When we rounded another corner, I dropped to one knee and fired at the two Unity soldiers that stepped out from a bedroom. Rema had already gotten a shot off before I’d even registered that they were there, killing one. My shot went low, taking the soldier through the legs, blowing them apart in a shower of burning flesh.
The screaming was always the worst part.
Rema silenced it with a quick headshot as we were moving past. I took a second to admire the wide figure he cut in all the gold metal, not at all disturbed that I found his deadly side hot as fuck.
We cleared three more floors, dispatching ten or so more Unity soldiers who’d been going through rooms, when the whole damn palace shook, like an earthquake had decided now was the time to happen.
“What the fuck was that?” I asked, bracing a hand on the wall for balance. Tensing when fractures formed in the stone ceiling above us. I blew out a breath of relief when it stopped as the shaking did. A billion tons of red stone crushing me to death wasn’t my idea of a good death.
“I don’t know. I’ll try to contact Nera to see if something went wrong.”
He picked me up to fly us down to the next level, a library of sorts, with rising and falling levels open to the floors above, packed with flat blinking walls of data cells.
Gunfire erupted from the level above us, and we jerked the barrels of our rifles up at the same time.
Unity soldiers threw something off the side three floors above us.
“Move!” Rema shouted, pushing me hard away from him. I hit the wall opposite from him and an explosion rocked me, flinging me back.
I rolled, coming to my feet to fire blindly above me, crouching against the wall under the overhang of the floor above me.
“Rema? Rema!”
“I’m here. Move forward, there is a break in the floor that you can climb up. Do not come out of cover, there are many Unity above us.”
His voice was clear inside my mind and I tried to see where he was, but there was too much smoke from the grenade. The floor burned and charred where it had exploded. Thank god for Rijijteran armor, or I’d have been a charred husk.
I moved forward, my rifle held tight. There were sitting areas scattered randomly on this level, like a study hall of sorts. I stayed stuck to the wall, my shoulder sliding along it as I cautiously moved to the break Rema was talking about. It was a half balcony, the entry and exit point for the floor above.
There was a lattice network of decorative piping that climbed up the wall, stopping a foot short of the balcony. I sighed, locking my rifle to the magnetic section of glyphs across my chest and started to climb.
This was such horseshit. When this was all over, I was going to be having a long talk with Imma about installing fucking stairs in the palace. When I reached the top, I cursed. There was a lip where the balcony jutted out from the wall, about a foot from where I was. I was going to have to lean out to reach the edge. I was no fucking rock climber, and my finger strength was not up to the task for this. And it was a long ass fall to the floor below me, armor or not.
I hooked the toe of my booted foot under the piping and braced my hand on the stone lip balcony above me, walking my hands towards the lip until my body was stretched precariously outwards. I breathed a sigh of relief when my fingers wrapped around the stone edge. Now I just needed to let my feet fall, and then hoist my whole body upwards using only my arms. Totallydoable. I took a deep, cleansing breath, ignored the way my heart stuttered, and kicked my foot loose.
I swung out, gasping as I slapped my other hand on the edge, and held on for dear life.
Where the fuck was Rema?
I was dangling over a freaking thirty foot drop to a hard stone floor. Awesome. I blew out three fast breaths and started swinging my legs to gain some momentum, grunting as I pulled myself up, hooking my left elbow over the lip. I gritted my teeth, and swung my leg up, thanking whatever deity that was watching out for me when my foot caught over the edge. I kicked to bring more of my leg up, my arms shaking under the strain, and finally managed to get my knee over. One big push and I rolled over the ledge, stopping a few feet away from the drop and taking a moment to catch my breath.
That sucked.
The echo of voices had me scrambling to my feet, my back hitting the wall so that I was partially tucked behind a square column. I unclicked my rifle, shouldering it so I could lean out and peek down the hall.
I ducked down when a Unity soldier came into view, his head tracking left and right.
Rema landed behind him from above on silent wings, wrenching the soldiers head around backwards with a hard twist of his hands.
He looked right at me, the faceless gold of his helmet adding a kind of eeriness to him. He let the body of the Unity soldier crumple to the ground, stepping over it to approach me.
“Patty, why the hell didn’t you just use your vines? Are you all right?” he whispered, amusement coloring his words, his gauntlet covered hand touching my shoulder.
Goddammit. Whyhadn'tI used my freaking vines?
“I have no idea. Guess I wanted to do it the hard way? But yeah, I’m fine. What do we do now?”
Rema’s helmet retracted. His brows furrowed. He raised a hand, lowered it, and raised it again to rub at the back of his head. “There are pirate vessels… helping us.”
