Page 179 of You Only Love Twice
But it burst through her now, stealing her breath, making her feel ill at the thought of how close they'd come to losing each other forever.
"We need to get out of here," Obsidian said, drawing back from the kiss.
The other half of the mesh walkway was empty.
Gemma froze, her eyes stinging from the overwhelming smoke. She could barely see through it. "Where's Malloryn?"
Obsidian spun around, several large strides taking him to the edge of the broken walkway. "He was just here. I was cutting Ghost's heart out while he put Dido down again."
"Malloryn!" Gemma yelled.
Her voice echoed through the factory, as she started coughing. Her throat felt raw, and her eyes were watering.
There was nothing but static in her aural communicator, as she coughed and hacked.Damn it. Gemma sucked in a sharp breath, but it only made her lungs spasm again.
Obsidian stared across the gap where Malloryn had been. "Damn it. Dido must have shaken off the hemlock he hit her with."
Somehow she made her way to his side, covering her mouth with one hand. "What do you mean? Where is he?"
"She's taken him," he rasped.
"Then we need to find him!"
Chapter 34
Blood dripped in a clear trail leading toward the docking bay.
"She won't kill him," Obsidian promised Gemma as they pounded down narrow hallways, heading for the submersibles. His eyes were watering, but at least the air was clearer here. "Balfour's instructions were clear: Malloryn is to survive at all costs. He's supposed to lose everything before Balfour plans to grant him the release of death."
"That's not reassuring!"
He caught a glimpse of thedhampirwoman ahead of them, dumping the unconscious duke into the open hatch of one of the kraken submersibles in the docking bay.
It was the perfect way to get in and out of London without being seen. The flooded tunnel led directly into the Thames, and from there it was but a brief journey out to sea.
Dido saw them coming and lifted a pistol from her belt.
Obsidian barely had time to note the flare of white recoil before he drove Gemma into the wall. A dart hissed past them.
"What are you doing?" Gemma yelled. "She's going to escape!"
"Dido carries darts laced with Black Vein. If one of them hits us we're dead. She has no need to keep either of us alive."
Another dart buried itself in the wall near his head. Obsidian shoved Gemma's head low and they ran toward the docking bay. There were two submersibles waiting in the bays. Above them a thick glass dome kept the crushing weight of thousands of tons of black water off them.
Dido tugged something from the bag at her belt, and dropped it inside the open hatch of the only other submersible. Then she stepped inside the kraken's belly, reaching up to lower the steel hatch behind her. It clanked shut with a steely rasp as Obsidian leaped on top of it.
He tried to twist the wheel, but it was locked from inside. The submersible suddenly began to tremble beneath his feet, its enormous engines roaring to life.
Foam churned as the kraken's tentacle propellers began whirring behind it.
"Dmitri!" Gemma yelled.
Water bubbled up around his boots as the kraken began to submerge. It hit his knees, and he was forced to leap back onto the dock, where Gemma paced.
"Damn it. Where will she go?"
"We just destroyed their London base. She only has one place to go."
