by Lola Dodge
With my new access, I authorized our ship for free access to Citadel airspace. And while I was in the system, I navigated into Doctor Nagi’s personal files. There were petabytes of data—far too much to search now—but I looked up a few crucial keywords.
Red Helix. Quanta. Lady Eva. Lab facilities.
I copied as much as I could onto a drive and then deleted the system files. Now whoever ended up in power would be starting at zero when they tried to look for us. And the search revealed something else we needed—a place to hide. Doctor Nagi had properties scattered around the globe, including the perfect off-grid villa in isolated Greenland. According to his files, no one else knew it existed.
I turned to Benj. He and his guys had taken seats at the conference table.
Doctor Nagi sat staring straight ahead. Motionless. Unbreathing. I basked in the sweet silence for a moment before knocking his chair into a corner.
Someone would come for his body. Eventually. Or they wouldn’t.
I didn’t care. The world was already a better place with him gone.
I turned to Benj and his team. “You ready for another mission?”
“Sure thing,” Benj said. “What’s next? We conquering the Voids? The other Citadels?”
“We’re breaking my sister out of detention. First, we have to make it to the roof. Knight’s picking us up.”
“Solid.” Benj adjusted his mask, ready to go.
“Can someone help me move Quanta?” I’d rather not shift her now, but we didn’t have a choice. I wanted us all gone before my parents and the rest of the senate realized what a scheme we’d pulled off. Two of the guys followed me into the med bay.
Quanta looked less drawn and already had more color than before. That’s a relief. She wouldn’t be out of the woods soon, but any improvement helped.
I tapped the machine’s screen. “Enter portable mode.”
“Entering portable mode.” The unit whirred as it shifted. Most of the robotic arms retracted back into the bed frame and wheels extended down to the floor. I unplugged it from the power socket and gently pulled the bed off the wall. It clicked out of its track without jostling Quanta. I watched her vitals on the screen above her head as we pushed the compact bed into the lift. Her readings were still stable, but I couldn’t help checking and re-checking.
“We’re all clear on the security feeds,” Benj said. “Nobody’s up top waiting for us.”
“Thanks.” I pushed out a breath, trying to find my focus. Quanta would be all right. I just had to pay better attention to my surroundings if we were going to escape.
When Benj and his crew had all jammed in around the bed, I hit the lift button. My com buzzed as we started to rise.
On the way. You ready?
I responded to Cipher’s message. Heading to the roof.
I expected enemies to pounce as soon as the lift doors opened, but when we finally stepped into the lobby, the only noise was the buzzing coms of the men who’d fallen. Their bodies lay where they’d dropped.
Maybe later I’d regret the loss of life. For now, I was too relieved that Quanta and I weren’t among the casualties.
“This way.” I turned to the right, pushing Quanta’s bed in front of me. Her eyelids fluttered a little. Was she waking? She moaned. I didn’t want her coming to until we were somewhere safer.
I picked up our pace, hurrying down the long white corridor. A squad of Black Helixes crossed in front of us and I tensed, reaching for my gun, but they trotted past without sparing us a glance. We kept moving, passing Green Helixes who pushed bodies on stretchers.
I’d been worried we’d draw attention, but until order was restored to the senate building, a crowd of mercenaries wheeling a patient away blended in with the crowd. On the silent lift ride to the roof, my com buzzed again.
We’re here. You coming?
On the way. We still had one more important pickup before this mission was finished.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
QUANTA
I was cold. Super cold. Tubes touched my skin—the worst sensation ever.
But I was alive. So all things considered?
Not too shabby.
Something roared. Wind? Engines? Afraid of what I’d see, I cracked one eye open.
The…sky? A sunset lit the clouds in red and orange.
Pretty. Much better than a lab. But why was I outside?
“Quanta?” Tair came slowly into focus. “Can you hear me?”
“Y—” I choked through a haze of pain.
The numbness from earlier? Way gone. Now my chest burned like I’d sucked in a lungful of powdered glass.
“Try not to talk. You’re still injured.”
He couldn’t have said that first?
“Knight just landed. We’re loading you into the ship.”
That explained the roar.
“We’re going to lift you now,” Tair said. “Just stay still.”
I tried, but my stretcher wobbled. I clenched my jaw. Ow.
“Got her. Easy.” That sounded like Dex?
“Is she okay?” Cipher’s blue hair popped into view. “What happened?”
I would’ve sighed with relief, but the ache in my chest said that wasn’t a good idea. And when I tried to inhale deep enough to talk… Apparently, my lungs were on a break.
“Gunshot wounds,” Tair said. I felt his fingers brushing mine and relaxed a little.
Two shots, if I remembered right.
But I’d cut down Nagi.
My eyelids were already fluttering closed, but I couldn’t help a smile. I’d never forget the sight of him falling back—that look of shock.
Now he was gone. And I could already see how the next few minutes out.
The best timeline ever. I let myself drift off.
Chapter Forty
ALTAIR
Quanta’s lids fluttered shut. I stroked her arm. She was all right.
Really all right. I leaned against the bed’s headboard in relief. Now that I’d talked to her, I could finally believe it.
“What happened?” Devan leaned over the bed.
“She took down Doctor Nagi.” I was still processing the fact that he was gone. That we’d succeeded.
“He’s dead?” Cipher’s voice spiked.
“Extremely dead.” Benj waved his guys to the back of the ship as he strode to shake Dex’s hand. I finally looked up from Quanta long enough to see the inside, although there wasn’t much to see. Seats and safety harnesses pulled down from the walls, and the metal floor was bare. I’d already anchored Quanta’s bed to the wall in back.
“Buckle in.” Knight glanced back from the pilot’s seat. “I’m making this a fast trip.”
Everyone hurried to pull down seats. There weren’t enough spaces for everyone, so four of Benj’s men stayed standing, grabbing onto the ship’s frame.
“I contacted the facility.” I raised my voice so Knight could hear up front. “The Seligo should be prepping the prisoners for transport.”
Devan snapped her harness buckled. “They’d better be.”
Anxious to get to Cass, I leaned down, peering through the front window. The faintest shimmer of Devan’s power hung in the air as she cloaked the ship.
I tapped my boot against the floor as Knight wove us through the skyscrapers. I wasn’t the only one fidgeting.
Finally, we reached the prisoners’ building. Adrenaline spiked as Knight lowered the ship to the landing pad.
“Who’s going out?” Devan asked.
“Dex and I?” I glanced at Dex, who nodded. “Can you use our Black Helix disguises?” We’d look official and keep our faces off cams when the Seligo inevitably tried to track us.
“Yeah.” Devan’s forehead crinkled and the air shimmered. Dex disappeared, replaced by a dark-haired man in body armor. My hands looked like Pasha’s again.
“We’ll signal for backup. You ready?” Dex grabbed the door handle.
“More than.” I’d been ready for three da
ys. Now I was almost jumping out of my skin with the need to reach Cass.
Nodding, Dex swung open the door.
The two of us jumped down to the roof. A guard stood posted at set of heavy doors. My heart pounded as we crossed to him.
“Prisoner transport,” I said, raising my voice over the roar of the ship’s engine.
The guard nodded. “They’re on the way up. Two stretchers coming.”
My gut clenched. Not bodies. Injuries.
Kiri and Aliya? They’d been captive so long…
The door opened. The guard stepped aside.
I craned my neck before I could help it, trying to get a glimpse of who was on the way. Oliver was pushed out first. He had a split lip and bruises, his hands zip-tied behind him. Two guards half dragged him, but he bucked against them, trying to break free.
One of the Black Helixes elbowed him in the ribs. “Might want to tranq this bastard.”
“Big mean-looking asshole, isn’t he?” Dex grabbed Oliver’s arm.
Oliver jerked at the sound of Dex’s voice. His bruised jaw dropped open.
“Let’s go, buddy.” Dex tugged him toward the ship.
The stretchers rolled out next. Aliya looked sedated, hooked up to wires. Kiri gazed up at the sky, wide-eyed with fear. But alive. Devan would comfort them soon.
“You can load them onto the ship,” I said. Devan wouldn’t let the guards see anything they weren’t supposed to.
But where was Cass? Mona?
“We’re supposed to transport five.” Panic made the words come too fast. If Cass didn’t come out soon, I’d go in after her.
“Two more on the way.” The guard leaned around the doorframe to look down the hall. “Here they come.”
Mona stumbled out first. Then Cass. A guard shoved her onto the roof. With hands zip-tied, she couldn’t balance.
I grabbed her before she could fall. “Easy.”
Her curls were matted and her face too thin. Bruises dotted her arms. I swallowed a wave of pure hate. “Who—” I choked off the question in time. I shouldn’t be asking. I’d blow our cover. “This way.”
Dex had circled back to lead Mona to the ship, so I followed them, gripping Cassie’s arm. She pulled against me.
“You’re safe now.”
“Screw you.” She tugged harder, throwing her shoulder into it.
“Cass. Cass.” I had to tighten my grip to keep her from bolting. “It’s me.”
“I’m. Not. Going. With. You.”
She wasn’t hearing my voice. Now we were so close to the ship that the engine would drown me out. Sorry, Cass. I passed her off to two of Benj’s guys who lifted her up.
“Lock it up!” Knight called from the cockpit. “We’re out!”
“Cass.” I pulled her into a hug.
“Get. Off.” She shoved me again.
Right. I still wasn’t myself. “Devan? The illusion?” Devan slumped over Kiri’s stretcher as Benj’s guys worked to untie Kiri’s hands. She didn’t glance my way, but she must’ve heard.
The air shimmered.
I stepped to my sister again. “It’s me.”
Cass stilled. Her gaze flickered across my face and she started to shake. “Tair?”
I hugged her again. This time, she squeezed me tight, gripping my shirt so hard the fabric pulled.
“I thought…” She let out a ragged breath.
“Are you okay?”
“I don’t know.” Her curls hit me in the face as she shook her head.
I tried not to crush her in my arms. “You’re out. I won’t let them hurt you again.” All I could do was hold her and hope she heard the truth in my voice. I wouldn’t let this happen again. Ever.
“How are you here?” She asked.
“It’s complicated.” And I didn’t want to overload her yet. “Buckle in. We have a long ride.”
“To…?”
“Somewhere far away.” Except, I realized I hadn’t sent Knight the coordinates in all the hurry. I eased Cass into the seat closest to Quanta and helped her buckle.
“Is Quanta okay?” Cass asked, leaning toward the stretcher.
“Hurt, but it could’ve been worse.” For both of them. Finally, they were safe. Now I have to keep them that way. I patted my sister’s arm. “Give me a minute, and I’ll explain everything.”
“Okay.” She lifted her knees onto her chair and hugged them tight to her chest.
Between Benj’s men and our new additions, there was no room to spare in the hold. I slipped between the groups, heading for the cockpit.
Mona and Cipher hugged and cried. Dex was busy sawing the zip ties off Oliver’s hands. Devan held Kiri while she sobbed, both of them leaning against Aliya’s bed.
We’d made it out, but not unscathed.
We still had a little farther to go.
Chapter Forty-One
QUANTA
This time, I woke up warm. So deliciously toasty warm.
I lay in a cushy bed, covered to my chin with a thick blanket. Tair lay against me, lending his body heat. He’d taken off his glasses and dozed.
Not wanting to wake him, I wiggled out of the blanket enough to scope out the room. Our huge bed faced a bank of floor-to-ceiling windows. Outside, fat snowflakes fell on an army of pine trees. A holograph?
Tair stirred before I could decide what I was looking at. “How do you feel?”
“Good.” Talking was a huge improvement, and my chest didn’t sting a bit. I felt like I’d slept for weeks, but I still wanted to stay in bed being lazy with Tair in the snuggly blankets. So even better than good. “Great, actually.”
Tair pulled me into his arms. “You scared me.”
“I scared myself.” I’d have to let someone else assassinate whoever took over Doctor Nagi’s place in the senate. I was done with the running and killing for a long, long time. “Where are we?”
“Greenland. One of Doctor Nagi’s secret estates.”
Huh. Hadn’t seen that one coming. “And everyone else?”
“Benj and his squad are helping Roboloco move their headquarters again,” Tair said as he smoothed my hair. “Everyone else is here for now. We found a few more secret facilities in Doctor Nagi’s files, and one looks big enough to house a new Shadow Ravens compound. Everyone will probably head there soon, but they’ve been waiting for you to wake up.”
Timeghosts spilled over me, showing what might be in store.
Nagi was gone, but his system he’d built wouldn’t change overnight, even if the Seligo couldn’t make new immortals now. There were more battles ahead. More fights and risks for Cipher, Devan, and Cass and all the others.
But for Tair and me?
Tair frowns over a chess board, both of us sitting with blankets next to a roaring fire; I kick my feet on a sofa, reading a book while Tair clatters dishes in the kitchen; Tair and I snuggle together, watching a movie on a gigantic screen.
Heaven was the only way to describe it. We could call Eva if and when we wanted to get back into the fight, but the near future stretched in a looooong string of lazy days. “Can we stay here forever?”
Tair kissed my forehead. “Won’t you get bored?”
Probably eventually. I knew I’d see something dangerous in the future. One of the girls would need my help. But until then? “How about I get breakfast?”
“Are you feeling up to food?”
“Depends.” Cautious, I peeked up at him. “Do you mean food or food packets?” Because those were not at all the same.
“Food. Knight’s been doing most of the cooking.”
“I’d kill for an omelet.”
“Then let’s go. Do you want to change first?”
I lifted up the blanket to see what I was wearing. A T-shirt and baggy sweatpants. It was already the best outfit I could imagine. “I’m good.” Mostly. The most annoying leftover of our mission was the Black Helix that still marked my arm. It needed to be lasered off as soon as possible, but there was no way to fix it now. I just
hoped Teddy did house calls with the tattoo machine.
Slipping out of bed, the chill in the air hit me hard. I grabbed the blanket and wrapped it around my shoulders before padding over to the windows. Nagi’s villa looked out on an endless wintry forest. Not one footprint broke the snow. It was blissfully quiet.
So was my head. Going by the lack of timeghosts, Nagi—let alone anyone else—had never visited this place. Better and better.
Tair held my hand, steering me out of the bedroom. The hallway was wide and carpeted. A few landscape drawings hung on the walls.
The closest frame held a charcoal sketch of a mountain range, with a lake in the foreground. I froze.
I recognized the picture. It was one of my old drawings.
Tair kept me moving when I would’ve rooted myself to stare. “There are a few of your sketches around.”
I shivered. So weird. I didn’t know why Nagi had them. A few timeghosts bubbled up, eager to answer, but I slammed my mental walls into place. I didn’t want to know. And it didn’t matter.
Nagi was dead. “Let’s take those down later.”
I didn’t need the memories.
The hallway led to a sprawling great room with wood beams on the ceiling, more huge windows, and a roaring fireplace made of boulders. Devan, Kiri, and Aliya sat on squishy leather chairs in front of the fire. Cipher, Dex, Mona, and Oliver were parked on barstools in the kitchen half of the room, while Knight worked over the stove. Cass lay stomach-down on the sofa, kicking her feet as she tapped on her tablet.
I let out the biggest breath of my life. Everyone was here and alive and actually smiling.
“Q!” Dex noticed me first. “Welcome back to the world of the living.”
“Thanks?” I stepped down into the sunken-in room.
Cass sat up and patted the sofa next to her. “Should you be walking around?”
“Well, the food’s here, so…” I eased down onto the leather. I had my priorities.
Knight laughed from the kitchen. “What are you in the mood for? Spaghetti rings?”
“Ugh.” Cipher tossed a dishtowel at him. “Why bring those up?”
