She looked at her son. Still determined, still clinging to hope. Neri tried to run toward the transport after the others, but Ged pulled him back.
Ysira chose.
45
DEVOURER
JACEN
Turil struggled to break through, but Jacen and Nines held the goddess in check. The world seemed to shrink until only the four of them remained. He lost track of everything else.
He could not let Turil forge that tether to Tharanoth.
But when the Firstborn soldiers crashed through the door to the rooftop, cold panic speared Jacen’s chest. He whipped his head around. He saw Teheda and Saraida cutting down beetle-armored enemies two at a time, valiantly holding the line. Ysira should have been there too, butwhere?—
Then, apart from the chaos, there was Ged. He had a hand on Neri’s arm, as though to restrain him. Ged reached for his belt.
Neri gasped, “No?—”
Ged raised a blinking metal sphere—an explosive. He could barely hold himself upright, but when he drew back and threw, it was with unerring aim.
The explosive stuck to the transport, blinking fast. Orange lights shifted to red. A high-pitched whine filled the air.
Saraida screamed something Jacen couldn’t hear. A warning, perhaps, to their allies who had already closed the distance.
Too late.
The transport exploded. Neri and Ged ducked, covered their heads. Saraida was thrown back, landing near Jacen. Nines shrieked. Flaming debris and body parts crashed across the platform. The burning hull tipped over and, with a terrible polyphonic groan, it toppled off the ledge. Crashes echoed down and faded to nothing. Dead silence thundered in its wake.
Jacen stared in mute horror as part of a head—it might have belonged to Commander Azaharo—rolled up beside another corpse.
Urien.He had not made it as far as the transport, but the blast must have killed him instantly. It had shattered every fragile bone in his body, ruptured every hollow organ. He lay crumpled on the ground, limp and horribly contorted. His faceplate was shattered, and his features, exposed to open air, smeared into a grotesque tableau of blisters.
There was nothing Jacen could have done about it. He hadn’t even seen it happen. He hadn’t sensed what Ged was about to do, not until it was too late. How could he not have seen this coming?
He finally spotted Ysira as she joined Teheda at the door. Between the two of them, they managed to wrestle it shut and bar it. Any other Firstborn who’d made it through were either dying or dead. Nearby, Saraida had crawled to Goran’s lifeless body. Her hands trembled as she reached for him.
Ged leaned against the wall, dangerously weak and on the verge of collapse. But he wore a look of grim satisfaction.
Neri had fallen to his knees, breathing fast. And Seth was laughing.
“Shut up,” Jacen hissed. Impotent, helpless rage overcame him, and he shoved the body that housed their enemy. “Shut up.”
Seth kept his feet. He rammed his forehead up against Jacen’s face with a painfulcrack. Jacen stumbled backward, howling. He could not stop Seth from wrenching his one hand free of its restraints, shredding flesh from bone without a second’s hesitation. He seized Nines’ knife—the one he’d given her as they escaped Zivora—from her belt. As she tripped forward, he slashed her face. He’d have buried the blade in her throat had Teheda not tackled him from behind.
Nines’ control broke entirely. She crumpled to the ground, clutching her face, blood streaming between her fingers.
“I can’t,” she sobbed. “I’m sorry, I can’t stop her.”
Any minute now, Turil would have access to Tharanoth’s—and probably Ileth’s—telepathic powers. Without sedative, with Nines in this state, Jacen couldn’t stop her alone.
But what did it matter now, with no more transport to take them to the station?
That awful laughter came harder, increasing in pitch. Teheda struggled to hold Seth down, until Saraida pulled herself together enough to help him.
One hand still braced against the wall, Ged reached out to his son.
He seemed about to say something.
