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Chapter 105

I whirl back around the corner, holding my breath. They must be able to hear my heart beat- you'd have to be deaf not to.
Over and over in my head I see Coal being electrocuted and passing out. I wait for the footsteps around the corner. For the cold hands to grab me and take me away.
Let them try, I think. Just let them try. I'll give them the fight of their life, even if I die doing. Let it end. I'm sick of the battle that is never over. As long as I can do anything about it, it will end. Soon.
"Goodbye, Coal." I mouth wordlessly through the tears, when finally I hear the low humming of the airship escalate to a roaring, and my hair rustles in the breeze it creates as it zooms away.
I don't plan it to be a long goodbye.
I turn away and begin to run. Somehow I remember the way, around countless turns and bends, fallen, charred buildings like huge fallen soldiers left over from long ago. My footfalls are light and quick and silent. I run like I'm flying, my feet barely touching the ground. My hair floats and streams behind my like a standard of war, my tail flicking in the breeze, and I use it to balance myself on tight corners.
My ears are pressed back flat against my head. I run my tongue over my sharp canines, and let my claws side out of their sheaths beneath my fingernails. Coal's claws aren't retractable, which must suck for him- Don't think about. Don't think about his face when he looked into your eyes for possibly the last time. Don't think about his body spasming with the surge of electricity, the pain in his eyes, the last words he said to you-
"Be safe."
Yeah, I'm safe. Supposedly, his position was safer, and look where he is now- Don't think about it. One foot after the other, and you'll see him soon enough, I tell myself.
I slide epically into the town square, barely realizing my passage through the interior of the fallen building.
"Coal's gone." I say without pretense. The soldiers and Purr just look at me blankly. The expressions of my group vary from overjoyed, to pity, to indifference, to it's-for-the-best (Yeah, Glass, you guessed it). "We didn't give a signal, he stayed hidden, Servants came down in a shmancy airship and took him."
I give the short, less vivid version. God knows, I don't need to relive it.
"Impossible!" Purr looks indignant while she steps forward. "There is no way a Royal aircraft could get into the Old City! We have sentries posted all around it's perimeter, we have alarms and traps and-"
There's a loud buzzing sound, and the square is filled with flashing red lights. Purr grabs her head in her hands.
"That would be the alarms," She groans. "But the guards...?"
"All the guards are here, Mam." A soldier supplies helpfully, and Purr looks like she might hit him.
"Somebody shut off that thing!" She yells, and about fifty soldiers hurriedly rush away to obey. "I'm gonna get a freaking migraine." Then a crease forms on her brow.
"Who's Coal?"
"The tenth of our party." I say quickly, hoping no one will mention that whole tricky Prince business-
"He's the Prince of the First City." Glass butts in unasked, coming up from behind me.
"Not helping!" I say through clenched teeth out the side of my mouth. But it's too late.
"I think I deserve an explanation." Purr glares coldly at me. She hasn't even met Coal, but, admittedly with rightful suspicion, she already hates him because of who he is and where he stands. "For everything, from the beginning."