Chapter 12 #2
Not because it was right. But because it wouldn’t matter one way or another. Cleo wasn’t going to let her go. She could see it in the other woman’s emotionless eyes. Cleo had decided Gus was dead weight to be cut. Nothing on her end would change that, so she might as well not try.
Cleo inclined her head with a slow blink of her eyes. “We do.”
Then why—
“You’re bait,” Cleo announced, her lips curving in an unnatural smile.
With a jolt, Gus’s gaze darted to the tree line. Just in time to watch Caius push into view, his face an impassive mask as he met her eyes.
“No,” Gus whispered, her stomach dropping.
How much had he heard? Did he know who they were?
“You were supposed to stay put,” Gus told him, struggling to compose herself.
“What can I say? You were acting so mysterious. Curiosity got the best of me.” Caius’s gaze flicked to Cleo and Mars. “Friends of yours?”
“Not exactly.”
“Am I correct in assuming they’re the ones behind all this?” Caius asked.
Gus gave her siblings a long look, wondering how she was supposed to answer that.
A day ago, she would have lied. Downplayed their presence and pretended they were unfortunate bystanders she’d come across. It was the forty-three’s way. If they were ever compromised or recaptured, that anonymity was meant to protect the collective. Even at the expense of the individual.
That was then. This was now.
“It seems like it,” Gus said, making her choice.
Mars and Cleo had lost any claim to loyalty from her. She wouldn’t protect them. Either through word or deed. They could deal with the consequences of their actions.
And if Caius somehow figured out who they were in the process, that had nothing to do with Gus.
As of right now, she was divorcing herself from their lines of fate.
There was a strange light in Caius’s eyes as he considered Gus thoughtfully. “I have a lot of things to say about you using yourself as bait to draw the masterminds out since you obviously weren’t intending for me to show up as backup, but we can discuss that later.”
Absolutely not.
Caius could do all the talking he wanted, but Gus had no plans to be there to listen. Once this was over, she was going into deep seclusion. She was thinking a few decades—maybe more—in hermit mode should be long enough for everyone to forget about her.
Once the coast was clear, she’d think about resurfacing.
Or maybe not. Permanent isolation sounded pretty good right about now.
Caius gave Mars and Cleo a savage smile. “I was so hoping our paths would cross. I have to admit. I owe you quite a lot after everything that’s happened.”
Even from this distance, Gus caught the faint stench of blood lust as Caius eyed her traitorous siblings like he was measuring how much force he would need to rip them limb from limb.
It was enough to make her hind brain sit up and scream in panic.
“Funny—we could say the same.” Cleo watched Caius with her dead looking eyes. “Your escape cost us quite a bit of resources and manpower.”
“I hope I didn’t ruin any plans,” Caius offered politely.
“Not quite.” Cleo signaled Mars.
He gathered himself, the glow that had been banked during their conversation growing in sudden intensity. The white at the tips of his hair spread a little further up his locks before leaching some of the color from his skin, turning it gray and waxy looking.
“Get ready,” Gus cautioned.
Caius was barely listening as he eyed her brother lazily. “I’m never not ready.”
Gus barely restrained her snort. Then how did he explain getting captured in the first place?
“You have Ryan to thank for this,” Mars announced as white spikes started sprouting along his shoulders and arms. “His faction drew first blood. We’re simply responding in kind.”
Gus furrowed her forehead. What was he talking about?
Caius stalked forward. “Hey, look at me. I’m your opponent. Not her.”
Was he—was he protecting her?
The part of Gus that wasn’t flabbergasted might have been a touch insulted.
The arrogant oaf. What about her behavior said she was in need of help?
She’d gone to a lot of trouble to orchestrate this meeting and now his overprotective Tuann nature was jeopardizing all her plans.
She had Cleo and Mars right where she wanted them.
Particularly given how forthcoming they were being.
A little more and she might have been able to figure out if they were answering to someone or acting as free agents.
A low chuckle sounded from Cleo’s direction. “You’re right about that.”
Whispers started along the edge of Gus’s conscience. Soft at first but quickly growing in intensity. Until it felt like a billion voices were shouting at her in concert.
Deciphering the deafening cacophony took concentration.
A moment later, Gus’s eyes widened. “Oh no.”
No. No. No. No.
Enemies. Above.
Cleo and Mars weren’t the only ones who’d let their arrogance lead them into danger.
Gus had assumed the duo was too prideful to allow outsiders a seat at this farce, but it appeared she was wrong.
Those weren’t tourists exploring the Lord of Titan’s aerial walkways.
They were Tuann. With heavily armed humans mixed in with their number.
All with their weapon sights locked on Caius.
Before Gus could shout a warning, there was a great boom from above. Gus felt the change in the atmosphere almost immediately.
A suppressor.
A Tuann weapon intended for crowd control. It would suck out any ambient ki in the immediate vicinity, reducing the amount those in its area of effect could harness.
Normally, that didn’t mean much since all Tuann had their own internal reserves that they could pull from. But Caius was already injured and his well of ki depleted. Throw in the fact that there was little ki present on Titan to recharge him, and he was vulnerable.
Before Gus could do anything, Mars and Caius came together in a thunderous crash. Soon after, blood bloomed on the shoulder of Caius’s jumpsuit.
He snarled but didn’t go down, closing the distance between him and Mars in a few steps. Some fighters were graceful in the way they wielded death, sliding in and out of reach as they evaded a mortal wound for themselves.
That wasn’t Caius.
He was more like a bull, barreling into range while taking massive damage that he somehow always managed to shrug off. Primal. Terrifying. A force of wrath and fury that was difficult to counter. There was finesse, but mostly it was sheer, brutal power.
Mars held his own though.
If Caius had been at full strength and had more at his disposal than just his fists, he might not have.
While the two fought, Cleo paced toward Gus, that same unnatural smile still hanging on her lips. “I want to thank you, Pityrodia Augustensis. You’ve been most helpful. We couldn’t have lured Roake’s commander into our trap otherwise.”
Things weren’t over yet. Gus might not be able to help Caius against Mars and Cleo, but she could maybe do something about this ambush.
The question was whether she could move fast enough for it to make any difference.
Taking a deep breath to center herself, Gus gazed up into the Lord of Titan’s canopy. Now that she was aware of their presence, it was easy to sort through the noise and pinpoint the location of each person who carried ill intent toward her and Caius.
Her breathing slowed further.
The world around her lost its luster as she reached for the connection that was always there. Even when she pretended it didn’t exist.
Please, Gus whispered.
The Lord of Titan seemed to stretch. There were screams from above as the tree gave a giant heave. Its trunk and branches trembled.
Cleo paused and looked up. “What did you just do?”
“How could I do anything? I’m weak, remember?”
Crack. Crack. Crack.
More screams from above. And running. Don’t forget the running.
“It’s coming down!” someone shouted.
One of the larger branch walkways snapped midway up. The giant limb bent, spilling its occupants into free fall. It dangled for a split second before the last splinters of wood holding it in place gave way.
It fell, crashing into a second branch that immediately collapsed under the immense weight.
Mars and Caius broke off their battle, alerted by the sounds of the massive limbs ripping through the tree’s canopy.
Cleo turned and fled. Mars debated for half a second before following.
Caius whirled, locking eyes with Gus. A dozen calculations happening in a split second as he assessed the path of those limbs and accurately determined that they would fall directly onto the spot where she was standing.
“No,” Gus whispered, desperate to stop the stupid impulse she could see forming. She didn’t need his help. “Run!”
Caius did.
Directly toward her.
This wasn’t supposed to be how it happened. He was supposed to use the distraction to escape. Not barrel toward her in a suicidal charge.
Caius’s powerful legs ate up the ten or so meters between them.
Behind him, Gus caught one last glimpse of Cleo as the other looked back. A strange smile curved Cleo’s lips as she took in the situation. Caius’s charge. Gus’s position on the spine’s edge. And the falling branches.
Cleo’s gaze slid to Gus’s right.
“You lose,” Cleo mouthed, a rare sign of emotion dancing in her eyes.
Gus turned to see what had made Cleo so happy. There, standing on an almost nonexistent ledge midway up the spine, was a man.
A Tuann, Gus saw.
Worse—an oshota. His synth armor marked him as belonging to House Dethos.
That would have been before his House fell from grace. Nowadays, they were considered traitors and outcasts. Word was the Tuann emperor was hunting them and anyone who gave them sanctuary.
Gus processed all that in an instant before focusing on the item he held in his hands. A weapon. No. More like a cannon. The waves of wrongness emanating off it tugging at long, half-forgotten memories that Gus didn’t have time to investigate given where that cannon was pointing.
Right at Caius.
Who even now was so intent on reaching Gus, that he hadn’t realized death was stalking him from across the spine.
Even as Gus opened her mouth to scream a warning, she knew it would be too late.
There was a sharp rapport. The air changed. The light dimming as everything was dyed red for a split second.
Gus didn’t know what compelled her. Instinct. A misguided attempt at heroism. Or maybe it was the knowledge that the energy of the choko tree, Gus’s first friend, resided in Caius.
Whatever it was, it forced her into action.
Instinctively, she sank all her soul’s breath into the ground around her. Every ounce that her body currently possessed. All channeled into the soil and the dormant life waiting there.
She screamed as pain bit into her ki pathways, growing abruptly lightheaded at the sudden imbalance.
Gus wove on her feet, her vision darkening.
The last thing she saw before she slipped over the spine’s edge were vines sprouting from the ground to encase Caius in a living shield.
Gus went limp, falling backward just as several massive branches crashed into the ground.