Page 96 of Katya and the Young God

Katya catches Pieter’s eye with a nod, gestures at the two above them. He tracks them, then nods, holding up his fingers. Five, four, three, two —

Not even waiting for him to hit one, Katya darts forward, her footsteps even, her gun in her hand.

The closest to her raises his eyes to her, and surprisingly innocent baby blues meets hers. He’s maybe only twenty-three, and Katya snaps a shot off right into his wrist.

He drops, howling, and there’s the twin cracks as the two soldiers up above start to shoot, their guns splintering in their hands under Pieter’s power. There’s a sharp, pungent smell, and a rune bomb sparks. A muffled thump, as a body hits the metal catwalk.

But before she can aim at the other door guard, he fires off a barrage of bullets in her direction, and Katya hits the ground to avoid them, the air knocked out of her, wrist smarting against the concrete floor.

He swings the gun around, obviously aiming at her, and she twists up, getting a shot off at his legs, nicking the fabric of his knee, spraying a thin sheen of blood on the glass of the cage.

There are yells deeper in the building, and they don’t have time for this, so she fires off another bullet, this one into his thigh, and he goes down, hard, but keeps a grip on his rifle as Katya struggles to her feet.

Inside the cage, Selene’s eyes open, staring at nothing, past Katya, past Pieter.

Swinging her leg around, Katya climbs to her feet and kicks the rifle so the barrel points away, but he pulls the trigger anyway, spraying the base of the cage with bullets.

The glass spider webs, cracks, but doesn’t fall.

Twisting it so his finger breaks contact with the rifle, she jerks it out of his hands, breaking the strap.

Still grunting, dragging himself despite the open wound in his thigh, he pulls out a small punching dagger, and Katya dances out of the way, before pointing his own rifle at him.

He freezes.

“Yeah, thought so,” Katya murmurs, her mind racing.

There has to be more than the four they’ve taken down, but she hears no additional footsteps racing their way, no alarms raised.

She prods his leg with her boot, and he hisses at her. “How many other guards are there?” She asks, keeping her voice low.

He shakes his head, and his hand creeps to his side, and she gestures with the gun again, but he keeps his lips sealed, the edges of them turning blue.

Giving him another prod with her boot to get him out of the way, she steps over the other soldier, to Selene’s cage.

The glass door is cracked, spider webbed all over like car glass, but not falling down, and Selene’s eyes are fractured inside.

She lifts her head a bare quarter of an inch, and her brown eyes meet Katya’s, and Katya can see the trace of blood around her temple, a mottled bruise against her collarbone, and blood crusted under her fingernails. She’s small, she’s so small, she’s just a child, and —

Pieter rushes up next to her, throwing his shoulder into the fractured glass wall, and it crumbles, shards everywhere.

Selene’s eyes light up when the wall comes down, like she didn’t truly see them before, but she can’t move, only a restrained twitch towards them.

“We got you,” Pieter blurts out, quickly crossing to the chair and, with deft hands, undoing the clasps around her wrists, before all but yanking the needles out of her arms.

With each touch, with each needle being drawn away, Selene gasps, a big drawing breath, wet, like she’s been crying.

No tears streak down her face.

Keeping the extra rifle pointed at the guard, Katya stands over them, watching as Pieter’s bare hands touch Selene’s skin, knowing that she can’t do that.

Pieter’s hands shake as he carefully unclasps the metal band around her head, and to Katya’s horror, there’s needles along the inside, copper and shiny with bright red blood.

The urge to pull the trigger on the guard is pretty damn strong, but she instead rests her palm against the carriage, to prevent herself.

She’s nothing if not self-controlled.

Selene sags to the side in the chair, and Pieter catches her as her eyes flutter shut.

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