Page 99 of Claiming Sarah

The conduits moved together to attack Rex, but he was one of the best fighters I had ever met, and his men crowded the field. They fought tooth and nail against the conduits. But when Mock tried to fight against Rex’s men, they shot him with their hand cannons. The red light pulse ravaged his legs, taking them out from beneath him.

What the fuck was happening, and where are Sarah and Jac?

I searched for them from the ground, but all I saw was a wall of scrambling legs. Until Jac fell backward, a burn on his shoulder from the hand cannons. He caught my eye and crawled to me between fighters. He pushed me through them, hauling me toward my father’s home.

Once my back was against his front wall, I was able to ask, “Where is Sarah?”

“There!” he pointed to the middle of the action.

Amidst it all, Sarah’s hands wove around, as she controlled every conduit on the field. Sending them after specific targets, making them use their magic against our enemies. But then Rex tried to come at her. Two conduits attacked him, along with Fan and Bell. His men shot Fan and Bell and came for the conduits with bone weapons.

“You good?” Jac asked me with concern.

I tried to stand. I fell back again, struggling not to vomit. “Can’t fight—go save her!”

He ran into the battlefield, only to get pinned down by Rex’s men.

My useless body wouldn’t do anything I told it and panic seized me.I’m trapped here to witness their deaths? This is bullshit! He came here with this plan all along—to take us all out at once and leave once the threat was neutralized. Not while I’m alive.

I used everything I had in me to crawl from my father’s front step towardAllegianton the outskirts of the battle, my legs dragging behind me. When it looked like I wasn’t going to make it, I tried to use my gauntlet driver to call to Lanai Dea as I continued to crawl, but I lacked the dexterity needed. When I thought I was close enough, I called out as loud as I could, “Allegiant!”

“Allegianthere,” my ship said loudly on the outer speakers.

I turned back around to see if I’d attracted the wrong kind of attention with my callout. I had. Rex was on his way to me.

“Allegiant, call Lanai Dea to service, now!”

“Calling Lanai Dea.”

Rex was almost on top of me, and I had no defenses for myself. But I knew that if Lanai could get to the field, my people would be safe, and the thought made me smile at the bastard as he lunged with his bone knife right at me.

Then, he stopped, hanging suspended in midair in front of me, the tip of his knife at my throat.

His eyes went wide, and his words were panic itself. “What are you doing? Stop! You can’t—”

“I can,” Sarah declared in a raspy voice.

I watched as Rex’s ghostly body was absorbed and compacted into Sarah, who stood a few feet away. Once he was gone, the bone knife fell to the ground at my feet.

She knelt next to me, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Are you okay?”

I gasped and stared at her in horror, still trying to make sense of what I had just seen, and what had happened to Rex. “What did you do?”

“I love you, Deacon. And I love Jac. Tell him for me.”

“I don’t understand.”

She kissed me, grabbed the bone knife, and held the blade at her throat. I was scared she would hurt herself to hurt Rex, and I roared, “No!”

Sarah said, “TellAllegiant’s siren to sound.”

“Allegiant, siren now!” I blurted.

The siren rang out, deafening everyone on the battlefield of my father’s yard.

Sarah gestured with her hand, and I shouted, “Allegiant, stop!”

All eyes were on my ship, then Sarah, with the bone knife at her throat.

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