Page 116

“I need to pull it out,” Sigrid said, her soft hands on either side of my leg.

I looked down, focusing on the large piece of black glass protruding from where her hands steadied me.

I heard her cuss as she tore a piece of my shirt off at the arm. “Breathe, Bryn!”

She didn’t give me a second to think before she yanked the piece from my muscle, my cry lost in the noise of the room.

I looked away from my leg to the battle unfolding in front of me, as she tied the bit of fabric around me, pulling it tightly into a knot, then another.

Human guards lay dead throughout the room. Some with their bodies torn apart, others with gaping holes through their extremities, the yellow of the magma still glowing on them.

Not one creature had been killed yet.

I looked for Leo, and found him still squared off against the leader, ready for another round of blocking blows with his arms and body.

“We need to get the discs down,” I said to Sigrid, my voice shaky.

She nodded, working to lift me up. “Stay low,” she ordered. “We’ll move along the back wall, toward the door⁠—”

Her words were cut off as she was lifted and thrown away from me by razor-sharp claws.

Her dark hair became a blur across the room as Cal’s voice shouted her name from somewhere close by.

The creature came for me next, its long fingers wrapping around my throat, lifting me in the air.

“Enough!” Leo yelled as I was lifted higher, consciousness starting to escape me. “Release her, and I’ll yield.”

I felt the slam of my body hitting the floor before I understood I’d been released.

“Bryn,” Leo said into my hair, pressing me against him where he knelt beside me. “It’s okay,” he whispered, sitting me upright to face the Decodon leader, who stood a few feet away; two more of his cronies standing next to him.

Miraculously, every council member was still alive, all eight of them set up in a line on their knees, in front of the table where they’d previously sat; each with a Decodon standing behind them, the creatures’ weapons pressed against the back of The Nine’s heads.

My father’s eyes caught mine, and he looked at me without any fear, wanting me to be strong.

At Leo’s command, the few guards that were left standing lowered their weapons, while Cal helped Sigrid stand from where she’d been thrown to the floor.

“Leo,” I pleaded, grabbing his bloodied shirt, shaking him so he’d see he was making a mistake.

“It will be alright,” he soothed, gripping my face, his eyes darker than they’d ever been before. “I love you, Bryn. Please, remember that.”

He removed himself from my grip as I clawed at him to stay with me.

“What is it you want?” I screamed at the Decodons as the leader opened his hands so a second creature could place a Mag-Gun in them.

“No!” I cried, trying to stand, unable to push past the scorching pain from my injured thigh.

A hissing mixed with an unearthly laughter vibrated from the Decodons as their leader raised his gun, aiming it at Leo’s forehead.

The creature smiled at me, his hairless, emaciated body looming over the king.

It took a moment for me to register that the creature had answered me, as he turned the gun around, so the barrel now pointed at its own stomach, the butt of the gun coming to rest in Leo’s hands.

Then, the leader lowered his head to the king, his eyes closed as he bowed.

In submission.

To Leo.