Page 356 of Alchemised
She pulled it out, hand shaking as she stabbed the needle into the vial and pulled up the plunger, filling it. She drew a deep breath and braced herself as she jabbed it straight into her heart and injected it.
The cocktail of stimulants had been formulated for Kaine. It hit like a shock wave, energy roaring through her body, ripping away any last remnants of the sedative and Kaine’s transmutation. Energy seemed to hum inside her veins. She could feel her mind sharpening, everything growing brighter, clearer.
She leapt to her feet and ran faster than she’d ever moved in her life. She could barely feel her body. She knew she needed to run.
Something tackled her to the ground. She twisted, going for her knives, but she felt fur. She grabbed hold of her attacker and shoved her resonance through, finding all those places where transmutation had stitched the creature together. She unravelled them.
The chimaera died instantly.
She scrambled up, whipping out an obsidian knife as necrothralls reached her. She tore through them, barely feeling their attempts to grab her. Her eyes were locked on the high towers of the island. She was going that way. She’d get back. She’d be there, waiting for Kaine.
She was not going to die.
There was no time to reanimate the necrothralls to fight for her. She destroyed everything in her path with savage efficiency. There was so much power exploding through her body, her heart threatened to tear in two if she didn’t keep moving. She fought free and bolted again. The blood was roaring in her ears. More figures emerged from the smoke. Helena stopped short in horror.
Among them stood Althorne.
She had no idea how they’d managed to reanimate him with the nullium contamination. They must have made a special effort for the general. Beside Althorne stood someone else, a young man with wheat-coloured hair and a square face.
Lancaster.
Crowther had said his prisoners had all died in the bombing. Clearly he’d been mistaken. She looked around, dreading who else might emerge from the smoke.
“Look at that, you were right,” Lancaster said to Althorne. “There is someone out here.”
“Take her,” rasped the lich. Althorne’s eyes squinted through the smoke towards her. “She may know who attacked the laboratory.”
“If I get her, can I have her?” Lancaster said, eyes lighting up, glancing at Helena again. It was clear he recognised her in some way.
“When the interrogators are done with her,” the lich said. “Hurry up.”
Helena watched as Lancaster advanced, switching out the obsidian blade for her long titanium dagger. If he was being sent while the lich hung back, that was probably a sign he was still an Aspirant.
But it also meant the lich was the one controlling all the necrothralls. She had to get rid of him or she’d end up being chased through the city. Lancaster first, though.
Her primary advantage in this was being wanted alive.
“Let me pass,” Helena said as Lancaster came closer and the lich began to disappear back into the smoke. She tried to keep an eye on him, track where he was going.
Lancaster shook his head. “Come on, don’t make this harder for yourself. You’re outnumbered. Drop the knife.”
The necrothralls had fanned out around her. They had long-range weapons. Helena’s eyes swept left and right, looking for an escape, trying to plot out what to do. Her blood was roaring in her ears, telling her to move, to attack, to run. She had to be smart.
She gripped the dagger a moment longer, feeling the texture, all the finely wrought details, swallowing hard as she let it slip from her fingers and clatter to the ground. She lowered her head and moved submissively forward as her fingers slipped down to grip the other.
She walked hesitantly towards Lancaster.
“Take her.”
The necrothralls stepped forward, lowering their weapons as one started to seize her arm.
Helena struck.
Her knife flashed, transmuting mid-motion until it was double its length. She cut off the hand, gutted the necrothrall, and buried a shortened blade into the skull of another.
She dodged a sword that sang as it sliced over her head and lodged in a necrothrall behind her. He screamed.
They weren’t all necrothralls, then. Well, that made them easier to kill. She wasn’t trying to win, this wasn’t a battle; she only wanted to escape. She kept herself aimed in the direction that the lich had disappeared.
