Renegades (Hotbloods #3)

Bashrik answered my question a moment later, when he barreled toward the soldier that held her. In the cold sunlight, I saw the flash of a blade, though I wasn’t sure who held it—Bashrik, or Angie’s captor.

A moment later, I realized that they were each holding a blade, and each of them knew how to wield it. The soldier and Bashrik swiped at each other with incredible speed, Angie dodging out of the way. One false move, and it would pierce right through her, and yet her eyes didn’t move from Bashrik’s face. She trusted him innately; I could see that. She knew he wouldn’t let her come to harm.

Bashrik twisted around the side of the soldier and, catching him off guard, sank his blade into the soldier’s hand, then knocked him out with a blow to the back of the neck. He put his own arms around Angie as the soldier tumbled to the ground, lying in a crumpled heap at my feet. Around his waist, I recognized the familiar belt of explosive devices, their orb-like exteriors glinting black in the sunlight. Suddenly, I had an idea.

Turning my gaze back toward Navan, who was growing smaller in the distance, I realized I would have to make a decision. Hidden in the shadows, the soldiers couldn’t see me, nor was their focus on me, considering everything else going on around them, but I knew it wouldn’t be long before they came this way to figure out where I’d gone. Queen Brisha would see to that.

It felt awful to admit, but I wanted to run. I didn’t want to face another trial, not knowing the outcome. This time, the queen had no reason to be lenient. She could take every drop of blood we had to keep working on the elixir, and we would be helpless to stop her. I had seen the unmerciful look in her eyes when she had turned to me. All potential alliances had gone out of the window the moment those poor test subjects had crumbled in front of us.

And then, the soldiers caught up with Navan, who seemed to be struggling up the mountainside. He looked like he was flagging, the endurance of the last few days catching up with him. He still bore the bruises of his fight with Aurelius, and he’d carried me for hours the day before, not to mention what we’d gotten up to last night. There was no energy left in him to make such an extensive climb.

Even so, he struggled onward, his grip firm on Lauren. I watched as he glanced over his shoulder, seeing the soldiers advancing behind him. He knew it, and I knew it: they would catch him, and there would be nothing he could do to stop them from taking Lauren. That was what worried me most. The soldiers didn’t seem bothered about capturing Bashrik and Navan. Their focus was solely on the human contingent—and that meant Brisha wanted our blood.

The soldiers tore Lauren out of Navan’s hands, smashing the end of a spear into his head. I gasped, my stomach sinking. I had to stop this before they could hurt him more or take my friends away.

Lunging forward, I snatched the explosives belt from the unconscious soldier’s waist and sprinted down the alleyway. I didn’t stop until I reached the front of the alchemy lab again. Hurtling through the doors, I skidded to a halt in the atrium, seeking out the emergency stairwell. Finding the signs that led in the right direction, I hurried through the halls of the alchemy lab, barreling through each door, seeking out the stairwell. With the siren already going, it did nothing to sound the alarm as I burst through the fire door and hurried up the floors until I reached the roof. The door to the outside was locked, but that didn’t matter. I had the makings of an explosive lockpick in my hands.

Sticking one of the orbs to the door, I turned the dial until it read twenty seconds, and pressed the button down twice. With that, I sprinted back down the stairs, taking shelter a few floors down, until the entire building trembled beneath me, a boom ricocheting through the walls.

Tentatively, I headed back up to the top floor. There was no longer a door standing in the way. Where it had been, there was a smoking hole. Spurred on by the explosion, and knowing the bombs wouldn’t let me down if I needed them, I stumbled out onto the slick roof, the roar of the blast still ringing in my ears, while I prayed I didn’t fall and break my neck.

At the top, just as I had remembered from Bashrik’s model, were the hexagonal greenhouses—and a row of enormous generators. Without these huge units, every single specimen they had within the alchemy labs would become useless.

“Let them go, or I will blow these generators to pieces!” I roared, my gaze fixed on Queen Brisha, who had come out to see how her soldiers had fared. Angie and Lauren were on their knees in front of her, with soldiers pushing their heads down, while the rest of the attackers raced through the skies, trying to grapple with Bashrik and Navan, who were managing to evade their clutches, despite their injuries.

The queen was already looking up at me, no doubt drawn by the blast of the door, her face horrified. In that moment, everyone froze. I plucked a bomb off the belt and held it aloft as I approached the first of the generators, seeking out the control panel. It was locked inside a glass case, but I knew that would be nothing against an explosive, not after I’d seen what it could do with the door. And, by the looks of it, so did Queen Brisha.

“If you so much as touch that generator, I will have your friends executed!” Brisha shouted back, her voice booming up through the still air, but I was past the point where threats could frighten me. She wouldn’t risk her lab being destroyed for a second time, not now.

“I will blow this generator sky high unless you release my friends. You won’t kill them—you need their blood to be fresh and living. Otherwise, your precious elixir won’t work!” I yelled, making it up as I went along.

She frowned. “What do you mean?”

“The second a Kryptonian dies, their blood begins to decay and fill with toxins! You need to take it from a live specimen if you want the elixir to work!” I shouted. I just hoped she took the bait.

“Don’t touch that generator! Come down here, and we can discuss this like adults!” Brisha replied, her voice echoing up.

I shook my head. “You need to let my friends go. They had nothing to do with this. I had nothing to do with this, other than the fact that you used my blood!” I bellowed, standing my ground. “I know you’re disappointed that the elixir didn’t work, and you lost some of your people today, but that isn’t our fault! You have to admit that!” I moved to stick the explosive on the control panel’s box.