Chapter 33

Layla's ears were filled with the shouts of Zyair and Masora. Her skin was raw from where a stray blast had clipped her shoulder, and her eyes stung from the smoke and steam that filled the jail. But they were so close, she could almost taste the fresh night air outside. Now all she had to do was survive long enough to fill her lungs.

The guards blocking their escape yelled something in Jorvlen and, again, Layla didn't need to speak their language to get the gist of what they were saying.

"Give up the stone or we'll kill you all!" was probably a close approximation.

That was never going to happen, though. Zyair made that clear by firing a couple of blasts in their direction before pulling Layla into a small alcove in the wall. The Jorvlens responded by returning fire, and Layla knew they couldn't take cover there for long.

They had nowhere to run but toward the guards. With the rest of the crew either building the tunnel or forced to fight off Jorvlens elsewhere, they had no real backup to speak of.

Layla gripped the weapon, hoping she didn't have to use it again. She knew even if she did, it may not do any good. They needed more firepower to have an effect. Most of all, they needed cover from another angle.

She exchanged a look with Zyair, knowing these might be their last moments together.

"Zyair," she began, but he hushed her.

"We're getting out of this," he told her, his face set. "We have to."

Layla nodded, knowing she trusted him with everything. She was already trusting him with her life, and with the life of their child. What more was at stake than that?

Zyair turned back to the tunnel, peering out slightly from behind the corner of the alcove. A blast of energy just narrowly missed his head, instead taking a chunk of gray, bleak stone out of the wall.

Zyair shot back, but his energy pistol was running out of charge.

"We need some backup," he muttered to himself, glancing at his comm. He tried a couple of channels, getting nothing but silence.

Suddenly, a bright blast shot through the hallway toward the Jorvlens. Layla gasped, turning to see another set of black horns peering out from a similar alcove on the opposite wall behind them.

"Masora!" came Zyair's voice, and Layla could hear the relief in it.

"I've got you!" Masora yelled back. Zyair sent her some complicated gesture, presumably describing their strategy.

Masora nodded, and Zyair told Layla to stay behind him.

It all happened in fast-motion after that.

Zyair bounded forward, firing shots at any Jorvlen he could see. Layla followed close behind, watching as one guard after another dropped to the floor, some by Zyair's energy blasts, others by Masora's.

In a matter of seconds, Zyair had pulled her into the mouth of the tunnel and past the pile of debris already burning dimly.

"Fire it up!" he yelled. "And run!"

As Layla ran down the tunnel, she felt a sudden blast of heat behind her and turned just in time to see a smattering of Jorvlens running away from the now-enormous blaze. What she didn't see was Masora.

In a matter of seconds, though, the air was thick with black smoke. The red flickering light of the fire lit up the tunnel, shot through with the white light of energy blasts, in a multicolored, impenetrable fog.

Zyair's hand was clamped tightly around Layla's, and he pulled her forward toward the tunnel, where the other crew had been. They had no time to turn around, no time to stop, no time to do anything but run, run, run. Run, and hope that they would make it.

The tunnel was long, and once they got past a curve away from the fire, they had only their comms to light the way. Then Layla looked around. Four points of light hovered in the dark, and by the blue light that bounced off the walls, she was sure Masora wasn't with them.

Not only that, it was clear some of the crew were injured.

Several blasts echoed down the chamber and two of the crew—the two at the back—shot back. A groan emanated down the tunnel, but in the noise, the movement, and the deception of sound bouncing off the walls, she couldn't tell if it was one of them or one of the Jorvlens that had been hurt.

Zyair was tugging on her hand though, and she kept running.

Only when they emerged on the other side, when sweet, cold air hit her lungs, could she finally stop to regroup herself.

The same five blue dots were there—Zyair, Fez, Bacca, Faran, Anda—but Masora was not.

"Where is she?" she asked, looking up at Zyair.

His face was set with worry, and Layla looked anxiously toward the mouth of the tunnel.

"We have to tend those who are here now," Zyair said. "She'll make it."

Layla felt a sense of dread in her chest, but she knew Zyair was right. At least about the first part.

She went around checking the crew members, most of whom had made it with only minor injuries. As the minutes wore on, though, the group grew tense.

"Those Jorvlens won't be held off for long," Anda said. "We're going to have to go soon."

Zyair said nothing, simply staring at the tunnel mouth and waiting.

Suddenly, the blast of an energy pistol ricocheted off one of the internal walls. The whole crew outside reached for their weapons, ready to shoot whoever was coming at them.

As the sound of footsteps raced toward them, Layla strained her eyes, and suddenly another blast fired. This time, though, it illuminated a figure.

"It's her!" she cried.

"Go! Go! Go!" came Masora's voice from inside the tunnel, and the crew scrambled as fast as their injuries would allow them toward the large pod Faran had parked nearby.

Masora jumped in last, closing the hatch as an array of energy blasts came emanating from the tunnel. But the pod was already off the ground by the time the firepower reached the spot where it had been just moments before.

As the pod lifted, Layla looked out to see the ground receding beneath them. Suddenly the darkness was broken by a massive blast from the tunnel mouth. It wasn't the blast of an energy pistol, though. It was a fireball that looked different from anything Layla had ever seen.

Masora turned and winked. "Just for good measure," she said.

The crew let out a laugh of relief, which was quickly followed by a series of groans. Their injuries made laughing more painful than usual, and they did a wellness check as the pod hovered over the burning remains of the Jorvlen tunnel.

While the crew tended to each other, Zyair noticed Layla's burnt shoulder.

"Oh my gods," he said. "I'm so sorry you got hurt."

The pain in his eyes was remarkable, but all Layla could do was smile. Her eyes filled with tears of joy, of gratitude, of relief.

"You saved me," she uttered tearfully, wrapping her arms around Zyair's neck. She didn't care how much it hurt her. Holding him was the best thing she had ever felt.

She pressed her lips against his, flooded by the realization that he truly was the love of her life—the man who would clearly do anything for her and for whom she would do anything.