’s spine, freezing him where he stood.
“Hello there,” the woman said in a smoky voice, her accent English. “I’m assuming you’re from the Prometheus?”
Danny’s eyes darted among the three figures. “You certainly aren’t.”
Which meant they were from that other airship—the one attacking Zavier and the others.
But why? Was it a rescue attempt? Had Major Dryden called for reinforcements to take down the Prometheus? But if that were the case, why would they attack their plane?
“Who are you?” Danny demanded.
The woman gave him that chilling smile again. Instead of answering, she signaled the other two to step forward.
Danny backed up until the Buddha’s nose was digging into his back. Heart pounding, he looked left and right, but there was no way he could outrun these men.
A shot rang out, making Danny jump. One of the men staggered back with a curse. Before Danny could figure out what had happened, a small hand grabbed his wrist and tugged.
“Run!” Meena shouted. They bolted from the Buddha and into the tree cover.
“Where’s Daphne?” Danny gasped.
“Don’t waste your breath. Come on!”
His head throbbed, and when he stumbled, Meena wrapped an arm around his waist and pushed him to keep going. When they reached another large boulder, they fell behind it. Meena sat on top of him, pressing her hand against his chest to keep him down. “Shh!” She looked up, tense and waiting. Her gun glinted in her other hand, the same one she’d used to shoot Zavier on the train from Agra.
The sound of heavy boots went past their boulder, then paused.
“Split up,” the woman ordered. Three separate pairs of feet went off in different directions.
After a minute, Meena exhaled. She shifted off of Danny and sat him up against the boulder. “How’s your head?”
“Let’s just say there are two of you right now.”
She clucked her tongue. “I don’t know where Daphne landed. I grabbed onto a branch to break my fall.” There was a gash on her arm, but the wound was already clotting.
Danny peered around the boulder, but even that small motion hurt. “Who are they? Do you know?”
“No, but I very much doubt they’re here to save us.” Meena pointed to the left. “We should go this way. None of them went in that direction.”
But before they could even move, someone broke through the trees, running right at them. Meena gasped.
“Akash!”
The young man was out of breath, his black hair disheveled. “Come quickly, they’ll be back any moment!”
“Who are they?” Danny demanded.
“I’m not sure, but Zavier says they mean us harm. Meena, chalo!” He held out a hand.
Danny saw her hesitate. He hadn’t spoken to Meena’s brother since they’d been in the Queen’s camp weeks ago, and he still wasn’t sure what to think about his betrayal. He couldn’t imagine what Meena was feeling.
But then Akash drew in a sharp breath. “Daphne. Where is she?”
“We haven’t found her yet,” Meena said.
Akash scanned the trees, scowling. “Go that way,” he said, pointing. “The Silver Hawk is there. I’ll find Daphne.”
“I’m coming with you,” Danny said firmly.
“I don’t think—”
The sound of running decided it for them. Meena grabbed Danny’s wrist again as Akash bolted in the opposite direction.
“Meena, stop! I have to go with him!”
“He may be a liar,” she panted, “but he would never harm Daphne.”
They found the Silver Hawk in a sloped valley near a small river. The sunlight reflecting off the metal forced him to squint as they tripped over clods of earth. The door to the aircraft was open, and running toward them was—
“No!” Danny skidded to a stop, but Zavier still grabbed him.
“We don’t have time for this. Come on, both of you!”
Meena growled as he reached for her arm, but at that instant, their pursuers broke through the tree line. One of them bled from the shoulder, darkening his blue jumpsuit to his waist.
“Quickly!” Zavier pushed them toward the Silver Hawk. The engine roared in the valley like a hundred angry beehives.
Astrid leaned out of the door, her hair loose and dancing in the breeze, her eyes narrowed as a set of small knives bloomed between her fingers. With a quick movement, she threw one of her blades. A pained groan behind Danny told him it landed. She flicked her wrist again, and the woman’s scream followed.
Danny fumbled with the ladder, hands slipping as he hauled himself up into the plane. When Meena, Zavier, and he were onboard, he poked his head back out.
Akash ran from the trees with Daphne hanging limp in his arms. “Hurry!” Danny shouted as the three assailants stirred in the grass.
The blond woman yanked the knife from her arm and flung it at Akash as he raced by, nicking his calf. He stumbled, but kept going as Zavier reached down to grab Daphne. As soon as Akash pulled himself inside the plane, Zavier slammed the door shut. Akash jumped into the pilot seat, still panting as sweat ran down his temples.
Danny scrambled to Daphne’s side, sliding with her across the floor as the plane lifted into the sky. Her hair was littered with small twigs and leaves, her face as scratched Meena’s and his own. Danny checked her breathing.
“She’ll be all right,” Zavier said after looking her over. “We’ll have our medic, Charlotte, take a look when we get back.”
Meena glared at him. “Who attacked the ship? Why were they after us?”
Zavier remained silent, but Danny knew something was terribly wrong. His eyes burned like silver fire, his jaw clenched tight. Calm, composed Zavier had been taken off guard.
The Prometheus swallowed the plane in one of its hangars, and Akash made a sloppy landing. Shaken up as they were, it hardly mattered.
Akash insisted on carrying Daphne to the infirmary himself. Danny and Meena trailed behind, limping into the hall where the rest of the crew was already waiting. The crew rushed forward with loud questions, asking if they were hurt, if Daphne was all right.
Why were they this worried about their prisoners, prisoners that had just tried to run away? Danny could only stare as Prema checked him over for injuries, silent and stunned with all that had happened.
And then he saw him—Colton. He stood in the back, Edmund’s hand around his arm to keep him in place. Colton’s amber eyes drank Danny in with concern.
Danny forgot about anger and compromise and threats. In that slowed down moment, it was easy to see how different the spirit was among the rest of them; something other, something almost untouchable. It was in the way he stood, the weight of uncountable years in his gaze, the impossible magic that clung to his skin. A beckoning and a warning.
Danny pushed past the others until they were standing face-to-face. Colton looked straight into his eyes, through his eyes, into whatever internal mechanism made Danny tick.
Something lay broken at their feet—a crevice, a crack wide enough to swallow them both. But Colton lifted a hand and crossed that distance, cupping the side of Danny’s face, his fingers tracing the cuts that marred it. It took all of Danny’s strength not to lean into that hand, to not remind them both how desperately he ached.
“Zavier, will you please tell us what’s going on?”
Reluctantly, Danny turned.
Zavier had his arms crossed tight, biting furiously on a thumbnail. Jo put a hand on his shoulder as the others crowded closer. Prema had been the one to ask the question, and Danny could see it echoed in the confused gazes of the other crew members.
Finally, Zavier turned with a yell and punched the wall with his metal hand, denting the surface. “They’re going to ruin everything!”
“Who is?” Ivor demanded.
“Zavier, calm down,” Jo ordered. “We’ll figure this out.” She looked across the hall at Danny. “And … I think it’s time you told them the whole story.”
In the infirmary, Charlotte, the Austrian woman married to Felix, used her cache of medicines to treat Meena’s gash and Danny’s spinning head. Danny had to drink a foul assortment of herbs disguised as “tea.” His nose wrinkled with every sip.
Daphne flitted in and out of consciousness, and Akash hovered over her, dark eyes pinched with worry. When Charlotte waved smelling salts under Daphne’s nose, Daphne’s eyes flew open with a strangled gasp.
“There we are,” Charlotte said pleasantly. “Follow my finger, if you please.”
“Where—?” Daphne turned her head and winced.
Danny woozily left his bed for hers. He touched her clammy hand. “I’m here, and so is Meena.”