by Presley Hall
Just like I told Yaveen I wanted, a plume of blue smoke is rising up from where the explosion went off, and the cries of Strakk’s men grow more angry as they begin to piece together what just happened.
One alien male with a massive underbite and reddish teeth glances over, his gaze landing on us. His eyes widen, and he lets out a roar of rage that cuts through the ringing in my ears from the explosion.
“Hyron!” he shouts, pointing a thick finger at us.
“Run,” I tell Raina in a low, tight voice.
She doesn’t hesitate, following right behind me as I sprint down the street. A blaster bolt whizzes past us, and I curse under my breath as I duck to one side, barely avoiding the fiery bolt. Blasters are rare on Nuthora, but plenty of prisoners have been able to barter or trade for them, which puts us at risk of getting shot as we flee.
Ducking down a smaller street, I slow my steps just a little to make sure I’m not leaving Raina behind. If another blaster bolt comes at us, I’d rather it hit me than her.
We’re close to Hyron’s territory. We deliberately chose a spot near the border of his part of the city to set off our bomb so that we wouldn’t have to run far. And it’s a good slanching thing too, because I can hear the mob of angry prisoners behind us, picking up more members as they hunt us down with howls of rage.
I barrel into a tall alien with blunt horns protruding from his forehead, and he lets out a grunt of surprise. I shove him to one side, grabbing Raina’s hand to pull her after me, but he gets a look at the marks on our faces as he recovers his balance. I’m not even sure he knows about the explosion, but the fake tattoos on our skin are enough to make him snarl with anger. He joins in the pursuit, falling in with the prisoners at the head of the mob that’s chasing us.
My heart beats hard and fast in my chest, keeping time with my footfalls on the packed dirt of the narrow street.
So close.
Almost… slanching… there.
I put on a burst of speed, and Raina gasps for breath beside me as she matches my pace, her arms pumping and her dark hair streaming behind her like a banner.
Fortunately, the sound of the furious mob behind us has already drawn the attention of several of Hyron’s men, and they’re right there when we cross the border between the two territories. One, a stocky alien with a missing eye, gives me a startled look as Raina and I race past him. But before he has a chance to question who I am or why the two of us bear Hyron’s marks, one of Strakk’s followers leaps at him with a fierce battle cry. The one-eyed alien growls as he rushes to defend himself, and I pull Raina sideways, ducking down a small side street.
Other aliens are rushing past, heading toward the sound of the fight, and I find a tiny nook between two buildings and lead Raina inside. Quickly, I use my fingertips to wipe the mark away from her face, erasing Hyron’s symbol. Small streaks of gray still mar her pale skin, but at least she won’t be a clear target for Strakk’s men anymore.
Stepping a little closer, she scrubs the mark off my face as well. Her brows are furrowed in concentration, her hand shaking slightly as she works. In the streets around us, feral cries, grunts, and screams fill the air, and when a man goes flying through the air not far from us, thrown backward by the force of some attack, she jumps.
Chaos has erupted all around us.
The spark of hatred between Hyron’s followers and Strakk’s has erupted into an unbridled blaze.
Our plan worked.
Maybe a little too well.
23
Raina
Yeah, this plan is officially insane.
For the moment, Kaide and I are tucked away from the fray, partially hidden in a little nook between two buildings that’s barely big enough for both of us to fit into it. But that can’t last long. I cringe as several aliens who I think must serve Strakk go charging down the street, meeting up with a few of Hyron’s men in a clash of weapons.
Somewhere nearby, I hear the now-distinctive zzzt, zzzt, zzzt sound of blaster fire, and I swallow hard as I look at Kaide.
“Okay,” I whisper, my voice barely audible over the din. “I’d say we can check phase one of the plan off our list.”
He almost smiles, his lips twitching upward although his eyes remain focused and serious. “I’d say so. Hopefully, word of this breach will reach Hyron himself quickly, and he’ll send more of his men to join the fight. That should leave his main building less protected and easier to sneak into.”
Catching my hand in his, he pulls me toward him and presses a hard kiss to my lips. It’s short, over almost before I have a chance to react, but he manages to communicate a whole hell of a lot in the second or two that it lasts. His cat-like gray eyes blaze as he looks down at me.
“If we encounter anyone who tries to stop us, whether Hyron’s men or Strakk’s, I’ll handle them,” he tells me. “We need to make it through the melee without getting drawn into the fighting.”
I nod, gripping the small knife that I’ve pulled from the strap at my waist. As the sound of the fighting seem to swell around us, Kaide peers out into the street and then jerks his chin, indicating for me to follow him. We slip out into the chaos, and my heart thuds like a hammer against my ribs as I see an alien with rough-looking skin and tusks run a wickedly curved blade through another alien man with mottled green skin.
Holy fuck, holy fuck, holy fuck.
I thought my neighborhood back on Earth was rough, but even when things got really bad, I never witnessed open warfare on the streets like this. But there’s no time to think, no time to process the pandemonium going on all around me. Kaide is already moving, so I move with him, sticking close behind him as we make our way past battling aliens, sticking as close to the sides of buildings as possible.
Twice, dangerous-looking prisoners lunge toward us with battle fury in their eyes. One of them has Hyron’s mark on his face, although I have no idea who the other one serves. Not that it matters. Kaide takes them both down with movements so deadly and efficient that it makes my breath catch in my throat. I’ve seen him training with the other Voxeran warriors often back in the village, but I’ve never seen him fight quite like this before.
This is what all that training is for, I realize as the second alien who tried to attack us falls to the ground in a heap. It’s for moments like these, so that Kaide can act purely on instinct, his limbs moving almost without conscious command because he’s performed the actions so many times before.
No matter how good of a fighter he is, if we were attacked by a large group all at once, they could probably manage to overwhelm him. But because of the fight raging in the street around us, he only has to face one opponent at a time. I’m sure all of Hyron’s men would gladly attack us since we’re clearly outsiders in this territory—except, fortunately, they’re a little busy right now.
We’re close to Hyron’s main building. I can see it just up ahead, looming over the shorter structures that surround it. We pick up our pace, but I yelp when someone grabs the back of my shirt and yanks me off balance.
I don’t think. I just react.
My instincts might not be born from years of training like Kaide’s, but I spent most of my life living in an area where the threat of being attacked was a real possibility. My years of keeping my guard up pay off as I twist in my attacker’s hold, swiping out with my knife and dragging the blade over his forearms.
The large alien grunts in pain, and before he can recover from his shock that I fought back, Kaide is there.
This time, his movements aren’t quite as controlled as they were when he fought before, and his teeth are bared in a snarl as he lunges for the man who tried to attack me. The alien shoves me out of the way to take on the bigger threat, but I manage to swipe him with my blade again as I stumble sideways.
The fight is brutal, savage, and short. By the time the man falls, Kaide’s chest is rising and falling with deep breaths. He looks over at me, and the raw fear in his eyes almost knocks me off my feet.
&nbs
p; “Are you all right?” he rasps.
I nod, my throat tight. “Yeah. Let’s keep going. The sooner we get into that building, the sooner we can get out of here.”
We’ve made it this far, but every fight we get into, every close brush with death, is another chance for our luck to change.
And I’m not losing Kaide. Not when I’ve only just started allowing myself to truly embrace the bond between us.
I want years with him, dammit. Not just a few incredible nights. I want everything.
Determination blazes through me, and I grip the handle of my knife tightly as Kaide and I make our way through the carnage on the street toward Hyron’s tower. Dark blood is smeared across the blade, but I don’t bother to wipe it off, focusing instead on scanning our surroundings for any threats. The worst of the fighting hasn’t reached this part of Hyron’s territory yet, but from the sounds that echo through the air behind us, it’s only a matter of time.
Kaide leads me around to a side entrance of the building, turning me away and pressing me against the wall of a nearby structure as several men with tattooed foreheads burst from the building with weapons drawn. I hold my breath, braced for them to attack us, but they race toward the din of the battle instead.
Thank god.
“That door is our best chance,” Kaide murmurs.
He glances over his shoulder carefully to scope it out, still blocking my body with his as I lean against the wall. When he’s satisfied that the coast is as clear as it’s going to get, he gives me a nod. Without even needing to exchange any words, the two of us dart across the open area between us and the door.
It locked after Hyron’s men emerged, but Kaide rears back and kicks the door hard, making it shudder on its hinges. Another solid kick, and the lock gives way. My heart is racing as if I just sprinted up a flight of stairs. I’m worried that the noise of the door slamming open might’ve drawn too much attention, but as we step into the hallway beyond, no one stops us.
Hyron must’ve sent out most of his men to fight with Strakk’s people, leaving just a skeleton force left to guard this place.
Still, my pulse hardly slows as Kaide and I hurry down the corridor, which is made of dark stone and illuminated by grayish lights set into the ceiling.
When we find a set of stairs leading upward, I hesitate for a moment, a whole new kind of fear filling me. Most of the buildings I’ve seen in Pascia are pretty shabbily constructed, rough and haphazard. This is the first one I’ve been in that has multiple floors, and it’s hard to repress my fear that they won’t hold. What are the odds that an alien architect was banished to Nuthora?
But there’s no time to worry about that now. The building is mostly abandoned for now, and we need to take advantage of this opportunity while it lasts. So I shove down the unease crawling up my throat and follow Kaide up the stairs, keeping my gaze focused forward.
When we reach the landing on the second floor, he eases the door open, then closes it quickly.
“One guard,” he tells me in a low voice. “Wait here.”
Fuck. Okay.
I nod, gripping my knife tightly as he shoves the door open and leaps out into the hallway beyond. I count my heartbeats as I wait, ready to throw myself after him if it sounds like he’s losing the fight. But a moment later, I hear a heavy thud, and then Kaide opens the door again.
“Come on.”
He holds it open for me, and we slip down the hall as quietly as we can. His fight with the guard was nearly silent, probably because he managed to take the alien by surprise, so I don’t think any kind of alarm has been raised to alert others to our presence here.
Now all we have to do is find K’Mek.
Shit. I hope that slimy little cockroach hasn’t fled the building.
I chew on my lip as we peer into a couple open doorways we pass. This building is definitely one of the most well-built ones I’ve seen anywhere on Nuthora, but there’s still a sort of roughness to it that makes it clear it was built with the limited resources available on this planet. The furniture is mismatched, and even the stones that makes up the walls aren’t a uniform color.
The rooms are all empty, which is almost a good thing. I’m grateful no guards are rushing out to fight us, but where the hell is K’Mek?
“Wait.”
Kaide’s voice cuts through my thoughts, and when I look up at him, his brows are bunched together with a little line between them.
“What?” I whisper.
His eyes narrow, and he gestures with his chin toward the room we just passed. I frown. We already looked inside that one, and I didn’t see anything. But I retrace my path, keeping my footsteps quiet as Kaide follows me. When I peer inside the room again, it appears empty, just like it did before.
Then a tiny flash of movement catches my eye from up above.
I look upward, and my jaw drops open.
K’Mek is crouched on the ceiling, his fingers and toes somehow managing to cling to the rock as if he’s some kind of bony alien Spider-Man. He realizes we’ve spotted him at the exact moment I realize he’s there, and he freezes for a just a moment, his eyes going wide.
But Kaide doesn’t hesitate. He sprints into the room, leaping up onto a heavy wooden table set against one wall and then leaping again, pivoting toward K’Mek in mid-air. He snags the spindly alien around the waist with one arm and brings him down, both of them hitting the floor with a heavy thud.
My heart jerks. I was worried about the structural integrity of this building before, but watching Kaide land with his full weight makes me terrified that he and K’Mek will go crashing right through the floor.
But although the room seems to shudder with the impact, the floor holds. Gripping my knife, I rush over to give Kaide backup as he wrestles the scrawny alien into a tight hold. He drags K’Mek to his feet with an arm around his neck to make sure he can’t get away, and I brandish my blade in his face.
I’m pissed, I realize. More pissed than I thought I would be. After K’Mek tried to kill us and escaped his workshop with the diamantum, I mostly focused on what needed to happen next—the steps we needed to take to get it back.
But now that I’m looking him in the face, all the anger I didn’t let myself feel earlier comes rushing in. Kaide could have died in that explosion. All of us could have. And the Voxerans and humans back at the village would’ve lost their best chance at getting off this godforsaken planet.
They’re counting on us.
I’ve never had anyone count on me before, and I’m not going to let them down.
“Why would you do it?” I ask angrily. “Why try to kill us just so you could take the diamantum to Hyron? You could’ve negotiated with us if you wanted to hitch a ride off this planet so bad. You really think Hyron is going to honor his word to you like the Voxerans would?”
“I’m sorry,” K’Mek blurts, his eyes darting back and forth as fear fills his features. “I… you’re right. I shouldn’t have.”
“Where’s the diamantum?” Kaide growls, obviously not interested in hearing the alien man’s pathetic apologies. “We need to move fast before Hyron or his guards realize we’re here.”
“I-I used it to create the communicator. Hyron had his people fetch me the rest of the supplies I needed.” K’Mek chokes a bit as Kaide tightens his hold, his watery eyes bugging out of his bony face as he scrabbles at Kaide’s forearm. “You can have it. It’s done, so just take it! But don’t kill me. Please!”
“Where?” Kaide demands. “Where is it?”
“In my temporary workshop. One floor above this one. I’ll show you!”
Kaide and I share a look, and I can tell from his expression that he’s thinking the exact same thing I am.
The last time we let K’Mek lead us anywhere, the last time we trusted him, we nearly got blown to bits.
But I’m not sure what choice we have. Kaide was right—we can’t waste any time. Most of Hyron’s people are out fighting with Strakk’s followers, but it’s only a matt
er of time before they realize how vulnerable they left this building. We don’t want to be here when they return in large numbers.
“Show us,” I say grimly, keeping the knife poised mere inches from K’Mek’s face. “But if you betray us again, I swear…”
“I won’t! I won’t!” He looks almost offended at the implication, and I snort under my breath.
After peering into the hallway again to make sure it’s still deserted, we step outside the room. Kaide is practically carrying K’Mek, his arms wrapped so tightly around the spindly alien that the man’s feet barely touch the floor as he shuffles forward. We head up another flight of stairs, bringing us up to the third floor of the building. Based on what I saw from the outside of the structure, I think there’s one more floor above this, but I can’t be entirely sure.
“In there.” K’Mek jerks his head toward a room with a closed door up ahead of us as we exit the stairwell. “I have the key in my pocket.”
Grimacing, I reach down with my free hand and slip it into the pocket of his loose, ragged trousers. Kaide makes a low growling sound as though warning K’Mek not to get any ideas, and if our situation weren’t so dire, I would almost laugh at his instinctual possessiveness. He’s got nothing to worry about when it comes to K’Mek though—I’d rather punch the sickly looking alien than grope him.
I dart ahead a little to insert the key in the lock, but I wait until Kaide is right behind me to turn it and open the door, wanting him as backup. My body tenses as the wooden door swings open, and I glance around the space.
It looks a lot like K’Mek’s main workshop—messy and disorganized, with spare pieces of equipment and chunks of metal strewn everywhere. On a table near the back of the room, I spot what has to be the communicator device. It’s a small black cube, maybe eight inches across, smooth and shiny.
My heart leaps as I catch sight of it, and I shoot a glance at Kaide, who’s still got K’Mek locked in a tight hold.
