“Silence!” He glared at me, the hatred in his gaze a living, breathing thing. “Earth. Pitiful little planet. And yet here you are. Another arrogant female from Earth who thinks she can change the world.Myworld.”
“Is this where you do your super long, villain monologue?” I feigned a yawn.
He looked confused. “Are you insane?”
He was askingmethat question? “Last I checked, you were the one trying to kill helpless little girls.”
Where was Mal? I knew he had been behind me when I came in here. Like,right behind me.
All I could do was keep stalling.
I glanced to the side and saw something that made my heart leap into my throat.
No.
The queen and her daughters were there, hiding in the foliage not three steps away from us. Three steps away from this maniac and his blaster. Shit.
“They should never have been conceived.”
“Well, that’s one opinion.” I took a step back, away from the queen, in the hopes crazy-killer-man would walk with me. No such luck. I was going to have to take my shot and hope for the best.
Mal was close, I knew he was.
“Why are you in here, Vikter?”
“The same reason you are, searching for the queen and her daughters.”
“I guess we’re both losers then, aren’t we?”
“Some more than others. Good-bye human.” He lifted the blaster just a hint, a mere twitch of his hand really.
It was enough. I dropped to my knee and rolled to my side, just like I’d done hundreds of times in training. When I came up out of the roll, I was already shooting.
My gun was loud. So damn loud after the quiet hiss and buzz of the ion blasters.
Old school, but efficient.
Vikter stared down at his chest in shock as a bloodstain spread like spilled water on his chest.
The humming energy of an ion blaster firing several shots whizzed by my head from behind. Three Viken males screamed in pain and crashed into the bushes in front of me. I hadn’t seen them, but they’d been there the whole time, hiding behind Vikter.
Mal.
Sothat’s where you’ve been.
I turned to see him climbing down from…something. A tree? I couldn’t quite make it out in the dim light. He walked past me and kicked all four dead males for good measure.
“Are we good?” I asked.
“Yes. I found no more of Vikter’s soldiers in this garden.”
I turned to where the queen was hiding. “You can come out now.” I pointed to a path that would keep the little ones away from the dead bodies. “I’d come out over there and keep the princesses on that side of the garden.”
Leah moved through the underbrush in the direction I’d told her to go. Once there, she stood, Allayna clutching her skirt, staying close. Lilliana, however, had a yellow flower in her hand and walked straight up to me with her gift. I bent down and took it. “Thank you. Such a pretty yellow flower.”
The little one smiled and went back to her mother.
“It was Vikter all right, “ the queen said. “Him and half the council. They showed up and tried to tear down the doors to my room.”
