They pressed closer to the wall, the Gallowood fortress looming higher. The Dissent fighters hammered the Systems’ barricade, climbing, clawing, breaking. It was the distraction they needed.
Christian swung wide around the edge of a sandbag wall—and froze.
Three figures stood there with familiar stances and familiar faces.
Ahna leveled her rifle, her eyes as cold and precise as they’d been in every briefing. Claude crouched behind cover, sidearm ready, while Yosef took extra charge packs from a satchel at his hip.
His chest constricted, knives slick in his grip.
“Christian Holm.” Ahna’s voice cut through the roar like ice. “Should’ve known you’d crawl out of the gutters with the rats.”
Claude’s mouth tightened. He didn’t speak, but his eyes—usually bright with humor—looked carved in stone. Yosef shook his head, like Christian’s very presence was a betrayal.
Gemma skidded to a stop beside Christian, her glow painting the five of them in violet light. “Friends of yours?”
His pulse thundered in his ears. “They were my team when I was here looking for Nadine.”
Ahna’s rifle didn’t waver. “Correction. Youwereonmyteam. Past tense.”
Behind her, Claude shifted into a better angle, sighting down on Gemma, while Yosef calmly slid a fresh mag into his blaster. Christian’s gut knotted tighter with every breath.
Then movement stirred at the edge of the squad.
Cho stepped forward from the shadows of the barricade, her frame taut with certainty, dark eyes blazing. She wasn’t bound. She wasn’t a captive. She wore the SARTF uniform like she’d been born for it.
Christian’s stomach dropped. “You told them where we were,” he rasped, disbelief cutting into fury.
“She’s the only reason I haven’t fired yet,” Ahna said. “You know how much I hate speeches. But I promised her she could have you and finish the fight she’d started in that bar.”
Cho’s lips curved into something sharp and cruel. “You think I’d keep bleeding in tunnels for a hopeless cause? The Systems offered me a future. Your Dissent would’ve left me rotting underground until I was bones.” Her eyes flicked to Gemma, narrowing. “And all because of her. I saw what you did back there, Gemma. You’re not salvation. You’re a weapon. And I won’t die chained to it.”
Gemma stiffened at Christian’s side, her glow pulsing brighter. But all he could see was Cho—someone he’d grown up with, whounderstood the pain of the Falaichte as well as he did, who he’d shared meals and a bed with—standing shoulder to shoulder with his former squad.
“That’s enough talk, Cho,” Ahna snapped. “Kill him.”
“No!” Gemma’s voice cut like a whip. Her violet light flared off her palm, fast and instinctive. It surged between Christian and Cho, hitting the SARTF line like a wave.
Then snapped back with a concussive crack.
The shields stitched into the Systems’ armor caught Gemma’s power and hurled it straight at the source. The backlash slammed Gemma off her feet.
Cho laughed. “You think they wouldn’t be ready for you?”
Christian lunged a step toward Gemma, whose body sparked like a fuse in water, but Cho was already on him, eyeing him with the kind of hate that wanted to savor pain and swinging her knife for his throat.
Christian twisted, his grav knuckles catching her blade with a scream of sparks. Cho pressed in close, teeth bared, her knife grinding toward his jugular. Her breath was hot and sharp in his ear.
He shoved his grav knuckles forward, and Cho stumbled in reverse. She hissed but didn’t falter. The cadence of their battle dance fell into a familiar rhythm. For years, they’d practiced in the bowels of Perileos’ Underground. He knew her tells as well as she knew his.
Then her blade bit across his forearm, shallow but biting. He hissed, faltering for half of a second. Cho came at him again, quick and low, and her knife sank into his thigh.
White hot pain tore through him, stealing his breath. He roared, head-butting her hard enough to send her to the ground.
She laughed through bloodied teeth. “Now, that’s the Holm I remember.”
Christian staggered back, hot blood running down his leg. Hawk and Imara were squaring off with Claude and Yosef, but Ahna was no longer in sight. His heart in his throat, he shouted for Gemma and his sister. They both replied, and he tucked away the fear for their safety.
Cho jumped to her feet in practiced elegance. She slashed for his ribs. He caught her wrist and twisted, but his leg buckled.
