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But here, soldiers lived, reached for weapons Even as gunfire rang out, she struck, enfla with pain She struck out with sword, swung out with shield to cut through the enemy

Fighting through, she heard the shouts,from behind the steel doors, and felt the fear, the terrible hope, the pain and confusion of those locked in

Drenched in it, she cut down a soldier as he rushed to his comm, sliced her sword across the radio, sent a bolt of shock through the entire system

Sparks showered, monitors blanked to black

Boots clanged on metal stairs, and death, h the air Fallon took a bullet on her shield, sent it flying back and into the shooter as she pivoted to the iron door soed to secure

She blasted it open, taking out two on the other side and, leaping over the sh a third before she rushed toward the stairs leading down

War cries followed her Her troops would spread out, swaralley, infirmary

But she and those with her surged toward the lab and its chamber of horrors There, another iron door She started to punch her power through, stopped a breath away fro dark

Magicks, black and deadly

She held up a hand to halt her tea patience, she searched, tall in elf-made boots and leather vest, black hair short, eyes blurred with power

“Stand back,” she ordered, and shouldered her shield, sheathed her sword to hold her hands to the door, the locks, the deep frame, the thick metal

“Booby-trapped,” she murmured “We push in, it blows out Stand clear”

“Fallon”

“Stand clear,” she told her father “I could unwind it, but that would take too long” She swung her shield up again, and her sword “In three, two—”

She shoved her power, light against dark

The doors erupted, spewing fire, raining out jagged, fla metals Shrapnel thudded on her shield, whizzed by to impale the wall behind her Into the torrent she leaped

She saw the lazed, face blank, shackled to an exa on his hands, then scaled the back wall in a blur of speed

She flung power at the ceiling, brought the one in the lab coat down in a heap as Si him out with a short-armed jab

“Search for others,” Fallon ordered “Confiscate all records Two to secure this section, and the rest move out, clear the rest of the level”

She approached the man on the table “Can you speak?”

She heard his le to form words

They tortured me I can’t move Help me Will you help me?

“We’re here to help” She watched his face as she sheathed her sword Blocked out the chaos of fighting from above while she kept her mind linked to his

“Got a woed, cut up, but she’s breathing”

They hurt us, hurt us Help us

“Yes” Fallon laid a hand on one of the shackles so it fell open “How long have you been here?”

I don’t know I don’t know Please Please

She circled the table to release the shackle on his other wrist “Did you choose the dark before or after you came here?” she wondered

He reared up, glee on his face as he struck out at her with a bolt of lightning She si him with his own evil

“I guess we’ll never know,” she mumbled

“Jesus Christ, Fallon” Siun drawn

“I had to be sure Can you get her to a medic?”

“Yeah”

“We’ll clear the rest”

&nbs

p; When they had, the count was forty-three enemy prisoners to transport The rest they’d bury Medics an the laborious process of vetting those held in cells

Soht have had their er to the rest

“Take a break,” Simon told her, and shoved coffee into her hand

“There are soulped down coffee as she studied her father’s face He’d mopped off the blood, and his hazel eyes held clear He’d been a soldier long ago, in the other tiain in this one

“They’ll need to move into one of the treato Why does that always feel as if we’re keeping them prisoners?”

“It shouldn’t, because it’s not Soain, Fallon, and still we’ll let theer Now tell me how you knew that bastard on the table down in the lab was a bad guy”

“First, he wasn’t as powerful as he thought, and it leaked through But logically, the spell on the door, witchcraft The other ickal in the lab was an elf Bad elf,” she said with half a sh locks, but they can’t bespell them I felt his pulse when I released the first shackle, and it was ha It wouldn’t have been if he’d been under a paralytic”

“But you released the second one”

“He could’ve done that for hied “I’d hoped to question him, butwell” She downed the rest of the coffee, and blessed her row the beans “Do you have the status of the woman they’d dumped off the table?”

“Faerie She’ll never fly again—they excised ot her at mobile medical”

“Good The faerie’s lucky they didn’t just kill her instead of tossing her off Once our injured prisoners are cleared, I need you to debrief I know it’s hard for you,” she added “They’re soldiers, andorders”

“They’re soldiers,” he agreed, “who stood by or even abetted while their prisoners were tortured, while children were kept in cells No, baby, it’s not hard for me”

“I could do this without you because I have to do it, but I don’t kno”