Ilith’s legs bunched, propelling her in Nathan’s direction. He charged his blade, a black aura seeping off it in waves of energy.
Finish this quick,Tate advised.Our main mission is disabling Ai.
Not a problem.
Nathan swung his blade, black energy exploding from it.
Golden glyphs formed in front of Ilith. The energy hit it. The first glyph popped, wiped out of existence in an instance. The second one held longer, black eating through the glyph.
Ilith leapt, her wings helping her as the energy hit the last glyph. Ilith sailed over the blast, feeling the outpouring of a cold so deep it was absolute.
Her body barreled into Nathan’s. She landed on him, snickering as something crunched under her giving away under her majestic weight.
Forget him. Ai is coming!
Ilith dug her claws into Nathan’s body. His armor popped and crackled before finally giving way.
A scream left him as her back claws tasted blood. She used his body as a spring board, bounding toward the suspended Ai.
Change back. You’ll need my hands to get the collar off.
Ilith complied, the dragon folding back.
* * *
Tate scrambled onto the console, not waiting until the change had finished. Still partly dragon, she reached for Ai’s collar. Her fingers touched metal.
Ai’s eyes opened, deep pools of black staring into Tate’s. “Intruder detected.”
Tate sucked in a breath. This was probably going to hurt.
She sank every ounce of her will into the collar, hoping against hope that whatever made her the Apportens Mortis would do something. Anything. To save her.
Spiderweb cracks formed in the red stone.
A great shockwave blew Tate off the console before she could do more. Her flight lasted only seconds before she crashed into the deck hard.
Pain blazed along her entire right side and her cheek where it had hit.
Tate lay stunned, her brain screaming at her to move. Her body was slow to respond as her head pounded from the blow it had taken.
Possible concussion, some part of her said.
Ilith sent a wave of warmth, some of the pain dissipating.
“You stupid woman. You’re like a cockroach who never dies.” Nathan staggered to his feet. There were large tearing rends in his armor where blood seeped through, ruining its previous matte black finish.
His grin was the thing of nightmares as he limped toward Tate. “That’s alright. If you want to live so bad. I’ll let you. I’ll stick you in a stasis pod and let you sleep. Every century I’ll wake you and wait until your memories come back just so I can see your face when you realize everyone you love is dead.”
Gravity pressed down on Tate, forcing her into the ground. She crawled, drawing out every ounce of will to force her way forward even if it was only by an inch.
Ilith panted inside Tate as hopelessness threatened to wash her away.
Nathan’s footsteps came to a stop as he reached Tate’s head. He grabbed her shoulder and yanked her up.
“How does it feel to know you’re about to lose everything for the second time?” His head tilted. “Or is this the third? It’s so hard to keep track sometimes.”
Tate rolled her eyes at the image of Ai standing over Nathan’s shoulder, her face as blank as ever.
