Chapter 9 · Bound to the Executioner: Leveling Up With My Enemy - Chapter 9: Shoot on Sight

"Get your head down if you want to keep it!" Soren’s voice barked in my ear right before a bolt of plasma sheared through the brick wall beside us.

I didn't need telling twice. I slammed my back against the scorched masonry, the heat radiating through my clothes. Dust and pulverized concrete filled my lungs, tasting like old pennies and ozone. Above us, the sky wasn't sky anymore—it was a ceiling of gunships, their sleek, matte-black hulls blotting out the sun.

"They're leveling the whole district," I yelled, glancing at the translucent blue screen flickering in my peripheral vision. "Soren, they aren't looking for us. They're erasing the map!"

Soren didn't look at me. He was too busy reloading his sidearm, his movements mechanical and lethal. But I saw the way his fingers trembled. I felt it too—a jagged, searing pulse in my own chest. The soul-bond was humming, vibrating with his escalating panic and pain.

"Shut up and run," he snapped. He grabbed the collar of my jacket and yanked me forward just as another blast turned the storefront we’d been using for cover into a rain of glass shards.

I stumbled, my boots skidding on the debris.