Page 117 of Only Cold Depths
My stomach roiled with nausea. Even though I’d been expecting Nerezza to once again use me to my fullest, foulest potential instead of killing me outright, I couldn’t stop an arrow of hurt from shooting through my heart. Just when I thought my mother couldn’t get any crueler, she sank to a bitter new low and showed her true cold depths.
“Holloway’s bounty would be a nice bonus, but he’s not stupid enough to trust you again,” I replied. “And the bounty doesn’t matter anyway, because you’re never going to get the chance to collect it.”
I jerked my chin to the side, and Nerezza looked over at Pollux, who was pointing the hand cannon at her.
Esmina stepped up beside the other mercenary. “All your talk about bounties is quite interesting, Nerezza. I wonder how much Callus Holloway would pay for youandVesperandKyrion.”
Fury stained Nerezza’s cheeks a bright red, and her hands clenched into fists, her knuckles standing out against her skin. “We had a deal!”
Esmina shrugged. “Deals change. You should know that better than anyone.”
Once again, all the fury abruptly sluiced off Nerezza. Her fists loosened, and a knowing smile spread across her face. “You’re right. I do know that deals change, better than anyone.”
She puckered her lips and let out a loud whistle. All the Serpens Corp mercenaries spun around and aimed their weapons at Esmina and Pollux.
“Bloody traitors!” Pollux growled, pointing his cannon at the closest man.
“I’m not the only one with a bounty on my head,” Nerezza said. “When you and Esmina told me how much you wanted to destroy House Collier, I did a little digging. The Erzton Houses have a sizable reward for your capture, dead or alive—and dead is just fine with me.”
Pollux let out another angry growl. Esmina eased a little closer to him, although she kept her icy gaze on Nerezza. The other mercs kept their weapons trained on Pollux and Esmina, but many of the men shifted on their feet or swiped the sweat from their foreheads. A tense silence dropped over the cavern.
I glanced to the right. Kyrion was still bricked to the wall, but the energy blast from the cannon was slowly but surely eating away at the stone, and more and more cracks were creeping in his direction like spiders scuttling along and dragging black webs through the rock wall.
My gaze met Kyrion’s, and I deliberately looked over at the cracks spreading in his direction. He gave me the tiniest nod in return. We might not be able to send telepathic thoughts through the bond right now, but we could still communicate. Even more important, I trusted him, and he trusted me, and the same could not be said for anyone else in the cavern.
“Fuck this, and fuck you, traitors!” Pollux snarled, stepped forward, and pulled the trigger on the Techwave cannon . . .
Click.
Nothing happened. No sparks of energy, no blast of power, no incinerating green fire.
Pollux growled and pulled the trigger again. And then again . . . and again . . .
Click. Click-click. Click.
Nerezza’s smile widened. “Looks like you were right about Vesper tampering with the cannon. I was certainly expecting it.”
Once again, my stomach roiled with nausea. Maybe I truly was the weak link, at least when it came to being a seer, because both Esmina and Nerezza had seen right through most of my lies. Or maybe they were just better at double-crossing people than I was.
Nerezza waved her hand, and the mercenaries crept a little closer to Pollux and Esmina.
Pollux kept pulling the trigger, still trying to get the cannon to fire. Suddenly, he stopped, a puzzled look on his face. “Why is it getting . . . hot?”
Esmina’s eyes widened. “Drop it! Drop it now!”
She lunged forward, slapped the weapon out of Pollux’s hands, and kicked it away. Then she whirled around and hunkered down on the cavern floor. Pollux followed her lead, the way he always did, but Nerezza and the other mercs hesitated, not understanding what was happening.
The cannon spun to a stop at Nerezza’s feet. A red light flashed on the side, and a shrill warning whistle cut through the air, screaming like a brewmaker about to boil over.
Nerezza also whirled away from the cannon. She shoved a mercenary between her and the weapon, then darted behind a large stalagmite.
All the mercs were focused on the cannon, so I sprinted toward the wall where Kyrion was still trapped.
“Vesper!” he yelled. “Vesper, get down—”
BOOM!
The cannon exploded, drowning out his words, along with everything else.
