Yeger strode down the dark tunnel, leading the way to Ledavsk. Fire burned hot in his gut, its flames mixed with fury and fear. Behind him, Klara followed with the rest of the squad, along with Trubnikov and several of his crew. They’d sprinted back to Vera’s Revenge after discovering the body and grabbed weapons and extracts. The scar-faced captain had come with them when Klara had told him what they’d found.

  Even the hard man looked shaken at the news.

  They’d walked for half an hour down the corridor beneath the giant coiled track. All were waiting to take Trinity until they determined whether the Alchemists were still here. Taking it too soon meant risking the extracts would wear off before combat. A back-to-back dosage of Trinity was not a pleasant experience. They needed hours before they could take the extracts again.

  The tunnel lightened ahead of them. Not with the glow of gaslamps, but the red glow of flames. Yeger caught a hint of acrid smoke through his half-mask and lengthened his stride.

  Soon the distant crackle of flames broke the silence. But no voices. That could only mean one thing…

  As the pop and crackle of the fire grew and the tunnel glowed brighter, Yeger’s hearts quickened.

  Then he broke from the tunnel and into Ledavsk’s coil train station. Ahead, the cylindrical coil train lay smashed into the solid stone at the end of the rail. The engine at the front was crumpled, the enormous wheel that usually encircled the train’s body pulled the machine along the coiled track was twisted and broken. Flames licked at what little wood had been used on the train.

  The true horror covered the floor.

  Blood.

  A sea of dark stain that coated the concrete, a river of it trailed away, snaking through an open door into Ledavsk itself. Almost as though the people slain in this room had been dragged out.

  Without pausing, Yeger hurried on, his gas rifle raised and the dread that clutched at his hearts tamped down. There would be time to feel later. Right now, he needed to focus and find his brother.

  He ignored the whispered words behind him and stepped into the underground cavern of Ledavsk proper and faltered.

  The fort of Ledavsk had been razed to the ground.

  The vast dome of a cavern was normally filled with two-story buildings that lined streets branching out from a giant pillar in the centre of the cavern. The pillar housed a currently unlit gaslamp large enough to light the entire central hub.

  A bonfire surrounded the central pillar in a towering pile, flames crackled and popped as they consumed the fuel. Clouds of smoke billowed up, sucked through vents in the ceiling.

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  Yeger gazed around the central hub. Concrete buildings, built with the Sentinels usual love of indestructibility, had been levelled. Only piles of rubble filled the space. The blood trail caught his eye again, and he followed it down the torn street to the bonfire.

  Nausea curled in Yeger’s stomach. Wood was a scarce resource in Serovnya. Sentinels rarely used it, and there was no way an entire fort would have enough to fuel a fire as large as the one shedding its sickly light through the central hub. No, this fire was fuelled by something else entirely… Something far more valuable than wood.

  Sentinels.

  He stumbled down the street, his feet carrying him ever closer to the roaring flames which licked hungrily at the bodies.

  As he drew closer, he could make out twisted limbs, bent at odd angles, corpses thrown with little regard for dignity.

  The gas rifle slipped from his gloved fingers and hit the ground with a clatter as Yeger continued to walk ever closer. The Air Trader coat and half-mask he wore shielded him from the flames now only thirty feet away.

  Then he saw him.

  Near the bottom of the pile a man lay, his bloodless face turned toward Yeger. He knew that heavy forehead with its gaping scar, the blonde hair, the ragged beard.

  Anatoly Blinov stared straight at Yeger with eyes devoid of life.

  Yeger’s legs gave out, and he crashed to his knees, shattered concrete biting at him.

  A scream ripped from Yeger’s lips as a dam broke within him. He slammed his fist into the ground, barely feeling as his knuckles shattered. Again and again he hit the ground as the scream tore at his throat.

  Strong arms grabbed his arm, stopping him from driving his blooded fist into the ground once again. With one fluid movement he stood and reached back, grabbed the arms owner and threw them forward with incredible force. The masked and stunned face of Matvei shot past him, flying and crashing to a halt just feet from the flames.

  Voices yelled in chaotic harmony around him, and a dozen people grabbed him. Yeger threw hand after hand off and strode forward, toward the flames.

  Toward his brother.

  He felt a grip stronger than most on his right arm, and some part of him whispered strength extract.

  Fool. Didn’t he know that without weight strength was dangerous? Yeger dropped right, pulling the person behind him off balance. Their grip loosened as they fought for balance, surprised by the movement. In a flash, Yeger lurched forward, ripping free of his captor.

  Then he was at the fire. Flames burned his exposed skin, and he was forced to shield his eyes. Blindly, he reached out and grabbed his brother’s coat with his left hand. With a roar, he hauled the body of a man who matched him for size free of the bonfire.

  Suddenly, Maria was at his side, helping him drag Anatoly free. Then Matvei. Nika.

  Mikhail.

  Even Klara. He locked eyes with the grim faced Koskova and saw the hatred that ate at him raging deep in her black eyes.

  An unspoken agreement passed between them, and Klara dipped her head. Yes, they would make the Alchemists pay. In blood.

  Then he caught Maria’s gaze. Her half-mask had been torn off in the scuffle, and now gut-twisting pain glittered in the tears that rolled unchecked down her smoke blackened cheeks.

  His hearts cracked and the tempest that had fuelled him evaporated, sapping his strength. He dropped to a knee, nearly letting go of his brother. But Maria was by his side and hauling him up with impossible strength, draping his arm over her shoulders as the squad hurried away from the nightmare burning behind them.