“I was right,” I whispered, though it didn’t bring me much comfort.
Navan nodded. “And we might be in even more trouble than we thought. Come on, we need to get Stone out of here and keep moving.”
Following in Navan’s footsteps, I shot down a creeping shifter before we rounded the back of the tower, where I could hear Stone’s voice getting louder, his tone desperate.
“Where’s Ren? Why ain’t you tellin’ me nothin’? I thought we was pals!” He was gripping Bashrik’s collar, his knuckles white.
“We don’t know where she is. We don’t know where Angie is, either. You and me are in the same boat right now. All right?” Bashrik replied, his voice breaking. This seemed to appease Stone, whose hands relaxed on Bashrik’s collar as Navan and I approached.
Stone shot me a mournful glance. “Does no one… know where any of ‘em are?”
“The only thing we’ve heard is that they were ‘taken out.’ It’s all they keep saying. I don’t know what that means.” I took a weary breath, forcing away the dark thoughts that threatened to overwhelm me—images of them lying dead on a field somewhere, so far away from home and everyone they loved. I’d seen them dead before, in the visions that Kaido’s weird botanicals had wrought upon my brain. I just hoped those weren’t some terrible prophecy coming true.
“And that’s the least of our worries,” Navan added. “We just found a human soldier on the battlefield. Riley thinks he’s the one who shot you, Stone, so we should probably get away from here before someone else tries again.”
“Why’d one o’ your lot want to snipe me? I was doin’ yer planet a favor.”
“I know that. That’s why we need to get to the bottom of what’s going on here,” I said. “That soldier taking you out isn’t a coincidence—it has got to be connected to what happened to the others.”
Navan pulled Stone’s arm around his shoulder, while the ambaka draped his other arm across Bashrik’s shoulders. I guessed either of the coldbloods could have picked him up like a baby and carried him to safety, but that wouldn’t have been particularly dignified for a thief of Stone’s reputation.
“Could it be the US president? He was working with Orion,” Navan noted, as we headed for the dome’s perimeter. We’d be safer somewhere close to the edge, away from the fighting, while we decided on a better plan of action. After all, I couldn’t hear a thing through my comms device anymore.
“It doesn’t make sense for the president or Orion to be involved in breaking down the nudus shield,” I replied. “If they saw my broadcast, which the president definitely would have, then they’d have known what the nudus shield was for. The rebels would never have tried to dismantle it, knowing it would allow the queens’ fleets to land here. They wouldn’t put themselves at risk like that. It worked in their favor to keep it up.”
Bashrik shot me a nervous look. “Speaking of the queens’ fleets—what are we supposed to do about them? The Feds seem focused on shattering the rebel dome first. If they don’t retaliate soon, Gianne will have weakened their barrier technology and decimated them before they’ve turned a single blaster in her direction.”
“At least Brisha’s fleet hasn’t turned on the Fed just yet,” Navan added. “They seem content to fire on Gianne, for the time being.”
I looked up through the glimmering dome of the rebel base and saw that he was right. The silver-and-green ships were firing solely at their red-and-black counterparts, while Gianne’s vessels were firing in all directions.
“It’s not much of a comfort,” I muttered, turning back to the others. “Honestly, I have no idea what we’re going to do about Gianne. I thought the Fed could handle it, but now I’m not so sure.” I didn’t want to say it out loud, but it seemed as though the Fed was more intent on getting to the elixir than defending us from Gianne’s fleet.
We’d just reached the perimeter of the dome when a figure emerged from the tree-line of the woodland beyond. They were sprinting toward us.
Chapter Two
The dome’s transparency wasn’t as clear here, the glimmering barrier crackling like distortion on a TV screen, but I could make out the shape of Commander Mahlo as she came closer. We exited the dome to meet her halfway.
“Commander Mahlo,” I said, hoping I sounded authoritative.
“Captain Idrax,” she replied. “I see we have a casualty. I thought as much, when this section of shield went down.”
“Can you do anything about Agent Phocida? I told her to focus fire on the queens’ ships, but she ignored me.”
Commander Mahlo nodded. “It is already being taken care of, though I commend your military mind. I’ve informed my troops to turn the full might of their forces on the queens’ ships, to drive them away from the rebel base. With enough firepower, they’ll have no choice but to retreat elsewhere, though we will be sure to follow them wherever they may go.”
I peered over my shoulder to see agents pouring out of the dome to board waiting ships, which were already lifting into the air, their guns swiveling toward Gianne’s fleet. This was the pincer movement I’d hoped for, with Fed ships firing from all angles, while what remained of Brisha’s fleet continued to hammer into the side of Gianne’s vessels.
“You should use the silver-and-green ships to your advantage, while you can,” I said, turning back to Commander Mahlo. “They’ll likely turn on you in the end, or try to escape, but for now they have the same goal as you: they want to take out Gianne.”
“Noted, Captain Idrax. Truly, if you make it through this, perhaps you should consider a job in the Fed.” She flashed me a smile, though I wasn’t sure I liked the idea, given how useless they’d been in preventing Orion from infiltrating my home planet.
“I’ll think about it,” I replied.
“Well, you should also think about getting in your ship and coming with us to force Gianne out of Earth’s atmosphere. First, I imagine you will need a moment to patch up our special friend here.” She gestured toward Stone, who giggled deliriously.
“Only one lass whose special pal I wanna be,” he mumbled, smirking. “She ain’t as hairy as you, though I’ve got nought against you wolfies. I love ‘em. One of me best mates is one.”
Commander Mahlo ignored the woozy Stone. “We can fight the rebels later. They won’t be able to get far—we still have several ships stationed around the planet in case anyone tries to escape.”
I grimaced. “I’m guessing they didn’t pick up a stealth ship leaving the atmosphere?”
“Why do you ask?”
“The ship you gave us was taken by a crazy fae called Mauve,” Navan explained. “I imagine your agents didn’t realize there wasn’t a Fed inside.”
“I imagine you’re right,” Commander Mahlo replied, with a tense sigh. “No matter. You may use the med bay on my ship to patch up Stone so we can get him back on the field as soon as possible, and then you may follow us in it. The controls should be familiar enough.”
Bashrik shook his head violently. “We’re not going anywhere until you tell us what happened to the shield-bearers.”
The commander sighed. “I’m sorry to say that I have no update yet on what happened to your friends. I can see you’re anxious to know their fate, but we can’t get through to the agents who were stationed with them. Four scout ships will shortly be sent to each location, so we should know more soon enough.”
“Will you tell us as soon as you hear something?” I pressed, holding my comms device out to her. “This doesn’t seem to be working. I may need another one.”
“I think it’s more likely that Agent Phocida has cut communications with you. She is refusing to abide by my commands, though her fleet is fortunately following my lead,” Commander Mahlo explained. “She may be the only one left firing on the base once everyone has gone.”
“I want to go in one of the scout ships,” Bashrik blurted out. “I want to find Angie myself.”
Stone nodded sleepily. “Aye, count me in!”
&nbs
p; “Bashrik, you may join me if you wish, and I’ll put you aboard one of the scout ships once our battle with Gianne is over. Stone, I’m afraid you will have to sit this one out,” Commander Mahlo responded. Bashrik almost dropped Stone’s arm in his eagerness to board the other ship, but Navan reached out and pulled him back, giving him a hard stare.
“Are you sure about this? We don’t know who’s responsible for this. You might be walking into a trap, or worse.”
Bashrik gave him a serious look. “Wouldn’t you do the same if it were Riley? If ending this fight is the only way I can find her, then so be it.”
Navan loosened his grip on his brother’s shoulder. “Just… take care of yourself, okay? Don’t do anything heroic or stupid.”
“Funny, after watching you all these years, I thought they were the same thing,” he teased, letting Navan take the full weight of Stone’s slumped body.
“Go find our girl,” I urged him, rushing up to give Bashrik a quick hug. “And please look for the rest of them, too, if you can. Lauren is out there somewhere, and so is Ronad. Xiphio, too. Bring them home, no matter how… no matter how you find them.” My voice caught in my throat, a vision of their dead bodies jolting through my brain like a lightning bolt.
“I will, Riley,” he promised, giving me a tight squeeze.
“I shall be in touch, Captain Idrax,” Commander Mahlo said. “My ship is cloaked, but you should be able to find it in the woodland with this device. I would like it back when I next see you.” She handed me a small, circular device that looked like a flattened pebble. In the center, a green light flashed, an arrow pointing in the right direction.
“Of course, Commander.”
With that, she and Bashrik headed toward another Fed ship that had just set down nearby. A band of agents hurried out of the dome and ran up the gangway into the waiting vessel, their guns poised to fire at any rebels. Fortunately, it appeared the rebels had the common sense to stay where they were.
The remaining three of us didn’t wait to wave Bashrik goodbye as we hurried into the tree-line. Without Commander Mahlo and her soldiers out here to offer us protection, I suddenly realized we were pretty vulnerable. We weren’t inside the relative safety of the rebel dome anymore. Instead, we were back in human territory, which had quickly become the most dangerous place to be.
“It’s this way,” I whispered, moving north. Every sound made my head snap around, every cracked twig forcing adrenaline through my body. Beneath the canopy of the trees, everything was drenched in eerie shadow, and I knew there could be an enemy waiting around every trunk and bush, ready to pounce.
“How much farther is it?” Navan asked, gripping Stone’s side. “He’s still losing a lot of blood.”
“I’m not sure. The green light is getting bigger, if that means anything.”
A rustle of leaves made me pause and lift a finger to my lips as I glanced around. Navan froze, pulling Stone closer to him. The rustle grew louder, and the ground trembled beneath my feet. A split second later, a coldblood dressed in the blue uniform of the rebels burst out of the trees to my left, running full pelt toward Stone’s limp body. I saw a flash of something silver in his hand, and instantly grasped for a knife. I only had a few left, after retrieving what I could from the battlefield, but hopefully one would be enough.
Steeling myself, I hurled the knife at the assailant. The blade missed his throat by inches. Without missing a beat, I reached for another knife and sent it flying. This time, it didn’t miss its mark, the blade sinking right through the notch at the bottom of his throat. Even so, the rebel kept on running, a startled look on his face, his hands reaching up to claw at the unexpected object embedded in his throat. As soon as he lifted the blade out, blood spurted everywhere, rising up like a grisly fountain.
The rebel keeled over, plummeting face-first into the undergrowth.
“Nice shot,” Navan commended me.
“I likes shots,” Stone slurred, his eyes unfocused. “Shots’re fun.”
“I bet there are more of them where he came from.” I shuddered at the thought. “Seemed like he was coming after Stone.”
“He’s dangerous to them,” Navan replied. “Orion will want him dead.”
I nodded, casting a nervous glance into the shadows of the woodland. “Then we better hurry up.”
After retrieving my knives, we picked up the pace, trying our best not to leave too much of a path through the undergrowth in case someone was tracking us. Still, it was mostly moss and mulched leaves—the perfect recipe for leaving footprints. And, while I understood Commander Mahlo’s desire to keep her ship hidden, I really wished she’d parked it closer to the edge of the dome.
Five minutes later, I heard a beep up ahead, followed by the shimmer of a cloaking barrier fading away to reveal a parked ship wedged in a perilously narrow stretch between two huge pine trees. It seemed the pebble device was a key, triggering the entrance hatch to unlock as I waved it across a scanner. Inside, the ship was silent, though the strip lights blinked into life as we entered, casting a bright glow on everything within.
Closing the hatch again, we hurried through the stark hallways of the vessel, with Navan following the signs that led to the med bay. Navan lay Stone down on a surgical table. The ambaka groaned in pain, his eyelids flickering.
“Get us in the air while I see to Stone,” I said, tossing Navan the pebble device. “We’ll need to get the cloaking barrier back up as soon as possible, too.”
Navan nodded, catching the device in midair. “I shall get your invisible, valiant steed into the air without delay, m’lady.”
I smiled, hurrying over to steal a comforting kiss. “What would I do without you?”
“Run the universe, probably,” he said, chuckling to himself as he headed out of the med bay.
With him gone, I could focus all my attention on Stone, who was writhing around on the table, his face contorted with agony. Sweat poured from his forehead, running over his still-closed third eye, while his skin had taken on a waxy sheen that worried me. He was mumbling to himself, his hands balled into fists as he fought against the pain.
“Don’t die on me, Stone,” I murmured, reaching for a cart of surgical items. “Lauren would never forgive me.”
“Ren… Where’s me Ren?” he murmured dopily. “I need to tell ‘er somethin’.”
“Hush now. She’s going to be fine, and you’re going to be fine.”
He sighed dreamily. “I love me Ren.”
I couldn’t help but smile at him as I reached for a bundle of bandages. At least with an exit wound, I knew there wasn’t a bullet still trapped inside him somewhere, infecting the tissue around the bullet hole. Even so, this was way beyond my skillset. I was just going to have to muddle through and hope I didn’t kill him in the process.
Tugging on Stone’s arm, I lifted him into a sitting position and, with burning cheeks, cut through the fabric of his camo-striped black shirt with a pair of surgical scissors, revealing his tattoos and taut muscles once again.
Lauren, wherever you are, you have to be alive, I thought with a wry grin, because you have quite the treat waiting for you when you get back… if you want it, that is. Somehow, I felt like she could hear me.
I threw the soaked shirt into a biohazard bin and started on his wounds. The bullet hole was still weeping blood, and the shirt had smeared it all over his skin, covering his entire body in a weird orange tint. Shaking off the nausea rising up my throat, I took a basin over to the sink and filled it with hot water, before returning to my post at Stone’s side. Dipping a cloth into the liquid, I dabbed away the majority of the blood, watching as the water turned bright orange. As I washed him, all the nudus, except the one on his wrist, wriggled free of his body, each one coming up to me to take a sniff, then giving up and returning to Stone’s arm. I guessed even a failing body was better than an impure one.
Once his body was cleansed, I focused on the entry and exit wounds, using a bottle of something that I ho
ped was antiseptic to clean out the ragged hole. With that done, I picked up the bandages again and bound up the wound, pressing it tight against his chest, covering the tattooed face of the young woman who’d taken the brunt of the gunshot. It was oddly soothing as I wrapped the bandages around his chest over and over, settling into a rhythm.
My mind wandered back toward the battlefield at the rebel base. I wanted to be out there, fighting to destroy the rebels, but it had become a waiting game now. We needed to hang back and see what the Fed could do about the queens’ fleets. I couldn’t imagine Gianne being forced away for long, not when the immortality elixir was at stake, but at least the Fed could make a dent in her forces before she headed back to claim what she thought was hers.
As soon as I’d tied off the bandages, I pocketed the roll and lay Stone back down on the surgical table, plumping a pillow under his head before leaving him to rest. He was already more or less out cold, and I knew sleep would do him a world of good. Plus, I was wondering why the hell we hadn’t taken off yet. Navan was good with ships, and Commander Mahlo had said the controls weren’t too difficult.
“What’s taking so long?” I asked, entering the cockpit. Navan was sitting at the helm, his hands moving across the controls, his eyes staring intently at the monitor.
“I thought I could try to contact Lauren and the others by patching our private comms networks through the ship’s long-range scanners,” he explained. “I’ve only managed to find a connection to one of their comms devices, and the link is very weak. It keeps dropping in and out, but I’m trying to strengthen it now.”
I gasped, hurrying to stand behind Navan, gripping his shoulders in excitement. If he’d found one of the shield-bearers, then maybe that meant they were all safe. On the monitor, a flat line flowed across the screen, with the occasional upward spike. The anticipation was killing me.
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