Page 42 of Bonded Queen: to the Alien Warlord Triad

Ever since they stopped firing, the silence was pregnant, filled with tension, waiting for klaxons and thunder, and now it returns, the deafening thud starting up. They’re pointed straight above us.

The crowd screams, and people scatter, running in all directions away from the palace.

14

Orr

My blade is active before the turrets fire, the lightning energy of the Orb wrapping around the pure black metal of the blade that appears with my thought. It is useless. There is no enemy to attack.

There’s no time to think of why. Only that I now possess my Mate, body and soul, and that the flower of her being has sprouted in my mind. Someone wants to rip her out of my consciousness by the root.

I lock in on the anti-air battery. It is on the far side of the city, but it can fire explosives with the strength to hit Org-Ships or invaders while they try to breach the atmosphere. I expect it to aim in on us, but I let the seconds tick by as I plan the escape. The barrels of the huge guns keep climbing upwards, then they let out a burst of molten metal and explosives, the guns kicking back as they smoke.

“We moved power from the spire’s shields!”Kriz’s telepathy fills my mind. He realized the target half a second before me.

The spire is hit mid-way along the shaft, the anti-air battery blasting upwards with deep, booming strikes. The spire itself is a cylinder with windows and circular balconies that ring the structure, reaching up until the flat circle of the dome above. The base of the spire is thicker, and it thins as it climbs to the heavens. The first shots bounce off against the underpowered shields, the munitions tumbling down and exploding in mid-air, fiery blasts harmless above us that make Rachel scream.

Then the shots penetrate the shields. We can’t move any power to the protect the spire, not with explosives raining down on us, and it’s left unprotected from the surprise attack. The anti-air battery is blasting away at the weak parts, and huge chunks of concrete and stone plummet towards us.

I grab Rachel, pulling her tight against my body, so that if some piece of metal gets through our shields, my frame could block it. The spire splits near in half, the side of it demolished and collapsing in itself. Smoke and dirt fills the air, but it can’t penetrate the thick shield circle around us. A slab of concrete bigger than a Reaver bounces off the shields, but it near penetrates by the sheer size alone, the shield flexing inwards. A huge, thick block of stone like a giant’s spear follows, piercing through the weakened shield. It smashes down against the bridge.

The Priests never moved. They simply stood. The stone crunches into the bridge, and the three wizened old men are knocked over the side, cartwheeling as their robes whirl. Not a one of them screams as they plummet to their doom.

The shields might hold. But one more giant chunk of rock, and my Mate could be crushed under me. I need to get out, now, before the entire spire shatters.

I throw Rachel over my shoulder with one arm and charge, my blade out in front of me. The bridge wobbles and flexes as more shrapnel knocks down. I pass through the main shields, and jump over a huge crack in the bridge. Midair, I look down at the hundreds of feet drop, but I clear it easily, when I thought I’d barely make it, continuing my sprint. A flash of movement above makes me dive to the side, just as a huge, flaming boulder crunches down where I was a moment before. Rachel screams in pure panic, and for that, I am filled with hate for whoever did this to her.

I reach the edge of the bridge and look back. The bridge collapses, the pillars breaking and snapping as it crumbles down. The main walls are still firm and strong. Ra’al and Kriz weather the storm from inside the shields, but small chunks of molten shrapnel sear through. Ra’al’s wrist flicks, his blade arching upwards, slicing a piece of rock in half before it can take his head off. It thuds against his shoulders, and his pain sears through the Bond, both his shoulders burnt and scarred. He shrugs it off, going back into battle stance.

Black Reavers dart upwards and form a ring above Kriz and Ra’al, adding their shields to keep them safe.

The doors of the transport pod are opened in front of me. I don’t trust it. I memorized the layout of the palace. I tried to tell my triad to keep our Mate in the lowest, secret levels, the bunkers built long ago under the Aurelian palace that was demolished here centuries ago. Ra’al and Kriz wanted her to live in luxury. I wanted her to have safety. Two sets of stairs curl down from the upper level, and I race down one, taking the steps six at a time until I am in the courtyard of the palace. The anti-air battery thunders away, rocks raining down like a hailstorm. I sheathe my weapon and move Rachel, cradling her in my arms and using my torso to shield her as a razor-sharp rock slices down my back, cutting through my robes and embedding into me.

We get through a door into the palace. We’re in a stone hallway. I set her down. Her aura is pure fear, so intense I don’t know if she’s hurt.

“Rachel. Are you wounded?” I keep a hold on her arm, giving her strength.

She looks up at me. Tears fills her eyes. She shakes her head. “No. But…I can feel it, in the aura, you’re hurt. So is Ra’al.”

“She’s safe. Are you weathering the storm?”

Ra’al gives me the telepathic equivalent of a nod as he’s focused on staying alive. He’s going to get into one of the Reavers and take the anti-air guns himself. I can feel it. It’s the only thing to do.

“It’s nothing.”

“Please, turn around.”

“It’s nothing.” This time I let my voice harden, because I need her to listen. I can hear my blood dripping to the ground, but it’s irrelevant. I’ve survived far worse. “We must go.”

“Where?”

“To safety.” I grab her before she can protest, throwing her over my shoulder. It will be faster if I walk with my long legs. I half jog, keeping my energy, going deeper and deeper into the palace, until I get to a huge wine cellar with wooden casks as big as me. This is where it was marked on the schematics from four hundred years ago.

Ra’al’s aura is lightning as he battles. It’s strange being away from him. I’ve always fought at his side, the three of us, together, and it’s a particular kind of torture having to feel the blows as they struggle, helpless to do anything.

I’ve never been helpless in my life—except when I consigned myself to the rift, trusting in Obsidian to get us here.

Even then, I was by their sides. If we died, we died together.

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