Guards rounded the corner ahead. Four of them. Armed. Alert.
Dom raised his gun. I raised my bow.
“Stand down!” one of them shouted. “By order of?—”
Viktor appeared behind them like a ghost. Two went down before they knew he was there. The other two turned. Too slow.
Viktor moved through them like water. Brutal. Efficient. Beautiful in the way violence sometimes was when performed by someone who'd perfected it.
Ten seconds. Four bodies. Not dead. Just unconscious.
He looked at us. Eyes found Dom's wound. Then my face.
“You're bleeding,” he said.
I touched my forehead. Came away with blood. Must've caught glass. Hadn't felt it.
“I'm fine. Dom's hit.”
Viktor was already moving. Caught Dom as he started to sag. “How bad?”
“I've had worse,” Dom muttered. “But I've also had better.”
“Can you walk?”
“Can I fly? No. Can I walk? Maybe. Can I run while being shot at? We're about to find out.”
Viktor's mouth twitched. Almost a smile. “That's my brother.”
We moved as one. Viktor supporting Dom. Me covering our backs. Arrow nocked. Ready.
The palace was chaos. Alarms. Smoke. Guards everywhere trying to contain a fire that had already spread beyond Marcel's office.
We made it to the hidden passage near the kitchens. The one I'd used for years to sneak out. The one Viktor had discovered and never mentioned.
Inside, darkness swallowed us. The door closed. Silence fell except for our breathing and Dom's occasional grunt of pain.
“We need to get him to Noah,” Viktor said.
“Already called it in,” Dom managed. “Extraction at the east gate. Five minutes.”
“You called for help before you got shot?”
“Seemed prudent.”
Viktor laughed. Actually laughed. Dark and relieved and completely inappropriate. “You beautiful paranoid bastard.”
“Takes one to know one.”
I watched them. These two men who'd survived god knew what together. Who trusted each other with the kind of certainty that came from shared trauma and countless operations.
Brothers in everything but blood.
“Thank you,” I said to Dom. “For tonight. For helping.”
He looked at me. Blue eyes sharp even through pain. “You are family now. And I don't let family fight alone.”
We emerged at the east gate just as headlights cut through rain.
