Adele was so intent upon him, that she almost missed the movement at the corner of her eye.
The nearest metaljacket turned and lifted its arm cannon, the round end locking directly upon her. Adele froze. Her husband had assured her the two metaljackets in the room were defunct and purely there to lull the Rising Sons into a false sense of security. He'd had Jack check the chips in their heads himself.
"Malloryn?" she called.
He glanced across the throne room at her, seeing the threat immediately.
"Protect the queen!" Malloryn bellowed, and then he was sprinting directly toward her.
Heat flared to life deep in the heart of the spitfire's cannon. Adele stood mesmerized, her heartbeat ticking out the seconds as the press of her corset strained against her agitated ribs.
And then fire bloomed, a gush of it spewing directly toward her.
Malloryn drove into her like a freight train, and she slammed into the marble tiles as fire gushed overhead. It licked against the tapestries behind the throne, curling up the walls as the metaljacket maneuvered slowly, trying to find its target with its sensors.
"Stay down!" Malloryn said, lifting his head to see what was going on. "Byrnes! Charlie!"
Both of the enormous, ceremonial metaljackets lumbered forward, iron-plated boots striking the marble. These were the Firebird models, and virtually unstoppable without water cannons or arm cannons.
Adele screamed as the fire bloomed again, spraying over the top of her and Malloryn. Heat blistered her skin, but Malloryn shoved his body over the top of her and grunted as the stink of burning wool filled the air.
His weight suddenly shifted as he tore his coat off, tossing it aside before pushing her in the back. "Move!"
Adele scrambled toward the throne, peering out from behind it. "What's wrong with them?"
"I don't know!" he yelled back. "Someone must have tampered with them."
"But Jack checked them!"
Everything was happening all at once.
Malloryn drew his pistol, crouching by her side as he surveyed affairs.
Byrnes tried to kick one of the metaljackets behind its knee joint, before it swung its massive fist at him. Ingrid drove her knife between the fine gap of its chest plate, cursing under her breath as the blade stuck.
"Get clear!" Byrnes yelled, wrenching her out of the way as fire bloomed from its flamethrower.
"This big bastard is mine!" Charlie yelled, sprinting toward the other automaton.
He slid to his knees beneath a gush of fire as it turned on him, and rolled a handful of golden orbs toward the metaljacket. The orbs quivered as they changed course, rolling toward its steel boots as if magnetized.
Each orb split in two, little spindly legs erupting in an insect-like fashion as the orb rearranged itself into a carapace. Tiny golden spiders. And then they were crawling up the metaljacket's boots, sparks erupting between their pincers as they found the connecting wires in the knee joint.
The metaljacket's glass eyes flashed a warning as sparks spat out of its joints. And then it was sinking slowly to its knees and landing on its metal face with a clatter.
There was nothing she could do except stay out of the way.
"Stay here," Malloryn demanded. "Lark!"
The young woman backed away from the fight, knives held at the ready. "Last line of defense," she repeated, as if they'd had this conversation several times already.
Malloryn grabbed a stunner that one of the Nighthawks tossed toward him. The long poles had thin metal loops on the ends of them that could be electrified with a push of the button. He swung it at the last metaljacket, hooking the loop around its steel-plated head. The monstrous metal beast jerked and spasmed as current arced through it.
The second he released the trigger, Byrnes launched a flying kick at its face, metal crunching around his boot as the steaming hulk slowly toppled with the clatter.
Both metaljackets were down.
"Nice work, Your Grace," Byrnes said, breathing hard.
Ingrid yanked her knife out of the breastplate, leaning all her weight on the metaljacket to do so. "How did Jack miss it?"
"This might be the problem," Charlie called, having rolled one of them over. He yanked a small, magnetized device off the back of the metaljacket's head. "It looks like some sort of frequency-altering device that must have overridden the control chip. I can pull it apart later when we get a chance, but I daresay it's the cause."
Adele eased her way out from behind the throne. "Now what?"
"Evacuate Adele," Malloryn said to both women.
"We don't know which parts of the tower have been compromised," Lark replied. "The tunnels might be nothing more than rubble by now."
"Then go to Plan B. There's a bloody reason I approved the funding for that damned dirigible. It wasn't so the Nighthawks could take scenic flights in it."
Ingrid glanced at her. "Care for a flight, Your Grace?"
"Go with Lark and Ingrid," he told her, a smear of soot across his cheek.
"What about you?" she demanded.
The line of his jaw tensed. "I have to finish this, Adele. I have to make sure he dies this time."
"The entire tower's on fire! He's called your bluff."
As if to punctuate her words, something else exploded.
"He's here somewhere, I know he is—"
"Please," she whispered. "Please come with us. Come with me...."
Malloryn turned his face away from her touch. "I can't." Capturing her hand, he pressed it to his lips, his eyes raw with unspoken words. "I'll see you at home."
Then he turned, heading into the smoke.
Adele stared after him, her heart in her throat, aware of all the eyes watching them.
Just before he was about to vanish, he paused.
And then he was striding back toward her. Capturing her face in his hands, he pressed his lips to hers. Adele wrapped her arms around his neck, clinging to him as he kissed her, long and slow and deep. She didn't want this moment to end, for the second it did, he'd walk away from her again, she knew it.
This was goodbye.