Page 30

CHAPTER 30

S asha

I press my back against the cold stone, feeling the vibrations of combat through the wall. The Fortress trembles with each explosion, and the sounds of battle echo through its narrow, winding hallways. Shouts of dying and injured men bounce on the stone, joining the chaotic chorus of the blaster shots.

Stone dust and the stench of burned flesh fill my nostrils as I run, my heart hammering so hard against its cage of bones, I’m afraid my ribs will break. There is only one thing on my mind, one face that hovers above the sound and smell of the carnage.

Eirik. I need to get to Eirik before it’s too late.

He should be headed to the throne room if he followed my directions. That’s where I’m headed, too, although I’m taking a detour to avoid the worst of the battle. I’m not kidding myself. I’m better at hiding than fighting. Every step is muscle memory, every turn a reminder of the life I’ve lived within these walls.

I pause at an intersection, listening to the chaos echoing through the walls. The Fortress holds no more secrets from me, every hidden path and forgotten space mapped in my brain through years of survival. The throne room is just ahead, but as I round the last corner before my destination, a massive figure steps out of the shadows, blocking my path.

Naeve. My heart stutters in my chest.

“Mouse.” Naeve’s voice drips with venom, her bright blue eyes on me, shining with such anger, I feel my insides melting. “You dare show your face here?”

“Just let me go.” I shift my weight, ready to move if she attacks. “People will die if I don’t?—”

“People are already dying!” Naeve’s muscles bunch as she steps forward. “Don’t you hear them? After all Sargul did for you? He took you in, made you family!”

“He gave me chains and called them family ties.” The words burst out before I can stop them. “He used me, Naeve. Just like he uses everyone.”

“He protected you.” Her fist slams into the wall at her side. “I protected you.”

Her fury is like a physical presence, enveloping her, radiating through her limbs. I can almost feel it, burning through her skin.

“This is bigger than Sargul, you, and me.” I stand my ground despite her looming presence. “If Lady Ozura gives the Huugwor tech to the Empire, this entire city will be doomed. The entire Huugwor nation will be doomed. Don’t you see?”

“Since when do you care about anyone but yourself?” Naeve’s eyes narrow and I know she’s not really hearing anything I’m telling her. She’s too blinded by my betrayal. “Time to pay, Mouse.”

A fist whistles past my ear as I duck under Naeve’s strike. Her strength radiates through the air and I know that if she lands a single blow, I won’t be able to recover. She’s that powerful and that angry.

“You were always quick.” Naeve’s knuckles graze my cheek as I weave away. “But speed won’t save you forever.”

I dart left, muscle memory from countless sparring matches guiding my movements. The narrow passage works against Naeve’s broader frame, but she knows how to use the walls to her advantage.

“Remember when you taught me to block?” I catch her next punch on my forearm, just as she showed me years ago. The impact numbs my arm to the shoulder. “You broke my arm that day.”

“I taught you to survive. I gave you something I never had. Someone who cared.” Her knee drives toward my stomach. I twist away, but the edge of her attack catches my hip. “I should have left you to fend for yourself.”

Her words trigger a flash of memory. Naeve holding ice to my bruised face after a particularly harsh training session, her callused hands gentle despite her stern words. The momentary distraction costs me as her elbow slams into my shoulder, driving me against the rough stone wall.

Pain explodes across my back. I roll with the impact, using the wall to spring away. My smaller size lets me slip through gaps in her defense, landing quick strikes that barely seem to register. I’m not winning this fight.

“I watched over you.” Each word punctuates a devastating blow I barely manage to avoid. “Protected you.” Her fist cracks the stone where my head was a heartbeat ago. “Cared for you like my own.”

My throat tightens at the raw emotion in her voice. I remember her teaching me to braid my hair, showing me how to hold a knife, bringing soup when I was sick. But I also remember her standing silent while Sargul sent me on increasingly dangerous missions, watching without protest as he manipulated and used me.

A glance behind me reveals the empty corridor stretching into darkness. There’s nowhere left to run, nowhere to hide from the truth between us.

I taste blood as I stagger back from another blow. Naeve advances, her expression a mixture of fury and grief that mirrors the brewing disaster in my own heart.

“You were supposed to be different.” Her voice breaks. “Better than the rest of us.”

Her guard drops for a fraction of a second—the opening she always warned me to watch for. My kick catches her knee, buckling her stance. But even as she falls, her arm shoots out like a steel cable, fingers closing around my throat.

Shit. I should have seen this coming.

I twist in Naeve’s grip, my lungs burning as her fingers tighten. My feet leave the floor as she lifts me higher, dark spots dancing at the edges of my vision.

“Fight back, Mouse,” she growls, shaking me. There’s no mercy on her features, no softness in her gaze. “Show me what I taught you.”

I kick out, catching her in the ribs. The impact loosens her hold enough for me to gulp a desperate breath before she slams me against the wall again. Pain explodes across my back again, but I don’t give up. My next punch connects with her jaw, but it’s like hitting steel. She barely flinches before tightening her grip on my throat again.

I can’t breathe. Darkness invades my vision as I realize I’m going to die.

I scratch at her arms, her hands, but it’s no use. She’s a gladiator, a killing machine. What’s another kill for her?

“Then why?” She brings her face closer, her furious features filling my entire field of vision. “You chose this Huugwor over us. I need you to tell me why?”

She brings me down just enough that I can stand on my tiptoes and loosens her grip enough for a trickle of air to flow to my desperate, burning lungs.

“Because for the first time in my life, I found something worth fighting for.” It hurts so much to speak, but I push the words out through a burning throat. “Something bigger than myself. Something worth dying for.”

Her face goes slack, and for a dizzying moment I think she’s going to bash my skull against the stone wall. Then she lowers me just a fraction more.

“You were there the day Sargul brought me in.” The words spill out, through the pain. “You gave me my first real meal. Remember?”

Her jaw clenches, but I catch the slight quiver in her lip. “Stop.”

“You’re the one who came up with the name Mouse.” My hand reaches up, touching her wrist. “Because you said I was cute as a mouse.”

“I said stop.” But her voice lacks conviction. Her fingers loosen their deadly grip on my throat and air flows in more easily. “You’re not going to talk your way out of this.”

“If I deserve to die, then do it,” I grit between my teeth. “But you’ll have to look me in the eyes while you do it.”

Naeve’s breath catches. I see emotions flash across her face that I never suspected could exist. Emotions that make my own chest pinch with a pain that has nothing to do with the fight. Or the many bruised ribs I probably have by now.

Then I drop to the floor in a heap of useless limbs at her feet.

“Damn you, Mouse.”

I struggle to my feet, my ribs screaming in protest. Naeve doesn’t help me up, but she doesn’t stop me either. The sound of blaster fire grows closer, more intense, and then Sargul appears, running toward us. Blood streams down his face from a wound at his temple, his expensive clothing singed and torn.

He turns and fires his blaster behind him just as he reaches us.

“They’re killing them all!” Sargul shouts at Naeve, his voice raw with fury. “We have to get out while we still can.”

“Eirik wouldn’t do that!” I protest, but even as the words leave my mouth, I know something is wrong. The Enforcers never planned on killing everyone in the Fortress. They don’t even have the numbers for this.

“No, not the Enforcers or your Huugwor boyfriend.” Sargul spits blood as he speaks, the splatter shocking red against the pale stone floor. “It’s Kendall. He turned on us. He’s working with Ozura. They’ve taken over the Fortress.”

My blood runs cold. “What?”

“Move!” Naeve grabs my arm, her grip firm, just this side of crushing. “We don’t have time to bicker.”

Naeve helps me as I limp my way along the long hallways I once called home, now filled with smoke and the echoes of death.

The Fortress shakes with another explosion, closer this time. Stone dust rains down on us as we navigate through the maze-like passages. I let muscle memory guide my feet while my mind races.

Kendall. It makes a sick kind of sense.

As we round the corner, the sound of stone grinding against stone echoes through the tunnel, followed by a deafening crash.

“The passage has collapsed,” Naeve says, her voice tight with tension.

“There’s only one way left.” Sargul’s yellow eyes gleam in the darkness. “Through the throne room.”

The sound of combat grows louder around us, and I know we have no choice. I meet Naeve’s gaze and she gives me a slight nod. We move as one, our footsteps silent as we make our way toward what could very well be our deaths.

And all the time, all I can see is Eirik’s face. He wanted to protect me. I hope he can forgive me if I die.