CHAPTER 39

Artemis

I rounded on Captain Hironimus as soon as Reece was escorted out of the room in handcuffs by the Chief. ‘How could you do this?’ I demanded.

Stand down, cadet. My hands are tied. This decision isn’t mine to make.’

‘ Bullshit ,’ I spat out. ‘This is a copout. This whole thing is one big frame job, and you’re just letting it happen.’

‘I said stand down, cadet. You are in no position to question me. Do not forget your place.’

I knew he was right, to a degree, but I was done playing games. I was out of time and Reece was being thrown in a jail cell for something he didn’t do, and everything was going wrong and I was done .

‘Fuck that, Captain. And fuck you. This is wrong and you know it.’

I shoved past everyone and left the suite, heading straight for the elevator. I didn’t know what to do, so I figured I would use this time to expel some pent-up energy on the track. The training deck was mostly empty when I got down there, all cadets and the majority of the crew taking their evening meal. There were a few officers dotted around the place, clustered in small groupings around the weight machines or sparring on the mats.

I didn’t bother to change into my workout gear, choosing to move straight to the track and start my run. I had to restrict my speed, however, so it wasn’t doing what I needed it to do. Instead, even more energy began to store up inside of me, my internal well feeling like it was about to burst at the seams. It was a similar feeling to the other day when the panic overcame me and the overwhelming sensations of new emotions and sensory overload compacted around me. I felt like I was encased in an ever-tightening cocoon and no matter what I did, I couldn’t break free.

When it became clear that I wasn’t going to be able to really let loose and expel all that energy, I slowed to a stop and tried deep breathing in an attempt to calm my racing heart, lower my adrenaline and calm myself down.

‘Arty?’ a tentative voice called from behind me. Of course Bromm would follow me. Why couldn’t he just take a hint?

Because you’ve been sending him mixed signals, dumbass , a vicious voice whispered to my in the back of my mind.

‘What is it, Bromm?’ I asked in a small voice. Despite all the energy rolling around in my body I simply didn’t have any to spare for my emotional capacity.

He approached, stopping close enough to me that if I swayed even an inch forward I’d bump into him. ‘I’m here,’ was all he said.

Those two, simple words were enough to close a hole inside me that had always been there, but simultaneously turned another into a gaping wound. ‘You shouldn’t be.’

‘Tough shit.’

I sighed. ‘Bromm, you really should go.’

‘No. I’m not going anywhere Arty. I’m staying right here beside you.’

My body moved of its own volition and my forehead came to rest on his shoulder. ‘I’m tired, Bromm.’

His arms came around me and he pulled me in tight, though mine remained dangling by my sides. ‘ I’m here ,’ he repeated.

I pressed a shaky kiss to his neck as I pulled away, then I looked him in the eye to tell him what I needed to say. ‘I’m so sorry.’

He frowned. ‘For what?’

I merely shook my head. ‘I don’t deserve your forgiveness, but I hope you can find it within you to forgive me anyway.’‘Arty, where is this coming from ?

I lifted a hand to caress his cheek, his beard tangling with my fingers gently. He leaned into the touch, his eyelids fluttering. ‘I wish things could be different,’ I admitted on a whisper. ‘I wish I could be what you deserve.’

His own hand encompassed mine, holding me in place against his face. ‘You are. Fuck, Arty you are .’

I placed a lingering kiss against his lips, and was grateful when he didn’t try to deepen it, accepting it for what it was.

When we pulled away there was a tenderness in his gaze I had never seen directed at me before, and it set off a tingling, fuzzy feeling in the pit of my stomach.

‘I’m falling in love with you, Arthur Mercer,’ he whispered against my lips, and while my heart and soul soared at his confession I flinched at the use of my fake name.

I was insane. That was my only excuse for what I said next. ‘Don’t call me that.’

He lifted a single brow, but something in his bright blue gaze told me he was waiting for something. ‘Why not? It’s your name.’

‘No… it’s not,’ I admitted.

His answering smile was patient, pleased, and completely baffling. ‘I figured as much.’

My jaw dropped at his admission. ‘Wha… how?’

He open his mouth to respond, but before he could utter a single word there was a loud BOOM that echoed throughout the room.

‘What was that?’ he asked, but I already knew. They were here. They had come to take me back.

I grabbed hold of Bromm’s shoulders and made sure his attention was fully on me. ‘Bromm, you need to find the others. Now.’

He looked at me as if I were insane. ‘Not without you.’

I wanted to laugh at his loyalty and protectiveness, but there wasn’t anything he could do for me except get to safety, so I told him as much .

‘I’m not leaving you here, Arty,’ he insisted, and when I tried to push him away he held on tighter.

It was clear I wasn’t going to shake him, and by the sound of screams drifting down from the deck above us my enhanced senses were able to pick up, we were out of time. Instead, I dragged him with me towards the weapons wall and handed him a stun gun. They didn’t provide lethal weapons in training, so this was all we had to work with.

‘How’s your aim?’ I asked, keeping one ear focused on the chaos that was quickly working its way towards us.

‘Decent,’ he said, turning the weapon on and listening to it charge up with a slight shake to his fingers.

‘Good. I’m going to get you up to the captain’s deck. Are the others still there?’

‘When I left, yeah.’

‘Good. You’ll need to stick together’.

He pulled me around then so I was facing him and his deeply concerned expression. ‘You’re leaving me behind.’ It wasn’t a question. He had obviously caught on to a lot more than he was supposed to, so I didn’t bother lying.

‘I was never staying,’ I admitted. ‘You were never part of the plan, Bromm. I’m sorry, but I need you safe.’

‘What about you?’

The smile I sent him was meant to be reassuring, but I could feel the sadness emanating instead. ‘I’m going to do what I came here to do.’

‘And what’s that?’

I didn’t answer. Instead, I placed a short, yet fiercely passionate kiss on his lips then pulled him behind me as we made for the exit.

‘Stay behind me,’ I ordered, and my opinion of him grew even more when he did so unquestioningly. His blind faith in me was simultaneously stupid and flattering, and for a moment I wished I could have been less jaded and more trusting until I focused my attention back on the present.

I wasn’t about to risk his life because I got lost in my head.

More sounds of fear and violence echoed throughout the corridors, so much so that even Bromm could hear it by now. The officers still training finally caught on that something was off. They scrambled to the weapons rack, but they were too late. Just as we reached the elevator there was an explosion behind us followed by a blast that knocked us off our feet and a burning heat that seared through my skin. I quickly covered Bromm with my body as he screamed, taking the brunt of the heat for him. My flesh would heal in seconds while his would continue to blister and bleed.

‘Arty!’ he shouted, terrified.

‘Stay down!’ I shouted back.

I kept shielding him until the heat abated, but at that point there were soldiers rushing through the holes that had just been blasted into the ship. Guns raised that certainly were more fatal than our measly stun guns, their bodies were clad head-to-toe in black tactical gear, their faces covered in gas masks.

The very same gas masks the scientists would wear when their subjects needed to be subdued quickly, or that were a part of the guard’s uniform.

Fuck . Change of plans. I wasn’t getting out of this one. I was going to have to let them catch me. With their sleeping gas it wasn’t much of a choice anyway. I was going with them whether I liked it or not.

My only goal now was to get Bromm to safety before they caught up to me. I would have to leave him behind and lure them in a different direction away from him and the others so they wouldn’t get caught up in the gas. Most people couldn’t withstand the amount needed to keep someone like me unconscious, and I wasn’t willing to let them die simply because they were close to me.

‘We have to run, Bromm. Now .’

I helped him get his feet back under him and then we were off. The elevator was out of the question, which meant we needed to climb. There were no stairs on military ships, the elevators the only way to move between decks. I was sure there were other elevators we could have tried, but they would likely be just as useless as this one now.

The only option was to climb up the shafts, and I wasn’t sure how quickly I was going to be able to do it if I had to wait on Bromm. Not that I doubted he was capable, he just didn’t have the upper body strength to pull himself up such a height.

Which meant I was going to have to carry him.

I crouched in front of him and gestured to my back. ‘Get on,’ I commanded.

‘What? Why?’

‘Just trust me! Get on!’

He didn’t raise any more questions or doubts, immediately clinging to my back with his spindly limbs.

‘Hold on tight and don’t let go,’ I told him, then took a running leap into the empty shaft. The elevator had dropped down to the bottom deck, no longer in service, so I was able to jump right into the empty machinery that made it work. There were tracks and wires, some of which were exposed from snapping under the tension from trying to keep up with the rapidly sinking chamber.

Bromm’s arms squeezed around me, his legs gripping my waist as he buried his face in my shoulder. ‘Fuck, you’re insane. This is insane. We’re going to die.’

‘We’re not dying today, Bromm. Trust me.’

‘I do trust you, baby. It’s them I don’t trust,’ he retorted.

I vehemently ignored the way the new pet name set off those butterflies in my stomach again, keeping my focus on climbing the shaft. It was still a possibility that it could turn back on and rise with us still climbing, resulting in a very bloody, very squishy, and very smeared death.

‘How are you this strong?’ I heard him mumble to himself, and I ignored that too.

When I counted the correct number of doors to the captain’s deck, I held on with one hand and used the other to yank open the door. I tossed Bromm over my shoulder so he would land first, then clambered through after him. He lay on his back staring up at the ceiling with a dazed expression, but we couldn’t stop now.

I nudged him. ‘Get up, we have to keep moving.’

I helped haul him back up again then pressed my hand against the scanner to Adara’s suite. It was locked, so I pried it open, uncaring of the dents I was leaving behind in the metal from my fingers. As soon as the door opened I found myself face-to-barrel with a gun, but I knocked it away as if it were nothing.

To me it was.

‘Mercer?’ The captain seemed surprised to see me.

A quick scan of the room concluded that everyone was here and accounted for. I turned back to face Bromm, knowing he wouldn’t like what I was about to do.

I was correct when he immediately began to protest. ‘No, Arty. Don’t you dare. You’re staying right here with us.’

I couldn’t help myself and pressed one last kiss to his deliciously plump lips. ‘I’m falling in love with you too, Brommyt Min’Tuk,’ I whispered against his lips. ‘Which is why you need to stay here and be safe.’

Before he could respond beyond a stuttered breath, I shoved him towards the captain, ran out the door, then forced it closed again. I took an extra moment to remould the metal, merging it with the wall so that it would be more difficult for the enemy to enter.

I could hear Bromm screaming for me and banging his fists against the door, and I let a single tear drip free as I destroyed the scanner with a single well-placed punch. I wasn’t about to let it be easy for the bad guys to reach them.

But when I turned around to run there was nowhere to go. Soldiers spilled into the corridor from all angles, and I chanced a quick glance toward the other door where Reece was being held, praying to the stars or anyone who would listen to keep him safe. To keep them all safe.

Multiple barrels were aimed at me, but I followed the one directly in front of my face. Up a muscular arm encased in black fabric, following the lines of a large male body up to a face covered in a gas mask. But what I found when I made contact with his eyes knocked the breath directly from my lungs.

‘I should’ve known it would be you,’ I told him.

And then, all at once, they pressed down on their triggers and I was struck from multiple angles with dart after dart. The needles stung as they broke the skin, but otherwise the pain was negligible. What worried me was that I started to feel woozy long before the gas clouded the air, and as the world went dark the last sight I had was of those all-too familiar eyes, their burgundy colour bleeding into the black.

To be continued…