“What word?” Rune staggers with me, but the guards seize his arms behind him, slapping his wrists and arms with thick metal bands.
Pious wrenches me back with a fistful of my hair and I shriek from the sudden sharp pain. His hands are too big, too strong to break away from. My scalp burns and my eyes pinch and fill with tears, but my arms still flail toward Rune.
“No!” Rune shouts, bucking against the guards to get to me. “Let her go!”
His eyes never leave mine.
“What word, Kate?” he growls.
Pious drags me back farther. His arms, harsh and icy, enclose around my ribcage, and lift until my feet no longer touch the floor.
“No!” Rune’s voice roars and breaks. “Kate! Pious! If you hurt her—"
One of the guards strikes him dead center and he falls to his knees. I flinch and scream as another guard kicks him until he lands hard on the floor. Rune swears and grunts out in pain. Guards are instantly between us and all I can do is cry out.
With all my strength, I slam my body back and Pious and I crash back against a wall. I thought it could knock him off me or loosen his grasp but all it does is shift his hold higher until he’s squeezing all the air out of my chest.
I’m eye level with Rune as he curls his knees into his stomach and coughs and gasps for air. There’s a long bright streak of blood across his cheek.
“Stop! Don’t hurt him!” I grunt through gritted teeth, straining to get to him.
Quick movements flicker above me. Other guards arrive and try to help Pious drag me away from the chaos. In the confusion, one of my hands breaks free and I start to hammer my fist into the side of Pious’s helmet.
On the other side of the hallway the guards are dragging Rune away. I can’t turn my head to see, but it seems too quiet for him to still be struggling. I hold my breath and turn my eyes on Pious.
“Don’t worry, female. He’s not dead,” he whispers. “Notyet.”
Voices echo out in the corridor and the sounds of gears and metal scraping and humming fade away. Pious lessens his hold on me and I scramble to sit up. Patches of blood smudge the floor where Rune fell.
I stare at a splattered stain in the shape of Rune’s hand along the wall as Pious’s men rush around us.
“What are you going to do with him?” I ask in a low, calm voice. I continue to stare at the smears of blood, wondering when Pious will see them. Isn’t he afraid of his ship being contaminated by any contact with human skin or blood?
“Rune will be executed in a live stream for all the Caelum to witness.” When he speaks the words, his voice is bright and cheerful and I can feel the morbid joy that vibrates through each syllable.
Why doesn’t he see the blood yet? One long line drips down from the base of the palm, how can he not notice it?
Something deep in my mind cracks and splinters. I shake my head softly, back and forth focusing on the path of the blood as it trickles down to meet the floor.
“And you, female. You will help me create a whole new world.”
I shift my head in his direction and slowly pull my gaze to find his. “No,” I whisper. “Rune is going to take me back home to my father and sister. They need me.”
His voice turns quieter. Meaner. “Female. I could drop your body from the sky to land broken and bleeding at their feet and your father and sister would not even notice it was you. There’s no one to mourn you there, they are too simple-minded, still collecting foil and forks.” He pauses, studying the effect of his words on me.
This will be the forefather of thenew world?Mean and callous and inhuman.Rune is the much better choice.
Screw that noise, I meant what I said. Rune is going to take me back home to my father and sister. They need me. Allthreeof them.
I lean toward Pious and nod my head, taking in a deep breath. Deliberately and with slow steady movements, I reach out in a friendly gesture to touch my hand to his shoulder. “And we’re going to create a new world? Me and you?”
“Yessss,” he hisses.
I tilt my head, pretending to think it through, nodding in agreement. “For the future of mankind,” I whisper.
Then without another word, I thrust my hand up to his helmet’s lever and yank down hard and fast, tearing and flinging his faceplate to the floor.
