“Go!”Marco bellowed, unloading a volley of shots at the closest shield.
With a curse, the captain hauled me up. Tossing me over his shoulder, he spun, sprinting toward his countrymen.
Belle. Her good men. So close. “The Priestesses,” I wheezed, forcing the words past the fragments of shattered hope, watching the shields shrink away. “They’re here. We’reallhere.”
“Move your ass, Asher!” Marco shouted, his attention split between forward and back, long-legged stride eating the ground between us and them. “Get her to cover, then get on that turret! We’re already running low on charge cells.”
If the captain got on that turret… Goddess. There’d be no good men left to fight another day.
The captain jumped, landing hard in the trench, dropping me with a careless thump at his feet. “Take her,” he barked, hardly sparing me a glance as he lunged, taking position behind the turret.
Breath coming hard, Marco claimed my wrist, engulfing the deadly glitter spreading through my blood.
“Please,” I croaked, trying to crawl after the captain. “Don’t.”
Before I had gained more than an inch, I was face down in the dirt, Marco’s knee planted between my shoulder blades. “Don’t even think it, wildcat.”
I choked, vision filled with the captain bent to his gruesome task. Forced to watch as he seized the turret’s handle, and gathered our combined strength. Pouring it into the instrument of death as the gold in my veins spread.
And then he fired.
For a moment, the last scraps of the High Priestess’ wall of ki held, protecting me as the captain’s handsome profile light with a vibrant green.
Marco whistled, eyes reflecting the sheen of gold pumping through my veins. “My God…”
The link in my chest twitched. Lurched.
Beneath my cheek, the earth shuddered with explosive impact, and I bucked, trying to throw Marco’s bulk off my back.
“Easy, wildcat. You wouldn’t believe—”
The wall crumbled, consumed by the golden parasite with a new toy. White-hot flames encircled my throat and wrists, choking the screams before they could be heard as the captain pulled every spare ounce of ki from my body at will. My every muscle seized beneath Marco, any will to fight him drowned before the yawning mouth of the Void. So dark… so terribly, terriblycold…
“Wildcat!”
The crack of skin on skin echoed in my ears, stinging my cheek, but the Void beckoned… pulling me deeper… andGoddess,it would be easy to let go…
“Captain!Asher! Stop!” The pressure at my back eased. “The wildcat—she’s—”
“Fuck.Fuck!”
I tuned them out, eyes fixed on nothing even as the Void retreated.
There was nothing left. No reason for any of it.
“Mila! Look at me, girl. That’s it.” The captain dragged me into his lap, supporting my head when I made no effort to do so myself. “Come back, Miss Tannovic.”
I blinked. Why? What was the point? The Void was… peaceful in its absence. Such perfection in the dark… Such…belongingfor a thing no longer rare and dangerous.
Just empty.
“Fucking hell, she’s ice-cold. Cover me, Marco. Get back—all of you!”
“Sir,” the soldier replied, and a moment later a shadow passed over my eyes, blocking the sun.
A warm hand pressed to my chest, fingers splayed between my breasts. Over the link fluttering between us.
His face swam into focus, dark brows drawn tight, jaw clenched.
