"Heads up," Hailey called out, swooping back around to meet them. "We've got trouble."

  "What's going on?" Alden asked.

  Mabel Walsh was ambling along behind him, as fast as her old legs could carry her. Behind her was Hector—whom they'd found weeping outside the burning, shattered wreckage of his exploded store—Collins McCreary, Neffie Bowman, and the president of the University, Christina Albrecht. Jessica brought up the rear, a blue ball of flame at the ready.

  They'd been picking up anyone they found as they made their way across town. There was no sign of the mob from earlier. Collins had a broken leg from a collapsed crossbeam, while the President and Neffie Bowman sported cuts from blown-out windows, so they made slow progress to the one remaining door open at the Kettle and Bones. From the look on Hailey's face as she rejoined them, though, it was about to get much harder.

  "Golems. And they're attacking everyone." Hailey flew a small circle to turn around and stopped in mid-air, fluttering slightly as her invisible wings kept her aloft. "We're about to get into a fight if we go around that corner."

  Alden didn't hesitate. "So let's go fight them." The moment he spoke, a shout of alarm from Jessica at the rear had them all turning around.

  A golem had just sprouted from the ground behind the group. Jessica was trying to push it away with a wall of force, since she couldn't use her fire. Hector fled—despite Neffie calling out for him—and disappeared into the swiftly falling twilight. Hailey swooped forward and hurled wind at the golem, pushing it back even further.

  "Now would be a great time for some of that lightning!" Neffie shouted.

  "We never learned how to make lightning!" Hailey called back.

  "How do you make any of this?" asked Christina. "Electricity is just electrons moving around. Can't you do that?"

  "You explain that to the dumb girl," Collins snapped.

  "We're all faster than it, right?" Alden pointed out. "If we can't beat it, we can just outrun it."

  "That's not a permanent solution," said Neffie.

  "Anything's better than staying here until Hailey collapses."

  "If you take the path by Dan's place, you could probably get to the tavern okay," Hailey called out. "I didn't see anything that way."

  "Okay then," Alden said firmly. "Hailey, can you hold it off without Jessica?"

  She nodded. Alden tapped Jessica on the shoulder. He pointed at Hailey, then at the golem with a flat palm. He made a circle in midair to indicate the group on the ground, then jerked his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the path Hailey had mentioned.

  Jessica nodded. She stood up straight and took a few deep breaths.

  They set off while Hailey held back the golem as much as possible. It managed to advance even in the wake of the massive gale Hailey was unleashing, but it was so slow that a single inch took a minute or more. Alden wasn't too concerned, until he heard another cry of alarm from the front of the group.

  He rushed back forward to find Jessica hurling a ball of fire across the street. A middle-aged man stood there, with short brown hair and a mess of unshaven stubble on his face, holding a thin black obsidian rod. At the last possible moment, a golem managed to intercept the blast of fire about to strike him.

  Brian Hendricks stood firm behind the fiery pillar of his golem servant. "Mabel, I expected better of you," he called out.

  "And I thought you were a decent man," Mabel shouted back. "Looks like we're both disappointed."

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  "How could you support something so disgusting and blasphemous?"

  "Blasphemous?" Mabel laughed. "You're too young to understand what that really means."

  Brian paused while his hand dug through his coat pocket for something. Alden tensed up, expecting the worst. Jessica was already projecting a wall of force to hold back the golem, but if it really tried to advance, he wasn't sure they could hold it back. Not with its creator so close, if Alden understood how they operated.

  Brian's eyes narrowed. "You're one of them," he snarled.

  Mabel's eyes widened. Brian lifted the rod higher, and another two golems emerged. As an impenetrable wall, they began advancing on the group.

  "Run!" Alden shouted. They had no hope of stopping that. He grabbed Jessica's shoulder and pulled her back. She held up the wall a second longer, but realized it was futile and followed Alden. "Hailey, we need another route!"

  "Little busy!" she shouted back.

  "We're surrounded!"

  They were running down the only route left open to them, the road leading back to the park they'd started at. As they rounded a corner, Mabel tripped over the curb. Alden didn't notice until it was too late. He turned just in time to see a golem lean over and pulverize her skull. He shut his eyes just before the blow landed.

  Collins swore under his breath as he ran, while Neffie just shook her head in disbelief. Christina shouted something about being innocent and tore off down a side alley.

  A moment later, they heard her scream in pain.

  Alden looked around desperately, but there seemed to be a golem approaching from every direction but forward. He felt like they were being herded back to where they'd last seen Omega—but what choice did they have?

  Hailey finally rejoined them a block later, flying back in over their heads. "You've got two on your tail, but you're pretty far ahead. You're running right back into the ritual site though," she added dubiously, confirming his fear.

  Alden looked around for anything they could use. All they'd wanted was to get back to the Marketplace, but the only entrance was well-guarded by Brian and his golems. They were locked out and getting picked off one by one. They needed somewhere to hide, but every building was wide open from doors and windows being ripped out. One of us seems to be safe, Alden realized.

  "Hailey, you need to take us up to the rooftop."

  "I can't lift all of you."

  "One at a time," Alden added impatiently. "If we stay up there and stay low, we have time to figure this out."

  Hailey nodded. "You first, then. No arguments, you're the most experienced flyer after Jessica and she's gotta stay down to protect you all."

  Alden threw up his arms. Hailey swooped in and grabbed his forearms, while he immediately latched onto hers. The strain on his shoulders was immense. He felt like his arms might be ripped from their sockets, and that feeling redoubled as Hailey flapped up into the sky. A few moments later, she deposited him on the nearest rooftop with enough cover that they wouldn't be seen from the street.

  Neffie was next up. She looked incredibly uncomfortable being lifted into the sky by a free-flying college girl aloft on invisible wings, but gritted her teeth and landed gracefully enough when Hailey released her. The next trip back wasn't so lucky.

  As Hailey swung back around to the street level, a golem emerged from a row of bushes and bore down on Collins. Alden was about to shout a warning, but Neffie clapped a hand to his mouth. "We're hiding, remember?" she hissed.

  Alden nodded frantically. She released him, and he summoned a fireball in front of Jessica, bright orange and pulsing. She recognized the signal immediately, spinning around—but it was too late.

  The golem—with no wind-up whatsoever, just a single punch forward as casual as could be—put its blocky fist through Collins' stomach. He looked down in shock, his eyes widening a moment before the golem slammed him aside into the nearest wall.

  It started to move on Jessica.

  She threw up her arms, and Hailey grabbed her up immediately. She swung Jessica forward like they were doing a gymnastics routine, and Jessica clasped her legs around Hailey for a better grip. Hailey looked like she was about to turn back around to Alden and Neffie, but Jessica frantically tugged on her shirt and got her to keep going in the same direction—far away from their impromptu sanctuary.

  Alden breathed a sigh of relief. If Hailey had flown to their rooftop, there was no way they'd go unseen. As they flew off, the golems in the street continued to follow, ignoring Neffie and Alden entirely.

  Neffie let out a deep breath as well, falling to the rooftop and staring up at the sky with a blank face, half-covered by her curly black hair. Alden laid down on the gravel and watched the incoming wall of dark clouds. Of course it's about to start raining, too.

  "Are you okay?" he asked.

  "No I am not goddamn okay," Neffie snapped. "I just watched a bunch of my neighbors—my friends — get murdered one by one. I'm really not okay."

  "I'm—"

  Neffie sighed. "I'm sorry. You didn't deserve that. I'm physically okay."

  "Okay," Alden replied.

  "What do we do now?"

  Alden hesitated. "I don't know." The shriek of a hawk punctuated his words, prompting them both to look up at the sky. A bird circled overhead, barely visible against the mountain range of rain clouds on the horizon.