I didn’t pause to hear how she stopped them; I picked up my pace.
My muscles were screaming with fatigue, and my lungs felt ready to burst. No matter how light the person, no matter how you went about it, carrying a body for a prolonged period was simply an untenable position. Misery washed over me in waves, adding to my burden. Evidently the game was up: Father knew I was working against him, and soon everyone else would as well. And not only did I have to get Qole out, I then had to do everything in my power to get Arjan back to her. There would be severe consequences. My life was about to drastically change.
But I had to make a stand. They had to see how wrong their actions were. My family couldn’t be so blind. Even Solara had proved she wasn’t, and I couldn’t bring myself to believe everyone else I had trusted would be hell-bent on ruining the life of the woman I…
It was right there, in that dim service corridor, in the dead hours of the morning, that I finally admitted it. I was too exhausted to carry any pretenses with myself any longer. Qole was more than a responsibility, and if she was just a friend, well…hers was the most profound friendship I had ever experienced, and I wanted it to be something even deeper. Something more.
And now I would have to send her away. Not only that, I was sending her without her brother, because there was absolutely no way, once the Kaitan was off with Qole, that they’d be able to come back to get Arjan. There was only the tiniest of chances I’d be able to get him out myself. Would she ever forgive me?
I pushed it out of my mind. Just get her there, Nev. One foot. Another foot. That’s all it takes.
That was when I heard other footsteps ahead of me. I froze. Solara must not have succeeded in fooling everyone, because this was the last place I had expected to see another search party.
My comm beeped at almost exactly the same moment, but Telu would have to wait.
Seven guards, all of them armed, rounded the corner and stared at me. I stared back at them.
And then I bobbed my head. “I’ll be right with you, but could you wait for a moment while I duck into this door here?”
They blinked at me in confusion, and I took the opportunity to do just that.
It was an empty banquet room, one that had been used to host parties just off the Atrium before it had fallen out of vogue. Rather than use the Disruption Blade, I locked the door with a swipe of my finger over the biometric scanner. They could override it, but it would take them a few minutes to get in touch with the right people.
I looked around wildly, perhaps with the hope that I would spot some sort of plan.
Qole opened her eyes. They were groggy, but they were open. In spite of everything, relief surged through me.
“Nev…where are we?”
“In a bad spot. Hold on.” I set her as gently and quickly as possible on the floor. I touched my comm. “Telu.”
“Why aren’t you there yet and why haven’t you answered?” Telu nearly shouted. “Basra is freaking out and says that Arjan is in serious trouble—”
“Listen, Telu,” I interrupted, taking a ragged breath. “I don’t think I’m going to make it. Qole is in a room not far from the Atrium, and we’re trapped. I can draw them off. I’ll give her my comm so you can send Eton for her, and I’ll make sure that—”
The door exploded into the room, reminding me that one didn’t always need an override to gain an entrance.
Guards began to pour in, some armed with photon rifles, some with stun batons. They formed a semicircle around me, weapons brandished.
“I’ll call you back,” I told Telu. “I have a party.” I clicked the comm off and straightened to my full height.
“My prince,” one of them began. “You are not yourself. Please come with us for your own safety and protection. The Alaxan is dangerous—she has murdered several guards.”
What am I supposed to do? I screamed at myself. Fight them? There were too many to knock out. Kill them, then? My own men?
They hadn’t asked a question, so I didn’t give a response. I didn’t have an answer for myself either. All I knew was that they weren’t going to take Qole. Maybe, just maybe, I could keep them busy long enough for her to come to her senses and escape on her own. I settled into a defensive position and reached for my Disruption Blades.
As soon as they recognized my stance, the guards broke formation and ran at me, electricity crackling up and down their batons.
That was the precise moment the wall opposite the door exploded.
One second, it had been behind us, as solid as could be. The next, it was a gaping hole, revealing the breathtaking mountains outside and, impossibly, the Kaitan listing like a drunken insect. However Telu was piloting it, it wasn’t very well.
And yet her limited abilities were enough to direct the open cargo ramp toward us…from which Eton launched himself like a meteor, framed by the early-morning rays of the sun.
A muscular giant of a meteor. The ship bucked in the turbulence, and he used that as a springboard to fly across twenty feet of open air, crashing like a missile into the guards rushing for me. They scattered in all directions like shrapnel. The only one still standing nearby swiped at Eton with a baton. The hit landed, and thousands of volts of electricity sparked up the rod into his body.
He shrugged it off as if it tickled. With a growl, he latched onto the hapless man with both hands and lifted him bodily over his head. As half of the guards paused to stare, slack-jawed, he threw him directly into the other half, who were bringing their photon rifles to bear. They went down in a pile of flailing arms and legs. He roared, his voice incoherent with rage.
“Eton!” I shouted in warning, as one of the downed guards leapt to his feet, leaving his stun baton where it lay and pulling out a knife instead.
It was too fast for Eton to turn, but not too fast for me. As the man threw himself at Eton’s back, I propelled myself into the fastest spin kick I could muster. My foot connected solidly, and the guard collapsed in a heap, clutching his chest.
Eton and I fell upon the group together then, driven by a similar anger. Eton’s moves were brutal and somehow beautiful. He darted out of harm’s way with a dancer’s grace, blocked, and then countered with the force of a mass driver. I was already acquainted with how nimble he was, but to watch him put that to use against multiple opponents was nothing short of awe-inspiring.
Not that I had much opportunity to watch. I had my own crowd to control. I let them come at me, inviting their blows, and hammered their batons with my Disruption Blades. As the batons’ charges winked out from the interference, I stepped in with elbows and fists to knock the guards staggering. I got lucky with two, dropping them to the floor in a daze, but this was temporary at best. The electronics in some of the batons fried and stayed dead, but others fired back to life. If I tried to incapacitate this many with the hilts or flats of my blades, it would get ugly.