Cinder tapped a finger against her lower lip. “That might work, but what do we block them with?”
“Doesn’t this sector manufacture building materials?” asked Scarlet, gesturing to a sector labeled GC-6: GENERAL CONSTRUCTION. “Maybe they’ll have something we can use.”
Cinder turned to one of the miners. “Can I appoint you to look into that?”
He clapped a hand to his heart in proud salute. “Of course, Your Majesty. We can take some of the mining carts to transport the materials too.”
“Perfect.” Trying not to feel awkward about the Your Majesty part, Cinder turned back to the group.
Wolf stiffened—a small change that sent an alarm through Cinder.
“What is it?”
He started to shake his head, but stopped, his frown deepening. His piercing eyes turned toward the window. The screens on the dome had once again fallen silent.
“I thought I … I smelled something.”
Hair prickled on the back of Cinder’s neck. If it had been anyone other than Wolf, she would have laughed. But his senses were uncanny, and his instincts hadn’t led them astray yet.
“What sort of something?” she asked.
“I can’t place it. There are a lot of bodies here, a lot of scents. But there was something…” His fists tightened. “Someone is near. Someone who was also on the rooftop in New Beijing.”
Cinder’s heart thumped—Kai!
But, no, Wolf would have recognized Kai for sure.
It had to be one of the royal guards who had attacked them.
Iko grabbed the portscreen—a device that had stunned and awed the civilians—and shut off the holograph.
A shrill scream echoed through the streets outside.
Cinder ran for the window, pressing her body against the wall, ready to duck out of view. Thorne plastered himself to the wall beside her. “You should hide,” he whispered.
“So should you.”
Neither of them moved.
She watched the scene below, trying to make sense of it as horror built inside her. Countless guards were marching through the streets, along with at least half a dozen thaumaturges that she could see.
A white coat drew her attention and her stomach sank. Thaumaturge Aimery stood on the edge of the central fountain, right where Cinder had stood before. He carried himself like a prince with his beautiful face and proud stance.
More reinforcements kept pouring in from the narrow streets that stretched out from the square like spokes on a wheel. Far too many reinforcements to quell a simple uprising in a nonthreatening mining sector.
Cinder’s gut knotted.
They knew she was here.
The guards were dragging the people out of their homes, corralling them into uniform lines around the fountain. She recognized the man who had been beaten by the guards, still bruised and limping. There was the old woman who had been stockpiling what she could of her meager rations for years and who had already offered to give it up to those who would be fighting in Artemisia. And there was the twelve-year-old boy who had trailed Iko around all morning with a swoony expression on his face.
“They’re rounding up everyone in the sector,” whispered Maha, peering out of the next window. “No doubt they’ll search these buildings too.” Her expression was fierce as she stepped back. “You should all hide. The rest of us will give ourselves up. They might not search these upper floors if they think everyone is accounted for.”
Cinder gulped. “They won’t stop looking.”
Maha squeezed her hand. “Then hide well.”
She wrapped Wolf in a tight embrace. He bent down to accept it, his knuckles going white as he held her.
They heard the factory door bang open on the first floor. Cinder jumped. She wanted to grab Maha and force her to stay, but Maha extricated herself from her son’s embrace and walked away with her head up. The remaining citizens followed. Without a word from Cinder, it seemed they had unanimously agreed that keeping her safe was the priority.
A chill washed down her spine as she watched them go.
It wasn’t long before she heard orders shouted by the guards, and Maha’s calm voice stating that they were unarmed and coming down voluntarily. A moment later she saw them being shoved out toward the crowd in the square with guns pointed at their backs.
Scarlet gasped. “What about Winter?”
Cinder turned wide eyes on her. They had left the princess at Maha’s house, thinking it was the safest place for her, but now …
“I can go,” said Iko. “They won’t be able to detect me like they would any of you.”
Cinder pressed her lips in a firm line, debating. She wanted Iko here with her, as her only ally that couldn’t be manipulated. But that also made her the best choice for securing the princess.
She assented. “Be careful. Sneak out through the loading bay.”
Iko gave a brief nod and then she, too, was gone.
Cinder was shaking as she looked around at Thorne, Wolf, and Scarlet. From this far up she wasn’t able to feel the bioelectricity of the thaumaturges down in the crowd, so she was confident they couldn’t feel her and her friends up here, either, but that did little to comfort her.
They had come for her, she knew it. She had nowhere to go. Nowhere to hide.
What was more, she wasn’t sure she wanted to hide. These people had put their trust in her. How could she abandon them?
Aimery’s voice reached her ears. Though he didn’t yell, the sound carried upward, echoing off the hard surfaces of the factory walls. Cinder adjusted her audio interface to be sure she caught every word.