Page 73 of Dash

“Laser,” he mouthed back and pointed at the sky.

In his hand, he held a weapon capable of destroying the hunting drones.

“Go.” I gestured downslope, where the gun fire was coming from, knowing that if I went with him, I’d only slow himdown. “You have to help them.”

“My orders are to stay with you.”

“I’m safe,” I whispered. “They need you.”

He considered me for a second then made up his mind. “Hide. Over there.” He pointed to a cluster of boulders uphill. “Don’t move from that position. Don’t come out unless you get the all clear from me or one of us. Do you understand?”

“Go,” I repeated, nodding. “Hurry up.”

I turned around and rushed toward my new hiding place. When I looked back, Kai was gone and I was alone in the forest.

The minutes passed as long as centuries. The sounds of a firefight in progress only increased my anguish. Even if Dash had survived the strike of the Kamikaze drone—and that was a big “if”—the other drones seemed to have the advantage over whoever was on the run on the ground. From my spot on the other side of the road, I could see the little fuckers at times, hovering over the canopy like one-eyed aliens, raining bullets on the woods.

A thin red light broke through the trees. It focused on one of the drones. It made a screeching sound right before it fizzled and dropped to the ground like a stone.

Way to go, Kai. One more to go and then...

And then what? Would I be saying goodbye to Dash for good as I’d had to do with Nix?

I swallowed the sob clogging my throat and held the cane to my heart.

Be strong, Thena.Be brave, like Dash was—is.

I shut my eyes and tried to ground myself. It was hard. I forced myself to believe that Dash was alive somewhere in the forest. But what about my sisters? Had they been ambushed as well? Were they being hunted, battling for their existence at this very moment like we were doing? Could they be dead, burned to ashes by a fiery drone?

In the darkness, an iron band tightened around my chest. A memory of my sisters drifted into my mind. The four of us huddled around my flashlight in the school’s creaky attic, where we fought our terrible homesickness by meeting in secret every night after the dorm monitors went to sleep. I made up stories to comfort them. Surrounded by the scents of mothballs, my stories always had a happy ending.

A happy ending. That was what I needed to keep going right now. A happy ending for Dash and his team, for my sisters.

The blue and red lights of a police cruiser flashed in the night. I scrubbed my eyes, leaned out of my hiding spot, and watched the cruiser arrive at full speed. The car accelerated and jumped over the sunken part of the road and over the culvert.

Finally!

Abandoning the rocks, I raced down the hill, stepped out onto the road, and waved the cane in the air. “Help, please!” I shouted as the cruiser screeched to a stop next to me and the officers jumped out of the car. “My friends are under attack.”

“Stay where you are, little lady.” A pot-bellied cop unholstered his weapon and pointed it at me as he advanced.

“No, no, I’m not the problem.” I kept my arms up, staring down the policeman’s barrel. “We were attacked. There’re drones. My friends—”

“Is your name Athena Astor?” The younger cop rounded the car and stood next to his partner, demanding an answer with his glower.

“Yes, but—”

“In that case, you, Astor princess, you’re the problem here.” The malice that flashed in the older officer’s eyes froze my blood. “A problem we’ve been hired to fix.”

Holy shit.

Don’t move from that position, Kai’s words returned to haunt me.Don’t come out unless you get the all clear from meor one of us.

In my rush to help the survivors fighting for their lives in the forest, I’d ignored Kai’s warning and disregarded Dash’s orders to do exactly what Kai said.

The quiet click that the cop’s weapon made when he disengaged the safety resonated in my head like a bolt of thunder. I clenched down on my teeth and stared into my assassins’ eyes. The glee I spotted there spoke of greed about to be satisfied.

With my death.

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