Traitors

by Bella Forrest

  “Nice plan,” Bashrik interjected. “I was just thinking the same thing.”

  He pulled me into an unexpected hug. “It’s good to see you, Bashrik,” I murmured. “I’m glad you’re not fighting up there with the others.”

  “Yeah, Brisha called me down here to help on the control panels,” he said, wiping his brow dramatically. “I hope my family didn’t give you too much trouble in the South.”

  I smiled. “Just enough to keep things entertaining.”

  A happy reunion ensued as Navan and Ronad got involved. The warm feeling of being back together again was short-lived, however, as the walls shuddered, a tremor vibrating through the floor and up into my spine. With each Titan footstep, the room shook harder, a few cracks appearing in the ceiling. The intelligence officers, who were manning the desks, ducked each time a quake rippled through the structure, covering their heads with their hands. I wondered what good they thought it would do, if the roof really did cave in. We’d all be crushed, and there would be nowhere to run.

  “So we’re getting out of here?” Angie whispered.

  I nodded. “We’ve got a ship waiting in the gardens, but I was hoping we could see Brisha before we left.”

  “She’s over there,” Lauren said, pointing to a group of people standing in a circle. There was someone in the middle, lying on the ground.

  Tentatively, we approached. Commander Korbin was there, talking with several aides about what they should do next, looking just as stern and frightening as I remembered. He turned as we came closer, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. It took him a moment to recognize me, but once he did, his expression soured further.

  “What happened to her?” I asked, my gaze drawn to the person on the floor. It was Queen Brisha, her body splayed out on a stretcher, bluish blood seeping through a bandage wrapped around her head.

  “None of your business, defector,” Commander Korbin hissed. “Who let you down here?”

  Navan came to my defense. “It was authorized, Commander. You can check with the guards hovering above the palace. I was sent on a rescue mission to fetch Riley. Neither of us has defected.”

  I nodded. “We just wanted to see what was going on, and check that Queen Brisha was okay. Did she get hit?”

  “A Titan caught her ship and smashed it into the walls of Nessun. Most of the crew died, but I got her out and brought her here,” the commander explained grimly. “She’s suffered some head trauma and keeps drifting in and out of consciousness.”

  “Where’s the doctor?” Navan asked, looking around.

  “What doctor?” The commander scoffed. “The Titans went for the hospitals first.”

  I stared at him in horror. We’d actually wanted to join forces with these creatures? We’d actually wanted to ally ourselves with the kind of monsters who attacked the hospitals first? It was bad enough that I’d had to watch those horrible beasts stomp entire towns to death, but to know that we’d almost sent them a gift to try to win their favor—that made it even worse. Gianne was the kind of person who allied herself with a species like this, but we weren’t.

  “Did you manage to get anyone out?” I asked desperately, remembering the bunkers that Brisha had built so she could evacuate her people as quickly as possible. It had worked the last time, when Gianne had struck Brisha’s alchemy lab, and I prayed it had worked again.

  The commander heaved out a sigh. “We got as many as we could into the bunkers, but those cretins took us completely by surprise. They came from the skies and rained down on us; there was only so much we could do in so little time.”

  “She struck at night because she knew it would do the most damage,” I whispered, almost to myself. “Everyone would be at home.”

  “Gianne will pay for this,” Commander Korbin spat.

  “Well, please give Queen Brisha my warmest regards when she wakes up. I wish her a speedy recovery,” I said solemnly, turning to leave. The others followed, but Korbin’s voice rang out, making us freeze.

  “Where do you think you’re going?”

  “We shouldn’t be here. You said so yourself,” I replied nervously.

  Navan nodded in agreement. “Yeah, we’re just going to fly to one of the other bunkers and leave you to it. We’ll be no help to you here.”

  “Bashrik is needed on the controls, and these two…” He gestured at Angie and Lauren. “They’re wearing Brisha’s uniform, aren’t they? That means they need to stay where I can see them in case I need to mobilize them. Right now, we need all the medical personnel we can get. We have wounded soldiers and civilians all over the place. And you two—you’re trained soldiers. You should be out on the field with the rest of your team.”

  “Queen Brisha wouldn’t want us on the front line,” I insisted, but his gaze had flickered to something over my shoulder. I turned to see that he was looking at Mort.

  “Now, you—I don’t know you at all,” Korbin remarked coldly. “You don’t look like any soldier I know.”

  “I’m in the infantry, Commander,” Mort replied calmly.

  The commander shook his head, a twisted smile on his lips. “Tell me, which knock-off shop in the South did you get this outfit from? This is a replica, at best.” He walked up to Mort and flicked the buttons and patches that were out of place. “There are no chevrons on a Northern uniform, and we definitely don’t have golden buttons.”

  I flashed a look at Mort. “Run!” I yelled.

  He darted away from the commander, morphing into a wolf-like creature that I guessed was a frostfang. The sight of the beast startled a few of the guards, and they staggered back in fear. Seizing the opportunity amid the ensuing chaos, we tore in the direction of the spiral staircase that led back up into the palace, taking the steps two at a time. As we burst out the door and into the main hall, a team of guards approached, their guns raised, blocking the exit to the gardens and our waiting ship.

  “Take the main door!” Navan shouted, grabbing my hand and charging for the double doors. We hurtled through them and sprinted down the steps, knowing our best bet was to lose the soldiers in the streets beyond. We’d have to circle back for our ship later.

  “Riley, Navan, MOVE!” Ronad’s voice cut through the cacophony of stomping feet and peppered gunfire. A split second later, something barreled into me, knocking me and Navan out of the way, sending us sprawling onto the sidewalk.

  Above our heads, a Titan loomed.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  I scrambled to my feet, glancing over my shoulder to see Commander Korbin chasing after us. Bashrik was already running ahead, hauling Angie and Lauren along with the momentum of his superior speed, and Mort was surprisingly quick, more or less keeping up with them, oblivious to the fact that Navan and I had narrowly missed charging straight into the lowering ankle of a Titan. Had it not been for Ronad, we’d be flat right now. As we set off after the others, I turned again to see Korbin sprinting down the palace steps, a few guards following after him.

  “Traitors!” he bellowed. “Spies, the lot of you! I knew you were all working for Gianne!”

  A bullet whizzed past my cheek, grazing the skin. Ignoring the sting of it, I pressed on, rounding a corner onto the next street, where we were met by a blockade. Houses had tumbled into the road, blocking the way out. Either we climbed it, turned around and ran up a different street, or faced the soldiers. I looked to the others, but they didn’t seem sure either.

  “We’re going to have to stand our ground!” Navan shouted above the roar of the roaming Titans. “Anyone with weapons, take them out now!”

  I removed the knives that I’d hidden up my pant leg, having left the gun in the ship. Ronad took out a cluster of throwing stars he’d stolen from Sarrask’s stash, and Navan drew out one of the long blades he still had strapped to his back. He’d removed the other one for comfort reasons, but I figured one was better than nothing.

  Korbin appeared around the bend a moment later, his eyes narrowing as a smirk spread across his face. He approac
hed slowly, making a beeline for me, his men trailing after him in a V formation. The group of soldiers were armed and dangerous, but they weren’t looking up. I opened my mouth to shout, to warn them, but the Titans’ size didn’t slow down the speed of their immense bodies.

  The commander was barely two yards away from me when a giant foot came crashing down on his head. I heard the pop of bones and the squelch of flesh as the foot crushed Korbin. The other soldiers turned and fled for the palace. Evidently, we weren’t worth getting squished for.

  A jet of viscous, grayish-blue liquid shot up from the poor commander’s body as the pressure exploded, like squeezing a water balloon too hard. Since I was the one standing closest, I got a full face of visceral spray. I tried to shield my face with my hands, but it still splattered my skin. Shocked, I stood frozen.

  “Come on,” Navan said, taking my hand.

  We ducked back into the rubble of the fallen houses. Fortunately, the Titan didn’t appear to have noticed that he’d stood on anything, let alone realized there were people running around close to his foot. He really was enormous, with bronze plates across his abdomen giving the impression of a glimmering metal six-pack. From this distance, I saw a few plates buried in the skin of his leg, too, revealing the true agony of the adornments. The scar tissue around each piece showed that it had been poured on molten and shaped afterward. I supposed it was meant to show strength, or something equally stupid and macho. I held my breath as he passed.

  Only when the Titan had moved far away did we dare emerge from the rubble of the blockade that had fallen across the street. I could feel the remains of Commander Korbin all over my face, and I shuddered with disgust. I didn’t know the man that well, but I would never have wished a death like that on anyone. He’d just been trying to protect his queen.

  I glanced down at the crushed corpse, knowing it would soon turn into ash and join the swarm of eerie gray flakes that filled the air. At least he wouldn’t stay like this for long, in a congealed mass of indiscernible bits.

  “Sorry,” I whispered, kneeling to take his guns and ammo, which were somehow still largely intact. I patted down the rest of his clothes and found a notebook tucked away inside the lining of his jacket, protected from the splatter of blood. It seemed a strange place to hide something, outside of the usual pockets, but I didn’t know if it was a personal journal or something private—the kind of thing he didn’t want his fellow soldiers finding out about. Letters to his sweetheart, that sort of thing.

  Curious, I flipped through the first few pages, conscious of the others creeping toward the end of the street, heading back for the ship. The contents looked like equations, alongside sketches of equipment and experiment setups. I didn’t need to be able to read Vysanthean to know a math puzzle when I saw one. Yorrek’s grumpy old face popped into my head again—was this his notebook, the one that Queen Brisha had been hiding away in her library? If it was, Brisha must have given it to Korbin for safekeeping while she was recovering from her head injury and the palace was in danger of destruction.

  Feeling a flutter of excitement, I shoved it into the leg pocket of my infantry cargo pants, before checking that the gun was loaded. It was a big rifle, not a weapon I was used to wielding, but I figured it was the same as any gun—never put the butt near your face, point the barrel at the enemy, then shoot and hope for the best.

  Navan was walking back toward me, having realized I’d lagged behind. “What you got there?” he asked, reaching out to wipe some of the schmutz from my face.

  “I’ll show you later,” I said anxiously. “I’ll need you to translate!”

  I knew Lauren would be eager to look at it too, but it would have to wait until we were back on board the ship. We were too vulnerable out here in the city, where the battle continued to rage. The aerial onslaught looked like it was actually making a dent in the Titan attack. Golden blood was cascading down their bodies, their flesh absolutely riddled with bullet holes. Now, I understood the need for metal plates—they covered the wounds gained in every battle, which meant those who were mostly metal were the truly seasoned warriors of the Titan army.

  Even with the tides turning slightly, it would only be a matter of time before they fully targeted the palace. It would be their last showdown before they retreated, kicking Queen Brisha where it would really hurt. Already, they were venturing closer to it, though the big guns of the warships, which hovered above the spires, seemed to be putting them off for now.

  “Hold on tight,” Navan urged, freeing his injured wing and slipping his arm around my waist. He scooped Ronad up, too, though it was obvious he was struggling without the full flexibility of his damaged wing. I thought about the serum I still had tucked safely away in the cup of my bra—the most secure hideaway in a woman’s arsenal—wondering if it would do anything to help him. It was supposed to heal and strengthen, but Kaido had warned that my brain chemistry responded in the opposite way to that of a Vysanthean. Perhaps, if I gave it to Navan, it would only weaken him further.

  Meanwhile, Bashrik scooped up Angie and Lauren, keeping as low as possible as they headed back to the palace gardens, where the ship was waiting. We followed, but we’d only gotten a few yards when I realized Mort wasn’t with us. I glanced around, only to find him morphing from frostfang to coldblood on the ground below. A moment later, with his fake, shifter-made wings, he flapped frantically after us. I couldn’t help chuckling at the sight of him dipping and diving, his body dangling like a sack of wrenches underneath his ill-made wings. Still, it was doing the job, which was more than could be said for us wingless folk.

  Nobody stopped us as we flew over the palace walls, the soldiers who had been manning the outer walls having retreated inside. Undoubtedly, they’d realized they could do no good on the outer gates, considering the Titans could simply step over the walls if they wanted to.

  Navan grimaced as he set Ronad and me down on the ground beside the parked ship, breathing heavily. The strain of carrying us both was clearly taking its toll on him. I moved up to where he stood and lifted his chin.

  “You okay?” I asked, worried.

  He smiled, leaning down to kiss me. “I need to lift some weights with my sad little broken wing, that’s all,” he joked.

  “I guess it didn’t help having to carry us both,” Ronad said, a look of frustration passing across his face. I knew it made him feel helpless, having to rely on others when he had once been capable of the same thing.

  I’d just leaned up to kiss Navan again, eager to take my mind off the image of Commander Korbin’s death, when an ungainly thump distracted my attention. Mort had landed.

  “I loathe flying,” Mort muttered, rolling his eyes as he elongated the O in true dramatic fashion.

  “You’d like it better if you didn’t have such puny wings,” Navan shot back.

  The shifter scoffed. “Says you, Wonky Wing! Mine may be small, but I’ve got two fully functioning ones.”

  “Now there’s something a girl never wants to hear!” Angie cackled. For the first time ever, I saw a flicker of embarrassment cross Mort’s face. It was the perfect antidote to what had just happened, making me forget that I was still covered in the blood of a dead man. Right now, I just wanted to get away from here, and laugh until I didn’t feel sick anymore.

  I grinned. “Mort, this is Angie. She might just be the only person in the universe who can give you a run for your money in the crassness stakes!”

  Angie nodded, looping her arm through mine. “Undefeated champion, I’ll have you know!”

  “Yeah, well, that’s because the ugly ones have to be funny,” Mort retorted, but Angie only laughed harder.

  “You might as well have said I smell!” she howled. “What is this, kindergarten? You going to punch me in the arm and tell me you love me next?”

  “I suppose you’ve come to join in this crude display of emasculation?” Mort muttered, glaring at Lauren, who’d just walked up to Angie and me.

  She shook her he
ad. “Nope, I’m just here to spectate. It’s my favorite sport.”

  “Well, if you want me, I’ll be on the ship—avoiding all of you!” Mort turned on his heel and stomped up the gangway.

  “Yeah, not without one of us, shifter!” Ronad said, following him.

  “I knew there was a reason I adored you, Angie,” I said delightedly. “You’re smart, beautiful, and you scare away the creeps like nobody else!”

  She grinned. “Always a pleasure.”

  “We’ve missed you so much, Riley,” Lauren added softly. “It just isn’t the same when it’s not the three of us. Two is fine, but three is better.”

  “That’s my motto in all things.” Angie burst into raucous laughter, and the two of us were swept up in the infectiousness of it.

  “Are you ladies coming, or are we leaving you here to get squashed?” Navan asked, taking my hand and pulling me toward the ship.

  I followed him, my friends trailing after us into the belly of the vessel. As soon as we were inside, the three of us stepped off to one side. Navan disappeared into the cockpit, joining the other guys as they started up the engines. We took off, soaring above the palace and making for the outer walls of Nessun. We didn’t know where we were going yet, but the most important thing was to get out of the warzone.

  I immediately made a beeline for the bathroom, desperate to wash the remains of Commander Korbin off me. There were clean clothes stacked on a shelf, and I changed quickly, as my friends leaned in the doorway, eager to continue our conversation.

  “Anyway, what’s been going on with you? What have we missed?” Lauren asked. “All we’ve been doing is medical duty—fetching supplies and working on the wards. I’ve done some reading here and there, but that’s about as exciting as it’s been for me. Our dear friend has at least had a handsome man to distract her, but I’ve had nothing!”