Page 79 of The Omega Thief

“They know Attiker is missing, and Johannas is going crazy. He’s threatening to kill ten people every half-bell until Attiker is either captured or he surrenders.” The lad glanced at Attiker apologetically. “They said he’s starting with Her Highness.”

Attiker froze. No. No, he couldn’t. “I’m going back.”

“You can’t.” Draul grabbed his arm. “They will kill you on sight.”

Attiker yanked his arm away. “I have no choice. You said two bells for the Rajpuran special forces to get here? That’s forty dead people I refuse to have on my conscience.” He grasped Veda’s arm. “I have at least a chance of a delay. Send that bird. You don’t need me for this fight, but if I don’t go back, people I love will die.” He glanced at Draul and nodded to the two children.

Draul’s eyes glittered, but he dipped his chin. He knew Attiker was asking Draul to make sure they were safe.

He grabbed Ash and pulled him close in goodbye, then moved away. Ash took a step towards him as if to follow, but Attiker shook his head. “You’re needed here. You all have to stop this maniac before a lot of people die.” Carry flung herself at Attiker and wrapped her small arms around his legs, and Attiker picked her up, hugged her tight, and handed her over to a startled Veda, who nearly dropped her.

It was the diversion he needed, though. He met Draul’s somber gaze, then turned and ran back the way he came.

Attiker didn’t bother to go through the back this time. He marched right up to the palace gates, and from the horns that suddenly started blaring, he knew he’d been seen. But then he didn’t even have a cape on. He intended to be seen.

He didn’t get to the gates before they opened, and soldiers spilled from them. He recognized the sergeant from the cells when he’d first been arrested. Then, as they stared at each other, he was sorry he didn’t know his name. It seemed important. “Tell me your name.”

“Marraner,” he answered immediately, even though soldiers surrounded Attiker and bound his wrists.

“I wish I could meet you once when I wasn’t being arrested,” Attiker joked, but it fell flat. The captain’s eyes ran over the soldiers who were restraining him, quite reluctantly, and stepped forward, lowering his voice. “There isn’t a man here who wouldn’t do as the people’s champion asked.”

Attiker met his gaze. “Protect your men and watch for a signal.” He just wanted to keep Raz and Grandmother alive until the special forces arrived.

The captain nodded once. He knew anything other than instant obedience to their new masters was a death sentence, but Attiker saw the struggle in his eyes.

Then hell broke loose.

Attiker wasn’t used to violence. He’d seen it many times. Had occasionally been on the wrong end of a fist, but working alone, he wasn’t used to being beaten quite so badly. The first guard had been one he knew if only by sight, and when Markell had ordered him to show what Cadmeera did to traitors, the guard had refused.

So Attiker had been covered in another’s blood first, as Markell had simply slit the guard’s throat while Johannas stood and smirked.

Then it was his, so much of his. Attiker seemed to remember vaguely wondering how he could still be alive when he seemed to have lost so much of it. He refused to answer any questions, especially how he’d escaped, and then Markell was furious because, after the last hit to his head, Attiker was too dazed to think, never mind answer anything.

Sometime later, he became aware of sunlight making his head hurt even more, cold chilling his body, naked save for a few strips of torn rags, and realized when he could bear to squint his eyes open, he was staring at the sky. It took him a moment to wonder why the shouting seemed to be coming from below, and he tried to turn his head.

And when he saw the body six feet away from him in another cage, he really wished he hadn’t.

Raz was destroyed. Attiker had thought he was bad, but as Attiker looked at the bloody mess laid on the cage floor, he wanted to weep. Raz’s eyes were swollen, but they still seemed closed, unconscious. For a moment, terror gripped Attiker until he saw the slight rise of Raz’s chest. He didn’t understand why Raz’s wolf hadn’t healed him, unless, because of the blood loss, he was too weak to shift. He closed his eyes, and his mind drifted away from the pain. Just before his mind darkened, he saw a pair of ruby eyes, and felt a concerned nudge. He sent or tried to send a goodbye. Told Eldara to keep Zaphyra safe. Sent a mental image of the box the dragonet had nearly suffocated in, and Markell stood holding it.Keep away. She had to stay safe. They both had. He felt another nudge in his mind, but he was too tired to hold on to any thought.

Attikergasped,thencoughed,choked on what seemed a torrent of water. For a moment, he panicked. His body told him he was drowning, but then he gasped in air and opened his eyes. He was on the ground. Somehow, he hadn’t woken when they’d lowered the cage, but he was now. Raz was hanging limply from the soldier’s arms that held him, but his eyes were open, staring at Attiker as if he thought he was dreaming.

“He didn’t know,” Attiker croaked out and spat water on the ground. “He didn’t know,” his voice became stronger. “Your prince didn’t cheat. He didn’t send—” But the fist to his stomach shut him up. He retched more water, some blood.

Markell laughed. “It doesn’t matter, anyway. Any commanding force would do the same. I’m sure your prince never lost sleep over the death of the Emir, and I won’t lose any sleep now. The real punishment is that I’m going to make him watch while I slit your throat.”

“No!” Raz seemed to come to life, his voice panicked. “I’m the prince. The responsibility ismine. Punish me. I’ve surrendered so you would leave the Cadmeeran people alive, all of them.”

Markell laughed. “The people? Let’s be honest here. You don’t care about your so-called people. You’re like all nobility. They’re merely something to step on as you reach the top.”

“That’s a lie,” Attiker yelled. “Ask them. Ask them who stood side by side with them and rescued victims from the fire. Ask them who put his chief engineer on repairs and paid for all the work from his own pocket.”

Markell scoffed. “Don’t pretend he can’t afford the gold. He bought you, thief. He bought and paid for you. What’s it like to get coin to spread your legs just like your dirty whoring mother?”

Attiker lost his mind. He ripped his arms from the guards so fast they were shocked into letting go and, with an outraged scream, charged at Markell. But Markell had a wolf, and Attiker might have had once upon a time, but not now. He saw Markell move, but he didn’t register the blade until it was too late.

Or the pain.

Until he looked down and saw the sword had gone right through his gut. His knees gave out first. In the distance, he could hear the screams, the shouts.

---