The Girl Who Dared to Endure (The Girl Who Dared #6)

Tian looked up from where she was bouncing on the bed, her blue eyes widening in surprise and then concern. “Liana?” she asked, casting a look at the lanky, dark-haired boy who was standing in the corner of the room, and then glancing back to me. “Is everything o—”

She stopped short as a loud bang echoed down the hallway, followed by the unmistakable sound of Zoe screaming. “Stay here,” I ordered, slapping the button again to shut the door. “Cornelius, lock this door until I or Maddox order otherwise.”

I barely heard his affirmation as I spun away from the door, my legs beginning to churn, my heart stamping out its fear in a rapid staccato against my breastbone. The sound had come from the war room, and I sped toward it, a thousand images racing through my mind. Maybe the legacies had busted in and gotten all the way to the center of my quarters! Somehow, they had ignored Grey and me, but had gotten to the others in the war room. Sadie must have figured out what we had done and called the council as a ruse to get us to let our guard down. They were going to try to break into the terminal and get Jasper back, and one of them must have come across the gun. Maybe they had a net that recognized it, like I did.

And how’d they know how to use it? a voice inside me asked, but I ignored it. The truth was, I wasn’t sure what was going on. All I knew was that I’d heard a gunshot and Zoe’s scream. Leo was missing, and Quess was unconscious. Something was happening. Something bad.

I slowed as I approached the end of the hall, which curved abruptly left and then back around to the right before opening into the war room, forcing a U-shaped turn that I’d designed to act as a bottleneck to slow the enemy down, if they ever got in.

Useless, apparently. The design and Cornelius both, because he hadn’t been able to turn his defenses against them, either. Hell, he hadn’t even told me they were here! What was the point of having impenetrable quarters if they were that easily penetrated?

The sound of Zoe’s crying cut through my thoughts, and I heard her trying to say something, her words thick with the sound of tears and panic.

“Leo, just put it down,” Maddox said, her voice firm despite the thread of fear twisting through them. “I’m sure it was just an accident. Let it go.”

“Shut up, bitch,” a voice snarled, and I cringed at the hostility in it. Not Leo’s, I realized as I approached the doorframe. It’s Baldy. He somehow managed to wrest control from Leo. A solid shard of ice sank into my heart, so intense that it was all I could do to keep from shaking with fear. What happened to Leo? Was he hurt? Had Baldy damaged him?

This was bad. I slid to the doorframe, my back against the wall behind me and my gun pointed down. I took a quick glance in and saw that Baldy was on the stairs leading up to the dais, backing slowly up them, a gun in his hand. He held it awkwardly, but I saw his finger curled under the trigger guard, which told me he understood the concept of how to use it. The barrel was trained down at the recessed floor between us, where Zoe and Maddox had their backs to me, kneeling on the floor. Zoe was crying, and hunched protectively over someone, and as she clutched him tighter to her chest, I caught a glimpse of Eric’s eyes, wide and filled with confusion, blood trickling from his mouth.

I ducked back around the corner as a wash of pain hit me. He’d shot Eric, I realized. I knew from the legacy net the damage the tiny hunks of metal could do, and my hand tightened around the butt of the gun, the rough surface grating against my skin. If I didn’t do something now, he could—

“Leo, Eric’s really hurt,” Maddox said again, clearly trying to reach the AI.

Instead of an answer, though, there was another sharp bang, followed by Zoe’s squeal of terror, and her desperate sob of alarm, and there was no time to plan. I was already pushing off the wall and moving through the door.

“I TOLD YOU TO SHUT UP!” Baldy was screaming, wildly brandishing the gun toward Maddox. I itched to look at my friends, to make sure my hesitation hadn’t killed any of them, but I kept my gaze on him. His red face snapped toward me, the gun following right behind. My arms lifted of their own accord, and I stared him down from behind the barrel of my own gun.

“I’m much better with this than you are,” I told him, my voice ice cold.

In truth, I didn’t know if I was. The legacy net had guided me the last time, helping to dictate my actions. Still, something had lingered from the experience, and I lifted the gun and aimed it in a straight line, focusing on center mass through the sights on the gun. I didn’t intend to pull the trigger—but he didn’t know that.

Or, hopefully he didn’t. If he knew how precious Leo was to me, then he would have complete control over this situation. Because there was no way I could shoot him, not with Leo inside. I could wind up killing not just one, but both of them. Or worse, the bullet could ricochet inside of him and somehow manage to damage the net. I couldn’t bear the idea of Leo getting hurt, let alone at my hands. I had to deescalate the situation. Somehow.

That meant talking. With him. The man who had cut my throat and told my brother that he laughed and laughed at the video of my mother’s death. This was going to go great. I just had to convince him, somehow, that we weren’t going to hurt him. After my brother had beaten the crap out of him and we’d locked him in a room.

Two of my people were down, Zoe was next to useless in her current state, and Maddox was doing her best to keep herself between Baldy and Eric, while simultaneously trying to stop Eric’s bleeding. I had no idea where Alex was, and I couldn’t rely on Leo to reestablish control. I wasn’t even sure how Baldy had gotten it in the first place. Basically, I was on my own, trying to talk down a clearly upset enemy before he shot me or any more of my people.

“How’d you get out of your room?” I asked. It seemed the simplest place to start.

His blue eyes narrowed, and he shook his head. “You’re not in control here,” he said, sneering. “Let me go, or we stand here while your friend bleeds out. Now, how do I get out of this place?”

My design had confused him, I realized. He was looking to escape, and willing to stand there while Eric bled out on the floor, to make me tell him how. I swallowed and tried not to think about it. I had to focus entirely on Baldy.

“That’s not going to happen, Baldy,” I told him calmly. “This place is huge, and I already called my Knight Commanders for backup.” A lie, but hey, he knew I could do that from our fight on the bridge. It wasn’t out of bounds to try to use it again.

His lips twitched into a smile for a fraction of a second—so fast that I thought I imagined it—and his eyes narrowed. “Doesn’t matter,” he said. “Put the weapon down and move.”

“Liana?” I heard my brother’s voice drift down the hall behind me, but I ignored it. Internally, I screamed for him to go back. I didn’t want him coming here. I had no idea how Baldy was going to react when he saw the man who had attacked him, but he was already agitated enough. I didn’t need Alex making the situation worse. I had to get this under control before Alex reached us.

“It’s not going to happen,” I said with a slow shake of my head. “But if you put yours down, I promise that no one’s going to hurt you again.”