As it turned out, the large room on the second level didn't have much in the way of cover. There were two large pillars, and that was all. The rest of the room was completely empty. Quinlan had stared at it for a moment before turning to Hunter, hoping the sergeant had some particularly brilliant idea or other, but Hunter was already shaking his head.
They'd set traps on that level and gone down the stairs without further comment.
Now, they were on the third level, working their way from door to door, checking inside each room and then placing mines. Zenaya was still in the lowest level, and nothing concerning had happened. . . Unless one counted Zenaya's heat signature hardly moving as concerning, which Tech said he did.
Quinlan twisted a mine to activate it and straightened, watching the indicator light flash and then turn off. "Like that?"
"Yeah." Wrecker paused his work to hand him another mine. "Go ahead and get the next door, about halfway up. Just, uh – don't forget which doors you've already done."
"I won't." Quinlan looked across the hall at the other three, who were taking care of the doors opposite him and Wrecker. "Hey, Wrecker, you sure the other guys know which doors have been trapped?"
"Yeah." Wrecker tapped the visor of his helmet. "We can see the beams."
". . . Oh. Good to know." Quinlan checked the next small room, which was, once again, completely empty. It was one of six in a row, all of which looked like the living quarters in Trayus. He couldn't imagine that Zenaya would be entering any of these rooms, but there was no reason not to trap them.
No one had seen any statues – four-armed or otherwise – in Aantonaii yet, but if there were any, they'd have to cut through the light beams in order to chase the team. At least there would be a little warning, this way. Hopefully. . .
Quinlan activated the laser and stepped back, the futility of their actions suddenly sweeping over him. This won't stop her. What are we even doing? What am I doing?
He knew the answer to that. He was trying to kill Zenaya. But why? Her ship was gone. There was no way that she could get off – unless, somehow, she managed to get onto the Marauder without their knowing. . .
Quinlan stopped moving, wondering if that were even a possibility. He didn't know Zenaya's powers, or her limitations – not truly. The team should never have come to Aantonaii. Quinlan should have listened to Hunter and called in help from the Jedi.
And yet, he knew why he hadn't. If Zenaya had managed to get off Malachor unhindered, it would be almost impossible to run her to ground. And even if the Jedi eventually managed to destroy her, it wouldn't be until hundreds of people had been injured and killed. Quinlan and the commandos had to at least try to kill her. . .
. . . before she kills us.
Quinlan let out his breath shakily, clutching the black lightsaber hilt in one hand. The familiar weight was not reassuring at all.
He didn't know why Zenaya had left them alive, but he understood that her deciding to let them live was the only reason he and the others hadn't been killed and their bodies left in the Trayus Core.
She was trapped now. They could just leave and wait for help from the Jedi. . . if they could be sure that she really had no other way off of Malachor. Darth Nihilius had been able to extend his reach across star systems to drain people of life. If Zenaya had even a fraction of those abilities, they would leave the planet and be killed anyway.
All the thoughts and doubts he'd been trying to ignore suddenly filled his mind, numbing it. He couldn't get rid of the idea that he was throwing away the chance Zenaya had given him, given all of them. She had decided, for whatever reason, to let them walk away from Trayus, and now they were all but asking her to kill them.
Quinlan watched distantly as the commandos moved closer together, discussing something that Tech was pointing out on his datapad. He should have left the others behind, at least. This attempt to destroy Zenaya would do nothing but buy the galaxy a little more time. Surely they had to know that. Or was it possible that they actually thought they might have a chance against her?
As though aware of his look, Hunter glanced at him and then tilted his head questioningly.
Quinlan turned away, clenching one fist until his nails bit into the skin. It made his mind a little clearer, a little more focused. He was almost able to convince himself that the creeping fear that clung to the inside of his throat was from the dark side, and not because he and the others were walking to their deaths.
A movement to his left startled him, and he jerked around to face Tech, who only blinked in response before continuing down the hallway. There was only one doorway left to trap on this level, and then they'd move down to the fourth.
And Zenaya was on the fifth.
"Tech," he said. "She's still down there?"
"She has not left the room," Tech assured him, holding out the datapad. "She has only moved to walk back and forth twice. Otherwise she appears to have been sitting still."
Quinlan looked at the scan results. A blurred, vaguely humanoid form was seated cross-legged on the floor. She must know that the Phoenix had been destroyed, but she didn't seem to care.
"She's meditating," he said, his mouth dry.
"Yes." Tech hunched his shoulders slightly. "I assumed as much."
As Quinlan followed the commandos towards the doorway, he opened the canteen that hung on his pack and took a drink. Too bad he hadn't brought anything stronger than water.
Crosshair braced one hand lightly on the edge of the doorway and leaned in, then stepped back without speaking.
"Crosshair?" Hunter asked. "Is it clear?"
". . . Yeah. Of living beings, anyway. There's a statue."
"What?" Hunter had his pistol out.
Crosshair shook his head. "Not that kind. There's a door opposite this one – there's another stone person in that room."
Tech and Hunter exchanged looks, then slipped inside. Wrecker and Crosshair followed, and Quinlan trailed after them.
The flames that lit this room burned white, like those in the hallways, but two of them were enclosed by blood-red glass. On the opposite side of the marble floor was a large rectangular prism of crystal, a meter wide in both directions, which extended from the floor to the ceiling. The prism scattered the light of the flames so that gleams and flickers of red and a broken white danced on the walls and ceiling.
Across the room from the prism lay a deep slab of polished white marble that looked almost like a low table. Hanging from the ceiling, directly above it, was an empty, triangular piece of metal – it looked like it had been a support for whatever had stood on the table.
The doorway cut into the wall directly across from the commandos seemed out of place for some reason. It was almost like Quinlan thought there shouldn't be a door . . .
And then he realized why. He didn't remember a door being in that picture, and yet this was the room from the picture, and from the vision. He was sure of it.
"There should be a shadow," he muttered aloud. The words sounded empty and meaningless in the ancient stillness of the room, and he found himself reaching for the yellow crystal in his tunic pocket.
"This . . ." Hunter lowered his already quiet voice even further. "This is the room you saw in the vision?"
Quinlan nodded, studying the torches. Whatever had cast the shadow would have been right about where the crystal prism stood now. "There should have been a statue or something . . ."
"Hm," Tech answered. ""Perhaps whatever statue was here has been moved since the drawing was made."
Crosshair adjusted his grip on the sniper rifle. "Or it moved on its own."
"Yeah." Wrecker backed away from the prism, trying to keep an eye on both doors at the same time. "I didn't hear nothin', but –"
Quinlan couldn't hold back a chill at the memory of the golden-eyed statue that had followed them silently through Trayus. The last thing he wanted was to look up and see one of those things blocking the doorway with its four skeletal arms.
"The crystal is hollow," Tech said, pushing his visor up. "I see no way a statue could have left it, but –"
"We don't need to know how," Hunter said, starting for the opposite door. "Seems like the Sith statues do plenty of weird stuff they shouldn't be able to do."
"That –" Tech blinked and jerked his head, as though shaking off a memory. "That is certainly true."
"Yeah." Across the room, Wrecker was already putting a mine into place. "Let's get outta here."
"Hold up, Wrecker." Hunter leaned past him to peer into the second doorway. "Might be something . . ."
His voice trailed away.
"Something, what?" Crosshair demanded.
"Useful?" Tech suggested, joining the sergeant. "Something relevant to what we are currently – Oh."
"I'm guessing that means 'no'," Quinlan grumbled, peering between them.
The room in front of him was small. In the exact center stood a grey stone altar, very close in appearance to the altar in Trayus. The stone form of a richly dressed prisoner lay on top of it. Streaks and stains of rusty red marked the side of the stone that faced them.
A broken skeleton lay crumpled at the altar's base, the gaping skull staring emptily at the door. The person whom it had once belonged to had been dead before the Scourge, and it looked like the ritual, whatever it was, had been completed in a hurry. The dead body had been dragged from the altar and tossed aside, and it had lain there ever since.
But the second victim, who had turned to stone, had been alive when the Scourge came. Quinlan took a step into the room, then another. The prisoner was, oddly enough, a Togrutan woman. She was still fastened to the altar by black metal cuffs identical to those in the Core. Quinlan blinked away the memory of the cold, immovable metal band around his arm.
The woman's wrists were fastened to either corner of the altar, just above her head, but her ankles were cuffed to the middle of the opposite end. Her fingers were clenched and her body was not fully on the altar. She had been twisting to the right, head flung back, and the position made the deep gash at the base of her throat all too evident.
Quinlan took another step towards the poor woman. Her face was intent, wide eyes staring sightlessly at the corner where the ceiling met the wall. She must have been very close to death when the Scourge put an end to her terror.
Tech's datapad beeped, startling him out of his reverie, and Quinlan glanced sidelong at him. "Tech – what are you doing?"
Tech looked up from the skeleton. "Attempting to discover which species this person was. I believe it was a Togrutan."
Hunter stirred uneasily. "Male or female?"
"Female." Tech straightened and set the datapad on the corner of the altar, then leaned forward to observe the stone woman. His eyes narrowed slightly behind his goggles. "She must have been a noble?"
"I don't know." Quinlan rubbed at his left arm and glanced at the woman's long skirt, which trailed down the side of the altar. "You mean because of the dress?"
Tech nodded and reached out, almost touching the stone folds of embroidered material. "It is strangely ornate, for a ritual victim being killed on an altar. Most members of cultures that involved themselves with the sacrifice of sentients gave their victims only simple tunics – when they bothered to give them anything at all."
Crosshair and Wrecker looked simultaneously at him, then at each other.
"Yeah . . ." Hunter said, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. "Thanks for that, Tech. Quinlan? What are you looking for?"
"Nothing." Quinlan stepped slowly back from the altar. He wasn't about to touch the cuffs, or anything in this room, but he wanted to unclasp them and release the woman.
Not that it matters to her. . . and it hasn't for thousands of years. He grimaced and turned away. "She must have been the last victim for Zenaya's ritual."
With a final glance at the skeleton and the statue, he left the room. The others followed, and Wrecker activated the mine he'd already placed.
"The ritual," Crosshair muttered. "You mean the one that she did on that jewel Vythia used."
"Yeah, I guess." Quinlan folded his arms as he passed through the second door into the hallway. He didn't want to risk brushing the walls. "Zenaya probably knew the Scourge was coming months in advance and prepared for it by designing that ritual. Somehow, she manipulated the Force until she could trap her lifeforce in that jewel. She must have waited until the last second before performing it, though. . ."
"But why was Vythia after the jewel?" Hunter asked. "Or did it lie on the floor for centuries until she just happened to find it?"
Quinlan shook his head, following Wrecker down the stairs toward the fourth level. "I don't know."
"Wouldn't really make sense, would it?" Wrecker turned to look up at him. "You think Zenaya knew someone would find the jewel? Was she sure she could – come back?"
"I don't know that either." Quinlan glanced at the fourth-level hallway, which split in two directions. "Maybe she just hoped that eventually the jewel would be found . . . She had other things in place, though. I'll bet she'd set some scrolls or something near the jewel to explain to whoever found it what it was for."
"Except not really," Hunter pointed out, turning into the right-hand passageway. "If she had, Vythia wouldn't have performed that ritual. . . would she?"
"No." Quinlan paused when Wrecker took out yet another of the mines. "Somehow, Zenaya arranged things to trick whoever tried to perform the ritual. Vythia knew what she needed to get."
Crosshair had just placed a mine halfway down the doorway when he stilled abruptly, fingers resting on the activator. "If Zenaya trapped her lifeforce in the jewel, then where is her body?"
A creeping chill crawled up Quinlan's sides and into his neck. Had Zenaya turned to stone, or had she actually died before the Scourge swept over Malachor?
"Her body?" Wrecker's hands lowered at his sides. "The skeleton wasn't, uh, hers?"
"Not unless she killed herself," Tech said. "The spinal column had been severed at two different points, and –" He looked down at his empty hands, then up, his alarmed gaze flitting between Hunter and Quinlan. "I . . ."
"Tech?" Hunter turned fully to face him. "What is it?"
"I left my datapad there. In the room with the altar."
"How?" Hunter demanded, but he was already heading back for the stairs.
"I do not know!"
"That's weird!" Wrecker announced in between running steps. "You never forget your datapad."
Hurry, Quinlan thought, slipping between Crosshair and Tech. Hurry, or it won't be there anymore.
He didn't know why he was so convinced.
"I know." Tech drew a pistol. "But this time, I do not remember even setting it down."
"You did," Crosshair said, ducking beneath the level of one mine. "You set it on the altar."
Tech didn't answer, but the look on his face was clear enough. He might as well have asked out loud, Why did I do that?
They reached the room with the hollow crystal and slowed. Tech wormed his way between the crisscrossing laser trap they'd placed in the second door and hurried to the altar.
Quinlan stood in the doorway and watched him pick up the datapad – good, it was still there. They could still track Zenaya's position. He was just taking a quick breath of relief when Tech turned slowly to face the others.
Two wide lines had been burned halfway through the datapad, utterly destroying the screen and any hopes they had of knowing Zenaya's position. The glowing red edges of the cuts were only just starting to fade.
"She must have gone up the stairs," Tech said emotionlessly. "When we were on the fourth level."
Hunter drew his vibroknife, flipping it into a reverse grip so that the blade was held parallel with his forearm. "She didn't go back down past us, either," he said in a low voice, keeping his gaze on the door. "Quinlan, if she knows where we are there's no point in hiding anymore. We have to know where she is."
"I – know." Quinlan dropped to his knees and shut his eyes, seeking another lifeform in the Force. He was aware of his own, and the commandos', but no one else on this level.
He cast his mind out farther, not trying to touch Zenaya directly. All he needed to locate was the Force near her . . . An area darker than the rest of Aantonaii. . .
He heard Wrecker talking. "Hunter, we gotta catch her before she tries to take the Marauder. We still need a way off-planet, and if she destroys –"
The smooth, cool sensation of Zenaya's shielded mind brushed suddenly against his own. Quinlan jumped, then tried to jerk away, but she wouldn't let him withdraw.
Search for me as you will, Quinlan Vos, but you will never succeed if you refuse to learn. . .
He snatched at her shields. With a soft laugh and an almost physical push, she released him, dismissing him from her presence, which was – where?
"I can't find her." Quinlan stumbled to his feet, a slow vertigo starting inside his head as her words sank in. If you refuse to learn . . .
"She's hiding?" Wrecker asked.
Quinlan nodded. "She knows we're looking."
Hunter took off his helmet and clipped it to his belt, then knelt. Quinlan bit his lip, watching uncertainly while the sergeant pressed one hand against the wall and the other against the floor.
For ten seconds there was nothing but silence. Quinlan found himself holding his breath, almost willing Hunter to find her, or at least to find something that would indicate where the Sith woman had gone. He was so intent on Hunter that he jumped when Wrecker cleared his throat nervously.
Only a moment later, Hunter shook his head and got up. "Either she's standing still, or she already left the palace."
"Hunter?" Wrecker whispered, shifting his weight. "Do we try to get back to the Marauder?"
The sergeant looked at Quinlan, then started for the hallway without answering.
"She'd be a fool to let us leave," Crosshair said. "Especially now that she's trapped."
"Hmm." Tech put his now-useless datapad into the pouch at his side as they moved quickly up the stairs. "I, for one, am not convinced that she is trapped as effectively as we would like."
A sense of amusement, as clear as laughter, brushed Quinlan and disappeared. He grasped too late at Zenaya's presence, and before he could trace it, she was gone. He stopped walking, flinging out his Force-senses in all directions in an attempt to catch her off-guard.
She only laughed again. But Quinlan, the answer is so clear . . . ! You made such a promising start, escaping from Trayus as you did. . .
Someone shoved him between the shoulder blades, and he twisted sharply to see Crosshair.
The sniper jerked his chin at the top of the stairway, which was now only a few meters away. "Head in the game, Jedi. I think Hunter's got something."
At the same moment, Hunter held up a closed fist and half-turned to face them, pointing to the hallway wall just ahead. "Wrecker – didn't you put a mine here?"
"Yeah."
"It's gone."
". . . She moved it?" Wrecker whispered loudly.
Nobody answered him. Tech drew his second pistol and clicked the safety off, and Crosshair loosened his own pistol in its holster.
Hunter rotated his knife once. "Do we try for the main door or the tower?" he muttered.
In the main hallway, a footstep clicked against the polished stone of the floor.
Everybody froze as a pale blue laser beam shone across the top of the stairway at ankle-level, not a meter from Hunter. The beam flickered and vanished – at least from Quinlan's vision. The commandos stayed focused on it.
"How many did she set?" Quinlan asked quietly, gripping a lightsaber in either hand.
"Four that I can see." Hunter hesitated, then touched the floor. "She's walking back and forth in the hall . . ."
She was waiting for them. Quinlan took a slow breath. "The tower, then?"
"It's a straight run from here," Hunter said, clenching his knife hilt. "If we can get up there and blow the wall, we can escape down the mountainside."
"It is probably our best chance," Tech said. "We can use the Marauder to fire on her if she follows us."
Before Quinlan could answer, Wrecker reached for a grenade. Quinlan grabbed his wrist. "Do not throw explosives at her. She'll deflect them at us."
Wrecker hesitated, then drew his blaster instead.
"Tech." Crosshair hefted his rifle. "Can you give me a distraction?"
Tech's eyes narrowed, and he stepped up next to Hunter. "Tell me when."
Crosshair pulled a reflector off his belt. "Now."
In two steps, Tech had jumped over the mine and was racing across the wide hall, firing towards the main doorway as he did so. At the same time, Crosshair threw a reflector against the stairwell wall, just past the mine.
Tech skidded to a halt as soon as he'd reached cover and looked back at the rest of them. There wasn't a sound from Zenaya.
"I'll cover you," the sniper said, tilting his head at Hunter and Wrecker.
They nodded, and Crosshair pointed and fired. Three lasers ricocheted down the main hallway, and Hunter crossed the hall at a dead run.
A hissing snap sounded at almost the same instant, and Quinlan grabbed Wrecker's forearm with both hands.
Wrecker jerked to a stop just as the three lasers returned, spattering into the stone directly in front of his face.
Crosshair snarled and threw another reflector at the wall across from him, then fired again. His shots reflected twice this time, probably not getting anywhere near Zenaya, and at the same time Tech leaned out to fire a barrage of lasers from both pistols.
Wrecker and Quinlan moved together, jumping the mine. Quinlan ignited both blades and deflected four of Tech's lasers that were coming back towards him. The lightwhip's glowing red blade curved and hissed down, lighting up the black eyes of the Nautolan woman who wielded it. Quinlan hardly had time to notice anything else, because the next instant Crosshair had dashed behind him to safety.
The instant the four of them stopped firing, he dove after them, converting his momentum into a safety roll that brought him into the cover of the wall. He scrambled to his feet. "Where are the other mines?"
"Pay attention," Tech answered shortly. He paused to make sure that Quinlan was following, then ran for the tower doorway.
Quinlan followed on his heels, ducking when he ducked and pausing to climb carefully over a beam invisible to him. He could hear the others following, but above their footsteps he heard the wavering hum of the lightwhip drawing slowly closer.
They reached the tower staircase, which wound upward around the inside of the circular walls for twenty meters, until it disappeared into a wide hole in the floor of the uppermost – and only – level of the tower. There was no banister of any sort, and Quinlan found himself keeping one hand on the wall as he ran after Tech, taking the stairs two at a time.
Why are you running? Zenaya taunted, and Quinlan tripped on the next step. Did you not wish to kill me . . . ?
"She's following," Quinlan warned sharply, just as he heard another shot from Crosshair's rifle.
"Keep moving!" Hunter snapped.
Tech slowed just for a moment at the top, flicking an electronic detonator to land against the wall before he darted through the hole and into the tower room.
Quinlan chanced a look down the stairs. Zenaya had not actually come into the tower, but he could see the red glow from her lightwhip hovering in the doorway.
Hunter followed his gaze. "Kark," he muttered feelingly. "Wrecker! Get this entire doorway trapped while we start on the wall."
"I got it." Wrecker slung his pack to the ground and grabbed a handful of mines.
The other commandos had already turned on their helmet lights, but the large room was surprisingly dim, especially in comparison to the rest of the castle. Quinlan ignited his lightsabers again, holding up the green blades as a second source of light.
The skylight was the first thing he saw, placed in the roof of the tower; it was a thick, opaque glass that allowed almost no light through. He pointed with one blade, and Hunter nodded.
"That side, Tech," he said. "Thermals'll be safest."
"Understood," Tech replied, grabbing several grenades.
Quinlan drew back and threw his lightsaber, guiding it in a tight arc to strike at the skylight. A gold streak appeared where the blade brushed it, but that was all.
"Must be crystal," Wrecker said. "It's okay, I don't think we'll need it. The room's big enough we won't blow ourselves up."
Quinlan recalled his lightsaber and spun, trying to find a lantern. They were everywhere else in this cursed palace . . .There.
He crossed to the lantern and pushed the crystal into place. Gold light flared brilliantly, all around the circular wall, then evened out into a bright white that clearly illuminated the entire tower room.
Quinlan turned on his heel, then froze, his gaze flicking across the room. Golden chains hung, spaced at even intervals, from the edge between the ceiling and the wall. They dangled down to end, two meters from the floor, in beautifully engraved cuffs. One set of cuffs, directly beside him, held a prisoner. The stone Twi'lek male was leaning back against the wall, eyes closed in exhausted resignation.
"Hurry up," Hunter ordered, and held up both hands to catch a charge that Wrecker tossed to him.
Crosshair and Tech didn't even acknowledge him. They were working together, Tech kneeling to place an explosive close to the floor while Crosshair reached higher up.
"Okay," Wrecker said. "Detonator's ready."
The four commandos ran back towards Quinlan and the stairway, Hunter clutching the detonator in one hand.
The Twi'lek next to Quinlan stared hopelessly across the room at where the explosive charges blinked. With a sudden, angry motion, Quinlan struck at the chains that held the stone prisoner. His lightsaber scored through the gleaming gold, but then flickered off and then on. Cortosis . . . This place was built to be a prison. The window was unbreakable, the chains were unbreakable –
A sudden realization flashed across his mind, and he spun. "Hunter!" he shouted, just as the sergeant pressed the button. The indicator lights blinked rapidly, and Quinlan darted to join the others in the stairwell.
"What?" Hunter demanded, but Quinlan couldn't answer. The roar of explosives and falling rocks drowned out all other sound for several seconds, and the stairway vibrated beneath them.
When the sound died out, Wrecker said, "Careful – the floor should be okay, but there'll be loose rocks above us."
Quinlan darted up three steps and back into the room. The rock wall on that side of the tower had completely disintegrated, but the chains still hung in place, embedded in a solid wall of black metal.
"What the . . ." Hunter's voice died away, then returned. "It didn't even make a dent."
"Wait," said Crosshair, looking up at the skylight. "The explosion cracked the window."
"Here!" Wrecker moved to stand beneath it, locking his hands together. "Quinlan – hurry, try to cut through it!"
They had nothing else left to try. Quinlan scrambled up to stand on Wrecker's shoulders and clipped one lightsaber to his belt. With Wrecker gripping his ankles, he put a hand on the ceiling for balance and stabbed the green blade into the opaque material of the window.
It sputtered and fizzed, but sank in. Quinlan gritted his teeth and shoved with all his strength, trying to guide it around the perimeter of the skylight. With agonizing slowness, a glowing cut lengthened in the crystal-like window.
His sweaty hand started to slip on the hilt, and he let go of the ceiling and grabbed the lightsaber with both hands, trusting Wrecker to hold him steady. The first side of the skylight had almost been cut through. He felt the faintest draft of air from outside.
Suddenly encouraged, he glanced down to tell the others –
– then jerked in shock, a flash of heat and cold shooting over him.
Zenaya was standing just inside the doorway, watching him interestedly with her head tilted to one side.
Quinlan stared, heart slamming painfully against his sternum. He couldn't move.
The others swung around, except for Wrecker, and separated immediately, diving in three different directions. Zenaya gestured with one hand, and Tech was thrown across the room to slam into the wall next to Wrecker.
At the same moment, Hunter leaped at her, swiping at her throat.
Zenaya leaned back ever so slightly, dodging Crosshair's laser and the knife, and gripped the sergeant's right hand by the wrist. With a quick twist of her other hand, Crosshair's rifle was ripped away and tossed down the stairs.
Hunter growled and tossed his vibroblade to the opposite hand, stabbing downward towards her heart. The knife struck the black vest and skidded sharply, flying out of Hunter's grip. Crosshair seemed frozen, one hand only just touching his pistol.
Beneath Quinlan, Wrecker was shaking with the effort to move. Quinlan jolted into full awareness and reached for the Force-energy that surrounded him so completely.
For no discernible reason, Hunter suddenly fell to his knees in front of Zenaya. She twitched her fingers upward, removing his helmet, and gazed curiously down at him.
With a violent effort, Quinlan wrenched free of the paralysis and leaped down, sending a powerful surge of dark energy at her. Zenaya held up her hand and jerked it to the side, redirecting his attack into the wall.
"Too little, too late," she murmured, a quick gleam crossing her eyes. For an instant, the intrigue in her expression made her look like Vythia.
Tech struggled to stand, grabbing at Wrecker for support. Quinlan was caught again, unable to move in the powerful mental grip she had on him.
Zenaya gave him a demure look from beneath half-shut eyelids. Still watching him, she closed one hand gently around Hunter's throat and said, "You should have left when I gave you the chance."
This chapter number being 66, I figured it pretty much requires a cliff-hanger . . . ;D
Thanks to Griffin Stone for all the help! :) (Help: i.e., listening to me complain and gripe about the chapter being difficult.)
