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“Leave her alone.” His tiny voice dug as deep and menacing as it could, but it did little to sway the Stalker.
“Forgive me. I must’ve forgotten that I’m not supposed to take orders from filthy, little deserters.”
“Too far, Neir,” the woman said.
Neir fired his comrade a nasty look as if she’d interrupted a cherished hobby. He thrust a finger in Lily’s direction. “Do you know who this is?”
Her heart raced in time with the burning in her broken wrist. Every eye was on her, and she was positive the boy would confirm Neir’s correct suspicion. She turned to the gun laying out of reach. The woman noticed and stepped over to pick it up.
His answer was so clear and absolute even Lily found it convincing. “No.”
Neir’s nostrils flared. “Luka, she’s not your friend. She’s beneath us.”
“She was only doing what I asked her to.”
“And what did you ask of her?”
Luka swallowed. “When I tell my mother how y-you disobeyed my order, she’ll—”
“Brialis?” Neir laughed then snatched the boy by the front of his clothing, lifting him off the ground. “What’s she going to do? Huh?” He jostled him once, voice brimming with malice. “Threaten me again and I’ll tear the spine from whoever got you on that damn ship and force you to watch.”
“That’s enough!” The other man shoved Neir, grabbing at Luka and pulling him away from his fury.
“Mind your fucking business!” Neir yelled. “This is between me and my charge.”
“Who is an incarnation of my emperor,” the man said. “Keep your hands off of him.”
Neir’s smooth mannerisms and attitude unraveled with every passing rejection. “You don’t know him like I do. He’s lying!”
The other Stalker shot a rush of air out of his nose but didn’t back down. “I sense nothing.” He cocked an eyebrow at the woman. “Do you?”
The woman’s worried gaze swam back and forth between the two men. “We’ll take her to the capital. It’s the only way to be sure.”
Panic was about to escape Lily’s body. She had nothing else. She would be brought to Brialis on the brink of death. She was going to die, and she’d suffer the entire time! Nothing—
Her restless gaze met Luka’s. He frowned at her, then down, then back to her. She trailed his look to his clenched fist. He opened his fingers, revealing the shimmering graft.
Luka Hazevale. Valen’s Fourth Incarnation. He spoke up for her—an action she didn’t think his blood would allow, nor something she would’ve done for herself.
But her flesh and blood wanted to live, and she’d be damned if she didn’t try.
Lily clutched her lame hand to her chest and kicked the woman’s calf. She buckled, and Lily went for the dropped gun, but her body stilled with her good hand hovering just over the grip.
Damn it! She thrashed wildly against the power. Again, she was lifted into the air and violently turned toward the second man, who had released Luka so he could grab her with his own telekinetic blessing. Sentinels mumbled and sparked their own weapons to life behind the group, but Neir stepped forward, hand lifted toward them.
“Alive.” He approached Lily, palm up and fingers curling one by one. Her right hand began to fill with pressure. She cried out as the pain gathered when a pop she initially mistook for her wrist bit through the air above. A piercing light shot down from the sky, landing into the street with a fizzing hiss next to the man holding Lily.
All of the Stalkers froze. The screams from the bystanders amplified. Lily’s wrist was released, but she still hung in the air.
A second shot tore through the sky. This time, the discharge settled close to Luka. The man dropped Lily.
Lily summoned everything she had left. She launched at the woman and grabbed her by the neck with her good hand. The motion ceased all intervention from the Stalkers; their eyes locked on Lily’s bare palm gripping the woman’s neck. It took all of her restraint not to look up in search of who saved her.
Neir laughed. “Go ahead.”
Lily tightened her hold, watching the soul within the other Stalker thrash with a worry that echoed in his expression.
The man’s throat bobbed. “What do you want?”
