Mace didn’t have an opening. He spread his arms wide, the bloody knife on the tips of fingers about to fall. The defender stepped from behind Nia to aim, and Mace shifted, flicking the knife into his palm, turning and throwing it as the heat of the laser singed the hair by his ear. His knife landed true, between two ribs.
Mace ran toward Nia. Her body shook as the dying defender squirmed and tried to grab hold of her ankle. Her blank eyes stared straight ahead.
On one knee, Mace slit the defender’s throat to finish him, glad the man had been in pain at least those short seconds before death. The bastard made Nia bleed.
Mace stood and took a quick look at her wound. Superficial. He grabbed hold of her hand.
“You’ve been shot.” Nia’s voice sounded hollow.
Mace glanced at his shoulder. A gouge only, in almost the exact place she had hers. The burn of the laser stopped most of the blood loss.
“No time.” Those shots would bring more defenders. “We’ve got to go.”
Nia’s cold hand felt small in Mace’s much warmer one. She took strength from him and let it ease the tremors in her body.
They passed the bodies of the two defenders, and Nia averted her gaze. It wasn’t their deaths making her reel. It was her lack of emotion at having witnessed them. She felt nothing. No guilt or disgust. Not even remorse for lacking the emotions. She couldn’t allow herself to feel or she’d lose the little calm she’d regained with Mace’s presence.
She followed behind him, focusing on his back and the way he silently moved ahead of her. They passed more bodies, both Tellusian and CORE, all with fatal wounds and vacant stares, their blood pooling on the deck.
Nia swallowed.People are dead because of me.If she allowed the truth to settle in her soul, she knew she would start screaming and never stop. She forced herself to focus on staying alive. Her fingers squeezed Mace’s. He gave her a quick glance and returned the gesture. It was enough to settle her stomach.
Quiet filled the corridors and Nia kept looking behind them, expecting more defenders. When Mace stopped, she almost barreled into his back. He pressed his hand against a control panel next to a wide door and it slid open.
They were in a bay filled with empty landing pads, only a handful of ships remaining in the otherwise deserted space. Mace led her to a ship similar in size to a Raven. It sat angled on a platform, and Mace pushed her up the ramp to help her in.
Nia used the railing for leverage until she’d reached the cockpit, sliding into the co-pilot’s seat. The scent of newly washed metal composite filled her head. Every surface gleamed. Mace sat beside her and touched the controls. The ramp whined closed, and the vessel’s engines hummed. Mace buckled himself in and Nia followed suit.
Shields rippled around them. Mace gripped the controls. The ship lurched forward, and Nia’s head snapped back. They shot out into space.
Right toward two Guardians.
Stomach plummeting into her toes, she gripped the arms of her seat until it felt like her fingernails would break off. Weapons fire streaked red and orange against the black of space as fighters, and other combat vessels flew in some type of preordained chaos. A huge portion of the mines were missing where they’d been thick on her arrival, the two Guardians occupying the resulting space.
Laser fire came right toward them, and she flinched at each shot, the shields rippling from the contact. Mace veered out of the path of a Condor at the last second. “Fuck,” he muttered under his breath.
The panel flashed a warning in front of him, but Mace kept heading toward the Guardians.
“What are you doing?” Nia asked. The warships grew in size as they neared. They should be trying to get away, not heading to their deaths.
“It’s the only way out. We don’t control the mines anymore.”
Nia tried to swallow around the dryness in her mouth. They were so close to the one Guardian she could see the individual windows on the port side. “But what about the—” A loudthunkcut her off. “—grappling hooks?” she finished. The magnetic grappling hook punched through their shielding.
“A little too close.” He had the nerve to sound unconcerned.
Their trajectory abruptly changed, throwing Nia’s nauseous stomach into her throat. Bile coated her tongue.
When they were captured, Mace would be executed as a Tellusian terrorist.No.She couldn’t accept it. There had to be a way out.
Mace unbuckled his restraints first, then hers. He stood, tugging Nia to her feet. The cabin darkened as they were pulled into the mouth of the hangar. He took his gun out of its holster, changed the settings, and pressed her clammy hands on the stock. He forced her to aim the weapon at his stomach.
“Shoot me,” he demanded.
Nia dropped the gun. “What?”
Two more lowthunksechoed through the ship as stabilizer cables connected with the outer hull.
He snatched the gun, shoving it at her again. “Shoot me. It’s the only way we can play this. Like you’re trying to escape.”
