Snowshoe shipping at midnight was a special kind of quiet. The kind only drones could create—no chatter, not even a whisper. No wasted movements. The only sounds were the soft hum of their joints, the rattle of the loading doors sliding open, and the muffled thump of Adam's boots on the roof of the truck.
Cinder gritted her teeth. Reminded herself, again, that she'd need him when the alert did go up, and the security drones activated.
The truck rumbled back to life. Its driver was another drone, and needed no visible signal from the others that its authorization had been recognized before it eased its way inside. Cinder flattened herself against the roof of the truck and passed inches beneath the top of the doors. The instant they were through, she rose onto her knees and drew her bow.
One arrow to the camera on the main entrance. Another to the hidden one over the loading area. Three more, drawn and fired together, to destroy the drones nearest the exits. By the time she finished Adam was already on the ground, surrounded by the severed arms and heads of the rest of the drones.
For a heartbeat, true silence fell. Then Adam slung a backpack off his shoulder and started stuffing boxes of fire Dust inside. The sound of the zipper echoed. She scowled at him, and he scowled right back. "Hurry up."
"This isn't right. The alarm should have gone up by now."
"There's no one left to set it off."
"We destroyed twelve drones, someone should have noticed."
He zipped up the backpack and grabbed for hers. Cinder let him—while he filled it she nocked another arrow, narrowed eyes darting around the dimly lit room.
When he tossed it back, now filled to the brim with explosive Dust, it was without so much as a warning. Cinder almost fumbled it. "What are you doing? We aren't here to blow ourselves up."
"Pull your weight, then."
Fire flickered at her fingertips. "Have you somehow forgotten where I found you?"
He walked away. Not towards the exit—instead he grabbed a full crate of Dust and dragged it towards one of the chutes.
"We have everything we need. It's time to go."
Adam overturned the crate, scattering lightning Dust all over the panel that controlled the chute. When he reached for another one Cinder caught his arm. "If they somehow haven't noticed us by now, they're about to."
"Let them, then."
Her grip tightened. "You're willing to fight off the entire Atlesian military to destroy a few delivery chutes. Suddenly I understand how you came so close to being executed by the state."
He whirled on her, his teeth bared. "I am going to make them pay for what they've done!"
"You're going to cost a few thousand lien to someone who won't notice the loss. This isn't how we make them pay." Cinder threw out an arm at the facility around them. "This is how we get power. And without it... well. I suppose we'd be reduced to kicking around some helpless kitten."
In an instant his hands were around her throat—over the black choker, and the scar beneath it. Her back slammed into a console with a sharp clang, and he leaned in so that his mask was less than an inch from her nose.
"Don't. Talk about her."
She grabbed his wrist. A ruddy glow bathed the white plane of his mask, even as dark spots crawled around the edges of her vision. His aura flickered and the smell of burned skin filled the air.
They never found out who would have flinched first. The loading doors slammed shut, and an alarm blared. They leaped apart and drew their weapons.
"Happy now?"
His lip curled. "If you can't handle this then I w—"
"Well, well, well. Look who's finally decided to stop for a chat."
Cinder whipped around and loosed an arrow. It would have struck the newcomer right between the eyes, if he hadn't shifted his weight at the last instant and fouled her aim. Ace Ops uniform, brown hair, bland face—their leader, then.
She grimaced, though the cloth mask that hid her lower face would hide it. This was the last thing they needed right now. She should have done this job alone.
Too late now. The others would be in the building already, blocking the other exits. Including their latest mascot—if she let him catch sight of them, it was over. The veins of Dust that traced through her clothes flashed orange as she dove behind a terminal. Tongues of flame followed the movement, billowing smoke in every direction.
Now, there were two of her. The bright light of the fireball that rushed towards their leader, which would be visible even through the smokescreen—and Cinder herself, cutting off the flow of her Aura, letting her clothes go dark as she fell back to the other side of the room and searched for the rest of them. The quick one would be useless where she couldn't see. The big one might be a problem, depending on how willing she was to toss explosives blindly. The other one, well...
She dropped to the floor, skidding under a golden arm groping blindly through the smoke. Annoying, but manageable. And if he had already entered the room—there. The boomerang swept over her head and disappeared into the haze. A harsh clang told her it had been headed for Adam.
"Stay!"
Cinder smiled. There you are. Three arrows thudded into the ground beneath him and detonated with a screech.
"Elm!"
"Got her!"
It turned out the Ace Ops were perfectly willing to fire rockets inside Snowshoe shipping. She glimpsed a bead of light shooting towards her, too fast to dodge—then the flash and crack of the explosion, and the blood red glow of Adam's aura drinking its energy.
That bought enough time for Cinder to nock three more arrows and finish what she'd started. This time there was a cry of pain, and the sound of a body hitting the floor. Injured or dead, by the way the quick one swore at her. It didn't matter which. One down, four to go.
She took three blows from the quick one before she could split Midnight apart and block the flurry with its twin swords. They were messy, though—hitting her mostly by coincidence, with both of them still blinded by smoke. Her unmasked opponent began to cough. Easy enough to strike the ground with her heel and shoot a blast of fire in roughly the right direction. With her off-balance, it was only a matter of landing a kick that pushed her out of the smoke. Adam would be right there—
—and her enraged shouting stopped. Two down. She was still hidden, so she could take a moment to locate the last three before she left cover.
Something wrapped around her ankle.
Cinder was already flying in the instant she registered its presence. Fluorescent glare pierced her as she soared out of the smoke. She saw a snapshot of the big one, body twisted to one side, winding up her hammer. The fishing line around her ankle fell away.
Next she knew, she was on the floor on the opposite side of Snowshoe shipping. Shattered crates surrounded her. Her aura was gone.
Old instinct saved her. Cinder went limp, eyes closed, cataloging the situation by touch. Blood on her forehead. Ringing in her ears. Something hard underneath her, jabbing painfully into her right shoulder. Footsteps—but they were headed away from her.
"Stand down." She could almost hear the pose in the leader's voice. Every inch the proud Atlesian hero. Slowly, silently, she drew her left arm closer to her body.
A clash of steel.
"It's over. Your accomplice is down. Drop your weapon."
Adam laughed. And what did they expect? They'd already decided to execute him. He had nothing left to lose. Funny how it always shocked them, when they realized they'd broken everything they might have used as leverage. How they never saw the danger until it was too late.
Cinder slipped a hand under her other arm and wrapped it around the Dust crystal she'd landed on. Too quickly—the big one whirled around. "Vine! Behind you!"
He turned. His semblance reached out, ready to snatch the crystal from her hands with spectral fingers.
Without you, I am nothing.
Cinder reversed her grip and drove the crystal into the junction of her neck and shoulder. Raw red veins took root under her skin. Her blood boiled. The animal howl that ripped itself from her throat was familiar to her, an old friend returning after too long away. After all this time, she'd almost forgotten.
She raised her hands. Adam was in the way, but it didn't matter. He could take it.
Searing light filled the room. The big one cried out. Her partner tried to shield them both, but moved too slowly. A river of flame swept over them. Something in the ceiling gave—a chute came loose and crashed to the ground, funneling the full force of the fire away from the leader and directly towards Adam.
He braced himself, sword halfway drawn, snarling while the flames ate away at his coat. The glow in his mask turned blinding. And then, before the leader could try to rally, he lashed out. A body hit the floor. The room went silent.
Cinder ripped out the Dust crystal and collapsed to her knees, panting hard. Her hands were shaking too badly to push her upright again. So she waited, watching the vivid red veins fade to a bloody sort of pink, until Adam strode across the room to stand over her.
He wasn't looking too healthy, himself—livid burns stretched from fingertip to elbow on both arms, and someone had managed to score a deep cut across his chest.
Grudgingly, Cinder reached a hand up.
Adam watched it for a long moment. He did not sheathe his sword. "You don't talk about her ever again. Not when you swallowed all those filthy lies from the trial. She betrayed me."
"Acting pathetic might have worked on the pampered princess of Menagerie, but it won't work on me. I didn't save you because I pitied you. I saved you because I thought you could be more than a sniveling coward lashing out at everyone but the ones who did this to you."
"I'm the only one who's done anything to hurt them! I killed Sleet! All you've ever done is hoard Dust and talk and talk about power you won't use."
"You're right."
Even through his mask, his shock was obvious. He went very still. His hand, which had been clenched on the hilt of his sword, froze there.
Cinder held out her hand again. This time he pulled her up, grimacing with disgust and doubtless a lot of pain from his burned arm. "We've been building our resources long enough. We have plenty of Dust, and enough agents in Mantle to support the attack. The Ace Ops are all dead or too injured to fight. It's time for you to prove me wrong."
She lifted her chin to stare into the hole in his mask. "You can keep some of the fire Dust—in case you want to return the favor."