Chapter 9 · Eleven Lives Left

The body hits the ground before Nora can reach it.

She's already moving. Already too late. The soldier—his name was Garrett, she learned it three loops ago—crumples against the courtyard wall with a bolt through his throat. Blood spreads fast across the stone.

"Down!" Kael's voice cuts through the chaos. He's got his blade out, scanning the roofline. "Sniper on the east tower!"

Nora drops into a crouch. Her hands are shaking. She knew this was coming. She warned them twenty minutes ago that someone would die in the courtyard if they didn't sweep the towers first.

They swept the towers. Found nothing.

And now Garrett's dead anyway.

"Medic!" someone shouts.

She's already there. Her fingers find the wound. Too much damage. The bolt went clean through. She presses down anyway, blood hot against her palms, and counts.

Five seconds. Ten.

Nothing.

His pulse is gone.

She sits back. Her hands are covered in red.

"Chen." Kael's voice is right behind her. Low. Controlled. The kind of calm that comes right before someone gets killed. "Stand up."

She doesn't move.

"I said stand up."

His hand closes around her arm. Not rough. Not gentle either.