“No. We’re coming out of the last cell. I just didn’t want you to shoot us by mistake. I know how caught up you get in a fight.”
Hauk hissed. “Why are you bitching about that again? I only shot once and it was an accident caused by your premature exploding problem. Had you not startled me while I was changing our charges, it wouldn’t have happened.”
“Anyway,” Darling said, ignoring his outburst, “there are four of us. Don’t fire.” He turned then to see Zarya’s face before he plowed into the thick of the hallway battle.
Zarya paused as she watched Maris and Darling open a hole for them through the thick enemy fire. Fearless and skilled, they moved in total synchrony.
While she’d known Darling was exceptional, she now realized why Maris got so offended whenever she questioned his abilities. He was an incredible fighter in his own right. No wonder he was decorated.
She and Ture stayed behind them with her giving cover fire as Maris and Darling led them down the hall, then up the stairs. The stench of burning wires turned her stomach. But it was much better than the stale air of her cell.
They’d barely reached the upstairs landing when the entire building went dark. Darling and Maris fell back to cover her and Ture.
“They’ve reestablished their connection,” Syn warned them through their headsets. “We need to tel-ass, folks, or we’re going to lose our posteriors.”
Darling swapped out his charges before they ran out of juice. “We’re on our way.”
As they rounded a corner, a group of assassins opened fire. Darling shielded her while Maris covered Ture. Making sure to keep himself between her and the volley, Darling returned their attack. “I could really use the tricom right now.”
“Sorry. It was broken when I was taken.”
“Figures.” Darling cleared the assassins, then nodded to Maris.
They started moving again.
Slowly, they made their way down the hall until they met up with Nemesis who was helping a large group of prisoners get to safety.
Zarya’s panic welled up inside her as she remembered what had happened the last time Nemesis had been in a room with her.
He’d tossed her to Jayne.
“Is everyone out?” Darling asked the legendary killer.
Nemesis nodded. “The last group is coming down behind you.”
Zarya gaped in disbelief. Even with the distortion added to disguise his voice, she recognized Nykyrian’s syntax and tone.
Now there was a billion credits worth of knowledge. His was the most guarded identity of any Sentella member.
Now she understood why.
Just as her group joined theirs and she saw some of the people who’d been kidnapped with her, the walls around them flickered.
Kyr’s face flashed, then enlarged to the size of the walls that worked as a transmission monitor.
Talk about creepy. She felt like she’d stumbled into a horror story.
And Kyr was furious over the attack. “Do you know who I am?”
Nykyrian snorted derisively. “We know. We just don’t give a shit.”
Curling his lip, Kyr raked him with a repugnant glare. “You have breached the sanctity of one of our prisons. Have you any idea the sentence you’ve brought down on your heads?”
Now it was Darling’s turn to scoff. “Add it to the other twelve dozen death sentences we carry.”
A tic started in Kyr’s jaw. “I don’t think you truly understand the magnitude of what you’re doing. Return my prisoners to their cells or—”
“Fuck. You,” Darling snarled, punctuating each word.
Kyr’s nostrils flared while he did an amazing job of keeping his temper under control. “Those prisoners do not belong to you. They are League property. You have absolutely no right to them.”
Before anyone realized what he was doing, Darling snatched his helmet off and threw it to the ground so hard, it bounced three feet high.
Kyr held the same shocked expression Zarya was pretty sure they all held. Every gerent and Resistance worker around her was rendered speechless and spellbound by Kere’s real identity.
Fearless, Darling went straight up to the wall on the right and leveled a killing glare at Kyr. “The hell you say. They are my people, not yours. You sent your army into my territory and took not just my citizens, but my consort. How dare you!”
Kyr gave Zarya a look that said she hadn’t bathed in a month or more. “She’s not your consort.”
Darling shook his head in denial. “She wears my ring and was officially bound to me when we were children—something sanctified and approved by your predecessor.”
Zarya gasped at his unexpected disclosure. Was any of that true? She was desperate to know, but didn’t dare interrupt them.
“By all laws,” Darling continued, “she is my consort. And five minutes after I get her home, she will officially be my wife.”
Kyr arched a daring brow. “So you’re declaring war on us, then.”
Zarya inwardly cringed as she realized what Darling had done.
For her.
The moment he’d yanked his helmet off and allowed Kyr to know Kere’s identity, he’d legally declared war on the League.