by Keary Taylor
I twist around, keeping him in my vision.
He looks down at me with more seething anger than I ever thought him capable of. Clutched in his right hand is the sword I made.
“Such a pity,” he says through clenched teeth. “I meant every word when I spoke of your potential, Nova Ainsley. But even talented snakes are still snakes.”
I scoot back from Cyrillius, sliding myself across the rough floor.
“Send word back to Isroth that Edan Calwin is to be locked up until I return,” Cyrillius says, looking at no one Kinduri in particular. “I want to watch him die myself when I return.”
“No!” I scream, watching as two different Kinduri turn and walk out of the building.
“End her, Nero,” Cyrillius says, his tone almost bored. “Make it hurt.”
I smile, a celebratory feeling of victory sweeping through me, because what Cyrillius doesn’t know can hurt him.
Cyrillius’ greatest weapon would never follow this command.
I twist back, my eyes slipping from Cyrillius, to Valen.
Valen stares at me with an intense expression, his jaw clenched tight.
I see his fingers roll into fists.
Every bit of him is trembling.
No. No.
My eyes instantly well and I feel all of my insides tremble.
Just how much of a slave did the Kinduri make Valen to Cyrillius? If Cyrillius gives him an order, this order, can Valen fight it?
From the way his entire body is trembling, from the heat in his eyes, from the amount of restraint I see coursing through him, I think the answer is no.
And suddenly I realize that our feelings may not be enough. His desire to have a future with me may not be enough.
I realize that I might die, right now, ended by the hand of Valen.
“I said end her,” Cyrillius says, his angry voice cutting through the space, echoing off the walls.
Valen stares at me, and I realize I might die.
“Valen!” I mentally scream at him. “Don’t. You can fight him. Don’t listen to him, Valen!”
“What are you waiting for?” Cyrillius bellows.
Still Valen stands there, shaking from head to toe.
With an angry, resolved sound, Cyrillius lunges forward two steps, the Neron sword in his hand, and aims for my gut.
A bellow, low and powerful and feral fills the space, and I feel the breath suck out of me as Neron gathers around Valen’s hands. With a powerful blast, he releases it.
All the Kinduri closest to him drop to the ground, instantly, dead.
Cyrillius is knocked to the side.
Valen doesn’t wait a second. He extends his hand, his fingers in a curved shape, and Cyrillius is suddenly jerked to his feet, and then he’s dangling in the air. His hands go to his throat, clawing at the invisible Neron in his body that is now strangling him.
“You will never touch her again.” Valen’s voice shakes as he speaks. He’s still trembling with unfiltered rage. “You will never use your Kinduri on my mind again. And I will do whatever it takes to be rid of you. Forever.”
“You betray me, Nero?” Cyrillius gasps, still clawing at nothing but his skin, leaving red, welting marks.
“I found something more to live for,” Valen says. But even as he says the words, I see his strength weakening. I see sweat forming on his brow.
He can’t kill Cyrillius.
The sound of dozens of footsteps behind us pull my eyes away. Dominion soldiers pour into the building, and when they see what is going on, they fire.
A shot catches Valen in the left shoulder.
Cyrillius drops to the ground.
A feral scream rips from my throat as I twist and throw my hands out, throwing a shield out, blasting the firing soldiers back, knocking them on their backs.
“Nero,” I hear Cyrillius say, reverence in his voice. “She’s… Another Nero.”
I twist, aiming my hands at him, intending to rip him in half with the Neron in his own blood, but the world flashes black and screams ricochet through my brain. I hold the sides of my head as the screams grow louder, deeper, demonic.
“Take her!” Cyrillius screams. I hear him getting to his feet. “Do not kill her!”
But as the terrors in my brain begin to fade away, I see the soldiers rushing at me.
Until the room flashes blue. Like there is a laser cutting through the space. And the soldiers drop to the ground, cut clean in half.
Valen holds one hand up to them, before releasing the Neron, which he pulled right from their very own guns.
“Stop!” a voice bellows.
And as I twist, looking for Cyrillius, I find him. Across the room. He stands behind my father, pulled from his bindings, released from the Kinduri. He holds that Neron sword to his throat.
“Nova,” my father says, his voice little more than a whisper. I see the confusion clearing from his eyes. He gives a slow blink, trying to make sense of what is going on.
“No,” I say, gritting my teeth. I take a step forward, raising my hands. Instantly, all the shattered pieces of the soldiers’ Neron weapons rise, deadly shrapnel.
A smile curls on Cyrillius’ face. He tightens his grip on my father. “You cannot kill me, Nova,” he says, despite all the shrapnel that begins swirling around him. “So stop this nonsense and let us have a real conversation. Let’s talk this through like adults.”
I’m seeing blue. I feel the power of Neron raging through my blood. I feel it dancing around me like an electric storm. I swear every bit of my hair is standing on end.
But he’s right, I can’t make the debris dive into him. I can’t cut him into a million shreds like I want to.
“This changes everything, Nova Nero,” he says, his voice low and reverent. “I knew you had potential. But as a Nero, you and I and Valen could do such great things.”
“Don’t listen to a word he says, Nova,” my father growls. He’s still. He doesn’t fight. Because if he does, he’ll slice his own throat on that Neron sword. I know just how razor sharp it is.
“You really should,” Cyrillius says, calm like a snake. “Because you cannot kill me. Valen cannot kill me. But I can certainly kill your father.”
Trapped. I feel trapped.
I don’t know what to do.
“It isn’t worth it, Nova,” Zayne says, his voice quiet and scared and desperate. “You’ll hate yourself forever. We will figure something out.”
I’m shaking now. I don’t know what to do.
In the end, I don’t get to make a decision.
The ceiling above us makes a great cracking sound.
I get one second of a glance to see Nymiah’s eyes turned up to it. I don’t know what she’s trying to do, but my stomach is instantly filled with dread.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong, wrong! Something is about to go wrong.
And then the entire building caves in on us.
A tight arm wraps around my waist and we both hit the floor. I hear thunderous noise and screams.
A blue, paper-thin bubble keeps us from being crushed. But the debris of the building smashes down around us, burying us fifteen feet deep.
Valen grunts, holding his one good hand above us, keeping us from being crushed.
“Dad! Dad!” I scream, so raw and savage my throat screams in protest. I get to my knees, searching for signs of him, but all I see is the shimmer of the Neron shield and a solid wall of debris. “Zayne! No, no, no!” I sob.
The breath rips in and out of me as panic takes over my entire body. I hold my hands up, ready to wield Neron and get us all out of here, when a grunt of pain reminds me that I am not alone.
“Slag!” I cry as I turn around. “Valen, you’re bleeding all over!”
He is holding onto me, one hand gripping protectively onto my waist. His blood is covering me, spilling from the bullet wound.
He grunts in pain, but I see him grit his teeth, holding up the shield, as more and more of the building collapses on top of us.<
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I shift, helping Valen to lie on his back, even as he keeps his good hand extended, maintaining the shield. I place my hands over his wound and close my eyes. I let my senses reach out, collecting any Neron I can find from beneath us so as to not disturb Valen from keeping us from being crushed. I pull it, from deep, deep in the earth of Gara Lune. There’s hardly any at all.
It rises up from the ground and I let my eyes open once more. A tiny bead of it floats in the air, and mentally I direct it to Valen’s wound. It lowers, and sinks right into his flesh.
Valen’s eyes slide closed, and he lets out a sigh of relief as it sinks in, and I feel it as it begins stitching him back together, healing him.
“We have to get out of here,” I say, still holding my hands over his wound. “We… oh, slag. Do you think they’re all dead?” Emotions well in my eyes. “Nymiah must have thought she was prepared, she brought down the building. She must have thought she could protect them.”
“She’s a Nero?” Valen says, his voice sounding stronger. “You know her?”
I nod as I help Valen get to a sitting position. I’m trying not to hyperventilate. We’re surrounded by debris. We’re in such a small space I can’t even stand up. Extending my hands, I concentrate on the top of it all, removing it piece by piece.
“I’ll explain it all later,” I say, “but she’s an ally.”
I push my abilities further, harder. I feel the clock ticking.
There has only maybe been a minute that has passed by. But anything could happen in that span of time.
I have to get to Zayne and my father.
Valen gets to his knees, squares his shoulders, and I see a look of determination fill his eyes.
He extends both his hands, and…pushes.
Instantly, all the debris push away, every single piece, going flying across the surface of Gara Lune, crashing into other buildings with great cracks.
There, only fifteen feet away, I see three figures.
There is Zayne and Nymiah, leaning over another figure, lying motionless on the cracked and crumbled floor.
“Dad!” I scream, darting across the ruined space.
“Val…Valen Nero,” Zayne’s voice says with a quake. He looks at Valen with wide, terrified eyes.
My knees scream in pain as I drop to the ground beside my father. I take his hand, leaning over him, pushing Zayne out of the way.
But I freeze. My insides disappear.
A smooth, clean line stretches across his throat. The skin is cut and burned. Blood stains his skin.
“Dad,” my voice croaks out. “Dad, can you hear me?”
I lay my hands over his throat, calling Neron, pulling it from everywhere around me. I flush it into his skin.
“Come on, come on, come on,” I chant over and over. Even as emotions well in my eyes. Even as all my insides shake and quiver.
“Nova,” a gentle voice says, and a hand touches my arm.
“No!” I scream, slapping Zayne’s hand away from me. “No!”
Tears pour from my eyes now as I look back down at my father. I call more Neron. I sink it into his injury.
I wait. I feel.
But I feel nothing.
Nothing.
An angry sob rips from my chest. My breaths suck and pull and bellow in and out of my lungs.
“Where is he?” I demand, looking around. “Where is Cyrillius?”
I don’t see him. I don’t see any Kinduri; none that are alive, anyway.
But I do hear the sound of soldiers.
“Nova, we need to leave,” Valen says as he grabs my shoulder, with enough firmness that his words reach me. “We have to go, now.”
“Why is he here?” Zayne says through clenched teeth. “What are you doing with-”
“Valen, help me,” I cut him off, barely registering that he said anything. I look down and tears resume running down my face. I wipe a dirty wrist over my cheeks, pushing them away.
The sound of the soldiers grows closer. I hear them shouting Cyrillius’ name.
“Help me!” I cry in desperation, even as Valen scoops my father into his arms, heaving him up off the ground. I climb to my feet, my entire body shaking. “We have to get back to that ship. I can explain everything later,” I say when Zayne and Nymiah look at Valen with absolute fear. “Go!”
And as a shot is fired in our direction, we all take off running.
The chaos has scattered the masses and I only see Kinduri off in the distance or in those strange buildings, watching from misshapen windows. We duck and dart as shots are fired at us.
There, ahead, I see the Class 5 ship that transported us here.
I don’t hesitate for one second when I raise my hand, gathering Neron, and form an arrow.
I pull my hand back, as if I’m shooting an invisible bow, and release.
It sails true, and embeds in the heart of the pilot standing in the doorway, watching the insanity unfold.
“Get him out of here,” I yell, even as his body drops onto the ramp, dead. Zayne rolls him off the ramp and once we’re all inside, Nymiah smashes her hand into the control that closes it.
Without hesitating, Zayne takes the pilot’s seat and fires up the core.
“Where am I setting as our destination?” he says frantically as we hear shots hitting the outside of the ship.
“We have to get back to Isroth,” I say, making myself not look at my father as Valen lays him on the floor. “I can’t leave Edan. They’ll kill him.”
“Are you slagging kidding me?” Zayne says, looking at me with frantic eyes as the ship lifts off the ground. “We’ve got a ship, ready to go, and you want to go back into the hive?”
“I’m not leaving him behind, Zayne!” I scream. And I’d absolutely hit him, but I need him to stay conscious so he can pilot the ship.
He fixes me with a hard glare, his jaw clenching. But he turns back to the controls and inputs the commands.
Valen grabs the radio com and presses the button.
“This is Valen Nero,” he says, and goosebumps flash over my skin at the commanding tone to his voice. “Some slag is going on on Gara Lune. I don’t know who is impersonating Cyrillius, giving ridiculous commands, but I want you all to listen to me. I need Edan Calwin brought to the presidential landing pad immediately.”
There’s a moment of static non-response, and then a voice comes through, clear as day.
“This is Cyrillius of Dominion.” His voice chills me to the bone. “There is no imposter. Every order has been issued directly from myself. Valen Nero has betrayed us, and I approve the termination of him and any others with him. The prisoner Edan Calwin is to be terminated upon his finding.”
“Slag,” I say as Valen releases the com and looks at me. “I mean, at least they haven’t found Edan yet. But…”
“We’ll find him,” Valen says as he places his hands on my shoulders and looks me in the eyes. I see a promise in them, that we will, and he will do whatever it takes.
So I give a nod, deciding once more to trust him.
“Set us down on the roof,” Valen says, turning and giving Zayne a command. “Land on the south side. It will put us closest to where Edan might be, to the areas where he’d have access. It will keep us closest to the Presidential courtyard where The Corsair is.”
Hesitantly, Zayne looks at me.
“Do it,” I say, fixing my eyes on the shape of the Compound as it grows bigger and bigger.
I know I need to explain. But there is no time right now.
My heart is beating out of my chest. I still can’t bring myself to look down and see my father lying there on the floor.
So I reach over and take Valen’s gloved hand in mine.
Zayne doesn’t miss it. He looks up at me with a slightly accusatory stare, but doesn’t say anything.
Just two minutes later, the ship carefully descends to the roof of the Compound.
“You two shouldn’t be here,” I say as the ship decompresses. I roll my sho
ulders back, waiting for the hatch to open. “But since you are, I hope you’re ready to fight.”
“It’s what we came here for.” To my surprise, it’s Nymiah who answers first. I meet her eyes, and I’m surprised by what I see in them. Determination. Conviction. And I think that maybe I never took the time to get to know her back on Salypso like I should have.
I nod, looking back to Zayne, who looks scared. As he should. But he gives a nod as well and pulls his rapier handle from the folds of his clothes.
“It sounds like Edan is hiding somewhere in the Compound,” I say, making a plan because I know how little time we have. “He’s good at that after living in the streets for solars. We’re going to have to search.”
They each nod, and we go to the hatch as it lowers.
“We’re running out of time,” Valen says. “Cyrillius will have the soldiers gathering.”
“Let’s go, then,” I say, stepping off the ramp and onto the roof of the Compound.
Without another word, we all follow after Valen.
We crawl in through an air intake vent that is large enough to fit us all side by side. We slip down, sliding through the aluminum tubes, when Valen blasts a hole through the side.
He slips out, and extends a hand out, helping me through, then Nymiah, and then letting Zayne get himself out.
We’re in a dark hallway I’ve never been in before. Silently, Valen gives the command for us to follow him.
We’re slow. We’re having to search, to try and see in all the dark cracks. We’re calling for Edan as quietly as we can.
We duck behind doors as we hear soldiers trotting through hallways. We hold our breath as we hear voices walk past us.
“12-3,” Valen says quietly into his connect-link as we watch forms retreat. “This is Valen. Have you seen any traces of Edan Calwin?”
“He was spotted in the east wing about twenty minutes ago,” she immediately answers. They’re all work. They don’t bother with pleasantries. “He slipped away, though.”
Valen doesn’t give a response. He just nods us ahead.
“My lab isn’t far from there,” I say quietly. “I have some things I need to grab from there.”
“You have a lab here?” Zayne asks, his voice deadpan flat. “You…I thought you came here to kill Cyrillius, and now you’re what? Working for the man?”