The crack of stone meeting skull is sickeningly loud. Thane's eyes roll back, his grip loosening as he topples sideways. I shove him off, gasping and coughing as precious air floods back into my lungs.
When I can see straight again, Cosima is standing there, swaying slightly, a huge bloody rock still clutched in her hands. Her violet eyes are clearer than they were, but there's still something off about them. Something not quite all there, but fighting for it.
That's my girl.
"How's that chivalry treating you now, soldier boy?" I bark out a laugh at Thane, the sound rough from my abused throat.
Thane groans, trying to sit up while clutching his head. Blood seeps between his fingers, but he's still conscious, which is more than I expected. Tough bastard. He looks at Cosima with equal parts surprise and grudging respect.
"I'm reconsidering some personal values," he growls.
I haul myself to my feet and snatch the gun off his holster along with the knife strapped to his thigh before he can regain his bearings. Adrenaline overrides the various aches and pains competing for my attention. "Come on," I say, reaching for Cosima. "We've got to run."
But she's already shaking her head, that stubborn set to her jaw that I'm beginning to recognize as trouble even if she's barely half-conscious.
This godsdamned omega is ten percent human, ninety percent sheer stubbornness in living form.
"The others… we can't leave them," she says, her voice slightly slurred, like she's in a waking dream.
I clench my jaw, ready to fling her over my shoulder again even if she'd probably tear me up with those claws like a feral cat. "Cosima?—"
An earth-shattering roar splits the air, cutting off whatever argument I was about to make. The sound seems to come from everywhere and nowhere, echoing off the rocks until it feels like the desert itself is roaring.
"Knight," Cosima breathes.
Her eyes are clearer all of a sudden, like something in that nightmare sound just woke her up a little. Whatever the hell it is that connects these two, it's beyond my ability to understand.
Thane does a double-take, still struggling to get to his feet without collapsing. If he wasn't an alpha, that head wound would have put him in a coma. "Knight? The Vrissian alpha with the metal arm and mask is with you?"
But Cosima's already moving, taking off in the direction of that roar like she's been shot from a cannon. I lunge for her, trying to snatch her back, but my fucked knee chooses that moment to remind me it exists and I stumble.
"Cosima!"
Gunfire cuts me off, bullets stitching a line in the sand between us and where she was heading. I grab her arm and snatch her back behind me as chunks of rock fly up around us. We all freeze, suddenly very aware of how exposed we are.
"Oh, you're not goinganywhere."
The singsong voice makes my blood run cold. Valek steps out from behind a cluster of rocks, his white clothes somehow still pristine despite the chaos, that fucking knife of his glinting in the harsh sunlight. On second glance, there's blood on his pants where he's clearly been shot—guess one of the others managed to tag him after all—but he moves like it doesn't even bother him.
I know Valek. The only gunner out of our crew fast enough to get a hit on him is Raven, but if Valek is walking around, that means…
Something in my ribcage I thought had died out a long damn time ago twists and aches worse than any of the wounds I've accumulated so far on this quaint little suicide mission.
No. No, I can't go there. Not yet.
I reach for the gun I took from Thane, remember it's empty, and curse under my breath. I've still got the knife, so I grip that tightly, ready to defend against human quicksilver. Behind us, Thane is in no shape to fight, still swaying from Cosima's impromptu geology lesson.
And from the other direction, I hear what sounds like all-out war. Explosions, gunfire, the clash of metal on metal.
We're fucking trapped.
Chapter 28
NIKOLAI
The roarthat tears through the desert air freezes us all mid-fight. It's not just loud. It's fucking primal, the kind of sound that makes your hindbrain scream at you to run, hide, or die.
Knight. Has to be. Nothing else on this godforsaken earth could make that sound.
