Winter (39 page)

“Just pass out,” Iko said, trying to sound comforting, “and I’ll let you go.”

“Hey!”

She snapped her head around as a royal guard spotted them through the kitchen window. He ran for the back door and swung it open and …

Holy stars almighty.

She’d always thought Kai was the most attractive human specimen she’d ever seen, but this man was devastingly beautiful, with tan skin and roguish wavy hair, and he was …

He was …

Pointing a gun at her.

Iko yanked the thaumaturge in front of her at the same moment he pulled the trigger. The bullet hit the woman somewhere in her torso and she collapsed, already weak from Iko’s suffocation.

Iko dropped the woman and hurled herself over the body, grappling for the guard’s gun. He swung her around, knocking her back into the counter. The impact reverberated through Iko’s limbs. The guard yanked the gun away and swung his opposite fist toward Iko’s face. Her head snapped back and she stumbled two, three steps, before colliding with the stove. The guard cursed, shaking out his hand.

Iko was just thinking that she should have installed some martial arts programming when a second gunshot jolted through her audio receptors. She flinched and clamped her hands over her ears, dialing down the volume even though it was too late.

When her thoughts cleared, she saw the guard staring at her with an open mouth and saucer-wide eyes, his hands still gripping the gun. “What … what
are
you?”

She looked down. There was a hole in her chest, revealing sparking wires and frayed synthetic skin tissue. She groaned. “I just had that replaced!”

“You’re…” The guard took a step back. “I’d heard of Earthen machines that could … that were … but you…” His face contorted, and Iko had spent enough time analyzing facial muscles to recognize this expression as complete, unbridled disgust.

Indignation flared inside her, probably seeping out through the new hole in her chest. “It’s not polite to stare, you know!”

A form appeared in the door leading to the main room. Another guard, and this one Iko recognized as one from Levana’s personal entourage. He had been part of the team that had accosted them on the rooftop in New Beijing. “What happened?” he barked, taking in the fallen thaumaturge and the pretty guard’s lowered weapon and Iko.

Recognition flitted through his eyes and he grinned. “Nice find, Kinney. I guess this trip wasn’t as pointless as I thought.” He stepped over the thaumaturge’s body.

Iko raised her fists, trying to recall all those fighting pointers Wolf had given Cinder.

“Where’s the cyborg?” asked the guard.

Iko snarled at him. “Bite me.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Tempt me.”

“Sir Solis,” said the other guard, Kinney, “she’s not … it isn’t human.”

“Clearly,” he drawled, glancing at the bullet hole in her chest cavity. “I guess we’ll have to get creative with how we extract information from her. I mean,
it.
”

He swung for her. Iko ducked and swung back, but he trapped her easily. Before her processor could catch up, he had her hands locked behind her back. Iko struggled, trying to stomp on the arch of his foot, but he evaded every attempt. He was laughing as he bound her hands and spun her back to face him.

“All that Earthen technology,” he said, pulling aside the fabric of her shirt to pick at the destroyed skin fibers, “yet you’re somehow still completely worthless.”

Hot anger turned her vision red. “I’ll show you worthless!”

Before she could show him anything, though, a banshee’s scream filled the kitchen and a kitchen knife slashed toward Jerrico’s shoulder. He gasped and dodged. The blade cut through his sleeve, leaving a bright red gash. Iko stumbled back.

Jerrico spun around and slammed the attacker against the wall, holding her throat in one hand while the other wrestled for her wrist, securing her knife hand.

Winter didn’t let go of the knife or her wild-eyed loathing. She brought her knee up, right between his legs. Jerrico grunted and pulled her away from the wall, just to slam her back again. This time, Winter wheezed, the air pushed out of her lungs.

“Kinney, watch the android,” Jerrico said through his teeth.

Iko swiveled her attention from Princess Winter to the too-handsome-to-be-such-a-jerk guard, but Kinney no longer cared about her. His face was horrified as Jerrico held the princess by her throat. “That’s Princess Winter! Unhand her!”

A humorless laugh erupted from Jerrico. “I know who it is, idiot. Just like I know she’s supposed to be dead.”

“I heard she was dead too, but clearly she’s not. Release her.”

Rolling his eyes, Jerrico turned and dragged Winter off the wall. “No, she’s
supposed
to be dead. The queen ordered her to be killed, but it seems like someone didn’t have the stomach for it.” Winter slumped forward but he dragged her back up, holding her against his chest. “What a lucky catch. I’ve been waiting to have you alone for years, but that annoying Sir Clay was always hanging around like a vulture on dead meat.” Jerrico dragged his thumb along Winter’s jaw. “Doesn’t look like he’s here now, does it, Princess?”

Winter’s lashes fluttered. Her eyes were dazed as she looked at Kinney. “You…”

“Hey.” Jerrico forced her chin around to face him. “You’re my prize, Princess. So what reward do you think I’ll get for bringing your dead body to the queen? I don’t think she’ll care what state it’s in, and as an added bonus, I can prove that your boyfriend is a traitor after all.”

Iko yanked at her hands, trying to disconnect her thumbs from their sockets and shimmy out of the cords, but she couldn’t get enough leverage with her arms so tightly bound.

She was about to throw herself forward and ram into Jerrico’s spine with all the force her metal skull could muster when Winter collapsed, as limp as a rag doll.

Jerrico startled, barely able to regain his hold on her. In the same moment, Winter plunged the forgotten knife into his side.

Jerrico yelled and released her. Winter stumbled out of his grip, but he grabbed her wrist and yanked her back, then backhanded her across the face. Winter fell. Her head crashed into the edge of the counter.

Iko screamed as the princess’s body crumpled to the floor.

With a stream of curses, Jerrico wrapped his hand around the knife handle, but didn’t pull it from the wound. His face was as red as his hair as he snarled at the princess. “What a stupid, crazy—”

He hauled back his foot to kick her, when Kinney raised his gun and fired. The shot knocked Jerrico against the wall.

Iko recoiled. No matter how many brawls and fights she found herself in, she was always stunned at how much more horrible the reality was than the net dramas. Even the death of such a despicable guard, his face contorted in disbelief as the life drained out of it, made her grimace.

The silence that followed felt like it had taken over the whole sector and Iko questioned if that last gunshot had permanently damaged her audio.

The guard was staring at the gun in his hand as if he’d never seen it before. “That’s the first time I pulled the trigger myself.” Inhaling deeply, he set his gun on the counter and crouched over Princess Winter. He reached back to inspect her head. His fingers came away bloodied.

“She’s breathing,” he said, “but she might have a concussion.”

Iko’s processor stumbled. “Whose side are you on?”

He looked up. His nose twitched as he took in the bullet hole again, but his gaze didn’t linger on it. “We were told the princess was dead. I thought another guard killed her.”

Iko arranged the folds of her shirt to cover her wound. “A guard named Jacin was ordered by the queen to kill her, but he helped her escape instead.”

“Jacin Clay.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Why did you help us?”

With a tense brow, Kinney eased the princess back onto the floor. There was blood everywhere. From the thaumaturge. From Jerrico. From Winter.

“I helped
her
,” said Kinney, as if the distinction was important. He found the dish towel Iko had started to suffocate Mistress Pereira with and tied it around Winter’s head, bandaging the wound as well as he could. When he finished, he stood and picked up the bloodied knife.

Iko stepped back.

He paused. “Do you want me to cut those cords or not?”

She searched his face, wishing she didn’t feel so compelled to keep staring at it. “Yes, please?”

She turned around and he made quick work of freeing her. She half expected to find split skin fragments when she held up her hands, but the blade hadn’t so much as nicked her.

“Here’s what’s going to happen,” said Kinney, gesturing to the gun still on the counter. Iko could tell he didn’t like looking at her. He kept finding reasons to look away. “I’m going to make up a report telling them you wrestled the gun away from me and killed Mistress Pereira and Sir Solis, then managed to get away. I’m not going to tell them anything about seeing the princess. They don’t even have to know she’s still alive.” He pointed at her nose, daring to hold her gaze for longer than half a second. “And you are going to get her far away from here. Keep her hidden.”

She planted her hands on her hips. “And here we were just keeping her holed up in a tiny little house in a completely random mining sector. Why didn’t it ever occur to us to try and
keep her hidden
?”

Kinney’s face was unreadable for a long moment before he asked, “You understand sarcasm?”

“Of course I understand sarcasm,” she spat. “It’s not like it’s theoretical physics, is it?”

The guard’s jaw worked for a moment, before he shook his head and turned away. “Just take care of her.” He checked on the princess one more time and then he was gone.

Forty-Two

Cinder and Wolf were taken to an underground cargo port crowded with battered delivery ships and three royal pods, which explained why the arrival of their enemies hadn’t set off any alarms. Cinder had only posted watch at the maglev platform.

She berated herself, hoping she would someday have a chance to learn from this mistake.

With her wrists shackled, Cinder felt like her arms might come out of their sockets. Though Wolf walked behind her, she could sense his energy—ragged and lethal. Shuddering with fear for Scarlet. Hollow and devastated over what they had done to Maha.

A royal guard was waiting. His hair was disheveled but his expression was empty.

“Report,” said Aimery. He was walking with a limp and Cinder fantasized about kicking him right where the bullet had entered.

“Mistress Pereira and Sir Solis are dead.”

Aimery lifted an eyebrow. He seemed nothing but curious at this unexpected statement. “How?”

“We were ambushed inside the Kesley house by an Earthen android,” said the guard.

Cinder’s heart leaped.

“A brawl ensued. The android was immune to mental manipulation, nor did bullets do much to affect her. She …
it
suffocated Mistress Pereira, after which I engaged it in hand-to-hand combat. It disarmed me and used my gun to shoot both Sir Solis and our thamaturge. While the android was distracted, I managed to lodge my knife into its back, severing its … spine, of sorts. That successfully disabled it.”

A headache pulsed behind Cinder’s eyes, the sign of tears that would never come. First Maha, now Iko …

“With the threat removed, I conducted a thorough search of the rest of the house and surrounding properties,” the guard continued. “I found no other accomplices.”

It was the smallest relief. Winter, at least, had not been discovered, and as far as Cinder could tell, neither had Thorne or Scarlet.

Aimery stared a long time at the guard, as if he were searching for a flaw in the story. “What became of the android?”

“I found and destroyed what I believe was its power source,” said the guard. “I threw what was left into the public trash compactor.”

“No!” Cinder staggered, but the guard behind her hefted her back to her feet.

The guard cast her the briefest of glances, before adding, “I left the bodies behind. Shall I return for them?”

Aimery waved a careless hand. “We will send a crew.”

New clomping emanated from the stairwell. Still shuddering from the news of Iko’s loss, Cinder barely managed to lift her head. She glimpsed Wolf, watching her. Though his eyes were sympathetic, his jaw was tense with anger.

They had both lost someone dear to them today.

Cinder felt like she was suffocating, like her ribs were tightening around her lungs, but she pulled strength from Wolf’s presence. Her fury started to build. Her sorrow became dry kindling, quick to ignite.

She found her footing again, and though she couldn’t extricate herself from the guard’s hold, she made herself stand tall.

The footsteps turned into a black-coated male thaumaturge and more guards.

“We have not found any more accomplices, or discerned who was firing on us from the factory windows,” the new thaumaturge said. “It’s possible they’ve retreated to a different sector. They might reattempt the insurgence elsewhere.”

Aimery dismissed the thaumaturge’s concern with a smile. “Let them try. We are not afraid of our own people.” His dark eyes settled on Cinder. “This little rebellion is over.”

Cinder lifted her head, but a low growl stole Aimery’s attention away from her. He turned to Wolf, whose sharp canines were bared. He looked feral and bloodthirsty, ready to tear their captors apart.

In response, Aimery laughed. Stepping forward, he cupped Wolf’s chin in his fingers and squeezed until Wolf’s cheeks puckered. “Besides, how could we ever lose when we have beasts such as this at our disposal?” Releasing Wolf’s chin, Aimery slapped him tenderly on the cheek. “Alpha Kesley, isn’t it? I was there for the queen’s tournament, the day you won your position in your pack. It seems you’ve been led astray by these Earthens. What shall we do about that?”

Wolf watched the thaumaturge with a hatred that could have burned the skin off his bones.

Without warning, one of his knees gave way and he knelt before Aimery. Cinder flinched, feeling the shock as if it were ricocheting through her own joints. In another moment, Wolf had bowed his head.