“No,” Malik whispered.
“Take my sister then … ensure she gets to safety. Protect her with your life.”
Malik’s pulse thundered in his ears. His gaze flicked between Cathal and Jenna’s faces, and for a few instants, he was torn. Jenna’s gaze was desperate. He didn’t want to let her down, but he also didn’t want to break the oath he’d sworn.
The oath he’d lived by for over a decade and a half.
“Malik.” It was the first time Cathal Mir-Brennan had ever used his name without his rank. There was a rawness to the clan-lord’s voice. Despair.
Malik moved to Jenna. Before she could evade him, he took hold of her arm and hauled her away with him, heading toward the steps leading up to the walkway.
Sparks were now coming from the armored door, and the metal was turning molten.
They’d be through in a couple of minutes.
“Let me go, you bastard!” Jenna fought him hard, kicking and clawing at him, wriggling to get free. She was a small woman, yet strong. Likewise, Vic was having difficulty maneuvering Isla up the stairs. The woman’s screams echoed through the landing bay.
Reaching the walkway, Malik threw Jenna over his shoulder. He glanced then, back at the central core—and at the man he served.
Cathal stared back at him, his face set.
Alone in the landing bay, Cathal heaved in a slow, deep breath—and then another.
They’d all gone, but they hadn’t done so quietly.
Captain Malik and his cyborg companion had struggled to hold his wife and sister, but they’d done as he’d commanded.
Isla and Jenna were being carried to safety.
Cathal’s eyes closed then, and he listened to the faint sound of footfalls on the metal grating of the service corridor, and the rhythmic clank of the battle-droid's loping stride.
The last minutes stretched out, and when Cathal finally opened his eyes and looked down at the counter, his pulse leaped to see that only three minutes remained.
Fear cramped his bowels then, a cold sweat coating his skin.
It had been easy to be brave earlier—in front of the others.
But the truth of it was that he was terrified.
He didn’t want to die, but the Gods had turned against him.
He would never see Isla or his sweet Bea again.
Cathal had no one to blame but himself—like a blundering fool, he’d rushed in and set the detonator, and it couldn’t be stopped.
The groan of wrenching metal made him look away from the counter. His gaze went to the landing bay entrance to see the glowing red fragments of the door tossed aside. Soldiers, cyborgs, and battle-droids swarmed inside the wide gilded space, and as they fanned out before the door, weapons raised, a tall, dark-haired figure followed close behind.
“Tian,” Cathal called out. “You’re just in time.”
His brother-in-law, the man he’d trusted as a military adviser, had been surveying the wrecked landing bay. But his attention now snapped to the clan-lord.
And when their gazes met, Cathal’s gut twisted, fury pulsing through him.
In that instant, he forgot about his fear, his fury at his reckless stupidity, and his sorrow to be leaving those he loved behind.
This man had lied to him, plotted against him, and betrayed him. He’d taken the bastard into his household in good faith after their clans had finally made peace.
But Tian betrayed him right from the start. He’d tried to have Cathal assassinated two years earlier, while placing the blame on the Mir-Leliths—an act that had sparked conflict between the two clans, propelling them into open war.
