Warwick growled. We stared each other down. I would not relent.
“Az istenit!” Warwick dug his hands in his hair, frustration bellowing from him, swinging around for the cages. I was right by his side, searching for a way to break into them. “There are no fucking keys, Kovacs. How the hell are we supposed to get them out before the guards shoot us down?” He motioned back down the tunnel, filled with the sounds of yells and boots hitting the ground. Every second was counting down to our last.
Did I just hang the noose around our necks? Was my need to help them only ending our lives and saving none?
“Don’t happen to have a spare brownie and imp on you?” He shook the bars, trying to find the hinge’s weak spot.
Damn! Opie and Bitzy would be very handy right now. I missed them so much.
“No, but you have me.” I pinched the rod I picked between my fingers, going down on my knees to work the lock, the kids gathering close, their faces hopeful and pleading. From my years of being a thief, breaking locks was second nature. I just hoped these weren’t spell-locked or goblin made.
“Fucking hell, woman.” Warwick shook his head with a grunt. “You really want to challenge death, don’t you?” Whirling around as guards closed in, Warwick roared, bulldozing straight for the first string of officers in the tunnel. In the tight corridors, they couldn’t spread out, allowing him to slip right up.
Gunshots fired, then bellows and the sound of flesh being hit.
Biting my lip, I fought back the urge to look behind me, keeping my concentration on the lock, not wanting to waste even a second Warwick was trying to give me.
The thud of a body hit the ground next to my leg, an HDF uniform patch in my peripheral. A large hand swiped down and grabbed the gun from the victim, shooting down others of his troop.
Brexley, focus! Adrenaline discharged, my arms were quaking as I worked the lock, the kids cheering and screaming on Warwick and me as the fight continued behind me.
At any moment, Warwick could be killed.
At any moment, I could be shot in the head.
And I had no magic to help us. The link to give him strength was dead. The power in my DNA was in hibernation.
The pipe slipped from my sweaty hands, clanking on the floor, pushing up my fear and speeding my heart rate.
“Hurry the fuck up, Kovacs!” Warwick’s voice strained as he kicked another guard to the ground.
A whimper came out of my mouth, and I tightened my grip on the weapon. It was too big, the point not slipping into the lock. It wasn’t going to work.
Fuckfuckfuck.
My eyes lifted to a little boy standing before me. His bottom lip trembled, his eyes wide, pleading with me to not give up. To not leave them here.
“A kurva életbe!” Fucking hell! I stood up, desperation and rage exploding through me. I lifted my arms, and with all my might, dropped the spear like an ax.
Clang!
The metal vibrated, squealed, and pierced the air as I struck it again and again. My anger took over. There had been so much loss. So much death. So much pain.
All I wanted to do was save these kids from any more of it.
Grunts, yells, gunshots, and bones crunching mixed in with the piercing bangs of metal, like a song of agony. Of heartache and pain, a melody for the words we could not express.
If I died here, at least I went out trying to save them.
I drove the pipe into the lock resembling a madwoman, shrieking with effort, epinephrine roaring through my muscles.
Clank!
The lock snapped, and I stood for a second in shock as the door fell open.
Holy shit.
I reacted in the next breath, flinging open the gate, motioning the kids to move. “Go! Go! Go!”
The oldest boy and girl took control, moving the children to the doorway like a gaggle of baby geese.
Not hesitating, I grabbed two guns off the ground from fallen officers, shooting at anything around Warwick, their bodies dropping to the ground at his feet.
He twisted his head, his gaze catching mine, blood gushing down his nose and mouth. His eyes lit up in flames of violence and carnal hunger, sending shivers through me. Lust.
Fuck that man.
“Come on!” I belted, forcing myself to not rip his clothes off right there. Heading to the door, I wanted to be the front line to what we might come against once we reached the top.
Warwick shot four more guards before darting after us, taking up the rear. The pounding of all our feet going up the skinny stairway matched my pulse as we made our way to the next level.
Pushing through the door, I peered out. No guards yet, but I could hear them coming for us, their yells telling me they were very close.
“Hurry!” I pulled the door open wide, motioning for the kids to head down the tunnel. Only a few got out before a group of officers came around the corner.
“Run!” I ordered them as I fired at HDF, forcing the soldiers to duck behind the wall.
The children filed out, the older ones holding toddlers on their hips or backs, getting the group down the long dim tunnel.
Warwick came up the stairs, barking at me. “Go! I’ll hold them off.”
“We do this together, Farkas.” I shot at a few HDF sticking their heads around, trying to shoot us. “Always.”
He peered at me for a moment, his jaw moving as if he wanted to speak, but he clamped back down, his head dipping in agreement.
We worked as a team. Equals. Whatever lay ahead, we went in together, and we came out together.
Or we didn’t at all.
In sync, we both trotted backward, firing at anything that moved, until we got deep enough in the tunnel they started to venture out, coming for us.
“Run.” Warwick roared, whipping around and taking off. Our legs pumped together while shells struck the ground and walls near us, our forms zig-zagging to stay out of the line of fire.
“Shit!” Warwick hissed under his breath while his attention locked ahead. Squinting, I realized what he was looking at. A gate blocked off the tunnel ahead. A checkpoint. But of course, it wasn’t the worst thing.
There were guards stationed there, and all five officers had the kids at gunpoint. Soldiers were coming from behind, and a blockade was in front.
Ó, hogy baszd meg egy talicska apró majom! Oh, may a wheelbarrow of small monkeys fuck it.
We were screwed.
“Remember when we had to cross the bridge when I took you from Killian’s?” Warwick peered sideways at me.
“You mean the one we got shot and almost died on?
“But we didn’t.” His voice was low and growly. “I’m not going back, Kovacs. Just like that day. It’s forward or nothing.”
Inhaling, I nodded my head. “You know this is suicide, right?”
A cheeky grin hitched the side of his mouth.
“Only way we seem to like it.”
There was no turning back. Death was a possibility this way, but if we went back, it was a certainty.
“Stay back, or I will shoot.” A guard jabbed his gun into the temple of the oldest girl, with a toddler on her hip. “It will be your fault these kids die.”
A low, vicious snarl rose from Warwick, crashing goosebumps down my flesh. The Wolf, the Legend who thrived off killing, who could murder someone with one hand, inched closer to the soldiers.
The calls from the ones behind were creeping up fast. We only had moments before they would catch us, and the game would be over. This was our only chance.
We needed a distraction.
In a blink, my hand lifted, pointing to the guard on the end, and fired. Right between the eyes. His frame jolted before it crumbled to the floor, before he had time to realize he was dead.
Screams erupted from the kids, and the guards stood shell-shocked for a moment—it was enough.
Warwick and I pounced.
Slipping in, I knocked the arm holding the gun to the girl’s head, before elbowing his face. He stumbled back with a cry while I whirled around, discharging my gun into the man sneaking up behind me.
Blood sprayed over my face, his frame hitting the ground. My lashes dripping with blood, I peered over at Warwick. The two he’d been fighting were already on the ground.
Feeling my eyes on him, he turned with a wicked half-grin.
“Keys?” I turned away, needing to focus on getting out of here. “Check the guards.”
The kids started to pat down each one with precision, going through pockets and taking everything they could find. Scavengers. Shown at a young age how to live in the Savage Lands.
Bang! Bang! Gunshots rang out behind us.
A little boy screamed next to me, his body tumbling to the pavement, curling into a ball, his hand gripping the hole in his stomach.
“Petr!” another boy cried out his name, scrambling to him.
My head bolted up to see dozens of HDF jogging toward us, guns raised, ready to assassinate us all.
“Keep looking for the gate keys,” I ordered the younger ones, tossing guns from the dead guards to the older kids. “Just shoot at them! Don’t stop!”