by Alison Aimes
Over Ryker’s wide shoulder she saw Draeke. Then, Pratt.
Her breathing hitched.
Her colleague was again on his knees beside the monster, a choking leash wrapped tight around his throat, his ragged Council uniform smeared with blood and dirt. But it was the vacant, broken look in his eyes that stabbed the deepest. He wasn’t even fighting the leash.
She knew that look. Knew that horror.
“Don’t even think it.” Ryker’s growl snapped across her skin like a lash. “You move and Valdus will leave the weigh-in to get to you and the tracker will kill him. You’ll kill him.”
“I know that,” she snarled back, her feet staying where they were. But inside, her soul screamed.
She couldn’t do nothing while her colleague died. But if she did as the monster wanted, not only Valdus but all his men would die.
She willed her colleague to look up at her. To give her some kind of guidance.
But his eyes remained glued to the ground, his shoulders slumped.
Her gaze flickered back to Valdus. He was staring at her. Hard. Pain, grief, and compassion in his gaze. Don’t look, he mouthed.
The green light had swept to his feet and was now moving back up. So close to setting him free.
There had to be a way to save them both.
“No?” Draeke’s taunt claimed her attention once more. “You think you’re too good to trade places with this man, breeder? I’ll break you of that notion within ten heartbeats.”
She raised her ax higher. Ignored his threat. Her fate the least of her worries right now. “Let…let me think.” She stalled for time, her mind scrambling.
Another swell in the nearby crowd pushed her and the other men farther from where they’d been. Farther from Valdus.
She wrapped her knuckles around the harness linked to the metal sled that held the extra ore and pulled it closer to her side.
Nothing was more important than keeping it safe.
“You’re delaying on purpose.” Draeke’s tone sharpened. “Plan B it is. One hundred kitloms to the one who brings me the woman unharmed.”
Chaos erupted.
25
“Shit.” Ryker yanked her closer. “The impatient bastard’s seizing his moment, even if it gets you killed. Hollisworth won’t be happy, but by the time he reigns in his overzealous enforcer it could be too late.” He raised his voice to reach the other men on the team. “Close in around her and the ore—we can’t afford to lose either.”
She raised her ax higher. Tried to locate Pratt in the mad shuffle.
Behind her, an anguished roar sounded. “Ava!”
She didn’t look back. Couldn’t.
Her attackers had reached them.
She swung hard, swiping at the hands attempting to pull her from the tight circle.
“Not on my watch.” Ryker’s boot came down on a grasping wrist. A howl sounded. The hand disappeared.
Gratitude whispered through her.
Valdus’s men could easily have abandoned their posts and left her. After all, it wasn’t them the hordes wanted and their only proof that she and the ore could help them was her own assertion.
“Stand strong.” Ryker’s call to his men held nothing but determination.
“No other way to go.” Green-eyed Griffin buried his ax in the shoulder of a man who screamed and staggered back.
Bain uncorked one of the strange instruments jangling on his harness and tossed out the liquid inside. It splashed on the face and bodies of two advancing men. A bitter citrus smell soaked the air. The men screamed, dropped to their knees, their bodies writhing as they rubbed their eyes and shrieked.
But the hordes kept coming, trampling over the downed bodies, an army of feral, red-caked creatures ignited by bloodlust.
She and the others couldn’t hold out much longer.
Not even now that the drones had begun firing into the crowd.
And Draeke knew it.
Over the screaming, she heard his relentless commands. “Get her. Focus all your efforts on bringing those bastards down. Just make sure she’s alive. She must be alive.”
She stifled a shudder.
Griffin dropped to his knees. Crimson red splashed onto the ground.
She didn’t think. Just lunged forward and swung. Her ax sending his attacker stumbling back before he could finish the blow and deaden the flash of green in his gaze forever.
Ryker was there the next instant, shoving the bleeding man, and then her, into the middle of the circle before closing the hole they’d left.
But the circle was weakening.
Curling her arm under Griffin’s armpits, she half dragged, half yanked the wounded man deeper into the center—and would have gotten nowhere—except that he was backpedaling as well. She landed on her ass—and knocked into the pile of ore. Several jagged pieces tumbled from the sled.
But there was no time to retrieve them as Griffin rolled to the side, clutching his stomach, his eyes glazed with pain. “Don’t worry about me. Watch yourself.”
Tearing at what was left of the sleeve of her uniform, she yanked it off. Wadding it up and placing it on the wound.
His low groan left her flinching with sympathy.
A blast of nearby laser fire sent a rush of heat near her shoulder. Shrieks sounded. Rock exploded. Her flesh stung by debris as it imbedded in her cheek and neck, a thousand tiny sharp needles. Throwing her arms over Griffin, she covered the wounded man as best she could.
She knew what her husband was doing. Offering just enough aid through his droids to keep the mob at bay, but not enough to vanquish the attackers altogether. He wanted the pressure on her and Valdus’s men to continue. He wanted them to give her up—and he didn’t care who else he took out in the process.
“Carvter!” The agonized shout from Ryker drew her gaze.
Horror slammed through her as one of the men in their circle folded to his knees like an accordion. His head rolled from his neck in the next instant.
Bile and sorrow burned the back of her throat.
“No!” With an agonized roar, another teammate leapt toward where his friend had fallen—only to drop an arm’s length short, blood gushing from a wound in his thigh.
They were losing.
There was only one choice left.
“Save yourselves.” Jumping to her feet, she grabbed Ryker from behind. “Take the ore and Griffin and go.” She had to give her husband what he wanted. It was the only way.
Ryker stilled. His head cocking to the side as if he wasn’t sure he’d heard her right.
“Go,” she screamed, “before anyone else dies. There’s a good chance Draeke won’t kill me. And…and I can survive whatever he has in store.” She sucked down a deep breath. “Come back for me if you can. It’s the only chance we have.”
Surprise, followed by determination flared in Ryker’s gaze. “No one’s leaving you with that animal…” He swallowed hard, his eyes suddenly cloudy, as if he’d gone somewhere else. “No woman should be left to suffer that kind of fate.”
The anguish in his voice stole her voice…for all of a heartbeat.
“I’m not worth dying for.” She shoved hard once more. “Go. For this Saralynee person. For Valdus.” Because somewhere along the way she’d begun to understand the depth of her captor’s caring for these men, even Ryker.
To recognize how significant their survival was to Valdus’s own.
The last thing she wanted was to play a part in taking them away from him.
“Stay alive to fight another day,” she urged the man at her side. “It’s the only way to take Hollisworth down once and for all.”
Ryker’s ax wavered in the air.
26
“Ava!” Two bodies outside the circle dropped to the ground.
Both she and Ryker swiveled toward the roar.
Her heart stuttered and then started back up again.
Valdus had arrived.
Another clump of attackers crumpled to the grou
nd.
Ryker let go of her arm and started swinging his ax harder.
“Ava.” Eyes half crazed and slitted with raw rage, her protector reached her.
His body was covered in more blood and bruises than she’d seen before. His face a mask of fury and brutality.
She’d never seen anything more beautiful in her life.
For a heartbeat, their gazes fused, relief and something softer flaring in his dark depths.
Then, he threw back his head and roared. “Tighten the circle.” He shoved his ax aloft. “For Carvter.”
A roar went up among his men, the sudden surge of energy so visceral it danced across her skin.
Swinging his pickax from side to side, her ex-captor swept the advancing attackers aside as if they were blades of grass, the veins in his neck bulging as if they might explode.
His teammates followed his example.
Soon, several fallen bodies littered the path around them.
But one man couldn’t do it all.
Her ax sailed forward. “Look out!”
The weapon buried itself in an attacker’s forehead. His body fell steps from Valdus, landing on top of the others with a sickening thud.
Her gaze locked with her ex-captor’s shocked stare.
“We need to get out of here.” Ryker’s strained shout drew their attention.
Valdus’s gaze flickered to Griffin. Eyes closed, the wounded man was still on the ground, his breathing shallow, pain etched in tight, pale lines across his face while the ore lay scattered around him. “He won’t make it.”
“So, we leave him.”
She sucked down a gasp.
The veins on Valdus’s neck popped. “We’re not leaving him.”
“Damn it. We all knew the risk going down this path, dangling her as bait,” shouted his second. “You can’t save everyone.”
“Watch me.” Valdus swung again, sending the surging tide of attackers scuttling back once more.
“There’s more coming. Too many.” Sweat dripped down his nose as Ryker stuck his boot forward, sending an attacker flying back. “Without her, the whole plan falls apart. Griffin knows what’s at stake. He understands he’s expendable.”
Valdus snarled. “No one is fucking expendable.”
“Then we follow her plan. We leave her to Draeke. Get Griffin and the ore out.” His second shuffled back as Valdus swiveled in his direction. “Come back for her when the numbers are more in our favor.”
“He’s right,” she agreed. “It’s the—”
“No.” Valdus’s grip around his weapon was knuckle white. “Not happening. We’re so close. I’m not giving up now. I’m not letting anyone else die. Dragath25 has taken too much from us already. We leave together or we don’t leave at all.”
His strength awed her. His determination bolstered her own. His refusal to give her up cauterizing wounds that had bled for far too long.
Her husband was trying to call their bluff. They’d call his own.
Curling her hands into fists, she prepared to go down fighting.
“Together!” she shouted.
The mob closed in.
“Enough!” Her husband’s shout echoed from one of his droids, the rest humming as loud as a shuttle engine as lasers erupted at five times the speed they had before and wild-eyed attackers in the crowd began to flicker orange and drop to their knees. “Draeke, you and your men stand down. Now!”
Her husband was giving up first.
They’d played another bout of the old Earth game “chicken” with a madman and won.
“This unsanctioned attack is over!” He screeched from above. “The offer of a pardon revoked.”
“No,” Draeke’s enraged roar echoed through the mine shaft. “You promised a pardon. I can get her.”
But the advancing mob, their frenzy dampened, had slowed to a trickle. The few who continued to advance and were missed by Hollisworth’s droids, easily plowed down by Valdus and his men.
“You fool, I promised you a pardon if she was alive,” snarled Hollisworth from above. “Your idiotic plan will see her destroyed before I even get my hands on her.”
“No! I—” A laser burst shot from one of the droids, the scent of burnt flesh filling the air as Draeke stumbled backward with an agonized roar. His massive hands clutched to his chest as he dropped to the ground.
She swallowed a gasp. Hollisworth had killed his own lackey.
Draeke’s followers and the rest of the mob shrieked in fear, skittering backward as they clung to the walls. The attack was at an end.
“This may seem like a victory, breeder.” Hollisworth’s voice echoed through his droid once more. “But I assure you it’s not. Because the more I think on this, the better I like your new protector and his men remaining alive as well.” He paused. “That way I can kill them slowly. In front of you. One agonizing cut for every metral you delayed their death with your foolish attempts at resistance. And you’ll watch every moment they beg and plead and writhe in agony, knowing they suffer because you refused to let them die a quick, easy death when I gave you the chance.”
Her stomach pitched.
“Ava, ignore him.” Valdus’s hand wrapped around hers, seizing her attention. “We need to get out of here now.”
While Hollisworth was hurling his threats, Ryker had thrown Griffin over his shoulder.
Her gaze shifted to the ground. “But the ore?”
“Do you hear me, bride?” Hollisworth was still ranting above.
“My men grabbed what they could.” Valdus dragged her forward. “We’ll come back for the rest.”
“No! We need it all. I can’t make the serum unless I have it all.” She dug in her heels. They were so close. She was so close. “If we leave what we mined now, it will be gone in a heartbeat.”
“Then we’ll figure out something else. It’s not worth dying for.”
Wasn’t it?
“We have to go,” he insisted. “Now. The other inmates won’t stay cowed forever. Nor do we know what Hollisworth has up his sleeve next. We have to take advantage of this lull and run. With what we have. We don’t have time to collect what we’ve lost and a full sled of ore would only slow us down anyway. There’s no other choice.”
Before she could argue, she was swept up into solid arms that clutched her tight. The scattered ore growing more and more distant as he sprinted toward the closest exit, everything they’d worked so hard to get, everything that offered freedom, disappearing from view, right alongside the body of a teammate who’d sacrificed everything so his friends could escape.
She didn’t think her despair could be worse.
Until, right before they reached the exit, Hollisworth’s futile screams echoing through the corridor, and she saw, out of the corner of her eye, Draeke’s arm twitch.
27
“You need to stop.”
A grunt was Valdus’s only response.
“Put me down.” Ava tried again. “Neither Hollisworth nor the drones can follow us here.”
After they’d ducked into the smaller tunnel, they’d followed the same procedure as before, running as a pack before splitting into smaller and smaller numbers at each branch, confusing anyone trying to follow, until it was only her and Valdus and the raging sound of her own hopelessness shrieking in her head.
“You should have left me.” The words bubbled out, hot and tight. “You should have taken the ore when you had the chance.”
His grip tightened, but still he said nothing.
“We’ve lost our chance to defeat him. You should have let me go.”
Her feet hit the ground, a sudden dizzying shift that left her arms clinging to his neck and her body pressed to his.
“And left you with Draeke?” he roared at last. “Did you see what he did to your friend?”
“I’ve survived worse,” she shouted right back.
“But not on my watch.” He slammed his fist to his chest. “Not when I had the power to stop it.
&nb
sp; “But what about your men? Our plan? Weren’t you the one who told me pity would only get a person killed faster.”
He whirled away. Smashed his fist into the wall.
Tiny fragments of stone exploded outward, his knuckles ripping wide.
Horror at what he’d done to himself—at what she’d driven him to do—extinguished her anger in an instant.
“Stop!” She seized his arm. Her hold slid right off.
His fist plowed forward again.
“Enough!” Changing tactics, she moved around him, sliding between his fist and the wall.
The woman she’d once been would have never taken such a risk. Never put herself in the line of fire. But the woman she was becoming knew this man would never hurt her.
His fist froze in midstrike, fury giving way to pain. “Maybe you’re right,” he whispered. “Maybe I should have left you and Griffin and taken the ore and told myself that as long as you were functional enough to give us the tracker serum by the time I got you back it was the right choice to make.” He dropped his bleeding fist to his side. “But I couldn’t. No fucking way.”
Surprise and something infinitely sweeter welled within, her grief and hopelessness ebbing as she realized his meaning. “You care for me.”
His chest rose hard and fast.
“That’s…that’s what you stayed by my side. Not just because I’m bait or because I have what you need,” she persisted. “But just because.”
His expression softened. “No one who has the chance to know you would feel any other way.”
Her heart soared.
Hollisworth had spent so long making her feel worthless. At this moment, it didn’t even matter that they’d lost the ore and their plan was in shambles, she felt more valuable than all the precious elements in the universe.
“I…I care for you, too.” Shy at first, the confession grew easier with every word. “Even if I shouldn’t. Even if every sane part of me is screaming that it’s madness to cherish anything down here except my own survival. I can’t stop.” She stepped closer, raising her hand to press it against his strong, beautiful, bruised jaw. “Even if it’s the worst idea in the universe, I can’t stamp out what I feel for you.”