Warlord and the Waif by Chloe Parker

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

ELLA

DESPITE MY IMPULSE to stay, I make my way down toward the Fury and out of danger.

I’ve never been one to run away, but I know Calder’s right; I won’t be any help in the battle, as much as I want to be there. Hurrying to get down the hall before anyone can spot me, I don’t bother to get a light in the darkness, sure of my footing on these well-trod floors.

The sound of battle slowly fades away as I descend the spiral staircase into the docking bay, heading to the left side of the ship, where I remember finding the entrance I took to the library. The light is still on inside, the golden glow of the ship illuminating the narrow gangplank. It strikes me as odd that I didn’t turn the lights off, but I guess I was so tired last time I was here that I forgot.

Whatever the case, I need to find a place to hide.

I enter the ship and scan my surroundings, trying to remember what lies between the library and the entrance. The library is at the stern of the ship, to the left. So the bridge must be to my right, toward the masthead.

I set a quick pace in that direction, thinking that even if I can’t help with the fight, I can at least fiddle with the controls and get the ship started. Calder’s the only one who can actually pilot the thing, so it’s not as if I can do that much damage getting things warmed up. I want to be ready for our escape when they arrive, whatever that may entail. It doesn’t take me long to reach the bridge, where I pause at the threshold

Just like the last time I was here, I’m not alone.

I creep forward, still barefoot and quiet as a mouse. An unmistakable figure stands in profile on the bridge, desperately clawing at a control panel in the middle of the room.

“Fly, you damnable ship,” Ioni mutters, banging her fist against the panel.

I turn and press myself flat against the wall when she looks up, strangling the panicked cry in my throat and making myself as small as possible. If she saw me…

“Is someone there?” she asks.

There’s nowhere here to hide. I need to run back toward the stern, but she’ll definitely see me and follow. It only takes me a split second to decide what I’m going to do, given my poor options.

I make a run for it, sprinting as fast as I can down the corridor.

If I get to the library I can get lost among the shelves of books, but I know I’m in a tough situation. I can’t tell how much longer the battle will rage upstairs, and even if it ends soon, it won’t take that long for Ioni to kill me. I don’t hear her following, but I remember how she floated over the ground when I escaped Kaer Idunn last night, and it makes me run faster.

I’m not ashamed to admit she terrifies me.

It takes ages to reach the library, but I finally do, gasping a deep breath of air and bending to place my hands on my knees as I duck around one of the big bookshelves inside. As far as I can tell, Ioni hasn’t come after me, and hope flares in my chest that I may have gotten lucky and escaped.

“Where are you?”

Her voice is low, the tone almost sing-song, sending a chill down my spine. I duck and huddle against the shelves, hoping we can play this game of cat and mouse until Calder comes to my rescue.

And at the same time, I hate that I want to be rescued.

I can do this.

I wrap my shaking hand around the dagger at my belt and begin to move, trying to find a farther bookshelf I can hide behind. I don’t know exactly how I’m going to get rid of her, but I don’t have any other choice. No one is coming to save me.

A wailing sound comes from the middle of the room, quiet at first, then louder. It sounds like a siren, increasing in volume and starting to make my ears ring. I cover them, frustrated at how whatever she’s doing makes it harder to find her.

“Found you.”

I whip around to see Ioni just behind me, her black eyes sparkling in the golden light. Without hesitating, I slash out at her with the dagger, nicking her face and leaving her gaping in silent shock before I sprint away. A blast of energy flies at me from behind and I throw myself out of the way just in time, though it succeeds in knocking over a bookshelf ahead of me. The massive wooden shelf falls with a groan, the thud resonating all over the room.

I find another hiding place, breathe, and clutch the knife. I know she’s still here, floating around like a ghost, and I can’t help the shaky breath I take. As soon as I exhale, panic overwhelms me that she’ll find me again.

I’ve never been more scared in my life.

She makes more of the siren noise, rattling the walls and the furniture all around me, and then the pulse hits me like an atomic bomb.

It’s not force, but sound, and it feels like my eardrums are going to burst when it washes over me. It’s the same piercing sound from the courtyard the night before, a screech that makes my bones hurt. I fling my hands over my ears, but the action does nothing to drown her out, leaving me to collapse to the floor. The bookshelves wobble dangerously, close to falling over.

That’s when I formulate a plan.

Books have always been my refuge, a safe place in the storm. When I got to college, they became a weapon, and I brandished knowledge like a blade through my years as a student and later, as an activist.

I never thought books would literally be a weapon. But I never thought I’d be abducted by aliens either.

I duck my head and shuffle to the next shelf, looking toward the center of the room for Ioni. I catch sight of her just beyond the shelf to my right, floating in the air, her hair and her robe billowing around her. She doesn’t see me when I move to the shelf again, and I try to stay as quiet as possible when I throw my shoulder against the towering furniture.

It barely budges.

Through an empty slot in the shelf, I see her snap her head toward me and send another wave of energy in my direction. I duck and run again, and when I glance over my shoulder I see her in pursuit, flying faster than I thought possible. My adrenaline surges and I manage to slip around the shelf as she lets out a scream and destroys more of the library.

When I shove my shoulder against this shelf, feeling it bruise as I hit, it works.

The shelf tumbles over and Ioni lets out a surprised cry, but I don’t think I get her. I may have buried her in books, but she’s not dead, as I quickly realize when she unleashes a blast of force from within the pile of wreckage. I guess I should have figured it would be harder to kill a thousand-year-old alien than just dumping some old tomes on top of her.

But I can do it again.

I sprint for another shelf, counting on her following me. She does, and I make my way around it as she wrenches another cry from her throat. I might be wrong, but it sounds like she’s getting tired, her voice a little more quiet and the pain a little less severe. I ignore it, throwing myself at the nearest shelf and sending it tumbling over on top of her. This one doesn’t have any obstructions as it’s closer to the middle of the room, and it falls flat across her, blocked only by one of those waves of energy like the one on the bridge.

I can feel it. I’ve almost got her.

I run again, faster than I think I’ve ever gone. I’m already hiding behind a new shelf when Ioni claws her way out, and I stifle a gasp at how gaunt she looks. Her face is wrinkled and blemished, her hair stringy and grey, and her fingers more like bone than flesh.

She’s dying.

But she doesn’t see me, and I’m ready to finish her off. In what might be a stupid move, I set my foot outside of the shelf with a triumphant grin.

“Come and get me!” I scream.

She lets out a cry of rage and then barrels toward me, still fast but much slower than before. I run toward the shelf, preparing to push it over, when it tilts instead toward me.

She’s figured out my game.

I duck and run out from under it, only to come face to face with the Hyperborean. Her hands go around my throat and I inhale, desperately trying to get air, but nothing reaches my lungs. I swipe at her again with my dagger, but my body starts to seize up and it clatters to the floor.

My vision swims in and out, every turn showing me the horrible vision of the wraith that’s about to kill me.

“Primitive creature,” she hisses, “You think that you could kill me? A Hyperborean magister? I will make sure your entire species suffers —”

I hear a thud and she stops short, her grip on my neck loosening as she falls forward.

Staggering backward, I panic as she falls toward me, her horrible skin clammy on mine. My eyes widen when I see the black axe embedded in her back, a line of blue blood trailing down her spine.

There should be more blood. But I guess she was more like a walking corpse than a living thing.

Then I see Calder at the threshold to the library, and relief overwhelms me. I somehow get myself to my feet, and I run as fast as I can toward him, flinging myself into his arms.

He buries his face in my hair, breathing me in, his arms around me a lifeline.

“You did well, my warrior queen.”