Page 97 of Nova Academy

‘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 loudBOOMthat 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 myattention 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.

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