CHAPTER FIVE
ZANE
my stormsword hovering three inches away from Asterin’s heart. She also stopped, although her blaster remained leveled at my chest.
“What in all the stars are you doing here?” I snapped. “This is a restricted area. None of the solstice guests are allowed near Jorge’s labs.”
She lifted her chin and gave me a cool look. “I could ask you the same thing, Zane.”
We continued our staring contest, our weapons still up and at the ready. Several seconds ticked by in tense, hostile silence.
Finally, I blew out a breath, stepped back, and lowered my sword. Asterin was as stubborn as I was, so threats wouldn’t work on her. Besides, I had no desire to get shot in the chest and see exactly how powerful her compact blaster was.
Asterin eyed me a moment longer, but she slowly lowered the blaster to her side, then slipped the weapon into a pocket in her long gray skirt.
“I knew you had a weapon tucked away in there.”
Asterin smoothed down her skirt. “It seemed prudent when dancing with you.”
I arched an eyebrow. “I wondered if you might shoot me in the middle of the dance floor. That would be one way to thwart our families’ matchmaking efforts.”
Asterin snorted. “We will never be matched.”
I thought of the dazzling opal necklace still nestled in the jewelry box in my coat pocket. “You are severely underestimating my grandmother’s determination.”
Anger flashed in her eyes. “No one else’s determination decides my fate.”
A grudging bit of respect filled me. Asterin Armas had plenty of fighting spirit, although going up against Beatrice Zimmer almost always ended up being a losing battle.
“Matchmaking aside, that still doesn’t explain why you’re sneaking around this part of the castle.” My eyes narrowed. “Has your husband-hunting these past several months just been a cover? A clever way for you to infiltrate Regal castles to steal their technology?”
Asterin stiffened, and a bit of guilt flickered across her face before she could hide it. My chest twisted with something that felt a lot like disappointment. Despite my suspicions about her ulterior motives, I’d wanted to be wrong about her. I wasn’t quite sure why.
I kept firing questions at her. “Is the rogue guard working for you? What are the two of you after?”
A confused frown creased Asterin’s face. “What rogue guard?”
“I believe Lord Zane is referring to me,” a deep, snide voice called out.
Asterin and I both spun to the side.
Silas was now standing in the corridor, still wearing House Rojillo armor, along with black gloves. A shock baton dangled from his belt, but somewhere along the way, he’d acquired a much more impressive weapon: a large silver hand cannon that was pointed straight at me.
Silas reached over and hit a button on his left glove. An instant later, his armor started rippling, as though it was made of water instead of tough, strong, solid polyplastic. The ripples darkened, and within seconds, his armor had shifted from House Rojillo pink to a shiny black, belt, boots, and all. Neat trick.
Still keeping his cannon aimed at me, Silas let out a low whistle, as though he was the master of the castle summoning a pack of dogs to his side. A series of loud, familiar clanks rang out, and four figures appeared in the corridor behind him. The hulking figures were encased in sleek black polymetal armor, and compound green eyes glowed in their heads, making them resemble oversize insects.
Beside me, Asterin tensed. “Black Scarabs,” she whispered.
Her shock punched into my stomach, then churned alongside my own worry. This wasn’t some corporate-espionage scheme to steal proprietary designs from House Rojillo. It was so much worse than that.
The Techwave was here.
mental catalog of Techwave members, trying to connect Silas’s face with his real name, whatever it was, but I didn’t come up with a match. Not surprising. The Techwave was all about compartmentalization, and not much was known about the group’s senior members and leadership. Even Callus Holloway, with all his spies, hadn’t been able to penetrate the terrorist organization’s upper echelon, much less figure out what its ultimate plot was against the Imperium.
Silas grinned at me. “Have I rendered the great Zane Zimmer speechless? How delightful.”
A hint of the familiar Corios accent tinged his voice, signaling that he had spent some time among the Regals. Perhaps he was a former guard who had defected from the Imperium and gone over to the Techwave. Either way, working for the Techies was going to be the last mistake he ever made.
I tightened my grip on my stormsword. “What are you doing here?”
“Getting what I came for.” Silas jerked the cannon at me. “You can come along quietly, and I might let you live. Or you can cause trouble and die where you stand. Your choice, Arrow.”
His cold brown gaze flicked over to Asterin, and his grin took on a sharp, predatory edge. “After all, I only need one hostage.”
I growled and stepped forward, putting myself between Asterin and the Techwavers. I might not like Asterin, and she clearly had nefarious reasons for being here, but she was still a guest, the same as everyone else at the solstice celebration. I was an Arrow, sworn to protect the Imperium, and I would be damned if I let this bastard and his mechanized troops hurt her.
Silas rolled his eyes, as if my defiance was expected but still annoying. “Kill him.”
Two of the Black Scarabs rushed forward, their metal feet clanking against the floor in a rolling, ominous rhythm.
I snapped up my sword. “Run!” I yelled at Asterin. “Get help!”
She shook her head, yanked her blaster out of her pocket, and stepped up beside me. “You need help right now!”
Bloody stubborn spy. She was right, although I would never admit it. Still, I was determined to protect her, so I sprinted ahead, taking the fight away from Asterin and to the Black Scarabs.
At the last instant, right before I would have plowed straight into the troops, I dropped into a slide across the slick tile floor like an athlete trying to reach the goal line. I put some telekinesis into the motion and ducked my head, zipping right through the wide-spread legs of the closest Black Scarab.
The second I was past the mechanized troop, I dug the toe of my right boot into the floor, stopping my slide and popping back up onto my feet. Then, still going low, I spun back around and sliced my stormsword through the Scarab’s legs, right above its knee joints. The lunarium blade easily sheared through the tough black polymetal, spitting hot blue sparks everywhere.
The top of the Scarab lumbered forward, as if the machine thought its legs were still attached to the rest of its body, and the two halves started sliding away from each other. I snapped up my hand and used my telekinesis to fling the top half of the broken Scarab into the one standing next to it and then dashed them both into the wall.
Pew! Pew! Pew!
Bright gray blaster bolts zinged down the corridor and slammed into the two Scarabs. Bits and pieces of metal cracked off their armor, and the fluids inside the machines splattered onto the floor, the wall, and even the ceiling, like drops of glistening, onyx-black blood.
Asterin stepped forward, still firing her blaster. Pew! Pew! Pew!
More bolts slammed into the two Scarabs. The green glows in their eyes finally dimmed and died, and both troops slumped to the floor like broken toys.
Despite the situation, I grinned at Asterin. Nice shooting.
She must have heard my telepathic thought, because she grinned back at me, her white teeth flashing in a beautiful, vicious expression. Then her eyes widened. “Behind you!”
I whipped to the side. Another Black Scarab lunged forward and rammed its fist into my temple. White stars exploded in my field of vision like a supernova, the intense pain blotting out everything else.
“I don’t have a shot!” Asterin shouted, but her voice sounded tinny and far away. “Zane! Zane, move—”
Her voice abruptly cut off, although more clanks sounded, along with the dim sounds of a struggle. Asterin must be fighting the other Scarab.
I snarled and lifted my sword, trying to blink the stars away so I could help her, but I was too slow, and the Scarab beside me rammed its fist into my temple again.
More pain spiked through my head and rushed out through the rest of my body in a tingling numbness. My legs buckled, my ass hit the floor, and my stormsword tumbled out of my hand. In an instant, I was flat on my back, trying to blink through the stars still exploding in my eyes.
Footsteps sounded. A shadow loomed over me, and Silas’s face swam into view. “Good-bye, Arrow.”
The Techwave leader gave me a dispassionate look, then raised his hand cannon and pulled the trigger.
Green energy erupted out of the weapon and slammed straight into my heart. The blast washed over me, zipping through my veins like an unstoppable current of hot, electric agony, even as that supernova of stars exploded in my eyes again, bigger and brighter than before.
I screamed once, or at least I thought I did, before everything abruptly snapped to black.