by T. A. White
"Joule, run," Kira shouted.
Joule wasted no time, darting behind one of the doorways.
Aeron cursed, letting him go. Joule was the least of his problem right now.
Wren launched toward Aeron, appearing in front of him in the next second. His en-blade whistled as it sliced through the air. Aeron whipped out of the way, his weapon rising.
It was no use. Wren was already gone again, his attack shifting.
"Are you all right?" Kira shouted at Joule.
His head popped out of his hiding place, and he nodded.
Kira breathed a sigh of relief. Good.
She glanced from him to where the other two fought, wanting to join the battle but also needing Joule safe.
"Go, I'm fine," he said, reading the struggle on her face.
Kira hesitated. It went against the grain to leave someone she cared for unprotected.
"I won't make a very good Overlord if I constantly rely on others to protect me." Joule's gaze was steady. A confidence there that was new. He brought his hands together, creating the pattern for a shield. "Besides, I have this."
Kira's smile was slow in coming. He did indeed. Not so defenseless after all.
She nodded at him. His face was serious as he returned the gesture.
"All right then." She raced into the fray.
Aeron saw her coming, one hand sweeping up in a gesture that had become familiar over the last few weeks. Kira sidestepped the strike, barely pausing as she barreled toward them.
Wren took advantage of Aeron's distraction, planting his foot and shifting the direction of his slice.
It was the first time Kira had seen Wren in action. He didn't disappoint. Every movement was efficient. Nothing wasted. He moved with power and decisiveness; his defense nearly impenetrable even as he attacked.
Kira had a brief second to be grateful he wasn't her enemy. That was all she had time for as she launched an attack of her own, hoping to capitalize on Wren's distraction.
Aeron was surprisingly nimble as he evaded the two of them. Quicker than anything he'd shown in training.
Wren and Kira worked together, reading each other's movements as they coordinated their attacks. Kira was at a slight disadvantage since she had no blade to wield, but she didn't let that stop her, hitting Aeron as soon as Wren regrouped.
The tactic kept the Tsavitee mole off-balance, not allowing him to think beyond the next second. Soon he was fielding their assaults more than he was attacking.
Wren and Kira pressed harder, there when the other withdrew. Timing and precision were key. If either one misjudged even a little, it would result in friendly fire or death by Aeron's hands.
Gradually, Aeron was forced back, step-by-step. He was tiring. It wouldn't be long now.
Aeron faltered. Kira was there in the next second, her fist already cocked as she hammered a blow into his side. He grunted, stumbling.
Kira tasted victory.
Power crackled through the air. A primal part of her screamed danger. She broke off her attack. Too late.
She reached for her ki, desperate as it flickered and sputtered in her grip.
Out of the corner of her eye, fire and pain raced for her, impossible to evade.
"Kira!" Joule screamed.
Wren barreled into her. Kira stumbled, falling to the ground. Power sizzled at her back, white-hot heat scorching her senses.
A grunt of pain came from Wren as he hit his knees seconds later.
She scrambled upright, his stunned eyes meeting hers as he toppled to his side.
"No," she moaned.
Get on your feet. Grieve later. Survive now. The fight isn't done yet, the logical side of her said.
Loudon stepped into view; his eyes sad as he gazed at his former friend. The air around him was still saturated with the ki he'd channeled.
"Why would you do that?" Kira asked.
Aeron moved toward his side. "Because he's a traitor; that's what traitors do."
They strike from behind when you least expect it.
The serenity and sense of purpose Kira normally associated with Loudon was absent today, leaving behind a cruelness she hadn't seen before now.
"This is your fault," he told her. "If you hadn't come here, I wouldn't have had to do this."
Kira laugh was mocking. "This should be good."
"You forced my hand," Loudon said. "Just like your father and mother did."
The world around her faded, the swoosh of her blood drowning out the sound of everything else as Kira fought to stay where she was.
This was the man responsible for everything. Whatever fucked up reason he'd used to convince himself of his righteousness, Kira didn't care.
He was going to die today.
It looked like her uncle was going to have to wait his turn for revenge. This was one wrong Kira looked forward to correcting.
"People like you always make excuses. It's not your fault. They forced you." Kira reached for calm, swallowing it deep and forcing it to spread throughout her body.
Revenge was well and good, but she needed to create a window where it could be obtained. Losing herself to rage would only get her dead.
The faintest movement on the floor next to Loudon and Aeron caught Kira's attention. Jin's spawn crept nearer, one leg at a time, his progress slow so as not to drawn attention.
"What will my uncle say when he finds out about this?" Kira asked, stalling.
"He's not going to know."
Kira smiled. "Are you sure about that?"
Doubt crept into Loudon's expression. He quelled it, his hands rising as he started to sketch a rune. "It doesn't matter. I did this for Harlow—so he could become the type of Overlord Roake deserves. If his hate is my reward, so be it."
The rune glowed white-hot, pinpricks of light forming. The hairs on Kira's neck rose as it got hard to breathe, the pressure in the room rising.
The lizard lurched forward as Kira wrapped her arms around Wren and threw herself to the side.
Two explosions rocked the room, an agonized scream accompanying them. The stone where she'd been seconds before was now a molten crater.
Kira lurched upright to find the spot where Loudon and Aeron had stood empty except for blast marks all around it, the metal body of the lizard lifeless on the ground.
Kira closed her eyes and inhaled, wrestling with the desire to track the two down immediately. There were things to take care of here.
She kneeled at Wren's side and moved him carefully onto his back. The sight to greet her wasn't a pretty one. A fist-sized hole had been punched through his synth armor. Scorch marks dotted the edges of the wound. Whatever had hit him had burned right through the armor, blackening flesh before cauterizing the wound.
Joule landed next to her. "Is he alive?"
"For now."
This was a fatal wound. Wren needed immediate attention if he was going to survive.
Revenge was going to have to wait.
"Come on, Joule. Help me carry him. We need to get him to Quillon."
Joule moved to obey, reaching for Wren's shoulders.
Wren pushed him away. "No, you need to go after him."
His breathing was labored, and his skin waxen. He looked inches from death—which was where he'd be if they didn't act now.
"Later," Kira said. "You'll die otherwise."
"Stubborn, like all of your family," Wren forced out.
"Complain to someone who sees that as an insult."
His laugh was small and pain-filled before his gaze found Joule's. "Find Graydon. Warn him they're after Devon."
Kira pressed hard against Wren's wound, her mind racing as she put together the pieces. Graydon remaining with Roake even after his duty was done. Wren's concern over Devon. There were only a few reasons she could think of for something like that.
Wren's expression was determined as he focused on her. "He's important. You have to protect him. He’s privy to things that if they fell into the wrong hands woul
d devastate the Tuann."
If her new suspicions were right, that was an understatement.
Kira closed her eyes. This right here was why she never wanted to lead again. Difficult decisions with no right answer.
"Can you find your way out?" she asked Joule.
Chances were Aeron didn't come by way of the same path Kira and Wren had taken. He wouldn't have needed to with Loudon as his co-conspirator. The Roake herald would have known how to get in and out. Probably even opened the way for him.
Joule might be able to take advantage of that.
He hesitated. "You're going to need my help."
Her chuckle was strained. "Almost certainly, but I need you to get Graydon more. If I fail, he'll pick up the pieces. Last lesson—always hedge your bets."
The struggle to obey warred with his need to help. She hated to ask this of him. She knew how difficult it was to abandon the battlefield when people you'd sworn to serve beside still fought. However, it was sometimes the only way to victory.
Something broke in Joule's expression—the innocent romanticism of being a warrior crumpled and fell by the wayside. What emerged was someone stronger, if a little more bruised.
He rose. "Don't you dare die."
He was gone before she had the chance to make promises she didn't know if she could keep.
"He will make a fine leader one day," Wren said, his face a mask of pain.
"Yeah, he will." It didn't make Kira any happier to be the one to teach him that lesson.
Wren moaned, his eyes slipping shut as unconsciousness beckoned. "Go. Don't worry about me. I will see my daughter soon."
Time was ticking away, but there was one last thing she had to do before she left. It was a long shot at best. Likely it wouldn't work, and if it did, it would bring nothing but trouble.
Kira left his side, crossing to Jin's spawn. She picked up its lifeless body. "Jin, you there?"
No response came. She sent her senses into the inanimate object. The spark that was Jin was absent. Whatever defense he'd built into the lizard had destroyed its connection to him.
Judging by the silence in her comms, his signal couldn't reach her here.
Kira returned to Wren, kneeling at his side. His breathing was labored as he watched her.
"What are you doing?" he asked as she squeezed the lizard.
"Concentrating," she told him.
It'd been a long time since she'd done something like this.
The lizard heated up, ropes of ki spiraling out of it to curl around Kira's hand. Sweat popped up on her forehead as pain hammered her temple.
Wren sucked in a breath. "Don't. It's forbidden."
"I figured."
Things as dangerous as stealing the essence from something and giving it to someone else always were.
The lizard melted until Kira held a handful of silver liquid. She slammed it into Wren's wound. An agonized scream left him.
She thrust her face close to his. "You want to meet your daughter again? You stay alive. She's not waiting for you on the other side. She's here. So, keep breathing."
She didn't wait for his screams to abate, standing and racing away in the direction she suspected the traitors had taken.
The others wouldn't thank her for this if they ever caught wind. Her lifestyle choices and her decision to help the humans hadn't made her popular. If she revealed the survival of the other children who were with her in the camps to the Tuann, they wouldn’t be happy.
Kira couldn't bring herself to care. She'd never been good at letting honorable people die. Wren didn't deserve for this to be his end.
If she were lucky, the pain from what she’d done would have distracted him and he wouldn't remember her confession. If not, she'd deal with that if she survived the coming encounter.
TWENTY-FIVE
Kira raced through the labyrinth of hallways. Abruptly, she found herself in a large chamber, the sound of water all around. She stopped, gazing at the darkness pressing close.
Gradually, her eyes adjusted. What she'd at first assumed was black was a thin sheet of water reflecting the stone.
Light glimmered in its depths, reflecting off hundreds of standing sheets of mirrors that reminded Kira of liquid water.
She paused, taking in the impossible scene before her gaze snagged on Devon, his expression startled as he glanced over his shoulder from where he kneeled like a supplicant in front of one of the mirrors, water seeping into his pants. His chest was bare, as were his feet.
"Kira? What are you doing here?" he asked.
Kira started toward him. "Devon, I don't have time to explain, but we need to get out of here."
He rose. "I can't leave yet. I'm still in the trial."
Kira struggled with her impatience. "That'll have to wait. There are people who want to kill you in here. That's a little bit more important."
Life first. Passing the trial came second.
Devon took a step away, frowning in suspicion.
Kira jolted forward, before forcing herself to remain where she was. If she scared him and he ran, it would delay them further.
"I know you have no reason to trust me, but I won't hurt you." Kira held out her hand.
Devon stared at her, those familiar eyes that tugged at her memories shadowed and distrusting.
Kira held still, wrestling with impatience. Loudon and Aeron had left before her. It was a miracle she'd made it here first—one she didn't trust.
Devon's lips parted, and he looked on the verge of reclaiming that step he'd taken away from her when a voice intruded.
"You really should have listened to her," Aeron said, stalking into the room.
Kira placed herself between him and Devon. "Where's your little buddy?"
"He'll be along shortly. His arrogance with you cost him. That explosion you made caused damage." The cheerful smile Aeron always seemed to have ready, was vaguely threatening, no hint of friendliness to it.
"You know who I am?" Devon asked in a low voice meant only for her ears.
"Not a clue. I just don't like letting the bad guys have what they want."
Technically, it was true. Right now, she had theories and suppositions. No confirmation.
Regardless of if he was who she suspected or not, she likely would have placed herself in the same position. Devon wasn't an innocent, but that didn't mean she was going to let him die.
"Come on, Devon, don't you want to take primus form again? It was so much fun last time," Aeron taunted.
Devon went still behind her, his limbs stiff and set. "I knew you had something to do with that."
Aeron's lips quirked. "Should have listened to your instincts." He looked around. "I know why you didn't, though. You Tuann think it's impossible to force another's primus to the surface."
His gaze to Kira. "The iffli knows intimately how that feels."
Kira saw Devon look at her out of the corner of her eye, his surprise impossible to conceal. "You have a primus form?"
Kira ignored him, keeping her attention on the real enemy.
"Sure, she does. It's why she interfered. She knows what it’s like to kill your allies by accident," Aeron said, tilting his head. "Couldn't stand to see someone else face the same fate, could you?"
Kira held her silence.
Loudon limped into the room, blood trailing him from wounds in his leg and side.
"What are you doing here?" Devon asked.
"He's a traitor. Don't you wish you'd left when I asked?" Kira said, inching toward him.
Things had gotten worse if that was possible. It had taken both Wren and Kira to force Aeron onto the defensive. Alone, facing Aeron and Loudon—even with one of them injured—Kira wasn't confident of her ability to win.
She would have much preferred to run. An option that was no longer available.
"I'm beginning to see your point," Devon said.
Her snicker was quick. He was funny. If he hadn't had a propensity to be an ass or let ambition blind him, she migh
t have even found him moderately likable.
"What do we do?" he murmured.
Kira's gaze flicked between Aeron and Loudon.
"Kira?"
"I'm thinking."
An image shifted in the water. The long, sleek form of a lu-ong snaked along the surface, rippling over the water underneath and across the mirrors like an echo. Almost ghostly in how he moved.
"What is this place?" Kira asked.
"It's the final test. Designed to offer you your greatest desire, it can be difficult distinguishing between reality and a fantastical dream," he said.
Kira's head cocked.
"What about memories? Can it show you them?"
Devon hesitated. "Yes. That’s part of it. Those with pasts are forced to confront them by reliving the most difficult pieces."
Kira bared her teeth. Good enough.
She had plenty of those moments to relive.
"You choose the depth to which you lose yourself," he said. "Most only peer into the surface. That is difficult enough to survive."
Kira straightened and stretched out her hands, tendrils of ki reaching out. Droplets of water lifted from the mirrors and puddles around her to stream toward her. Faster and faster until rivulets turned into airborne rivers.
Loudon's eyes widened. "Stop her. She’s trying to pull us into her mind."
Kira grinned. That was the hope anyway.
"Devon, I'm sorry about this," she said over her shoulder.
The water surged before he could finish his question, encasing the four of them. Kira looked up, finding the wizened face of the baby lu-ong peering at her.
I really hope you're right, she thought at it.
As a plan, it was a shoddy one at best. Here's hoping Graydon did his part.
Kira floated as a voice greeted her. "Yo, Phoenix, are you done lollygagging, or can we go kick some Tsavitee ass?"
*
Harlow's blade whistled past Graydon's nose, centimeters separating Graydon from death as he leaned back the barest bit. Had Harlow's blade connected, it likely would have split Graydon’s skull.
"Feeling a little enthusiastic this morning, are we?" Graydon lunged, his blade flicking up.
Harlow blocked, barely preventing himself from being skewered in the side.