Golden by Melissa de La Cruz

did the same. They weren’t going to fight their way out of this one, not this time.
    There were just too many of the enemy to fight, and all of them were armed, ready to shoot, trigger-happy.
    It was really over.
    â€œAgainst the wall,” said the officer, gesturing with the butt of his rifle. “All of you, line up!”
    Wes and his crew were herded against the alley wall with the rest of the marked prisoners. He knew what came next, and it wasn’t good. The soldiers made them all stand in line, preparing a firing squad.
    Summary execution
, thought Wes. It would all be over in a minute.
    Hold on,
said the voice in his head. But Wes was done holding on; there was no more time for that. He could hardly open his eyes—a bruise had forced one shut, the other was bloodshot. Nat looked over at him, shaking her head. She couldn’t speak; she could barely stand. She was spent, nothing more to give. They were done.
    He reached out for her hand and she took it. With her other hand, she took Liannan’s. Liannan took Shakes’s, who took Roark’s, who held Brendon’s.
    Wes leaned forward. “See you in the next life, my friends.”
    â€œBeen an honor,” said Roark.
    â€œBeen something, all right.” Shakes smiled.
    â€œRather leave with friends than live with snakes,” Brendon agreed.
    â€œBesides,” said Liannan, “Farouk is waiting.”
    â€œAgreed,” Nat whispered. Wes squeezed her hand tighter. They would die together. All of them.
    â€œFIRE!” Gunshots exploded in the smoky air, echoing like thunder through the cavernous streets of New Kandy.
    This is it
— Wes braced himself, but the bullets shattered in midair.
    He waited for death but it did not come. He expected a hail of bullets, readied himself for the pain, but there was nothing, and he remained intact, whole.
    The gun smoke that remained was thick and gray, and it stung his eyes, clouding up in a great wave in front of him.
    Even through the smoke, he could see that the soldiers were gone.
    In their place was a circle of sunlight, so bright it washed out the streets of the White Temple around it.
    I’m here,
said the voice.
    All around him, the dark alley filled with an incandescent light.
Some kind of tear in the fabric of reality,
Wes thought.
It’s a miracle. Or the end of the world. Or . . .
    It’s her.
    â€œA portal!” cried Nat, who recognized the pattern, as snow-filled air began to swirl around them, creating a funnel, the wind kicking up debris until the space resolved into a shimmering window to another place and time.
    Not just any place and time.
    Vallonis.
    Wes thought he heard birdsong, a river rushing in the distance. It was strange to see such beauty in the heart of so much destruction.
There are other worlds than these,
he’d read once in a book a long time ago. Hadn’t he?
    It was hard to remember now, what was real and what was not. What was a memory, and what was a dream.
    The lady in white appeared at the mouth of the portal.
    Did I dream her?
She wore a shade of white so pure that it sparkled like a star, so pristine that it had no color at all; it was translucent, like crystal draped over her slender frame.
    Nat, standing by his side, gasped.
    The lady’s face was ageless and unlined, and Wes remembered her as if it had been only yesterday that Eliza had been stolen away.
    Then the woman smiled at him, and when she spoke, just as he expected, her voice and the voice in his head were one and the same.
    â€œI am Nineveh, Queen of Vallonis. Come.”

7
    S O THIS WAS N INE VEH .
    Nat had never met the ruler of Vallonis, not in all the months she lived in the Blue. Faix had been bringing her to Apis, to meet the Queen, when Nat abandoned her training to try to save her friends. She was awestruck and overwhelmed and, for a moment, relieved. Someone was here to help, someone was here to save them. The Queen had arrived, and