Page 45 (1/2)

Sevro holds up a hand at the fourth-floor stairwell and motions me forward I slip toward him with Quinn and peer down Dust rises up the circular stairwell Beyond it, on the botto, shadows move But there is no noise Sevro bends and places a piece of debris on the edge of a banister, gesturingat it, and I stiffen Though there is no sound, the piece of debris rocks slightly

Vibrations in the building

Before Sevro and the others can stop me, I jump over the banister and rip down the center of the spiral stairith ten tiravity would allow Pop I enter the domain of a second jamField, and sounds of war rattle overout bullets, pulse weapons warbling like deravBoots, jerkingmy razor around ht thurate like thinfrost against hot breath

Bodies, strewn across the halls Rubble Fires Grays and Obsidians chase down Augustan Golds Six Grays overwhel into aegises till they overload and warp backward, consu the Golds’ left arms Rounds slap into the pulseShields that cover their body’s, overloading the circuitry The Grays slip forith practiced precision and shoot the Golds point-blank in their helmeted heads The best armor in the Solar Systeone The Grays turn in my direction, level their rifles, and ises throb against the vambraces that cover their left forear fire Sevro slips fro, they flicker in and out of sight, st the Grays, then back by my side before the Grays fall

More weaponfire sla my naked head off I duck behind h me A Gray pops into the hall and fires a microShot at us Thirty tiny bombs spread out like a swarm of hornets Thistle and Rotback blast the swarm apart with their pulseFists A sheet of blue fire billows through the hall A second swarm of boravFist and shoots at the swarm of bombs just before they hit They reverse course, back the way they came, where they slap into the Gray squad and detonate

We won’t last in here Nothing will, I decide when three Bellona Obsidians lope into view, Karnus au Bellona following at their heels Soht all who coainst us There’s a better way A s seven stories above us, up the center gap in the stairwell He shoots his pulseFist upward and chunks of stone rain down around us, suspended by Quinn’s gravFist Sevro shoots again and water rains down through the hole, swirling in the gravity bubble Quinn created I stand and yell, "On me!"

We ascend out of the chaos before the Praetorians fall on us I come to a halt two hundred meters above the villa Wind whips I had no plan when I dove down to the first level I thought only of my friends Now I know the Howlers and I will be killed if we fight I let my razor curl placidly around my arm I instruct the Howlers to do the same and I roar into the darkness

"AJA!" The Howlers close around me, nervous as we float exposed above the villa The storm sends sheets of rain down on us "AJA!"

A horde of Praetorians disengage their ghostCloaks near the hot springs and lagoon, where the infrared is thrown into chaos by the heat of the water Two Praetorians rocket up froh pine trees, one a Stained He flies closer, leveling his ionFist at orydanize your betters?" A Praetorian Gold joins hinize the woman Her serpent helm recoils into her purple-black armor, sleeker than the Obsidians’ Face sharp and ruthless as an axehead

"Varga, heel," she snaps The Stained lowers his weapon His hela is a she An Obsidian two feet taller than I, with a tribal skull tattoo consu her pale face White hair flutters behind her More scars on her face than I have on ," Sevro snaps "I’ll shoot her if she snarls again"

"Were you the squad in the stairwell?" The Gold glances over us, unsure of what to make of me or my Howlers "You killed my Grays"

"Don’t weep over Grays," I say "They raised their hands against me"

"Why are you here?" She wipes the rain fron confined you to your rooe?"