CHAPTER SIXTEEN
KYRION
Roderick stopped and stared at me, like I was a cherished photo he was committing to memory. No doubt the arrogant lord wanted to remember every second of his wretched hunt.
Then he grinned and advanced toward me, swinging his hammer back and forth. The lunarium weapon shimmered a darker, bloodier red than before, mirroring both his psion power and his sick anticipation of finishing his game.
A bright silver light flared, and a second version of Roderick appeared.
I tensed, wondering if it was a hologram, a trick to get me to lower my guard, but then I realized it was Vesper’s seer magic surging for some unknown reason.
The light flared again, and a second version of myself appeared.
My mirror image threw himself at Roderick, who lashed out with his hammer.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Even though it was just a vision, I still heard the gruesome sounds of my ribs cracking, and phantom pain stabbed through my chest, stealing my breath.
The second Roderick grinned and lashed out with his hammer again, shoving my mirror image into one of the nearby glass pools. Horrified, I watched the lava close over my mirror image, who screamed and screamed as he was quickly incinerated . . .
I ground my teeth and shoved Vesper’s power away.
The silver light vanished, as did the image of my scalded skin, but an intense burning sensation cascaded through my body, and my own hoarse screams echoed in my ears.
A fresh river of sweat streamed down my face, and even more nausea roiled in my gut. Fuck, that had been intense.
I might not know much about seer magic, but Vesper’s power had clearly shown me a vision of the future.
If I stayed where I was, I would be trapped in the gladiator-style ring in the center of the biodome.
I would put up a vicious fight, but Roderick would eventually use his hammer to knock me into one of the pools, and the lava would end me.
A snarl rose in my throat, and my inner monster roared with rage. I wasn’t going to die that easily. Not when Vesper would feel every agonizing second of my demise through our bond. I might not escape Roderick, but I would spare Vesper the gruesome shock of drowning in a pool of lava.
Despite the pain still pulsing through my ruined left hand and battering against the psionic shield in my mind, I snarled again and sprinted forward. Roderick also sprinted forward, trying to cut me off and force me back into the ring, but I sidestepped him.
Roderick spun toward me and lashed out with his hammer.
He landed a solid blow on my left shoulder.
Pain erupted in the joint, zinged down my arm, and merged with the agony still pulsing through my charred hand.
I staggered to the side and almost plowed into a cauldron of lava before I finally managed to right myself.
I threw up another psionic shield in my mind, walling off as much of the pain as possible, and kept going.
I ran toward the edge of the biodome. My gaze snapped left and right. I still needed a weapon, although I didn’t see anything useful in here.
Another bright flare of silver caught my eye, and I was stunned to see Vesper standing in the biodome, regarding the pools of lava with a disgusted expression.
I skidded to a halt. Vesper?
I didn’t really expect her to respond, since we hadn’t been able to communicate clearly since entering the maze, but to my surprise, Vesper turned her head and looked straight at me.
Blood covered her dark blue clothes and her hands.
More blood speckled her face, and the silver flecks in her dark blue eyes glittered like distant stars.
A fist of fear crushed my heart. Was Vesper dead? Was this some final vision of her?
The flecks in her eyes grew larger and larger, as though two pools of shimmering liquid silver had been set into her face. The velvety ribbon of Vesper thrummed and vibrated with psion power, and a crackling sensation swept over my skin, like I was about to get a violent static shock.
I’m here, Kyr.
At the sound of her voice in my mind, my connection to Vesper snapped back into place, despite the psionic dampeners in the maze. The cold, tight fist of fear squeezing my chest vanished, and the ribbon of her quickly spooled back into its usual shape and size and curled snugly around my heart.
For a moment, I wondered how I was hearing and seeing Vesper, but then the answer came to me. She was tapping into her seer magic and astrally projecting herself into the maze just as she had once done in Zane’s library. Clever, clever seer.
Vesper’s gaze flicked past me and landed on Roderick, who was swinging his hammer back and forth and slowly approaching me again. I’m going to help you kill him.
How? He’s wearing armor, and the biodome is rigged with booby traps he can control through the holoscreen on his forearm.
Her eyes narrowed, and her lips puckered in thought. I’m still figuring that out. Do me a favor, and stay away from the wall and the lava, okay?
Another bubble of lava popped in a cauldron beside my left elbow. I shuddered. Not a problem.
Vesper glanced around the biodome. Her eyes narrowed, and her brow furrowed as she analyzed and cataloged one thing after another.
I’d seen that same look on her face whenever she was building a makeshift weapon on board the Dream World.
My inner monster rumbled with satisfaction and pride.
Vesper’s thinking face was one of my favorite expressions.
Roderick stopped, frowned, and looked at the spot where Vesper was standing. “What are you staring at with that stupid smile on your face?”
As difficult as it was, I pulled my gaze away from Vesper and focused on him again. “Your death.”
Roderick snorted. “The heat has already addled your mind. Or perhaps the nasty blaster burn on your hand is making it hard for you to think clearly. The only person who’s dying is you, Kyrion.”
I didn’t bother responding. Vesper Quill was better at figuring out how things worked than anyone else in the entire galaxy, and she would come up with a way for me to defeat Roderick.
The bastard was already dead. He just didn’t know it yet.
Roderick’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “It’s your truebond, isn’t it?
You’re talking to your precious Vesper. Somehow she escaped the maze and moved far enough away from the psionic dampeners to communicate with you.
Well, she won’t get far. My people have strict orders not to let anyone leave the facility.
” A cruel grin twisted his lips. “Not alive, anyway.”
I killed the four Hammers guarding the control room, Vesper’s voice sounded in my mind, and her image wavered like a ghost coming into and out of focus. Siya and Asterin are clearing the rest of the facility right now.
I focused on Roderick again. “You should have done more research on Vesper. Then you would have known not to underestimate her. The people you left behind in the control room are dead, and I’m willing to bet Siya and Asterin are calling in reinforcements from House Collier even as we speak.”
For the first time, a bit of uncertainty creased Roderick’s face, but it quickly vanished, swallowed by his enormous ego. “You’re bluffing. Vesper might have gotten lucky and slipped out of the maze, but there’s no way she could have infiltrated the control room without getting captured.”
I jerked my chin at the holoscreen on his left forearm. “Go ahead. Check for yourself.”
Roderick wet his lips, then lifted the holoscreen. “Jeffrey, what’s your status?”
Silence.
“Jeffrey, what’s your status?” Roderick repeated, his voice even sharper than before. “Report. Now.”
The holoscreen flared with light, and Roderick exhaled with relief.
“Jeffrey is indisposed.” Vesper’s voice sounded through the device. “Siya and Asterin rammed a table into him. Poor Jeffrey is currently sleeping off a concussion and a couple of cracked ribs.”
Roderick recoiled in shock, although he quickly lifted the screen back to his lips. “Pierre, report,” he commanded in a low, urgent voice. “Nasir. Eden. Macie.”
“I’m assuming those are the four Hammers you left in the control room to subdue Siya and Asterin.” Once again, Vesper’s voice crackled through the device. “I stabbed one of them with a trident that I took off a mermaid statue in the maze, then shot the other three with a blaster.”
“Iker, report,” Roderick barked into the screen.
“If that’s the guy in the transport garage, then he’s dead too,” Vesper replied in a cheerful voice.
“Another death by trident. I also grabbed the box of explosives he was going to plant on the House Collier transport so you could blow up Siya’s ship and make our deaths look like an accident.
I haven’t decided what I’m going to do with the explosives yet, but I’m sure I’ll think of something. ”
I grinned. Now you’re just bragging, seer.
She grinned back at me. Absolutely, Arrow.
Vesper looked over at Roderick. “Oh, and just in case you were wondering, I also locked you out of the main control panel.” Once again, her voice floated out of the holoscreen on his forearm. “Which means I’m in full command of the maze now, along with all its hazards and booby traps.”
Roderick angrily stabbed the holoscreen a few times with his right index finger, but it didn’t respond to his commands.
He stared at the device in disbelief for a few seconds, then shook his head, as though flinging off the dregs of a bad dream.
“It doesn’t matter what you do, Vesper. I’m still here with Kyrion, and once I kill him and shatter your truebond, you’ll wish you were dead. ”
Vesper’s voice didn’t sound through the holoscreen again, but the flickering image of her glared at Roderick with a murderous expression that made my inner monster rumble in satisfaction.
“Nothing to say?” Roderick called out in a mocking voice. “I thought not.”