The last bomb hums.
Red vial glows like angry eye under my floor mattress. Copper wire around it pulses, not steady, faster, like heart about to blow.
Caelan bursts in behind me, sees it, and does not think.
He shoves me out of room, hard, with his body, so I fall into hallway.
"Ella out!" he shouts.
He kneels over bomb, claws out, not to cut, to hold, because glass vial will shatter if he cuts wrong.
Theo arrives, Liora behind, Jace behind, all breathing hard.
"Don't cut silver!" Theo shouts from doorway. "Red vial is trigger, if silver touches red it blows!"
Caelan's hands hover, shaking. First time I see King hands shake.
Lyra, help, I think, on floor in hall where he shoved me.
Cut copper with teeth, not knife, Lyra says, fast. Copper needs Original teeth, not metal. Metal sp
