“Regular Kints?” he cut her off as they ran. “Yeah, to me, too. But remember, those Tellers who attacked you in the shelter appeared to be Vakar and weren’t.”
They took one last turn, and at the end of the hall were the two large frosted-glass doors that led to the hangar. As they approached, the doors began to slide open. A second later Pettus stepped through, and Delaney started to feel a modicum of relief.
Which didn’t last.
Three Kint soldiers came at Pettus from behind; they must have found another entrance into the hangar in order to sneak up on them. She cried out a warning, but the Teller was already spinning on his heel to dodge the sharp edge of a long dagger. He fought them off, and before she and Ruckus could reach him to help, the sound of pounding footsteps from the other direction filled the corridor.
The approaching footsteps beat in time with her racing heart. It was one thing to shoot a hologram, another to hit a live target, so she was jittery. The idea of hurting someone wasn’t appealing, but when it came down to protecting herself and Ruckus against an a-hole trying to kill them, there was really no competition.
Two Kint soldiers came around the corner, and she fired before she could allow emotion to get in the way. She felt a burst of air sail past her left ear as one of them fired back, and felt a twist of satisfaction when he was blasted off his feet by her shot. She didn’t, however, watch to see where exactly she’d hit him or the kind of damage she’d done.
She shot the other one down a second later, but not before he’d managed to get her on the thigh. Fortunately, he wasn’t using a fritz, and the zee merely grazed her, leaving a shallow cut instead of a gaping hole.
She had less than a second to freak out at the sight of the blood dripping down her leg before she heard Pettus grunt in pain.
He’d taken out the last of the three Kints and was moving to stand next to Ruckus, who was facing down more approaching soldiers. There was a large gash trailing from Pettus’s right temple to his chin, but if it hurt, he didn’t show it.
“Take her to the ship,” Ruckus ordered, just as five of the Kints reached them. He’d been shooting them down with his fritz, picking them off, but there were too many. Now that they were so close, he was forced to switch back to the knife. “Pettus, go!”
“I’m not leaving you,” Delaney argued, yanking her arm out of Pettus’s grasp when he grabbed her.
“I’ll catch up,” he promised through the fitting, already fending off a few of the Kints in hand-to-hand combat.
“If they catch you,” Pettus reminded her tersely, tugging her back, “we’re all dead.”
She didn’t need him to elaborate. He wasn’t just talking about the three of them in this hallway. With a growl, she spun on her heel and allowed him to lead her through the two doors, trusting that Ruckus would follow shortly.
The ship that had taken her from Earth was all the way across the hangar, and they quickened their pace the second they were in the room. Movement from the corner of her eye had Delaney turning her head, just in time to spot Brightan.
He’d been standing behind a stack of white crates, out of sight long enough for them not to notice. Now, however, he was close, and before she could alert Pettus, Brightan had his hand wrapped tightly around her throat. He tossed her against the wall of crates, hard enough that her already aching skull began pounding with renewed vigor.
She could see Ruckus coming through the doorway now, still shoving off a couple of Kints, and Pettus was in the process of lifting his weapon. Everyone froze the second Brightan activated his fritz, pressing it against the soft flesh beneath her chin.
For a moment time stood still, even the remaining Kints who’d crowded around Ruckus coming to a stop.
Her mind fuzzed over, fear tightening around her heart, blacking out everything but the wild look in Brightan’s eyes and the feel of the icy metal against her flesh. A secret part of her had actually convinced herself she wouldn’t be as afraid during the next assassination attempt.
No bigger lie had ever been told in the history of the world. Her world, anyway. She couldn’t really attest to the goings-on of Xenith.
“You should have died at the Tandem, Lissa Olena,” Brightan told her in an even tone. It would have been less scary if he’d been enraged or even cocky. The casual way he spoke was an indicator that he wasn’t worried about being stopped at all. “It would have saved us a lot of trouble, and me a lot of men.”
“Seems to me Trystan is the type to do his own dirty work.” What possessed her to taunt the guy was beyond her; the words just sort of slipped out, and once they had, her only option was to stick with them. Steeling her gaze, she made sure he knew exactly how she felt about him, effectively covering up most of her fear in the process.
“You don’t want to do this, Sworn,” Ruckus growled.
“Because I won’t make it out of here alive?” Brightan remained calm as ever. “I won’t anyway, not after openly threatening the Lissa. I kill her now, and at least I’ll be taking the poisonous bitch with me.”
At least there was one constant in her otherwise completely insane life, Delaney thought to herself a bit hysterically. Everyone hated Olena.
“This is insane,” Ruckus hissed, his frustration and panic evident.
“No,” Brightan stated, “this is war. She should have stayed on Earth with the vermin where she belongs. Whatever she said to him, whatever she did, she’ll pay in blood.”
She blinked. Wait, what?
“I didn’t do anything to anyone,” she said, clenching her jaw when he pressed the fritz closer.
Lifting her own fritz in her defense was out of the question. Doing so would take too long, and he’d guess her end game before she got very far. Stalling him seemed like the only choice, but for what?
It wasn’t like anyone other than the Basileus himself would even care, and he pretty much only did out of proxy. No, the only friends she had on this planet were standing less than ten feet away, just as powerless as she was.
“The Zane hated you a month ago.” For the first time a flare of something entered Brightan’s dark-brown-and-silver eyes, cracking the chilled exterior. “Now he’s letting you live? He called off the bounty on your head; you can’t tell me his throwing his life away has nothing to do with you.”
She couldn’t help it—her brows rose in mock surprise. “Are you in love with him, Brightan?” She made a tsk sound with her tongue. “Falling for your boss? Wow, man. Cliché.”
“Delaney, don’t.” Ruckus set his glare on her this time, and said aloud, “Why do you always have to bait them?”
“Genetics?” The sound of more approaching footsteps from down the hall to her right had her close to breaking. It took everything she had in her not to let the fear and desperation show. If she was going to die, she was going to do it as the strong person she’d always been. No exceptions.