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“No! Don’t do this.”
Then the outer doors slid open, and Aidan had never felt so helpless.
Facing open space, the two pushed off the ledge and floated toward their prospective rings, three on either side arranged from near to far.
From the corner of his eye, he noticed Lear and Caryn spectating through another larger porthole built into the bulkhead. He advanced on Lear and thrust him up against the wall, white-knuckled fists clenching his collar. “How could you let her go out there?”
Lear shoved him away with equal strength. “I just got here. I don’t even know what’s going on.”
His rage zeroed in on Caryn next. She took a step closer to Lear, as if she expected the same treatment he had received, and even though Lear damn well knew Aidan would never harm a woman, he eased her further behind the protection of his body.
Through clenched teeth, Aidan asked, “How could you let her do this, Caryn? She’s going to die.”
Caryn faced the porthole again. “You don’tletOni do anything. She does what she wants. And I’m sure she’ll be all right. She’s stronger than you think.” Yet she did look worried now.
Onnika had already looped one arm through the first ring and was on her way to the second. Optimism tried to barrel through his mind. Maybe this wouldn’t be a death match after all. The other man seemed to be jetting toward his second ring as well, though at a slower pace. His helmet turned in Onnika’s direction. When she was halfway to the second ring, his course deviated.
Horror twisted inside Aidan and his head roiled with panic. He was going for her line!
As if sensing the danger, Onnika glanced back.
Aidan gripped a nearby worker by the shirt. “I need to go out there, now!”
“T-That is not possible, sir. We cannot open the airlock until they have returned.”
Cursing, he shoved the worker away. There had to be something he could do. There had to besomething…But he couldn’t think past the terror squeezing his chest.
The man floated nearer to Onnika’s only life support.
Onnika reached out and gripped her breathing tube like she might pull herself in. Instead, she gave it a hard vertical whip, sending the whole line sailing away from her opponent in a wide arc. Then she grabbed for the second ring and continued on toward the third.
Her opponent adjusted course with his suit’s thrusters and once again inched toward her line. For the first time Aidan noticed something glinting in his hand. It looked like the man had smuggled in something sharp with him, something that could…
Aidan’s terror sharpened, and he banged on the porthole like a wild caged beast, spilling vile threats from his lungs that went unheard by their intended target. For the second time in his life, Aidan wanted to commit murder. Wanted to suffocate this man with his bare hands and watch the light in his eyes dim to nothing.
Unexpectedly, Onnika glanced his way, and their eyes met, but only for a second. Again, she seemed to sense the threat her opponent posed, and she whipped her breathing tube once more, this time in a circular motion, sending it high overhead in a kind of jump-rope fashion. Trapped by his momentum, her opponent drifted a short distance before twisting around and reversing direction.
Onnika shot for the last ring.
Aidan’s pulse thundered so harshly his heart threatened to explode from the pressure.I’ll lose her, too.
Onnika closed in on the final ring; the villain closed in on her lead. For the third time, she tried to whip her tube out of his reach, but she was running out of slack and it didn’t go as far as it needed to. When she clutched the last ring, the man caught hold of her line with one gloved fist.
Aidan held his breath. This was it. He was about to watch her die. Another stain on his soul. Another reason to despise himself. He refused to look away. He deserved the pain of what was about to happen.
Rings hiked up to her shoulder, lead taut, Onnika used it to pull herself in faster than the tiny thrusters in her suit could manage, but Aidan already knew it was too late. Her opponent raised his weapon. When he struck, air spewed from the laceration. Aidan felt the agony of it in his chest.
Eyes swimming, he watched the man sever the lead completely. The dragon in him stirred, demanding blood and vengeance. The first indication of an uncontrolled transformation shimmered along his skin.
Lear placed a mournful hand on his shoulder. “That man will not live past this day,” he promised.
Aidan made a different promise to himself: the man wouldn’t live past thehour.Feeling his soul shriveling, he wanted to sink to the ground in shame while Onnika continued moving toward her murderer.
Then he spotted something that gave him a glimmer of hope. He sucked in an astonished breath when he realized she had managed to tie a knot in her end of the lead. She must still have a small amount of air in there with her, because she didn’t appear to be suffocating. Not yet, anyway.
With her added momentum, the man was unable to dodge her path. The two collided, and Onnika grabbed hold of him.No, no! Get back to the station.Her remaining air would be used up any second.
Locked together, the man raised his weapon as if to finish the job. Onnika gripped him by the wrist, holding the weapon at bay, and then pulled his body down and slammed her knee into his helmet. Aidan could almost hear the crunch and cracking of tiny fissures breaking out over his visor. Then she snapped his wrist back, forcing him to relinquish his weapon. It floated freely for only a moment before she snatched it and stabbed it into his shoulder.
