by Amy Braun
The man dropped into a heap, bleeding out from a mortal wound. Davin watched him curiously, then turned to me. He feigned confusion while his eyes sparkled with bloodlust.
“Sorry, brother. Did you know him?”
Anger surged through me. I jumped at the noise of the Vesper as he clawed at the door Claire was trapped behind. Metal screeched as he ripped chunks of it away and discarded them onto the floor. He would tear it down in seconds, and she would have nowhere to run.
But she wouldn’t have gone in there without a reason. Claire wasn’t a coward.
What are you planning, Firecracker?
“Well,” Davin said, grabbing my attention again. “Seems like I’m going to have to rush this.” He turned his sword on my friends. “Originally, I was going to kill them all one by one and let the Hellions have the scraps. But now I have to be generous. I’ll just kill the people you care about most, which are…” He waved the sword from Nash to Gemma. The tip of the blade was half an inch from their faces. “You two, I believe.”
My best friends went rigid, refusing to show the fear they had to be feeling. Not just for themselves, but for each other.
I got to my feet, trying to ignore the rampant pounding and groaning metal of the door the Vesper was tearing down. I focused on the monster confronting my friends.
“You’re not going to touch them, Davin,” I warned.
My brother laughed. “Not with my fists, no. But it is tempting. Instead, I’ll just have to go with the mostly quick, somewhat clean, sword through the face. After all, once the Vesper breaks your little blonde bitch out of her room, I’ll have another show for you–”
I stepped forward and snapped a kick into his stomach, knocking him away from Gemma and Nash. He grunted and backed into the Hellions. His red eyes fixed on me with murderous intent. I pulled my cutlass from its scabbard on my belt.
“You never knew when to shut up,” I growled.
Davin hissed, then bellowed an order at the other Hellions. They charged my friends, who hadn’t been prepared. I didn’t have time to worry about them before Davin launched himself at me.
I gripped the cutlass in both hands and blocked his overhand strike. My arms buckled under the weight of the hit. He pushed down, trying to drive my own sword into my skull. I set my jaw and pushed back. Davin took full advantage and punched me hard in the stomach.
Air exploded out of my lungs, the pain of the hit doubling me over. My grip on the sword lessened. I felt my arms buckle, and the slice of a blade across the top of my shoulder. Dangerously close to my neck. I turned my head away to spare myself from a mortal injury. My arms couldn’t hold the awkward angle as Davin pressed further. Gathering more strength, I pushed up and shoved both our swords away.
I only managed it because Davin wanted to punch me again.
His fist slammed into my face. Stars burst behind my eyes and I staggered back. My vision had just started to clear when I saw a flash of silver steel. I raised my cutlass and blocked another swing at my neck, sidestepping. Davin kicked me in the kidneys. I hunched over, grimacing at the pain. Davin whirled his sword around and slashed at my face. I brought my cutlass in front of me and blocked the attack. He drove his knee into my back.
I heard him laugh. “You’re hilarious, brother,” he taunted. “Moving just like a ragdoll.”
I growled and swung my arm wide, aiming for his endlessly chattering mouth. Davin leaned back, missing the cut by a hair. He didn’t stop smiling.
Twisting to face him, I changed to a one-handed grip and hacked as quickly as I could. I admit that I didn’t have much of a plan. I just wanted to make Davin bleed. To inflict pain on him the way he had so many others. Especially the pain he inflicted on the people I loved.
Davin’s face changed. He wasn’t amused anymore. He was actually starting to look worried. I didn’t have the upper hand yet, but it was clear I refused to go down easily.
Our blades locked, hilt to hilt. We were inches away from each other, growling like the Hellions behind us. I could barely hear the fight past the blood, anger, and adrenaline raging through my body. I kicked Davin’s knee, causing him to stumble. I risked grabbing one of his hands and twisting it off the blade. I pulled the swords away and smashed my forehead into his. I barely felt the pain in my own head. I drove my knee into his stomach then pulled back. I wrenched the sword from his grip and spun a wide roundhouse kick into his cheekbone. I felt it break under my heel.
Davin landed on the ground, spitting blood. I threw his sword away and stalked toward him. He rolled onto his back, and I pinned him in place with my foot. I raised the sword, aiming it directly at his throat.
I prepared to kill my brother.
One quick second, and it would all be over. He would never torment my friends or me again. He would never touch Claire. The world would be a safer, better place without his filth staining it.
All I had to do was lower the blade into his throat. Davin’s throat.
My brother’s throat.
Why couldn’t I move?
Davin jerked underneath me. He was laughing.
“If it were anyone else, I wouldn’t believe it,” he sneered. “You have me pinned down, literally, and you can’t kill me.” His bloody eyes pierced mine. “Even as I am now, even though you hate me, you still see a big brother. That’s so precious.”
Davin’s claws stabbed into my leg and twisted, shredding skin and muscle. He grabbed my ankle and jerked me off my feet. I hit the ground hard, losing my grip on the cutlass and blacking out for a second when my head smacked the cold black floor.
When I came to, Davin’s hands were around my throat and squeezing tight. His claws punctured my skin like needles, digging deeper as he crushed my windpipe.
“And it’s weak,” he continued.
One of his hands released my neck. It balled into a fist that crashed into my face.
“You always were weak, Sawyer.”
Another punch split open the skin of my right cheek.
“Always wanting to see the best of the worst.”
The next punch ripped a cut in my left eyebrow.
“I remember how you looked at Father. You stood on the sidelines, watching the big, strong men, daydreaming that you’d be one of us one day.”
Two more punches hammered into me. I couldn’t see straight. Could barely think. I needed the sword. Something to fight back with. But all my fingers could feel was slick, icy rock.
“But you’re not one of us. You never were. You wasted your chances on glory and power because you wanted to be better than us. You thought you could be strong without hurting anyone. I’ve never heard of anything so stupid.”
His fists crashed into me. Each one sent an explosion of pain through my head. I tasted copper, felt blood slide across my face in trails. My fingers brushed something. It wasn’t the cold floor.
Davin’s hand stopped its beating and circled my throat again. He started wringing my neck. My heart kicked into panic. My lungs began to burn, frantically searching for air.
“I wanted you to watch your little engineer suffer,” Davin taunted. “I was going to take her like a bitch in heat in front of you. But you got in some good shots when I wanted to be spotless. Doesn’t make me look very good. So you can die knowing that everything I planned to do to you, I’m going to do to her.” He smiled a bloody smile. “And that won’t be spotless.”
His fingers tightened around my throat. Sharp claws prodded deeper into my skin. Two claws pricked the hard bone of my trachea. I didn’t know if he was going to choke me to death, break my neck, or rip my throat out.
But I knew I was dying.
My fingers flailed uselessly, brushing against the edge of a weapon. I flicked it a little closer–
Grey clouds fogged the sides of my vision. I couldn’t recall what air tasted like. My lungs were on fire. I was dizzy. The world was fading away from me.
My fingers closed around the weapon. A sword hilt. I clutched it firm. Using a
ll the strength I had, I raised the sword and shoved it at my brother’s neck. The blade plunged in, making his eyes bulge with shock. His hands jolted away from my throat, grabbing at the blade. He sliced his hands to ribbons as he tried to pull it free.
Feeling sick to my stomach, I pushed the sword in deeper, until it was all the way out the other side of his throat. Davin stopped moving.
I twisted and pushed him to the left, rolling with him. The cut on my chest burned as I turned my body. Even that little movement sent a wash of vertigo through my skull. I finally sucked in ragged breaths, gagging and choking in air that tasted like blood in my mouth. I put my hands on my neck, feeling the dozens of scratches and cuts he’d left on my throat. None of them was deep enough to kill me, but every single one hurt.
On my hands and knees, I slowly turned my head to where my dead brother lay. His red eyes were open and glassy, still holding their shocked expression. I stared at him, wondering if he was pretending. But my heart knew the truth. He was dead.
Blood streaked down from my battered face, a red tear lining my fractured cheek.
“I’m sorry.”
I’m sorry you let it come to this.
A thunderous crack echoed through the foyer. I jumped and staggered to my feet, nearly collapsing again from the pain battering my head. I turned in its direction.
The Vesper had broken open the door.
“Claire,” I breathed.
Fighting the pounding in my head, I scanned the ground for weapons. I grabbed my own sword, since Davin’s was still lodged in his neck. My eyes continued scouring for my pistol. I found it near the elevator we’d entered in.
My eyes went to the group who’d been brave enough to come with me.
All four Hellions were dead. So were three more of my crew. One man with a blood-splattered face stared at the corpses of his friends, his eyes wracked with grief. Nash and Gemma were huddled together. An ugly gash was open on Gemma’s cheek. Blood poured from the shredded skin on Nash’s left arm. They looked pale and scared, but they were alive.
Their eyes locked on mine, saw how bad my wounds were, then flicked to the open door.
I turned, at the same moment an explosion of blue electricity burst from the room.
My heart stopped when I heard the scream.
When my pulse started again, I was running for the door. Daggers of pain shot through my left leg whenever I put pressure on it and my head felt like it was going to explode, but I didn’t care. I had to get to Claire, needed to get her out of there, before the Vesper–
A small form darted out of the door, whipping around to look at the chaotic lightning pulsing through the room.
She turned around again, and nearly slammed into me.
I gripped the sides of her face, looking at her. A bruise was on her temple. Ash lined her face. Her eyes were wide and red. I almost died from the relief of seeing her.
Claire looked at me with horror, but she quickly composed herself. She grabbed my hand and dragged me toward the elevator.
“We don’t have a lot of time,” she said. “The Vesper is caught in the Palisade’s electricity, but it’s not enough to stop him.” He voice softened. “I have something else that needs to be done.”
I saw the worry in her eyes. I squeezed her hand as we reached the elevator. “We.” Claire’s gorgeous green eyes locked on me. “We have something else to do.”
She hesitated, as if she wanted to argue that she had to do it alone. I refused to let go of her hand. I wasn’t going to abandon her to certain death. Not now. Never again.
Claire’s eyes glistened as she read my face. She swallowed her argument and nodded. She hurried to Nash and Gemma, hugging them quickly and fiercely. My chest tightened, a different kind of pain than what I felt when Davin was strangling me.
Controlling my emotions, I helped Nash, Gemma, and the lone Sky Guard drag the bodies of our fallen crew into the elevator. After all the horrors they’d suffered, we couldn’t leave them in this wretched place.
Once we were inside with the doors closed, Claire punched two buttons on the elevator. She stood close to me, her body tenser than I’d ever seen it. We looked at each other.
I saw the pain in her eyes. The regret.
She saw it in mine.
“What happens now?” Nash asked as the elevator began to descend.
“I have a Volt planted in their main power source,” said Claire. “We’re going to lead the Vesper down there so I can set it off.”
“You think he’s still alive after that?” Gemma questioned, pointing to the floor above us.
Claire’s hand tightened around mine. “He’s alive. I know he is.”
No one argued with her.
We came to the first stop.
“Get the bodies to the Dauntless,” I commanded my three crewmates. The Sky Guard opened the elevator door.
“That’s harsh,” Gemma teased, working with Nash to step outside and take the first body out. I stood by the folding door. “Giving the Sky Guard all those bodies to carry alone.”
The Guard glanced at her, glaring at her smirk. Nash tried to hide his smile.
My heart plummeted.
When my friends and the last of our fallen were outside the elevator, I said, “He’s not going to be alone.”
Nash and Gemma froze and looked up at me. Realization filled their faces. By the time they moved, I’d already closed the door.
“No,” Nash shouted. “Sawyer, Claire, what are you doing?”
“Open the damn door,” Gemma screamed, tears filling her eyes.
Claire shook her head, leaning close to me. “You won’t survive the blast radius. They took the transmitter I made.” she said. Her voice sounded so small that it broke my heart.
“Take the bodies back, then get a safe distance away. Don’t go anywhere until you see the explosion.”
Nash slammed his hands against the door. He grabbed the bars and shook them, wanting to rip them off with his bare hands. “Damn it, Sawyer, open the fucking door!”
“I gave you an order,” I shouted back. “You’re damn well going to follow it. The Dauntless is yours until I say otherwise.”
“I don’t want it!”
“Nash,” whispered Claire. “You would do the same thing if you and Gemma were in our position.”
His anger dissolved at that, because it was true. If Gemma and Nash had the chance to save Claire and me then die together, they would take it. True friends and true loves, through and through.
I held Claire’s hand, never intending to let it go.
“Please,” begged Nash. Tears formed on his eyelids. “Please, please don’t do this. Don’t make it all for nothing.”
I smiled at him. “It won’t be. Not if you and Gemma live.”
Gemma burst into tears. She dropped onto the floor and gave into her grief. Nash stood frozen, unable to accept that he’d lost this battle. But knowing he had.
