Page 57 of Only Cold Depths
Kyrion let out a loud curse, but his footsteps pounded on the ground behind me.
I sprinted through the shipping yard, moving past one pile of metal after another. Even though I couldn’t see Esmina and Pollux, I knew I was going in the right direction. Maybe it was weird, but I could have sworn that I could actuallyseeEsmina’s magic, and every time I thought I’d lost her, another spark of green would flare in my field of vision, as though her power was a trail of psionic breadcrumbs only I could see and follow.
To my surprise, Esmina and Pollux had veered away from the street that would take them to the antiques emporium and had doubled back around to the middle of the shipping yard where I’d used the giant magnet to crush the mercenaries’ transport. My steps slowed, and my head whipped around, but I didn’t see Esmina or Pollux anywhere. The feel of her magic had also vanished.
Anger and frustration beat through my body in a sharp staccato rhythm. Once again, the mercenaries had escaped.
A flutter of movement caught my eye, and I whirled in that direction. One of the mercenaries wasn’t as dead as I thought. He staggered up and onto his feet and aimed his blaster at Kyrion. Once again, that strange slow motion filled my eyes, and I saw the merc firing and the bolt punching into Kyrion’s back . . .
I opened my mouth to scream a warning, but I felt like I was deep underwater, and everything was moving slowly . . . so damn slowly . . .
Kyrion spun toward me, sensing my distress through the bond. I snapped up my hand and focused on the mercenary, trying to use Kyrion’s telekinesis to knock the blaster out of his hand, but once again, my magic—our magic?—wouldn’t cooperate, and it all trickled through my fingers like raindrops.
Desperate, I sprinted forward to shove Kyrion out of the way, even though I already knew I was going to be too late to stop the mercenary from shooting him—
Pew!
A pale blue bolt zinged through the air, slammed into the mercenary, and knocked him back five feet. Smoke boiled up from the merc’s chest, and he was dead before he hit the ground.
Asterin lowered her blaster and hurried over to Kyrion and me. “Are you both okay?”
Before I could answer her, footsteps pounded in this direction, and Siya and the other Hammers appeared.
Siya’s gaze flicked from one dead mercenary to another, then her eyes widened as she noticed the smashed transport with the giant magnet still sticking out of the top.
A loud groan sounded, along with a screech of metal, and the round magnet teetered off the top of the transport, landed on its side, and rolled away like an oversize coin before finally stopping and clattering to the ground.
Silence descended over the shipping yard. Then Siya slowly turned to me, anger darkening her face.
“What in all the bloody moons happened here?” she snarled.
I sighed and looked at Asterin, who grimaced. We had a lot of explaining to do.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
VESPER
TheHammersmadesureall the mercenaries were either dead or taken into custody, then did a thorough sweep of the shipping yard, the mineral exchange, and the surrounding area.
The mercenaries had only stunned the guards and workers inside the mineral exchange, so no innocent people had been killed. Since most of the mercs were dead, the Hammers were able to recover the majority of the stolen House Collier materials, but Pollux had been wearing a large backpack, and he and Esmina were long gone with those goods.
Two hours later, I was back at the Collier estate. Asterin, Kyrion, and I were in the library, along with Aldrich, Verona, and Leland. Siya and Rigel were also here, and more Hammers were standing guard outside the doors. We were all clustered around a table that featured a large holoscreen.
“Three mercenaries are still alive and are currently being questioned,” Leland said, scrolling through screens on his tablet. “But none of them knows anything useful. They were contacted, hired, and paid to break into the mineral exchange through anonymous channels. We’re trying to trace the payments, but so far, they’re all a dead end.”
Aldrich rubbed his temples. “What were they after?”
“They targeted the jewel repository.”
Leland swiped his finger across his tablet, and a couple of holograms appeared. The first image showed a heavy-duty vault with its door intact, while the second showed the same vault with its door peeled back like the lid on a tin can.
“The mercenaries took out the security cameras first, so there’s no footage of them entering the shipping yard or the mineral exchange,” the chief of staff said in an apologetic voice. “It appears the mercenaries neutralized the House Collier guards, then went straight to the jewel repository, disabled the anti-theft measures, and cut through the vault door with a plasma torch. They grabbed all the jewels they could stuff into their backpacks and left the mineral exchange.”
Leland cleared his throat. “Although the mercenaries didn’t get very far, thanks to Lady Vesper using the crane magnet to destroy their transport.”
He smiled at me, but the expression didn’t quite reach his eyes. Then again, no one here had any reason to smile. Not given the mercenaries’ attack.
Verona frowned at the holograms. “Why would they break into the jewel repository? Why not steal from the lunarium reserves instead? Lunarium is much more valuable than diamonds, sapphires, and the like.”
