Lament’s attention is still on the broken hyperspeed button. “What?”
I clear my throat. “I think we may have a slight complication.”
“What kind of—?” He looks up. Sees what I’m seeing. “Oh.”
Behind us, emerging from The Parallax like a band of angry hornets, are six enemy fighter craft. They’re all identically silver, with wings that circle halo-like around their bodies and guns affixed to their fronts.
I wonder if this is divine punishment. Maybe I was a villain in a past life. Stole candy from innocent children.
“Boys?” Vera’s voice rings from my headset, which has fallen into the footwell. I pull the set over my ears and hear her ask, “Where are you? I thought you were right behind us.”
“Hyperspeed is broken,” Lament answers shortly, “and we have a flock of Buzzards heading our way.”
Vera’s reply is immediate. “I’ll come back.”
“No.” Lament closes his eyes. Opens them. “That won’t help. Your Sky Runner isn’t equipped for battle, and the Time Stopper…” He doesn’t finish the thought. Just swallows hard and meets my eye.
“The Time Stopper what?” Vera prompts.
Lament ignores her, covering his mouthpiece with a palm and asking me, “Did you memorize that list of maneuvers I gave you?”
I grimace. “Definememorize.”
“Seriously?”
“There wasn’t time!”
“You had the whole flight over here—”
“I was atadpreoccupied, if you can imagine—”
“Lament?” Vera asks again. I can hear Avi in the background saying,Tell them to hurry up!“What are you two whispering about? What’s the plan?”
Lament clenches his jaw as he takes the controls into his hands. “The plan,” he says hoarsely, “is to start praying.”
I thought I’d gotten a sense for how well Lament can fly, but as he throws Moon Dancer into a dive, I realize I don’t know the half of it. The Buzzards are splitting into groups of three, attempting to flank us, but Lament avoids them easily, turning Moon Dancer around with such precision that there’s no sliding in our seats, no strain against our harnesses. We blast back the way we came, and I realize Lament is putting us on a return path toward The Parallax, headed straight for the Buzzards…
My panic fades. Noise dissolves. I know exactly what he wants without ever exchanging a word.
I click off Moon Dancer’s safety switches and load up her gun. The weapon was a last-minute addition thanks to Toph and Avi, and until thispoint, it’s been closed in its compartment under the body of the ship. Now, it unfolds in a smooth 180-degree rotation, appearing just below me outside the front window. I take the joysticks in my hands (all the controls are still backward, but with the enemy on the horizon and our countdown closing in on zero, it’s like I’ve suddenly remembered a language I’d forgotten, and the panel just makessense). I hit the reload button by my knee, listen to thezhooomof the weapon as it pulls in power. It’s a deeper sound than most ray artillery, with an extrashingin the uptake, which is when I realize—
The gun is a Halobringer.
Oh,wow.
I clench the controls a little tighter, training my eyes ahead. We’re zipping through space, flying so fast The Parallax looks like it’s expanding towardusrather than the other way around. The Buzzards are linking into formation, windmilling forward in a swirl of silver. I feel the Halobringer’s power humming under my feet, and I move her sights into position. Get my eyes on the closest target.
“Ready,” Lament says, giving Moon Dancer more speed. “Fire.”
I pull the trigger and watch a light-quick beam punch out of the gun. It launches forward in a jet of neon purple, taking the shape of a comet before colliding with the closest Buzzard. There’s a silentboom, a ripple in space. The Buzzard’s indestructible armor destructs, blasting to pieces. The destroyed remnants ricochet in a thousand directions, and I track the fiery debris through space.
The Halobringer hums again as it automatically recharges. It sounds like a purr of satisfaction.
Lament neatly dodges the debris rather than allow us to fly through it, bringing us alongside the body of The Parallax. We’re close enough that I can see the interlocking sheets of korathamite, radio wires, support bolts the size of my head. The ship’s alarm must still be sounding, because red light flashes through the windows.
“Watch out,” comes Vera’s voice unexpectedly over the headset. “Buzzard on your tail.”
“How do you know that?” Lament whips around, straining to see through the domed windscreen of our cockpit. “You’re supposed to be escaping.”
