Page 1 of Rebels Rising

PROLOGUE

Henrik

Working as a medical professional in any capacity had always been my dream. I loved helping people. Seeing anyone in any sort of distress was like a physical ache in my chest, my heart working in overdrive as if to pump for us both.

Children, however, had never been my forte. Sure, I would help where needed, but this wasn’t medical. This was babysitting. I didn’t know the first thing about what children needed beyond keeping their bodies alive and well, yet here I was cleaning up pee, poo and vomit while they screamed us all down. Their shrill voices were louder than should be possible coming from such tiny bodies, and it also didn’t help that the station was made entirely out of metal that reverberated sound back on us a million times over. So not only did I have to deal with hundreds of screaming children, but it also sounded as if we were being attacked by an army of them.

Cad released a sound of disgust from where he worked beside me. It was nothing more than a grunt that gave off the impression he was choking down adding his own bodily fluids to the mix right alongside our last meal.

Not that there would have been much of that left. We hadn’t eaten in over a day.

One of the toddlers had peed all over his clothing, leaving him damp and smelling of urine. We shared a commiserating look, neither of us the best option for this, but there were limited choices. All the soldiers that had joined us from the battle were tackling the job as well, some obviously more well-versed than others.

Cad and I handed off the children we’d just finished cleaning up when two more were placed in front of us. We both took one whiff of the one in front of him and our heads snapped back at the stench, hands covering all orifices that could scent or taste, because that was what made this truly horrific… we couldtastethe scents, too.

My stomach gurgled in protest and Cadmus actually gagged.

‘Oh, fuck no. Nope. I can’t,’ he rambled, backing away as far as he could before bumping into the team behind us.

‘We need a medic!’someone shouted frantically, dragging my attention away from the gruesome task. Xander was rushing out of the mangled opening of the ship, Adara still clutched to his chest, both looking pale and panicked. ‘We need a medicnow!’

I jumped to my feet and picked my way through the mass of soldiers, children and bodily fluids, trying not to slip on the mix of blood and urine puddling on the floor as I hurried to them. I was talking before I even reached them.

‘What happened?’

‘Bromm collapsed,’ Addy said, her tears wobbling her voice.

I frowned as I picked up my pace, overtaking them. ‘Why?’

‘Don’t know,’ said Xander. ‘One tick he was fine and the next he was…’

The way his words trailed off filled me with trepidation. People usually only trailed off like that when something truly terrible had happened, something so horrible they couldn’t even speak it out loud.

‘Any injuries?’ I pushed, needing all the information I could get before I reached him to avoid wasting time and getting straight to work.

‘No. There’s nothing. He should be fine, but he’s just… not.’ Adara’s words were punctuated with a sob, and my stomach dropped.

‘Where?’

I needn’t have asked as the sight unfolded before my eyes as we turned the last corner, almost tripping over Foryk. He was kneeling on the floor, head clamped tightly between his hands as he rocked back and forth, the sounds of pure grief and terror whimpering from his lips between a single repeated word.

‘Please. Please. Please.’

I almost turned around and went back the way I came, the intensity of his emotion horrifying me to my core. But I didn’t. Bromm needed help, and he needed itnow.

When I finally took in the scene beyond Foryk, I very nearly joined him on the floor. If that had been Cadmus, I had no doubt I would’ve been just as much of a wreck.

Bromm was being cradled by Artemis, expertly positioning him so he wouldn’t crush the small boy strapped to her chest. The boy’s eyes were wide open, a stunning green colour that seemed to be taking in all that was happening around him like it was just another day. Perhaps for him, it was. But there was an intelligence there that shouldn’t have been possible for a child his age. It was as if he were cataloguing everything he witnessed and storing it to study later. The way Bromm had turned white despite his blue colouring. His vacant stare as he gazed up at the ceiling, not blinking and dual pupils narrowed to tiny pinpoints. The way his limbs flopped as Artemis shook him, desperately attempting to wake him up, but even from here I could see that he was gone.

There was no rise and fall of his chest to indicate breathing. The lack of colour in his skin proved his heart was no longer pumping. His unresponsiveness was the last clue. His beard lay flat against the lower half of his face, falling like a blanket draped over his chin, neck and shoulders. They were always moving, even if it was just a twitch. Even when he was asleep.

There were no signs of life at all.

‘Help him,’ Artemis pleaded, dragging my attention away from his body to take her in for the first time since I arrived. Tears were streaking down her cheeks like a waterfall, dripping off her jaw and the tip of her nose to puddle on Bromm’s prone form. His shirt was damp with them, the fabric soaking it all up and spreading as a dark spot across his collar and down his chest. There was a wild look in her big brown eyes, reddened and puffy from crying. And the way she crouched over him protectively as if she could single-handedly bring him back to life if she just kept him from harm, there was a level of ferality to it that I had never witnessed before.

But one glance was all I needed to see that there was nothing I could do.

Bromm was dead.

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