Page 166 of Stars in Umbra
Rina raised a hand before Mo’s rage boiled over, but her eyes never left Lucian. ‘You are the embodiment of what Cicero meant when he said:‘Revenge is barren of itself. It is the dreadful food it feeds on. Its delight is murder, and its end is despair.’’
Lucian rolled his eyes. ‘I always loathed the classics at private school.’
‘Of course you would, irony tends to roll over you privileged ass types.’
Mo’s lips curled.
He said nothing.
However, the next second, Lucian Makori was eating the wall.
Mo spoke through his fist, in one brutal and swift strike.
It sent Lucian bouncing on the panels behind him, before he finished up sprawling on the floor in a heap with a grunt.
The Makori scion lay slumped, blood trailing from his lip, smearing the polished obsidian surface.
Mo’s chest heaved once, taking in oxygen in slow deliberation, hands still trembling from the restraint it had taken not to kill the man outright.
Then everything shifted.
A whisper of movement. A flicker of shadow.
A figure emerged from the dark beyond the shattered command deck, cloaked, hooded, silent as breath.
Mo’s eyes widened behind his helmet.
He recognized thekinai.
He went by the moniker ‘Apex Wraith,’ distinguishable by the vertex-shaped headgear he always wore.
His was a name whispered in mercenary circles with both awe and caution.
He was a former Stygian contractor. A ghost-killer and hitman that Mo had once worked beside in the blood-drenched alleys of the Rhesian gang hood during a Six Flaco mercenary contract.
He had never met the man, nor seen his face, ever, for Apex Wraith had always shielded his identity and worn masks and helmets at all times.
The infamous executioner didn’t utter a word as he surged, straight for Rina.
By the time Mo registered, the man had her, his arm locked across her collarbone, the barrel of his firearm pressed beneath her jaw.
‘Let her go,’ Mo growled, his voice thick with rage, every syllable vibrating with the threat of imminent annihilation.
Apex Wraith raised his helmeted chin.
‘Come after me,’ he uttered in a flat, chilling tone, ‘and she’ll light up Eden II. Along with the fireworks I’ve all planned for the famous moon planet and its guardians, the Riders.’
Mo stilled, his entire frame a silent tremor of fury just contained. He took one step forward. ‘What the hell does that mean?’
Apex Wraith bowed. ‘Ask Lucian.’
Without warning, he twisted his wrist and fired a round into Lucian’s gut.
The blast echoed like a thunderclap in the chamber.
Lucian jerked, gasping in shock as the bullet tore through flesh and organs.
Blood bloomed across his expensive suit in a spreading crimson starburst. His mouth opened, gurgling in a wet breath, and he slumped sideways, clutching his stomach.
