We flee the chamber, the hull shaking as theAces Highcrew triggers diversion charges. Priests give chase. Bolts tear through walls. Fire blooms like venom.
I cover Vex with my body. Ella covers me with her gun.
“Extraction point ahead!” Clint shouts over the comms. “Ramp closing in three… two…”
We sprint forward through smoke and scarlet warning lights. Vex looks up from my arms, his eyes wide, locking onto Ella. “Mama...”
“I’m here, baby!” she shouts, grabbing his tiny hand as we run.
We cross the threshold into the hangar bay. The ramp of theAces Highis retracting. We have to jump.
I shoulder-block two priests aside. Ella stumbles as she enters the ramp threshold.
A bolt catches her back.
She cries out. Her legs buckle.
Time stops.
She drops.
“ELLA!”
I lurch forward, scooping her up with one arm while holding Vex tight in the other. We dive into the airlock just as the blast doors seal.
The ship lurches, engines screaming as we tear away from theFlame.
I slide down the wall of the airlock, gasping. Ella is pale, clutching her side, blood seeping between her fingers.
“I’m here,” I whisper, pressing pressure to the wound. “I have you.”
Vex is crying softly, burying his face in my neck.
We made it. But the smell of blood fills the airlock.
CHAPTER 45
ELLA
The edges of my vision curl dark before I can even know I’m slipping. My limbs feel heavy—lead, cold—and the sound of distant alarms warps into a high whine in my ears. Takhiss’s silhouette looms above me, shouting my name, but the sound is underwater.
Then the world blinks out.
I wake to a sharp, insistent pain. My ribs burn like they’re being branded from the inside. Every intake of breath is a blade dancing across raw tissue.
I gasp, my eyes flying open.
Nefarious is there, her hands glowing faint green, moving in a blur. Wires, nanofibers, synthetic tissue—she’s patching me.
“I’m sorry,” she says, voice low. “The anesthetic wore off earlier than expected.”
I swallow, throat dry as sand. “You didn’t hurt me,” I rasp. “Even if... if I was awake.”
“I stitched the organ damage. You will heal.”
The pain ebbs, leaving me hollowed out, floating.
Takhiss’s voice reverberates in the dim room. He leans in, lips brushing my forehead. He exhales—a sound of pure, shattered relief. “You’re back.”
