Nilia started running and Raven followed her. Diago’s group was coming at top speed. A part of Raven would have given anything to just wait for them and finish them off with his companion’s help, but there were too many of them and he knew it would be a stupid move. They’d captured him the last time, and there were less of them then than there were this time. They had no choice but to try to escape again. He vowed to speak to Nilia about taking some other steps to put an end to the hunt. He could not spend the rest of his life like this, and being locked up in whatever hiding place Nilia was taking him to wasn’t an option, either. If there was one thing he now understood, it was that his pursuers were immortals, so time was clearly on their side.

  “Jump down to the track,” ordered Nilia gruffly. They were at the end of the platform and there was no other way out. “Hurry up!”

  They jumped down together and ran between the rails toward the darkness of the tunnel. Nilia was moving swiftly; it took everything Raven had just to keep up with her. It was pitch black all around them now. Raven glanced back over his shoulder and couldn’t see the platform behind them anymore. They were on a curve in the track.

  “I can’t see anything,” he complained. He’d just stepped in a puddle and almost lost his balance.

  “Be quiet!” she said to his left. Raven was surprised; he could have sworn she was on his right, but he couldn’t see her in the dark and, unlike him, she hardly made any noise when she ran. “Control your breathing; you’re going to need it.”

  He nodded and started running again, concentrating on not tripping and falling over anything. Raven didn’t know how long they’d been running but his strength was beginning to falter. His breathing was heavy and he was starting to feel the penetrating stabs of a stitch in his side. He couldn’t sense exactly how close Diago was since his energy was directed at keeping his legs moving, but he had a feeling they were gaining on them.

  He caught a glimpse of light farther ahead. Maybe they were coming up on the next station, but that wasn’t likely. They hadn’t run far enough for that; he wouldn’t have been able to keep up such a fast pace if they’d gone that far. He felt his heartbeat throbbing in his temples. His temperature was rising and he was sweating. The light was getting closer, and it appeared to be coming from somewhere on the ceiling.

  “Stop! Look out for the hole!” shouted Nilia. Raven put on the brakes and was infinitely grateful she’d grabbed his shoulder and yanked him back.

  An enormous cavern where the ground would have been was a few feet from where they’d stopped. In a panic, Raven considered their options. The only light was filtering in through a crack from somewhere high above them, and he could see that the diameter of the hole in front of them was wider than the tunnel they’d been running in. There was no way to continue. It was now clear why the station was no longer in use. It was completely cut off. Raven couldn’t imagine what could have caused a chasm of those proportions. It looked like the ground had collapsed into a massive sinkhole, though the train track continued on to the other side of the hole, suspended in air. If they weren’t being chased, they would have been able to cross without too much difficulty, but if Diago were to surprise them halfway across, it would be incredibly easy to fall into the abyss. It was no doubt where Nilia had initially been planning to cross when she wasn’t expecting to be fleeing from anyone. Raven saw a tiny ledge coming out of the wall along the hole that went to the other side. The surface looked slippery, uneven, and sloping; it would be just as dangerous if they were taken by surprise on the ledge before they made it to the other side.

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  But that wasn’t the worse thing about their situation. When Raven looked over the edge of the gigantic hole to see how deep it was, what he saw took his breath away. He had fully expected to find that the bottom was too deep for them to go down and then climb out the other side; he was even somewhat prepared to discover that the void was so deep they couldn’t even see the bottom. But instead of either of those scenarios, what was before his eyes was even more frightening and unexpected. It was the Fog.

  It wasn’t rising like a mass of vapor that actually respected the laws of nature would, nor was it settling down into the depths of the earth. It simply hung there, waiting for some unsuspecting soul to fall into it. The train tracks crossed over the void ten to twelve feet above the dense mist.

  Raven braced himself for the fit of rage that Nilia would no doubt be unleashing and tried to avoid meeting her gaze, embarrassed about having gotten them into this. If they managed to get out of there, he had no doubt that her rebuke would be most unpleasant. But for the moment, she was silent. Raven could hear nothing; no steps, nor anything else . . . until Diago’s voice broke the silence.

  “I believe we shall now settle this matter once and for all,” he said from behind them.

  Raven turned and saw him staring at him from the tunnel. He was in the middle of a line of ten silhouettes that were walking toward them very slowly. When he recognized Vyns and one other one, he was besieged by fury. He wanted so desperately to scream at them to leave him alone, that they’d already tormented him long him enough. If this was the end, if he was to fall into their hands, he would do everything he could so it would cost them dearly.

  “Get behind me. Don’t intervene and do only what I tell you to do,” whispered Nilia. She was instantly in front of him. Diago and the rest of his group stopped. “You’re not going to settle anything,” she warned in a threatening voice. “You should seriously consider getting out of here before you regret it.”

  “Nilia! It is you, correct?” From the sound of Diago’s voice, it didn’t seem as though her threat had affected him in the least. “It’s been a long time! I should have figured you were the one behind all this. You know, even though we have scores to settle, you should understand that, right now, this has nothing to do with you.

  “Nor will it have anything to do with you,” she replied, “if you turn around and leave with your little group.”

  Raven stayed behind Nilia, amazed by the scene playing out before him. He should have been terrified, but he was experiencing a curious absence of fear. Seeing Nilia stand her ground there before ten men was at the same time surreal and exciting. He thought Diago would have a good laugh and give a simple order, and then his nine companions would jump on them, tearing Nilia to pieces and capturing him. But none of that happened. Diago was watching her carefully, evaluating the situation, and Raven saw both caution and calculation in his eyes, instead of the smug enjoyment exuded by someone facing a sure victory. And Nilia was threatening them! Ten of them! In spite of their overwhelming superiority, numerically speaking, she didn’t seem afraid, nor did she seem to be counting on him to take care of any of this. Everything about her showed she had the situation under control. It must have been some kind of bluff Raven just didn’t understand. It couldn’t be anything else.

  “You shouldn’t have interfered.” Diago abandoned the friendly tone. “You killed one of our people when you took Raven. That was a mistake you’re going to pay for. You should have stayed in the Hole.”

  “I was just checking to see if I’m still in shape,” she replied. “It’s been a long time since I gave one of you what you deserved.”

  “Always so arrogant. You will never change.” Diago sighed with disdain. “Do you seriously think you can take all of us?”

  “Always so ignorant. You will never change.” Nilia sighed, imitating him. “Do you seriously think I won’t destroy at least half of you?”