Page 58 of Stars in Halo

His mind was in a wild riot, racing with agony while trying to make sense of the betrayal unfolding before him.

He had believed in their connection.

But now, as he writhed in agony on the floor, he realised that she’d been playing him all along.

He’d made a grave mistake, falling for Katya’s allure without understanding the dangerous web of power and deceit she was entangled in.

The world blurred around him, his vision fracturing into shards of light and darkness. Through the haze of pain, he just made out the figures looming over him, their faces obscured by the harsh glow of the stun guns they wielded.

One of the silhouettes leaned in. ‘Wouldn’t you know it? We’ve got ourselves a real, live Rider,’ he sneered.

Another laughed as the third cuffed him up. ‘I never thought I’d see the day,’ he said. ‘They’re difficult to bag, but thank fokk, our patron advised us to use a mega-charged laser to bring him down.’

‘What do you want?’ Xion’s words came out as a hoarse whisper, barely audible amidst the chaos around him.

The figure who seemed to be in charge loomed over him, a cruel smile playing on his lips. ‘Xion Sable, you’ve been fooling around with the wrong woman. You see, Katya here is not just any femme fatale. She’s one of us—a scion of the D’Hanna family. We’ve been planning this heist for a while, and now we have plans for you.’

Fokk, these were her siblings?

The Rider’s mind reeled, still convulsing from the electric shocks, trying to make sense of what he was hearing.

The shock of her gaming his heart hit hard, even as his metanoids fought off the effects of the laser attack.

Through the haze of his emotional and physical pain, the elder of the quartet growl to Katya. ‘The Iris? Where is it?’

Katya rose with a press of her lips and moved to the bedroom.

She returned with the jewel in a clear crystal-boxed container.

‘Keep it safe and close to you,’ her older brother commanded. ‘Now let’s move.’

Katya gathered her things in silence, her face tight and worried, her eyes flicking every so often with concern for Xion.

He ignored her, seething in private.

The Rider was lifted off the ground.

The three assailants dragged him through the opulent hotel suite.

Despite his reeling mind and aching muscles, a spark of defiance ignited within. He would not go down without a fight when there was still a chance to turn the tables on his captors.

He gathered his meta strength at the door and launched into high-velocity mode.

Knifing out of the three men’s hands, he threw himself at the nearest figure at lightning speed, driving his shoulder into their midsection.

A grunt escaped the startled assailant as they staggered back, caught off guard by Xion’s sudden burst of resistance.

Two of the brothers grabbed hold of him, and he stumbled, still weakened from the electric shock pulse.

‘Katya,’ the lead kinai roared. ‘The injection.’

Xion whirled his head around, stumbling as her face paled. She hesitated.

‘Do it,’ the eldest man growled, barely holding back the enraged Rider. ‘Or everything goes pear-shaped; you lose your fokkin’ kids, and we have a target on our back for years to come.’

Xion tagged her expression as it melded into terror.

With trembling hands, she extracted a needle vial from the folds of her bag.

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