Page 136 of Under the Iron Sky

Aeris was nowhere to be seen.

The battlefield was quickly clearing. Only a handful of Vordellians and Sentinels remained now.

Soraya pushed away from the burrow, quickly treading around it—

Ikarus’s head snapped up to one of the higher levels. He stared, not bothering to look at the Vordellian soldier charging him before pushing a hand in their direction and sending them careening into a nearby wall, blood splattering up the stone.

Ikarus stared and stared at something Soraya couldn’t see from her hiding spot, then disappeared.

He’d gone to their burrow.

Soraya took off in the opposite direction, barely seeing the three Vordellian soldiers that had a bleeding Dar’rak pinned to the wall a few feet away, or noticing that Dar’rak thrust his hand out, possibly summoning the last of his power to grab a nearby crumpled Sentinel and use it as a shield when those soldiers open fire upon him.

Light slammed into the machine, burning hole after hole into its metal body until it exploded in a blast of brilliant golden Light that disintegrated all four of them in one vicious swoop.

Shards of metal sprayed through the air. Soraya dove as they came spearing toward her—

She let out a scream, clutching her leg as pain burned up and through her thigh. She ground her teeth, and forced herself to take a step forward, then another, another.

She hobbled through the fires and smoke, through the debris and screams and—her leg. Gods, her fucking leg!

Don’t stop.

She’d already let one chance to escape slip through her fingers. She would not let it happen again.

Don’t stop.

Do. Not. Fucking. Stop.

She pushed forward, staggering into a shadowed alcove away from the main ambush to assess the damage. Hissing, she leaned against the wall and looked down—

No exit wound. A piece of the Sentinel must’ve still been in there.

Hands shaking, she reached down to press a finger against the injury—

Agony like nothing she’d ever felt shot up her thigh.

Panic took hold, squeezing her lungs, her head. She had no idea where to go from here. What to do.

Her mind scrambled for a plan, but pain consumed everything, burning and searing and—Holy fuck, she was going to die if it didn’t stop.

Pushing down the bile rising in her throat, Soraya curled forward, bracing her hands on her knees, and forced herself to take deep, steadying breaths through her nose.

She could do this. She just needed to put one foot slowly in front of the other and she’d—

Movement out of the corner of her eye.

Her arm shot toward it, finger around the trigger of her gun—

Blood covered Ikarus’s clothes and helmet. “I heard you scream,” he panted, shoulders heaving like he’d just run a long way to get to her.

He stared at the gun she was pointing at him, his helmet tilting downward as he took her in—

His shoulders stiffened. “What happened to your leg?” he asked, moving toward her.

Soraya cocked the gun. “Stay away from me!”