Isla handed me the lantern from our room before falling back with the rest of the party… and Reed.

  The Inquisitor was keeping her close. I didn't like that. Isla might slip up. She might reveal a clue to her identity. Maybe I should stay back. Maybe I should-

  "Elf! Are we leaving or not?" Finnick asked.

  Isla pulled up her hood and walked further down the street.

  I forced myself to turn away.

  "We leave."

  # # #

  We walked in awkward silence through the back alleys of the Service Quarter. Thor was a foot ahead, his nose to the ground.

  I kept my lantern down by the hip—any higher could draw attention to us.

  I glanced down at my Dahlgeshi companion. Finnick kept his head forward as he walked beside me with folded arms.

  What possessed me to bring him along?

  I sighed. I knew why. What else could it be? Utility: Sin’s first lesson. Finnick’s Landbound ability was useful. He could carve through stone men better than any knife. And with his cartel’s future on the line, he just might play nice.

  I should say something, smooth over the rough patch of brambles between us.

  But what?

  How about the truth?

  "Thank you."

  He glanced up at me and scowled.

  "For what?"

  "For Tom. You saved his life."

  He scoffed.

  "I wasn't trying to save him. I saw the enemy, and I attacked."

  "Is that how they trained you in Dahlgesh?"

  He bared his teeth.

  “You know nothing of Dahlgesh.”

  “That’s why I ask.”

  He snorted.

  "My brother was the sword. I was the shovel. Dug a tunnel here. Dug a tunnel there. Dug everywhere."

  I let his words digest and nodded.

  "Smuggling."

  Finnick spat on the ground.

  "Smuggling."

  Thor paused, letting out a low murmur—his version of a whisper.

  It came too late.

  Slow, heavy footsteps padded toward us. Five stone men turned around the corner, their red crystal eyes glinting in the lanternlight.

  Finnick raised his right hand. Their smooth faces cracked and exploded in a burst of rubble.

  BAM!

  Thor yelped as the bits of rock bounced off his head.

  "I was never a warrior."

  "Could have fooled me."

  "I am nothing. A foulborn and a midget—twice the bastard. Without my brother, I wouldn't have survived."

  "And now you protect him from his enemies."

  He stared up at me.

  "All his enemies, including himself."

  I held his stare. Van Lagos didn’t know how good he had it.

  Ahead of us, Thor grunted, calling our attention around the corner. We followed him, stepping over the fallen stone bodies.

  "We're getting close."

  "We better. I can only run so far."

  Thor stopped at the back of a warehouse. He scratched the wooden wall with his right tusk.

  "Your boar is broken."

  "No, it’s worth a look."

  I knelt at the warehouse wall and let a small fire ignite above the tips of my index and middle fingers.

  "I knew it! I knew you were a mage!"

  "Keep it down."

  I shooed Thor away from the wall, bringing the fire closer to the wooden surface. I was still new to Landbound magic, but my training under Isla had given me ideas. Different ways I could stretch my abilities and increase my utility. If there was any time to try these ideas out, it was now. I imagined a knife cutting through meat, and the fire responded. It bobbed up and down, rippling into a slender, blue flame. I clenched my jaw, accepting the searing pain that crept from my fingertips to my knuckles.

  I pushed the torch against the surface, cutting a rough circle of singed wood big enough to crawl through.

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  "Finnick, can you hold this?"

  I passed him the lantern. He snatched it with an annoyed huff of breath. I twisted out my dagger and pried the wooden panel loose, leaning it beside the wall.

  "More tunnels," Finnick said with disgust.

  "I'll go first."

  I pulled my cane out of my sword belt and crawled on my belly through the hole.

  The smell of burning oil greeted me—dim torches burned in the distance, obscured by stacks of boxes.

  I crawled to my feet, sliding my cane into my sword belt. I peeked over a low stack of boxes.

  A giant sinkhole had opened up in the middle of the warehouse, and out of that hole climbed the stone men.

  What were the chances?

  They pitched torches with long poles near the sinkhole. Others held torches to light the space. The warehouse doors were pushed open. Guards lay sprawled out near the entrance, their blood drying on the stone men’s swords and spear points.

  "I can't seal that," Finnick whispered, walking up to my side. Thor waddled up beside him.

  I nodded.

  "We found the hole. Let's go back to the Guildhall and come back with Reed and the others."

  "Look!”

  He pointed at the hole.

  Next to the opening was a staging area with equipment for their nighttime raid: weapons, arrows, unlit torches, and more stone pots like the one they tossed into the Pit.

  "They tried to blow up the inn with one of those pots."

  "It was the same for us. One was enough to blow up a smithy. Think of what a stack of them would do."

  I understood his meaning.

  "Lira was wrong about you, Finnick?"

  "How so?"

  "You can be reckless, too."

  Finnick bared his teeth in a wild grin.

  “We must end it, elf. If we retreat now, they’ll do more damage to the town.”

  I counted twenty-five stone men, with more crawling out of the hole by the minute.

  "Thor?"

  He grunted.

  "Go back to Dugan. This is going to be dangerous."

  The boar let out a low whine. I pointed a finger.

  "No arguing!"

  He huffed and trotted away with his head down.

  Finnick smirked.

  "You're hard on the beast."

  "Strength is all he understands."

  "Like all animals. Come."

  Finnick sprinted ahead of me, slipping between the boxes with surprising stealth. I burned my will into my jacket and followed. We worked around the edges of the sinkhole, cutting a wide path to the front doors. Finnick stopped at the side of the warehouse.

  "Argh! Why can't I look at you?"

  "Enchantment."

  Finnick scoffed.

  "An elf trick."

  Well, he wasn't wrong.

  "We need to get to those doors before we blow this building. Stay behind me."

  I hopped over a crate and crouched low, stalking closer to the hole. There was no cover between the front entrance and the sinkhole. A crowd of stone men blocked the entrance. They were equipping themselves, preparing for another attack.

  "Finnick?"

  "Here."

  "I'm going to make a run for those pots. Cover me. When I kick them down that hole, we run. Got it?"

  "Yes."

  Hmm. Maybe Finnick wasn't so back after all. All it took was a common enemy—someone we could both hate.

  "Now!"

  I dropped the jacket's enchantment, jumping over the crate to run into massing stone men.

  BAM!

  The head of the stone man closest to me exploded in a shower of dust and gravel. I covered my face with my forearms, running blind into the crowd.

  BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!

  Chunks of rock pelted my forearms, shoulders and back. I slid under a sword swing aimed at my head and kept sliding. The floor was slanted closer to the sinkhole, and I was falling in!

  I clawed at the dirt floor, grasping for purchase. The ground disappeared under my legs. I willed my dagger into my hand, punching it into the ground with both hands. My lower body was dangling over the edge. The stone men were coming from above and below.

  The one that tried to take off my head was getting closer. It raised its sword for a downward swing.

  BAM!

  Its head exploded, sending the body tumbling in my direction. The impact knocked my hands loose. I jolt of raw fear sent my hands scrambling as I slid over the edge. I willed the dagger back into my left hand, piercing it into the hard-packed earth.

  “ARGHHH!”

  I gulped down mouthfuls of stale air, shallowing the toxic dust that caked my tongue. Everything below my chest was shallowed by the darkness below. I swung my foot over the edge, crawling back to my feet to survey the warehouse.

  Finnick had done his work. The warehouse floor was littered with headless stone bodies, but more were shambling back through the entrance. I stumbled to the stone pots, tugging on the netting that kept them bundled together.

  Spirits below, these are heavy!

  BAM!

  Wait, stone pots?

  BAM! BAM!

  "Finnick!"

  BAM!

  "What!"

  BAM! BAM!

  "Move these for me!"

  BAM!

  "Fine!"

  Finnick ran to me from the crate he used for cover, destroying the stone men as he went.

  He looked over the sinkhole, knocking off the stone men climbing up.

  “Get ready, elf.”

  I nodded, conjuring a ball of fire that hovered in the palm of my raised hand.

  "I'm ready."

  "Good."

  Finnick grunted. Dull grinding echoed in the warehouse as the stone pots scraped along the floor. The netting came loose, and, one by one, the pots rolled down the slanted floor into the gaping hole.

  "There. Do it now!"

  I hurled the fireball into the darkness and waited.

  Did I miss? Could I miss?

  The sound of stone pots shattering met our ears.

  A delayed effect.

  Finnick and I looked at each other and bolted for the doors. He was running too slow! I picked him up and carried him under my arm.

  Just a few more-

  KAAAAAAAAABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

  The shockwave threw me off my feet. Finnick was sent flying out of my arms. The force turned me into a rolling mass of limbs tumbling through the warehouse entrance.

  Am I dead?

  I blinked up at the night sky. The grey haze of smoke hid the stars and moon. Ash and dirt rained down on my face. I shook my head and wiggled my arms and legs—everything was working.

  "Finnick?!"

  "What?!"

  "Are you alright?"

  "Of course."

  I rolled to my side. The warehouse was reduced to a burning pile of wood. A few feet in front of me, Finnick brushed himself off, stepping around a quarter dome of stone that protected him from the worst of the blast.

  "You could have made one of those for me."

  He scoffed before looking back at the warehouse.

  "That fire is spreading. Can you stop it, elf?"

  I groaned as I got to my knees, wiping a layer of dust off my face.

  My body was a giant bruise.

  “Elf?”

  “I need a minute!”

  Finnick moved away from the burning ruins to stand beside me with folded arms.

  I narrowed my eyes on the orange-red flames. The explosion sent burning debris into the neighbouring buildings. If nothing were done, the fire that I started would engulf the Service Quarter.

  But unlike the fires earlier in the night, this one was mine. I reached out with that strange third arm and laid a smothering hand over the fires until they died down to embers.

  "Is it done?" Finnick asked.

  "Yeah," I said, panting between short breaths.

  "Good."

  A dagger slid out of Finnick’s sleeve with a whisper. A small hand grabbed my top knot, jerking my head back as a blade cut into my flesh.

  I blinked, confused, as warm liquid spilled down my neck.

  "Because now you die."

  Creator Commentary:

  Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!

  This chapter has my favorite "twist" in the series so far. It works because it's not a twist. Finnick has hated Jacob from the beginning and Jacob has only confirmed his suspicions. The normal arc for a character like Finnick is to go from hating Jacob to slowly gaining begrudging respect for him. But being normal is boring. Finnick's actions in this chapter are much more in line with his character and a direct result of Jacob's actions. Jacob has betrayed him and his brother multiple times throughout this arc. He and the party are actively working against their best interests. From Finnick's perspective, he is completely justified.

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