by Aileen Erin
“Okay. It’s very possible that one got away.” He said something into his wrist unit in Aunare and then looked at me again. “Who? Describe. Female and…?”
I shook my head again, trying to find the words, but it all felt caught in my chest and… “It doesn’t make sense that she would be here. She was one of the guards when I first went to jail on Earth. She hated me. I swear the bitch was working with Jason—which isn’t shocking—but she just…” I ran a hand down my face. I was spilling my guts to Eshrin, and he didn’t need to know any of this.
“Same height as me. Blonde hair in a bun. Blue eyes. Thin. God, that could be anyone here, but I swear I saw her. Just before the action started. I caught a glimpse, and I knew it was her. But she’s not here. Maybe I’m going crazy. They’re always in even numbers. Before the fight, I counted three units—six each. That makes eighteen. But there are more than that here. How many do we have?”
I turned in a circle with my arms out, looking around the level, hoping he’d tell me an even number, but knowing he wouldn’t.
“Twenty-three. You said groups of six or eight, but always even numbers. So, at the very least, one got away. If the units were groups of eight, there could be even more missing than that.”
He was right. But what were the chances that the one missing was her?
“Captain ni Eneko is going over the fight footage, trying to find all of them, and see where the missing one went. That will take time, and we both know that’s not good. Give me more specifics. Because your height and blonde isn’t quite enough. What was she wearing? How can I identify her? Tell me and we can start searching the other floors.”
The other floors?
Right. Of course. I’d been so busy looking around this floor, that I’d ignored the obvious.
I looked down. There were still people leaving, but some stayed. Some were watching.
Idiots. Too stupid to live. To see a fight like that going down and not get the hell away? What was that?
And some of them were with children. Took all kinds.
A blonde looked up at me from two floors below, and everything froze.
For a split second, everything was completely still. My breath echoed harshly in my ears, and I knew.
There she was.
That blonde bun.
That snarl on her face.
That way she looked at me as if I were trash.
Suddenly I was light-years away, seeing that same look on her face as the prison door slammed shut. I could smell the thin layer of shit that coated the walls. I could feel the thick, rough material of the orange jumpsuit against my skin.
The flashback to prison punched me back into my past so hard that I thought I was there. I thought I was trapped, confined, with no hope of getting out again. It was as if everything that had happened the last few months was gone. Lorne and everything I felt for him was too far away to feel.
But then Eshrin said something—his voice drawing me back to the present—and the vision of my past shattered.
I was back in Ra’mi market.
Where?
Where did she go?
It was just a profile view and she’d been a couple levels below looking up at me, but how long had I been frozen in place.
Look, Amihanna. Find her. Find her now.
Time seemed to slow and draw out, and my mind raced between the thuds of my heartbeat.
The woman with the bun was out of sight. I searched the floor below me, but I couldn’t find her anywhere.
I’d questioned whether or not I’d really seen her. I’d honestly wondered if I’d been having a waking nightmare, flashback, some sort of psychotic break.
Maybe I was getting worse again.
It had to be someone else.
But it didn’t feel like someone else. It didn’t feel like she’d been a figment of my imagination. The flashback she gave me was real, and it’d happened twice now.
She’d been moving. Walking. To where?
I looked back toward the stairs.
There.
There.
Blonde-bun lady was on the stairwell heading down and away from me. Away from the wreckage of this fight.
She was retreating, but was it Officer Hill or some random civilian? I wouldn’t let her get away without knowing for sure.
Turn to me. Let me get a look at you. Show me that you’re real.
She took the stairs two at a time, scanning as she moved through the throng of people.
Right then left. Up then down. Definitely a SpaceTech spy.
And then she turned to me. She stared straight at me—a very quick, there-and-back look—before she hit the next level.
Son of a bitch.
I wasn’t seeing things. This was real. That was Officer Hill in the flesh.
She didn’t belong here.
Time snapped back and my body moved before I could fully process what I was doing.
There you are, bitch.
And now I’m coming for you.
I took a breath and pushed everything I had into my speed.
I’m coming for you.
Chapter Twelve
AMIHANNA
Instinct guided my actions, and I didn’t have the ability to slow down enough to tell Eshrin or ni Eneko or any of my guards what I was doing or where I was going or why.
They would catch up.
I hit the stairwell and raced down one level.
There were too many people on the stairs—civilians who hadn’t evacuated quick enough, merchants waiting to go back to their stores, all blurs of people as I moved as fast as I could. They were making it hard for me to keep Officer Hill in my line of sight, but every time I lost her it pushed me to move faster to catch up.
I darted through clusters of bodies and around people who’d stupidly stayed behind to watch the fight. They cried out in alarm or fear—I couldn’t slow down enough to tell which—and I ignored them. But as the shouts grew, I spotted Officer Hill again as she glanced over her shoulder and saw me.
That’s right. I’m coming for you.
Her eyes widened. She gave up trying to blend in with the people on the stairs and started to run.
But I was faster.
I was much faster.
I jumped the stairs to the next landing, barely feeling the impact of the spongy un-lit floors before jumping down to the next landing.
And the next.
And then I was on the street level, racing after her.
But before I could tackle her, she snagged a child and spun to face me.
She pulled a gun from her pocket and placed it at the little girl’s head.
The child’s eyes widened as she stared up at me with a cry for help.
Her hair was long and straight. Her chin slightly pointed. Her eyes were a different color than my bland Earther brown, but she looked too much like me. So much that I could almost feel the press of the gun at my temple.
This SpaceTech officer wasn’t killing that little Aunare girl. I wouldn’t let that happen.
I spotted the mother, who dropped to her knees, pressed a fist to her heart, and started speaking soft, fast Aunare words.
I couldn’t understand what she was saying, but I didn’t need to. She was begging me to save her daughter. She was trusting me—the future queen and defender of the Aunare to stop this nightmare.
She was counting on me.
And so was the little girl, who was screaming and shaking, reaching out to her mother.
I ignored it. I shut out the girl. Shut out the mother. Shut out everything around me.
I stared into Officer Hill’s eyes. It was only me and her right now. We were all that mattered.
“Ra’mi market is a little far for you to go to get some ra’altan.” I forced my voice to stay casual, chill, and almost aloof to someone who didn’t know me, but I was paying attention. My skin was glowing so bright that the adrenaline tingles had turned into a dull burn.
I was ready to fight Officer Hill
, but I didn’t trust myself to get rid of the gun when it was pressed against that little girl’s temple. I didn’t trust myself to be that accurate with my abilities.
I could easily explode melons, bombs, enemies, ships, bigger targets. The kind of targets that if I didn’t hit perfectly and with exact control, it wouldn’t matter. I wasn’t good at the smaller stuff yet. It was something I’d been working on, but I wasn’t there. And I certainly didn’t have Lorne’s pinpoint precision or his ability to destroy the shrapnel before it hurt anyone.
I needed Officer Hill to back away from the little girl or move the gun or something so that I could be sure I’d hit only her.
Which meant I needed her to talk. “What are you doing here, Hill?”
“Maité.” She said my old name, and for a second, I was back there in the jail.
My skin brightened more and I felt myself gathering power, but I couldn’t release it.
Not yet.
I couldn’t afford to miss.
I needed more time. I needed her to move the gun away from the child’s head. “I go by another name now,” I said, stalling her.
“You’ll always be the same halfer trash, no matter your name.”
Wow. If only that could hurt my feelings. “You came all this way to insult me?” Not likely. “What do you want?”
“Nothing you can give me.”
I needed to keep her talking, but she was giving me short answers and not much to go on. I had to do better. “Are you sure that there’s nothing I can give you? I’m the future High Queen of the Aunare. I’m sure we could come to terms.” I took a breath. “Let the girl go and we can talk.”
I didn’t hear Lorne get here. I didn’t see him. I didn’t even know he was anywhere near the city. I wasn’t sure how I knew it was him, but there was suddenly a warmth next to me and I knew.
“Terms?” Officer Hill said. “No. There are no terms.” She turned the gun toward me, but then it shifted, just slightly. Just enough to aim at someone beside me.
“No!” I shoved Lorne to the side as she pulled the trigger.
Time slowed again and I saw the bullet explode from the gun, moving toward me. I had a moment to think that it was an odd bullet.
A swirling gray, fragmented bullet.
Lorne screamed.
The bullet exploded.
But as it exploded in front of me there was a barrage of sickening pops inside my head.
Pain was sharp and fierce.
I knew I screamed, but I couldn’t hear it.
The ground came at me fast, but someone caught me, softening the fall.
Sounds of a scuffle faded and a humming filled my head.
I stared up at the layers and layers of market levels above me, dull without their normal glowing floors. At my guards leaning in. At Fynea as she screamed. Watching as I struggled to breathe.
The hum got louder but the light started to fade.
I had a moment to feel the fear wrap around my heart, strangling it just as my lungs gave up on breathing.
I didn’t want to die. Not like this. Not now.
I heard Lorne as if he was far away, and then all I could see were his aquamarine eyes—the color of safety, love, life—as I felt myself slip away.
Chapter Thirteen
LORNE
There was a kind of humming in my ears that sounded like faint screams. I thought it was coming from Amihanna, but she wasn’t making any noise. Not out loud.
She wasn’t breathing.
I dropped to my knees beside her.
Oh Goddess.
She wasn’t breathing.
“Help! Now!” I screamed, but I heard them coming.
I ran my hands over her, searching for what hurt her. No blood. No bullet pierced her skin. Nothing seemed out of place.
She should be fine. She should be okay. But she wasn’t breathing.
Her eyes went dull and glassy.
Hands tugged me away from her, and Eshrin dropped beside her. Someone handed him a bag, and he pulled out a scanner, running quick systems checks on her as he held the device over her head and almost too slowly ran it down her body.
He dropped the device as he hit her chest.
“What’s wrong? What happened to her?”
“Both of her lungs collapsed. She needs air.” He ripped her long sweater open and reached into the bag, pulling out two square devices. He placed one on her right ribcage. Then the other on the left side.
It seemed like he was taking too long. How long could she go without breathing? My skin was bright and flashing and I knew if something didn’t change, I’d lose it here. Epically. And that would be bad.
Ashino lowered down beside me, and I knew that if the worst happened, he would protect the people here. He would do what needed to be done to stop me.
Eshrin pressed a button, and the devices on Amihanna’s chest activated, glowing bright blue.
One.
Two.
Three.
Eshrin pressed another button. And then another. But nothing happened.
I felt my guards moving into place, and I waited.
Goddess. Please.
Please.
Audrey dropped to the ground next to Amihanna and started searching the bag Eshrin had. I wasn’t sure when she’d gotten here, and I didn’t care. They talked quickly between themselves, but I wasn’t listening. I couldn’t hear anything. All I could see was Amihanna and her chest that wasn’t moving.
There was no air for her.
No air.
I closed my eyes, knowing that if this was the end for her, it would be the end for me.
That all I could do now was pray.
Goddess, save her. Please.
The Aunare around me knew. They knew what could happen. They knew what was on the line if she died. Their voices rose—the hum of the healing song. The song to help ease the pain in my soul should something go wrong. The song that could save a life—Amihanna’s life.
These people—my people—wanted her to live. They wanted her to be their High Queen. Amihanna might not understand it yet or even know how to be what she would become, but she needed time.
We needed more time.
She couldn’t leave me now.
The song grew louder, and then, there was another sound.
Softly, so soft that anyone would’ve missed it, but I was waiting, listening for it. There was a hint of a sound under the song.
A tiny gasp.
One tiny gasp.
It wasn’t much, but it was enough.
I opened my eyes to watch her, but hers were still closed.
She gasped in air. Louder this time.
I leaned forward on my knees, wanting to be closer to her.
The device on her chest lit again, but it wasn’t working right. It should inflate her lungs, forcing air through her body. But it wasn’t.
It was wrong. This was wrong.
Audrey was working fast. If she were from a stronger Aunare bloodline, her skin would’ve been glowing. She was in the zone, and I knew she’d saved Amihanna so many times. I’d seen the footage—I knew Amihanna could survive the impossible—and even still, I was terrified.
I noticed something on Amihanna’s face. Pin-pricks of red dots. “What’s that?”
Audrey spared me the quickest of glances. “Lucole poisoning.”
“What?”
I reached out to touch it, and Ashino slapped my hand away.
“You cannot touch her, your majesty,” Ashino said. “I don’t know what it would do to you. It could be that her Earther blood is saving her life right now, and you don’t have that.”
He was right, but I hated it. And still, I wanted him to be right about her Earther blood saving her.
Because something had to save her. Someone had to save her.
Goddess, save her. Please.
“That woman is SpaceTech,” Ashino said. “But the bullets in her gun aren’t right. When you exploded the bullet so close to Amihan
na, the lucole had a second to get into the air. It went straight into her face. Into her lungs.”
I glanced back at Audrey. A thin sheen of sweat dotted her forehead. “How is she?”
“I’m working to counteract the lucole. The problem is that this formulation is a little different than the one they used on me. The antidote isn’t working as well as I’d like.”
“So, what do we do now?”
“Audrey is working on it,” Eshrin said. “Please…”
I knew what he was asking. Please don’t lose control.
My skin was seconds away from flashing, and I knew I should get up and move away from them so that they could work, but I needed to be close to her or I’d lose it.
I was losing it.
I closed my eyes, trying to force myself to calm, but a shiver ran through my soul and I could feel her slipping away.
It was too soon for something like this to happen again. She’d died when I brought her back to Sel’Ani. Her brain hadn’t been able to handle the jumps, and I’d lost her. For a moment, I’d lost her.
This was my fault.
I should’ve destroyed the gun the second I saw it. I thought about it, but it had been a risk. Blowing it up could’ve hurt the child, but now Amihanna was struggling to live. Again.
I opened my eyes and looked down at her still form. Her chest was rising and falling now, but her eyes stayed closed.
What was taking Audrey so long?
I couldn’t keep watching Amihanna—prone and barely breathing—or I was going to throw up or scream or murder everyone in the market. And if I did the last, Amihanna wouldn’t forgive me.
I glanced up and saw all the people watching us. My people. They were still singing the healing song. Still praying and watching and waiting with me. I knew I had to be strong, but it felt impossible.
“She’s stable, your majesty.” Eshrin turned his scanner to show me her readings.
Her oxygen levels weren’t good, but not panic-level bad. Her heart was beating, strong and sure. Her brain activity was normal for being unconscious.
“She is stable.” There was a plea for me to stay calm in Eshrin’s voice. “Audrey won’t let that change.”