Chapter 48 Elena
ELENA
Godhood is not a blessing. It is a sickness that feeds on your hatred and withers all the bright and essential parts of you. I want it more every day.
—from the diaries of Priestess Nomu of the Fire Order
Alarms blared as she, Maya, and three rebels sprinted down the passage.
“The bridge is this way!” Maya shouted.
Sesharians ran past, some to the armory, others to the weapons deck.
They seemed to have anticipated this rebellion, as Maya shouted orders, directing a contingent to the mess, another onto the bridge.
Elena was struck with the fleeting sensation of being thrust into machinations beyond her control, but she had no time to consider as pulse fire echoed ahead of them.
Maya winged left, pressing her pod against a sensor, and a door swung open.
“Hurry! In here!”
Elena rushed through. They were in a supply room with hefty boxes floating between shelves. Maya called one down.
“Wear this.” She handed them dark slate uniforms. “Seems like being a rustblood can do some good.”
Elena pulled the uniform on, wincing as the collar brushed her bruised chin. Once they changed, Maya led them out of the storeroom, past the stateroom with its tipped chairs and half-finished drinks, and to a passage.
“The bridge is just there on the right. Now, when we get in there, let me do the talking—”
“Healer!”
Elena whipped around and saw an officer, followed by three others, gaining on them. Soon, they filled the small hall. This close, even her flames wouldn’t be fast enough to catch the pulses. But if they drew nearer… She began to summon when Maya held out a hand.
“Sir.” She saluted. “We were just reporting to the bridge. The sensors cut off. There’s a fire spreading on deck—”
“Why are you armed, healer?” The officer drew closer, but he did not lower his gun.
Elena itched to burn. Heat thrummed up her veins, ash in her throat. Closer now…
“I had to apprehend a rebel. He’s back there, outside the officers’ quarters. Tried to ram his way in—”
He pushed the barrel into her mouth. “Shut. Up.”
Maya froze. She looked out of the corner of her eye, met Elena’s gaze.
The officer caught it. “Hey, what are you—”
Elena jabbed her arm forward, spearing a flame through his throat. He crumpled without a scream. The others reacted—too slow. Maya lunged, grabbing one officer while Ajira and Nurra took another, Tanmay the third.
Ajira wrested a gun, but Tanmay’s officer fired, the pulse ripping through the ceiling. Someone shouted from inside the bridge.
“Shit,” Maya said.
Elena growled and grabbed the gun, and together, she and Tanmay finally wrenched it away when an officer ran out.
“Rusting hells, what is going on—”
Elena pressed the gun into the new officer’s head, pushing him forward. “Not another step, or I’ll melt his brains.”
The officer halted as the others followed her lead.
“Back,” she said. “Go on.”
He retreated, and they marched into the bridge, hostages held before them.
The officer on watch looked up from the three-dimensional holo of the killdom and froze.
“Healer, why do you have a gun on my quartermaster?” he said.
“Step away from the panel,” Elena said.
He did not move. So she shot. He jumped back with a yelp as the pulse ripped through the panel’s edge where his hand had been.
“I said: Step. Away.”
Glowering, he slowly retreated. They corralled him and the others into the corner, Tanmay keeping watch as Elena and Maya rushed to the panel.
“Ajira, Nurra, contact Akino,” Maya barked. “See if he got to the armory. Elena, how far and fast can your inferno spread? Elena? Elena!”
Elena turned from the sensors. She pointed to the two red dots. “What are those?” The question was directed to the officer on watch. When he did not respond, she strode over and yanked him up, pressing a flaming hand close to his face.
“How long have we been trailing them? Who are they?” she demanded.
He said nothing. Elena pressed closer, and he jerked his head, trying to pull away from the snapping flames on her wrist.
“I’m not going to repeat myself twice.”
“They’re Yumi ships,” he said finally. Sweat beaded down his forehead. “They just sailed out of the pit.”
The ship suddenly juddered. Elena glanced back to see the force field around the killdom disappear.
“Cloak is down,” Maya said. “No distress signals were sent to our friends on the Relentless Destiny. I’ll send word—”
Elena sensed movement. She turned—too late. The officer on watch grabbed her gun and shot, the pulse ripping past her and into Maya’s hand.
She howled. Blood spurted from her missing finger as the pod clanged to the floor, melted and warped.
Elena tackled the officer, and he landed a knee in her stomach. She gasped. Black circles danced in her vision, but she clung on, grabbing the butt of his gun.
“You fucking bitch!” The officer tried to fling her off, but Elena held tight. He backpedaled and slammed into the wall, crushing her against it.
Elena choked, the air rushing out of her chest. Her hold slackened, and she slid down.
He rammed the butt of the gun into her face.
Pain exploded in her cheek and neck. Elena tasted blood as she bit into the soft skin of her mouth.
Stars, searing and bright before her eyes.
The officer swung, but she caught his blow this time, arms straining.
He growled, bearing down, his sweat dripping onto her.
This close, she could see the whites of his eyes, smell the stink of his fetid breath.
His gun inched closer, and she felt her muscles scream, white-hot agony pulsing in her cheek, her jaw.
Suddenly, a hiss filled the air. She recognized it a beat before the slingsword blade slid cleanly through the Jantari’s chest, the tip stopping inches from her own.
The officer gasped, in panic, shock. Blood dribbled from his lips, onto her face, her chin.
Elena gagged. She finally shoved him off and sat up, gasping.
Akino stood in the doorway with a slingsword. The other officers were dead, including one of their own, Nurra. Maya held her bleeding hand to her chest while Tanmay wrapped an arm around Ajira’s shaking shoulders.
Red, everywhere. In the blood pooling across the floor; in the sensors floating before them, the two dots bright and crimson like pomegranate seeds.
Elena rose unsteadily to her feet. She had the urge to strip off her clothes, to clean all the blood and grime from her skin. The rush of battle, now that it was over, had left her cold and somewhat sick.
Akino reeled back the blade with a wet plop. He wiped the sword, then held out the hilt to Elena.
“For you.”
Carefully, she accepted the blade. And then she swallowed her disgust. They still had a ship to take, a king who needed to be brought to heel. She pointed to the two blinking dots of the bounders.
“Take me to them.”