Just for an instant, I can visualize the width of one square. Hallie alone against the wall with her arms full of the only thing that can hang the House, and the third operative coming through the smoke with his weapon already up and already leveling at her chest.
I see the whole board.
I see it the way I see everything, all at once, every line of attack, and there’s no move here, there’s no clever move, there’s no flank or feint or trade. There’s just the one piece nobody guards, the one square that matters.
The Rook goes in the corner so the most important piece doesn’t fall.
I don’t decide to move. I’m already moving. I get between her and harm and make myself the wall.
The blast takes me in the chest.
It doesn’t hurt. That’s the strange thing. The ceiling tips. I’m on the floor and I didn’t feel myself land. The smoke is very far away now. Everything is far away and getting farther, sinking, like the compound is a cage and somebody cut the power. I’m dropping down the dark shaft.
Is she safe.
That’s the only thing in me. Not the cold spreading under my ribs, or the wrong light at the edges.
Hands are on me. Five crowded fingers, pressing down hard on my chest where the warmth is leaving. Her face swims down through the smoke into mine and she’s saying my name, over and over.
Chapter 10
Hallie
They won’t let me touch him.
That’s the cruelest part. Maxon is right there, an arm’s length away, laid out on a white berth in the center of the Minecorp med lab with a shimmering surgery shield humming over his whole body and I can’t put my hand on him. The shield is a wall of light between us. I’ve been standing at the edge of it for an hour, close enough to see his face, far enough that I might as well be on Chronos.
His chest is wrong. Even through the shield’s blue shimmer I can see where the blast hit him. Every time I look I see it happen again, the third operative’s weapon coming up, leveling at my chest, and Maxon putting his body in front of mine.
Meanwhile, I don’t have a scratch on me.
Roxy bumps her shoulder against mine. “This is the best med lab in the Four Sectors, Hallie. Better than anything on Chronos, I’d put money on it. Minecorp pours everything into keeping these miners that can extract Illibrium perfectly healthy. That shield’s already done the worst of it.” She tips her chin at the readout glowing above the berth, lines and figures I can’t read. “He’s stabilizing. Watch the third line. It’s been climbing the whole time you’ve been catastrophizing.”
I watch the third line. It climbs.
Back at the compound the cleaning and repair bots are already fixing the mess left behind, making sure that everyone can move back in, in record time. Meanwhile, all the Fever Brothers are at the med lab, getting healed with a variety of wounds. Broken arms, ankles, blaster shots…
Scar told me they quickly realized the south breach was a feint, exactly the way Maxon said it would be, and the second the brothers understood they’d been pulled the wrong way they turned around and came back at a dead run. They hit the House operatives with everything they had but the operatives had better armor and weapons. But Margol miners are bigger than other Xylan. Stronger. Three trained killers from a Royal Pigment House, and it didn’t matter, because seven mountains came down on them at once, killing all three.
I continue to wait by Maxon’s side, gazing at the lights on the screen next to his surgery shield.
Finally,the shield changes.
The hum drops in pitch and the blue light peels back, retracting toward the base of the berth.
Roxy straightens beside me. “Is it resetting?” she questions the med tech.
“Yes, the first pass is done. It’ll reconfigure and go again. This time for different work, the deep repair.”
“Oh my gosh, I think he’s waking up,” I exclaim and eagerly move forward. I reach him before the light is fully gone and reach my covered hand out to take his bare hand in both of mine. It’s the first time I’ve touched him since I had my gloved hands pressed to his chest while I was screaming for his brothers to call for medical help.
“Hallie.” It comes out cracked, barely there. His gaze moves over my face, my shoulders, down my arms, and I realize he’s checking me, looking for damage, even now, even like this. “You’re…you’re not hurt.”
“I’m fine. You’re the one who took a blaster to the chest, you absolute idiot.”
The corner of his mouth moves. Almost a smile. “Worth it. Got you out of check.”
“You did get me out of check. Now you’re going to lie here and let the fancy machine put you back together, and when you wake up I’m still going to be here, because I’m not going anywhere. Do you understand me? I’m staying. On Timbur. With you. I decided this morning and I’m deciding it again right now.”
