Page 37 of Grounded (Convergence #1)

Liria held Thax's hand as they strode through the corridors behind the Speaker, his entourage following in their wake.

Even when he wasn't speaking, Thax's father had a presence about him that made people stand straighter.

Take notice. Get the fuck out of his way.

And no, it wasn't his armed guards or fawning attendants.

Nor was it his robes of office or the gold symbols painted on his wings.

It was him. He radiated power. Liria no longer doubted that Aethari speakers channeled the Source of Magic. She had firsthand proof that they did.

But then the Speaker paused, looked over his shoulder, and whispered to Thax, “Where are the, uh, holding cells?”

“The stockade is across the main courtyard, Father.” Thax stepped up beside him, taking Liria with him. “Shall we walk together?”

The Speaker's lips twitched. “Indeed.”

Liria rolled her eyes. All of that leader crap was idiotic. Just because a man was in charge, it didn't mean he knew everything. Like how to get to the stocks in a fortress he'd never been to before.

They were halfway across the courtyard when the alarm sounded.

All of them froze.

“What is that?” the Speaker demanded.

Liria looked at Thax.

“No.” Thax clutched her hand tighter. “You've been excused for—”

“Alpha-Six-Oh-Four and Theta Eight-Nine-One report for duty,” the voice came over the fortress speakers.

A604 was Thax's team.

“Damn it all!” Liria cursed.

“What is that?!” the Speaker snarled.

“The pit,” she said. “We've been breached.” She turned toward the Speaker's guards. “Get him to the Commander. He'll know where to take him.”

“What?” The Speaker looked at his son.

“I've got to go, Dad.” Thax laid his hand on his father's shoulder. “Do what they tell you to. The Commander will keep you safe.”

“No. No, you're with me! You come with me!”

“I'll be fine.” Even as he spoke to his father, Thax turned toward Liria and pulled her into a hug. “You be safe, Liri.”

“You too.” Liria kissed Thax quickly and ran off. He couldn't protest when he had to go into the pit. And she wasn't about to stand this one out if he was down there. Her team was up in the security office with no leader. During a breach. Thax wasn't the only one who needed her.

Liria put on speed. She made it to the security room, overlooking the pit, in three minutes. Still wasn't fast enough. Nethren were already through the open barrier and running for the sheer rock sides of the pit.

“Chief! Thank convergence, you're here!” one of her officers said.

Liria couldn't tell you which one had spoken.

She was too focused on getting to her desk.

The cacher was running, of course. It was always on, the previous crew leaving it that way for the next.

So, Liria dove right in, her fingers flying over the control panel.

Fear—for Thax, not herself—compelled her.

But the barrier wasn't resetting. Again. What the fuck?

Curses circled the room.

A flurry of wings on the screens to her right caught her eye.

Thax.

He was diving at Nethren, energy blasts from his pulsers dispersing the air between him and his target.

Thank convergence, he was fully trained now.

Nethren went down, their mechanical limbs sparking and sizzling as they were temporarily paralyzed.

But the parts that were flesh kept reaching. And kept aiming their weapons.

Another dive.

Liria looked away.

She couldn't focus on Thax or she'd fail.

Tapping filled Liria's head. The click-clack of the control panel keys with the muted zings of pulsers and even the larger bursters. Massive blasters were mounted on the pit rim for emergencies. Liria felt them go off, the report shivering through her office. The window rattled. Nethren screamed.

Not just Nethren.

Out of the corner of her eye, Liria saw an Aethari tumble out of the sky.

Liria had to know who it was. She glanced over.

Not Thax.

Reassured, she moved on to converging. Power ran through her fingers.

Focusing inward and outward, her mind went down through the wires and into the barrier.

Liria saw the broken bits and sparking magic.

Calmed them. Repaired them with summoned tech.

And then she felt Nethren claws slice through them as if they rent her own flesh.

Shrieking, Liria pulled back her consciousness.

That was the risk of going into the machine mentally.

Once inside, you felt its injuries. Normally, an attack would come, breach the barrier, and that was it.

The Nethren would focus on getting past the soldiers.

But this breach was more organized. While some of the Nethren kept the Aethari warriors busy, others kept damaging the barrier. That's why convergence wouldn't work.

“Son of a Nethren!” Liria shot to her feet. “Keep at it. I have to get closer.”

“But, Chief!”

“Keep going!” She pointed at her second-in-command. “You know what to do. Guard me while I go in.”

“I've got your back, Chief,” Officer Senna said.

Liria raced out of the room and past the viewing balcony.

Not close enough. Down she went, to the lower platform—an open ledge within the barrier.

She had to get through two security doors before she could access it.

Then Liria was inside the pit barrier. Yes, inside the massive panel that protected the surface from the monsters below.

The machinery glowed around her. Which made it easy to spot the broken components. No glow.

Liria went for them, her heart racing. Thax was out there, and now, she couldn't see him.

But the shouting was louder from where she was.

She could hear him. Shouting, not speaking.

At least there was that. If things had been truly bad, Thax would have used his newly awakened power.

Wouldn't he? Or did Source only speak when it wanted to?

No, she couldn't think about that. Had to focus on her job. That was how Liria would help her destru. Funny how love made you selfish. She wasn't trying to save Para anymore. She was trying to save Thax. He was all she cared about.

A screeching sound came as yet another Nethren claw reached through an opening in the five-foot-thick steel shell and tore into the barrier's internal components.

She pulled her pulser and crept up to the hole.

Another screech. The Nethren had opened the barrier wide enough that one of them was standing within the panel on the tunnel side.

The tunnel side! That's why none of the Aethari had stopped him.

Liria had a glimpse of rock walls behind the Nethren as she came in line with him. Then she blasted him.

With a cry, the Nethren man fell to the ground, a blackened hole in his chest. He twitched and then went still.

Liria knew she had only moments before the Nethren realized their soldier was down and replaced him.

But all the damage was around that hole, so it took her only seconds to find the shredded component that helped generate the magical energy field on this side of the barrier.

Summoning tech, she fixed the broken pieces first—metal moving under the power of the Source of Technology and guided by her will. With that done, she summoned magic and converged tech with it.

Instantly, light flared over the barrier on the tunnel side, even over the hole.

“Yes!” Liria fisted her hand and shook it in victory.

But she wasn't done yet. With the field fixed, Liria moved onto the steel shell, summoning tech once more. Working from the outside in, she fused the torn metal back together. It only took a few minutes, but it felt as if she were at it for hours, each second an eternity in which Thax was at risk.

Suddenly, the barrier whirred around. Even as Liria had worked on physically repairing the barrier, her team had been converging in support.

Something clicked. Slammed into stability.

A pulse of energy ran down the line, and Liria had to brace herself as the barrier slid back into place.

The vibration of massive steel posts moving came through her palms. The lock had reset.

A faint cry of pain came from the tunnel side.

Picturing the Nethren blasted back down to where they belonged, Liria grinned.

Her job was done. Now, it was up to Thax and his people to clean up the pit.

She left the barrier room, but as Liria reached the second security door, she heard shouting.

Aethari voices. They should have been crying out in victory as they finished off the Nethren.

But that didn't sound like victory cries.

Liria frowned, turning toward the stairs that would take her to the rim of the pit instead of her office.

Something urged her in that direction—a terrible feeling.

Liria was nearly there when she heard the voice. It belonged to the Speaker of Icara. He was keening. His voice wasn't pulsing with anger. It was lifting in lamentation. Oh, fuck! She ran.

Bursting out onto the lip of the pit, Liria saw the Speaker.

He was on his knees, head lifted to the sky.

No, not to the sky but to the Source of Magic.

A feeling of dread filled Liria as she gaped at the most powerful man of the sky city of Icara.

He was not a leader at that moment. He was a father.

A father begging for the life of his son.

“No!” Liria screamed and ran to the edge of the pit.

Bodies littered the ground—both Nethren and Aethari. But Thax wasn't among them. Liria saw that instantly. Her heart slowed. He must have been wounded. She searched the men and women staggering past the Speaker. But the Speaker didn't stop wailing to look. He didn't search those faces.

Liria ran up to Thax's father, grabbed him by the shoulders, and shook him. “Where is he? Where is Thaxvarien?”

The Speaker turned his wet gaze to her. “Gone. They took him. Those monsters took my son!”

“No. No, they don't do that. Nethren don't take . . . prisoners.” Liria trailed off as she turned toward the pit. She had sealed the barrier. It was her fault that Thax was trapped on the other side. “Oh, dear convergence, help me.”

And it did. Suddenly, Liria lost all fear.

Strength surged through her. She jumped over the railing, grabbing one of the Nethren grappling lines as she went.

It was a smooth movement she couldn't have planned if she tried.

Her body was moving on its own, knees bent and boots set against the wall as she rappelled down the sheer side.

Everyone stopped to watch her. Someone shouted.

As Liria made it to the pit floor, an Aethari landed beside her—Corporal Branseri.

“What the fuck are you doing, Chief Drask?” Branseri shouted at her.

Calmly, Liria said, “I'm going after my destru.”

He flinched, eyes widening to process that word, but then he grabbed her arm. “Chief, he's gone. One bite and he's dead. Rennux is probably already dead. You can't save him. You'll only kill yourself too.”

“I'm going after him.”

“It's fucking suicide!”

Someone else landed behind Liria. A hand took her shoulder. Liria turned as Branseri cursed viciously. It was Thax's father. More Aethari landed behind the Speaker, wings kicking up stone dust created by the heavy hits of the blasters.

“Liria, save him,” the Speaker—no, Thax's father—said. “Save him, please. I have faith that you will succeed.”

“All due respect, Speaker, but she can't save him,” Branseri said. “Our weapons won't work down there. Even if your son were still alive, an entire army of us couldn't bring him back. He's gone.”

“An army can't, but I can,” Liria said. She looked at the Speaker. “I will bring him back. One way or another.”

The Speaker started to glow. He took her face in his hands, and the glow spread into her. “I will guide and guard you, Liria. I go into the dark with you. Now, go and retrieve your destru.”

The other Aethari gasped.

“Thank you, Source.” Liria stepped back.

“Are you both fucking insane?” Branseri shouted. But then he saw the glow fade from the Speaker, and he went quiet.

“I feel him, Corporal.” The Speaker, back to himself, stared down the other Aethari. “My son lives. And his destra is his only hope.” More gasps came as that word was heard by the other Aethari. But they were ignored as he went on, “You heard the Source of Magic, it wants her to go.”

Branseri shook his head and tried once more with Liria. “Chief Drask, you are defenseless. What will you do if you find him? You can't even take a pulser down there. Our weapons won't work in a magical void.”

“Maybe not, but theirs will.” Liria went to one of the Nethren corpses and snatched the weapon out of its metal hand.

“You're insane!”

Liria lifted the thing. It was similar to a pulser but required a cartridge of stacked projectiles.

She had studied Nethren weapons during her training, so she knew all about them.

Had even fired one. Once. All of that knowledge suddenly magnified in her mind.

Liria knew how to use the weapon. Knew how to aim and fire.

Knew how it would kick back in her hand.

How to reload. She crouched and unsnapped the belt from the dead Nethren.

It was too large for her, so Liria snapped it across her chest. It was full of the projectile cartridges.

“I can't let you do this, Chief.” Branseri reached for her.

The Speaker spoke once more, “Stand aside!”

Branseri gaped at the glowing man. His arms fell to his side, and he stood back.

Liria nodded at the Speaker, or maybe she was nodding at Source. She went to the barrier. Normally, it couldn't be opened from the pit, but she confidently put her palm on the steel. Something surged through her. The steel machinery inside the shell whirred. The barrier slid open, just a foot.

“Chief Drask!” It was the Commander.

“Sorry, sir,” Liria said, more to herself than him. “Not listening.”

Then Chief Liria Drask went into the dark after her destru. And the Source of Magic went with her.