Chapter 106 THE REVERSED KEY
Chapter 106 THE REVERSED KEY
The silver keys inside my sister’s face dug straight through my skin.
CRUNCH.
A cold, heavy shock hit my heart, freezing the blood inside my veins. The purple fire of the World-Eater didn't explode out of me; it gave a sharp, choking gasp, the dark smoke vanishing into the silver metal like water down a dry hole. I couldn't move my fingers. I couldn't scream.
My own little sister was pinning me down, her tiny hands holding my wrist with that horrible, cold strength.
"Seraphina... why?" I wheezed, a thick drop of dark blood sliding out of the corner of my mouth.
The hate that had been burning in my stomach for a hundred chapters suddenly turned into a freezing bucket of ice. I had fought the Emperor, ripped the clone apart, and watched my own father sink into the deep trench just to keep this little bird safe. Now, she was looking at me with that same smooth, dead baker’s smile.
She's gone, the truth ripped through my chest like a jagged knife. The old me didn't save her. She put the master key into her brain. My sweet little bird is just another tool for the loom.
"The oven is too hot, Aria," Seraphina whispered. Her small, childish voice didn't shake. It was perfectly level, perfectly calm, and completely empty of any human feeling. "Papa said if the dough gets too big, it ruins the batch. We have to turn the fire off so the kitchen can sleep."
"I am not your dough!" I roared through my teeth.
I forced the black hole inside my belly to pull from the very bottom of my life. I didn’t care if my body broke. I didn’t care if my heart popped right behind my ribs. If the loom had stolen my sister's mind, then I would rip the loom out of her head with my bare fingers.
I raised my right arm, the heavy purple bone claw that was still glowing with that sick yellow light. I didn't hit her face. I drove my skeletal fingers straight into the brass wires coming out of her chest, trying to snap the connection.
SPARK-BANG!
A massive wave of solid gold lightning hit my arm, throwing me backward across the tilting floor. My back hit the stone table hard, the sharp edge cutting deep into my spine. The gold light around my bone claw shattered, leaving the purple bones cracked, smoking, and leaking cold gray grease.
Across the room, the giant iron spider was still marching forward, its long metal legs clicking against the brass floor plates.
TICK-TOCK. TICK-TOCK.
The clockman stood right behind the beast, the keyhole in his forehead glowing so bright the whole room smelled like burning hair. The hundreds of empty clone skins dangling from the spider’s legs began to twitch, their dead white faces turning toward me at the exact same time.
"The battery is neutralized," the clockman's triple-layered voice boomed, making the brass floor vibrate under my knees. "The master key has locked the core. Clear the scraps from the forge."
The giant iron spider raised its two front legs, the sharp steel tips aiming straight for my throat.
"Aria! Use the gun!" A raw, bloody shout echoed from the corner.
I snapped my head around. Kael was still pinned to the floor by the three silver needles, but he had used his teeth to drag the heavy steam gun within an inch of my hand. His single blue eye was wide, bloodshot, and dripping with sweat. "The last shot... the pressure is back! Blow the floor!"
I didn't think. I slid across the wet brass plates, my human hand locking around the cold iron handle of the steam gun. I didn't aim for the spider, and I didn't aim for the clock-man.
I shoved the double barrels straight down into the open ventilation grate beneath my body and pulled the trigger.
BOOM!
The explosion didn't just split the floor; it ripped the entire back half of the floating island apart. A massive, blinding wall of scalding white steam and blue fire shot upward, tearing the iron spider’s front legs right off its body. The clockman let out a sharp, metallic shriek as the blast threw his golden gear hands into the ceiling.
The floor beneath my boots tilted at a terrifying angle, dropping straight down into the empty air.
I grabbed Kael by his leather collar with my human hand, my muscles screaming as the silver needles ripped out of his shoulders with a wet, popping sound. My single black wing snapped wide, catching the heavy rush of hot steam to keep us from falling straight into the boiling ocean below.
We landed heavily on a floating piece of the iron roof, the small metal plate spinning wildly in the wind.
Through the thick white smoke, I looked back at the collapsing forge.
Seraphina wasn't falling. She was floating in the middle of the blue fire, her small white suit completely clean, the two silver keys in her face spinning so fast they looked like two solid discs of light. The massive black iron spider was spinning around her like a loyal dog, its remaining legs locking into the air to form a throne beneath her feet.
She looked down at me from her high seat, her silver keys locking right onto my good eye.
"The Southern Network is closed, sister." Seraphina’s voice echoed through the clouds, but it wasn't just her voice anymore. It was the deep, rumbling roar of the master loom itself. "We are moving the kitchen to the capital. Do not come to the palace."
Before I could breathe, a thick, rusted iron chain shot out from the dark air behind her throne.
It wasn't a crane chain. It was a massive, living snake made of millions of spinning silver needles, and it didn't grab her ankle. The metal jaw of the chain snapped shut right around Seraphina’s throat, yanking her tiny body backward into the black sky at a speed that broke the sound barrier.
And standing on the back of the needle-snake, his skinless face covered in fresh white flour, his silver eyes glowing with a wild, triumphant madness, was my father. He had never left the forge. He had been waiting for her to turn the key.