Page 108 of Shielded Heart

The cren shrugged and reached forward to reset the holographic game board, a shy smile touching his lips.

Despite his complaints, Koroq anted up at the start of the next round. Within a few turns, Razi and Samantha had clearly pulled ahead, the former wearing a look of intense concentration throughout. Drakkal remained beside the table, watching with a smirk.

When her turn came again, Samantha considered the board, making subtle calculations even she couldn’t fully understand—for her, a large part of the game was driven by instinct. She was reaching for one of her cards when the lights in the room changed abruptly.

Orange and yellow flashed overhead, and an alarm blared.

A chill ran down Samantha’s spine. “What’s going on?”

Everyone around the table leapt to their feet in unison, their features hardening. Drakkal quickly activated his holocom. Within a second, he’d pulled up what looked like surveillance feeds from outside. There was gunfire, and attackers advancing; the screens were too small for her to see what exactly was happening, but it clearly wasn’t good.

An explosion sounded in the hallway, loud enough to shake the walls and floor, occurring in time with several other explosions that terminated some of the surveillance feeds on Drakkal’s holocom.

“That was the main door,” Drakkal growled.

He and the others drew their blasters.

Arcanthus’s voice, tinged by a faint, electronic buzz, came through everyone’s holocoms simultaneously. “Everyone fall back to the workshop immediately! They’ve breached multiple entrances. Get to the damn workshop!”

Tremors of fear coursed through Samantha as she watched everyone but Drakkal rush out of the lounge. She looked at the azhera with wide eyes. “What’s happening?”

Drakkal rounded the table and clasped her upper arm with his free hand. “We’re under attack. We need to move, terran.”

Samantha nodded and stood up.

He led her into the hallway, where the others—Koroq, Kiloq, Razi, and Thargen—had spread out with weapons ready. There were shouts from around the nearby corner, and a haze of smoke in the air. Of everyone, only Thargen looked unconcerned; his lips were curled in an anticipatory grin, like he was eager for what would come.

Drakkal guided Samantha to flatten herself against the wall and positioned himself in front of her, blocking her view. Her heart thundered as, at his direction, she slowly retreated, backing away from the shouting.

Only a moment had passed before the whining thumps of firing blasters filled the hallway. Blue-white bolts of plasma darted past Samantha. Across the hall, Thargen returned fire, roaring with a gleeful light in his eyes as he squeezed the trigger of his blaster over and over.

“Fall back!” Drakkal roared.

Despite his half-crazed excitement, even Thargen slowly backed away.

Samantha looked in the direction they were heading; the next intersecting corridor was only a few meters away. She wasn’t sure which way to go—to her knowledge, there were at least four doors into Arcanthus’s workshop, but she’d only learned a few specific routes to traverse the compound despite her frequent wandering. Were any of those paths safe?

The blaster fire died down for a moment; in the lull, Drakkal sped their pace, practically shoving Samantha down the hall and around the corner.

To her relief, the others joined them a second later, all seemingly unharmed.

“There’s more coming in,” Drakkal said. “Too many. We need to hurry.”

“Quickest way is through the big door,” Thargen said. Delighted fire burned in his eyes; this was his element, this was what he lived for.

Samantha was glad he was on their side.

They raced along the corridors, working their way ever deeper into the compound. Sam had never seen most of the hallways they ran through and didn’t have time to orient herself; Drakkal kept her slightly ahead of him, ensuring his body shielded her back. She tried not to acknowledge the fact that none of them were wearing armor of any sort.

We’ll be okay. We’re going to make it, and we’ll be safe, and then Razi and Koroq can get back to arguing about who won how many credits from who in that last game.

Someone yelled behind them. More blaster fire darted back and forth, and Drakkal growled out what must’ve been a curse. Samantha pressed her lips together and forced her legs to keep moving. Her nostrils flared with her heavy, burning breaths.

“Doing good, Sam. Keep going,” Drakkal said.

The steadiness of his voice granted Samantha strength; she’d learned how terrifying these situations were when Arcanthus had rescued her from the apartment complex, but she’d also learned how grounding it was to be around someone who held his cool even when his life was in danger.

Someone like Arcanthus.

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