by Ciara Knight
“How?” I managed, despite the mind-splitting pain. “How did you know we’d come here?”
He threw me to the ground, my wrist twisting underneath me. “You’re trusted ally, Gordon, gave you to us. Surprised?” His puffy lips arched into a maniacal grin. “He led you to the council’s sentencing chamber and I took over from there. Though Mart played her role in leading you toward the hangar.”
“That be lies!” Mart yelled.
“Why go to all that hassle?” I asked, pushing up from the floor. “You could’ve just had us locked up in the Tower, or blown us up with a bomb at any moment.”
“Enough!” His meaty hand clutched my neck, squeezing, holding me down.
Realization dawned and it all began to make sense. “Emperor’s in charge…not you.” I clawed at his gloved hand, fighting for air. “You’re…you’re just another pawn.”
“Just like the queen, the emperor’s only a ruler for the moment, but the men follow me.” He tossed me back to the floor then turned on his heels. “Take that wounded parasite and that traitor, Harrison. Collar them and lock them up until you can deliver them to the queen. I’ll take her,” the general lifted me by my hair, “with me. Kill the rest.”
Raeth, Bendar, and Mart huddled together as soldiers advanced on them.
The general dragged me away. I fought to send my gift into his metal leg, but nothing. I could feel the heat inside me, with no way to get out.
Harrison elbowed the soldier trying to restrain him, managing to free himself. “You touch her and I’ll gut you,” he growled, charging toward the general. Another soldier struck him in the back of his head with the butt of a gun and he collapsed to his knees.
“Dad!” I cried.
He looked up, a glint of love in his eyes before they rolled back in his head and he passed out.
“The absentee father cares now?” the general mocked.
Ryder swung his shoulders, fighting to free himself from the soldiers who held him, but the blood surged fresh from his leg. “Don’t touch her!”
“What’s the matter? Trouble healing that leg of yours?” The general laughed and turned back toward Ryder, shoving me in front of him. “Perhaps we’ll stay, make the princess watch as you bleed to death.”
“I’m not a princess,” I hissed.
The general threw his fist into my side, but I refused to cry out even as my eyes watered from the pain. “You’re right,” the general said in my ear, making my skin crawl. “You’re nothing more than my slave.”
“You won’t keep us apart,” Ryder called out as soldiers dragged him out the door.
“Ryder,” I whimpered. No! Don’t take him from me!
A roar echoed outside, rattling the walls of the warehouse.
The general turned toward the entrance, his grip on my hair never lessening. “Check it out,” he ordered.
A soldier shoved the door open and disappeared.
The roaring grew louder.
“Not gonna let you take my baby girl.” Harrison’s forehead crinkled, his pupils dilated, but he managed to get to his feet.
The soldier ran back inside, panting. “General, there are…legions of men and women. Guns. Ships.”
“What?” The general tossed me back on the floor then stepped over me as he headed for the open doorway. “They don’t really think that’ll save them, do they? The fools.”
The searing pain in my head dulled to an uncomfortable itch. Catching sight of a gun not far from me, I concentrated, but only managed to melt the handle.
Even with the ruckus outside, soldiers still surrounded Raeth and the others.
Dad, connect me with Raeth.
Harrison nodded ever so slightly.
Raeth, join with me.
I’ll try, she said.
I rolled to my knees and concentrated on one of the warehouse’s doors. Screw that! The whole damn wall. Focusing, I drew power from the metal posts and like a can being pried open, the far corner squealed, peeling back from the building.
“What?” The general stomped toward me. “No, you don’t, you little bitch! Damn emperor and his worthless weapons,” he muttered.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Bendar slip away while the soldiers’ attention was on the wall. He rolled into the general’s path, tripping him before he could get to me.
Using the distraction to her advantage, Mart kicked one soldier in the gut then grabbed her guns and cracked the butt of one over his temple.
Raeth snatched her weapon from a soldier and shot him. He collapsed on the concrete floor, holding his middle.
Neumarian and European fighters scaled the peeled-open wall, pouring into the building. Bullets flew and more men fell dead on the floor.
In the chaos, the general managed to escape with his entourage, no doubt realizing he was fighting a losing battle.
I followed him, Raeth, Bendar, Harrison, and Mart on my heels.
Scaling the debris of the warehouse’s wall, we emerged into a world of destruction. A small oriental craft whistled through the sky, crashing into a nearby building. Smoke billowed from two other downed ships. Men and women, using the debris as shelter, fired on red clad soldiers.
I managed to find the strength to run, but Harrison was faster. Barreling over debris and bodies, dodging bullets, we managed to catch up to the general.
I heard a shot fire behind me and a moment later, the general collapsed. I glanced over my shoulder to see Mart, her gun raised and smoking, a satisfied smile curving her mouth.
I stood over him as he writhed in pain, his blood soaking into the ground beneath him. “Nothing will save you now.” I clenched my fist tight, sending all my anger into the general’s metal chest plate. He screamed as it flexed and warped.
I released him for a moment, wanting nothing more than to drag out his torture, to make him suffer as he had done to me so many times.
He laughed, his face twisting into an insane grin. “See that, darling?” He spat a mouthful of blood onto the dirt beside him then tipped his head toward the waterway. “That ship?” A red flag with yellow stars adorned the side of it. Blood rushed to my head until I could feel my pulse pounding in my ears. “That’s the vessel taking your lover to the depths of hell.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
My hands shook with my rising fury. I lunged forward and thrust my hands to the general’s metal chest plate, melting it instantly.
He screamed, doubling over as he tried to brush the bubbling slag from his skin. “I should’ve killed you that night!” he shrieked.
“You took my mother from me,” I said through clenched teeth. “Now, I’m going to take you from the queen.”
Wait. We may need him.
I glared at Harrison. You don’t really expect me to allow him to live, do you?
He has information about the chemical weapons, not to mention he knows where they’re taking Ryder.
The mention of Ryder only made my hatred burn hotter and my gift boiled to the surface.
“No, Semara,” Harrison said soothingly. He grasped my shoulders. “This isn’t who you are.”
As his arms wrapped around me, my anger ebbed.
“Well, if ye ain’t be doing it, I will,” Mart said, stepping closer, her gun aimed and ready.
“Keep him alive,” Harrison ordered. Reluctantly, Mart backed down.
“L-listen,” Raeth said. “The sh-shelling stopped.”
I glanced at the sky. The emperor’s ship had turned east, gaining altitude as it flew over the destroyed city, the remaining small fighters scurrying after it.
“Been looking for you lot.” Dred climbed out from the reeds and instantly took the general into custody, grabbing his arm and twisting it behind his back. Over the general’s screams, we could hear bones shattering.
Captain Paulson waded through the muck and debris to our left, Lieutenant Briggs and several other men in tow.
As Captain Paulson approached Mart, she squared her shoulders. “Gordon’s dead,�
�� she said, her monotone voice evoking a strange distance from the announcement.
“I know, luv.” He reached out for her, but she backed away.
“Gone…gone to be with his wife and little one.” Mart’s voice cracked.
Captain Paulson took a step closer. “Mart.”
“It’s Captain Mart, now. I be in command of the Freedom. Your equal. And I won’t be letting ye forget it.”
A sad, lonely smile crossed his face but vanished a moment later as he gave her a mock salute. “Oui, Mademoiselle Mart.”
Lieutenant Briggs took hold of the general’s other arm. “General Bellator, we need to get out of here.”
The general laughed weakly. “You’re too late. Reinforcements will be here any minute.”
Harrison threw his fist into the general’s stomach. “Then we’d better hurry. Wouldn’t want to make you late for your appointment with the gallows now, would we? But that will come after your interrogation, of course.”
Briggs jerked the general’s broken arms high behind him, shackling them together. At his scream of pain, I grinned.
A steady cadence of loud thumps approached.
“Let’s go.” Harrison grabbed the chain dangling from the general’s shackles and began dragging him through the reeds and muck.
“Lieutenant Briggs, Captain Paulson. Find any survivors that’ll fit in your ships and get them to safety. Rendezvous back at the base.”
Captain Paulson headed back the way he’d approached, while Lieutenant Briggs traversed several fallen buildings before disappearing between two large piles of rubble.
Hoping, yet knowing it was futile, I willed Ryder to appear as my eyes scanned the horizon. Feeling nothing, my heart sank.
“W-we’ll g-get him back, S-Semara,” Raeth said, resting her head on my shoulder.
I wrapped my arm around her shoulders, swallowing the lump in my throat before I could answer. “I know. There’s nothing in this world that can keep us apart.”
As we turned to follow the others, Dred tossed Bendar over his shoulder. “He be too slow.” With a grin, he took off after Harrison, Bendar bouncing with each long stride.
Mart stopped me before I could join them, clasping my arm in a Neumarian hold. “Bendar told me where to meet up with the council. I be seeing ye in battle, Semara. Oh, and tell Penton sorry about me sabotaging his weapon. Had to thwart yer escape, ye know. ” With a wink, she dropped to her belly and disappeared in the reeds.
After plowing through the overgrowth and muck, following the river for a few hundred meters, the shuttle surfaced close to shore and we wadded out to meet it. Dred helped Raeth across, keeping her metal leg out of the water. I climbed onto the shuttle’s leading edge after them.
Just as I swung myself up to drop through the top hatch, rifle fire echoed through the air. I turned to see dozens of small aircraft fighters and two airships laying siege across the grassy field toward us.
My father jerked me inside, handing me off to Dred. “Dive!” he roared, cranking the wheel to secure the hatch door.
“No!” I cried, struggling to free myself from Dred’s grasp. “We can’t leave without Ryder! We have to get him back!” Energy coated my skin with an intense sting, longing to connect with his, aching for his cooling power.
“Not if we’re all dead,” Harrison snapped. Then he sighed. “Listen. They’re shelling us. Much more and there won’t be enough of us left to feed the fishes. Now, calm down before you melt the entire damn ship.”
After several minutes, Dred finally released me. The shuttle maneuvered through the debris and managed to reach the end of the channel without being blown to chards.
“Rendezvous with the SB-06.” Harrison ordered.
Was Ryder even alive?
The emotions I’d buried during the siege surfaced. All the years of containing my fear, anger, loneliness, and anguish rose to the forefront. I’d handled so much, yet losing Ryder would be beyond what I could manage.
Inconsolable, I sat on the floor, buried my face in my hands, and sobbed.
Raeth sat by my side, rocking us, the rhythmic motion helping to calm me. All this time, I’d thought she checked out whenever she played with her ball and rocked herself back and forth. But it was only a coping mechanism, a way to control her emotions and gift.
Harrison lifted me up from the floor and settled me into a nearby chair. “Ryder’s alive.”
“What? You found him?” I swiped the tears away, eagerly searching his face for the answer.
“Give me your hands.” He stretched his arms out, inviting Raeth and I to forming a circle with him.
Entwining our fingers, a crackle sounded in my head.
Ryder? This is General Bellator. Semara’s here with me.
Silence.
Raeth, Fallon, Penton, and Dred are here, too.
Ryder? I called out.
Semara? I heard his weak voice as if through a long narrow tube. Is this a trick?
Ryder, you all right? Raeth asked.
Yes. Can barely hear you. Can’t heal, been collared. Escaped General’s men, but wounded bad. Briggs is wounded, too, shot when pulling me to cover.
“He’s not on the Emperor’s ship.” A sting of desperation to turn back raced to my core.
“He’s too weak to maintain the connection,” my father said. “We’ll dock with the SB-06 and consider our options for a recovery mission.”
Ryder. We’re coming to get you. Hold on. I love you.
Love you, he said, his voice barely audible. But don’t risk it. Not going to survive much longer. Harrison get her out of here.
You know I’d risk anything for you. I’ll have you back in my arms soon. Ryder…the answer’s yes. I’ll marry you.
His voice was so weak I barely heard him ask, Promise?
Promise! I answered, my mind shouting my vow as loudly and strongly as I could.
My heart told me I’d given him what he needed to survive. I wasn’t sure what family meant, or if I could fulfill his expectations, but I loved him and wanted to spend the rest of our lives together.
As we released hands, Father’s gaze cleared. He started to speak, but I pressed a finger to his mouth, shook my head, then stepped back and said, “We’re going to rescue my fiancé.”
To be continued…