Slowly, painstakingly, Elena turned away. Everything within her screamed. Every step felt like a betrayal, and that feeling felt too familiar, too cruel. She pushed back the guilt. Swallowed it as she ran, listening to the rising chant of the flames as they called for her.
They hid behind a makeshift barricade as pulse fire shredded the air. In the tight lane, three Black Scales crouched behind a hovercar. Jantari soldiers, hidden behind a dilapidated storefront, fired from the other end, and Elena ducked as a pulse clipped off a store sign.
“Cover me!” Visha shouted.
Elena fired as Visha dove into the fray, joining the soldiers by the car. None of her shots hit their mark. Elena swore, warming up her barrel again when she saw Visha stand. The strategist ran forward as the Jantari fired. Elena and other Black Scales gave her cover, but a pulse, friendly or not, grazed Visha’s thigh and she tripped, falling, but not before hurling a black ball toward the Jantari.
The grenade exploded. In the din of shouts and screams, Elena shot up and hauled Visha behind a cart full of shattered diyas.
“Can you walk?” she asked.
Visha nodded grimly, but Elena could see the blood blooming across her thigh. The other Black Scales had already run up, firing into the smoke.
They joined them to find five Jantari soldiers sprawled dead within the rubble. A comms crackled, and one Black Scale yanked the bloody device out of the fallen’s ear with a sudden, vicious movement.
“There’s another squad up ahead,” he said as he listened. “Twelve of them in the northwest bazaar. They’re calling for reinforcements.”
“Soon all those bastards will be here,” Visha said. “We have to move.”
Their advantage was speed. That, and surprise. The Jantari had not known they would attack in the middle of the night. Twice. The blackwings picked off any escape hoverpods and warbirds as the infantry pushed in with a two-pronged attack, like a knife followed by a sledgehammer. A quick cut, then the killing blow.
“We just have to hold them off a little bit longer,” Visha said. “When the second wave comes in, they’ll crumble.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” The soldier fitted the Jantari comms into his ear and grinned. It was his grin that reminded Elena of his name. Kavson. A tall brute with small ears and close-set eyes. Eyes that he fixed on her. “Let’s take back the queen’s city.”
And save its people, Elena wanted to add, but they were already turning away.
They ran through a twisting alley that opened onto a wider road. Torn storefronts and sagging walls bowed to Elena. She spotted a body crushed beneath a wall, the legs splayed out, as if the soldier had been caught mid-leap. More bodies, some fallen Black Scales, mostly Jantari soldiers, weretangled within the rubble. She spotted a hand, half-closed. A shock of black hair, with the face squashed under stone. A boot, with no sign of its owner, sat alone in the middle of the road. As Elena picked her way past it, she saw that the foot was still within the shoe.
Visha turned as Elena vomited. Her face screwed up in contempt.
“Try to keep your shit together,” she said.
“Visha, Visha,” Kavson chided. He shot Elena a wolf’s smile. “Don’t make fun of our queen’s delicate sensibilities. Not all of us are as lucky to have them.”
“I’d rather shoot my eyes out,” Visha said.
“What a waste,” he said. “How will you find me in the dark, then?”
Elena wiped spit from her chin. She wanted to retort that she did not feel lucky, but then a high-pitched hum cut through the smoke.Cruiser.Before Elena could react, the armored vehicle burst over the rubble, guns firing.
“Everybody down!” Visha screamed.
Elena lunged to the side, ducking behind a crumbled wall. She saw a spray of blood out of the corner of her left eye, then heard a shriek. Visha dropped her grenade, fingers bloodied. Elena began to make her way toward her, but then the cruiser plunged forward, forcing her back.
She was trapped.
Elena shot up, trying to gun down the driver, but her pulses glanced off the shields. The cruiser hurtled closer. Fifty paces, forty. It switched on its headlights, blinding her. Thirty. Elena fired desperately. Twenty, ten—
The grenade shattered her eardrums. She screamed but did not hear it. Elena smacked into the ground, gasping. She tried to get up, but her limbs were heavy, slow. Blood leaked out of a gash on her forehead. She managed to climb onto her knees and peer at the world through a screen of crimson. She spotted Kavson ahead, yelling, or maybe he was laughing as he pushed a crumpled body out of the cruiser.
Visha and two other Black Scales were running up the side of the street toward Kavson. Elena wobbled to her feet. She called out to them, her voice far-off and foreign.
And then the air split.
At first, Elena saw only a blinding white light.Grenade.But the light was too bright, too sharp, and Elena felt it sear the air. It hit her with aphysical force she did not expect. She slammed against the rubble, and this time, something pierced the armor of her battlesuit, straight into the soft flesh of her arm. She moaned. The light slowly faded, and when Elena gingerly opened her eyes, her heart dropped.
A hull blocked the end of the street.
