Page 24 of Only Hard Problems

I wasn’t going to make it in time.

I quickened my pace and snapped my left hand out in front of me. I reached for my telekinesis, but my head was still pounding from the blows I’d taken, as well as the force of the library explosion, and I couldn’t quite get a grip on my power.

Even worse, the permaglass box in my mind was slowly cracking under the strain of trying to contain all my pain. If my psionic shield shattered, then the full force and fury of my injuries would roar through my mind and body unchecked, and I wouldn’t be able to help anyone, not even myself. I gritted my teeth, shored up the shield as best I could, and kept going, pushing my body to its maximum ability.

The Black Scarab stopped in front of my father and stretched its hands out. My gut clenched. If the Scarab latched on to my father, the mechanized troop could easily use its superior strength to literally rip him limb from limb. I’d seen it happen to Imperium soldiers during the battle on Magma 7 a few months ago. Bitter bile rose in my throat, but I swallowed it down and forced myself to run even faster.

“Die, you bastard!” my father screamed.

Wendell ducked the Scarab’s awkward grab and darted forward. My father popped back upright, then shoved the sparking string of lights into an open joint on the Scarab’s breastplate and skewered one of the bulbs with the fork, pinning everything in place. He spun around and ducked down. Both he and Fergus put their bodies over my grandmother’s, shielding her—

Bewp! Bewp! Bewp!

One after another, the bulbs exploded, sounding strangely like a series of loud burps. Pink fire flashed, and the Scarab glanced down at its chest. The improvised explosive had blasted off the outer layer of the Scarab’s armor, revealing the mass of wires and other circuitry underneath. But the mechanized troop was only wounded, not dead, and it lifted its head, fixed its glowing green eyes on my father, and stretched out its hands to squeeze the life out of him.

I put on a final burst of speed, stepped in front of my father, and shoved my sword deep into the open mass of wires. Green sparks shot out of the Scarab’s innards, while flashes of blue fire spewed out of my lunarium blade, adding to the smoking mass of melting metal and liquefying plastic inside the Scarab’s chest.

“Die, you bastard!” I hissed, repeating my father’s words.

I twisted my sizzling sword even deeper into the Scarab’s chest. Wires, hydraulics, and bolts snapped, cracked, and popped inside the machine, but it was still standing, so I yanked my blade free, then whirled around and lopped the Scarab’s head off its shoulders.

More things snapped, cracked, and popped inside the machine, which let out a plaintive wail that sounded eerily human. The Scarab stretched its right hand out to me, as if begging for help, but I stepped back, and the headless machine slowly pitched forward and clattered to the ground at my feet.

I swiped the sweat off my forehead and looked over my shoulder. My father straightened up, and his relief blasted over me like a cool breeze.

“We’re okay!” Wendell yelled. “Go! Help the others!”

I nodded and rushed forward. Rigel and the House Rojillo guards had killed a few of the Scarabs, but the vast majority were still rampaging across the lawn. I moved from one Scarab to another, driving my stormsword into their backs, cutting their legs out from under their bodies, chopping their heads off their shoulders, and killing them however I could.

I spun around, growled, and lifted my sword to engage another Scarab . . .

A bright flare erupted in the center of the Scarab’s chest, as though a molten, neon-pink flower was blooming in the middle of its black polymetal armor. The pink intensified, burning brighter and hotter, then abruptly vanished. The Scarab toppled forward, revealing Leandra Ferrum and the glowing stormsword in her hand.

Leandra grinned at me, then twirled her sword around, making pink streaks of lightning crackle around the lunarium blade. “Go!” she yelled. “I can kill the rest of these mechanical bastards!”

She rushed over to another Scarab and lunged back and forth at a dizzying pace, slicing off both its arms before whirling all the way around and chopping off its head in one smooth motion. Tivona Winslow clutched a blaster and followed Leandra, protecting the warrior’s blind side.

I spun around, surveying the lawn. Rigel and the House Rojillo guards had surrounded the other Scarabs and were slowly but surely shooting them to pieces with their blasters, but there was still another enemy I needed to find and destroy.

Where was Silas? What had he done with Asterin?

Down by the lake, a glimmer of gray caught my eye, like a shooting star streaking across the water and answering my silent questions. Asterin was struggling with a Black Scarab that was dragging her along the pink sandy shore. Silas was there too, leading the way and doing something with his tablet.

“Asterin!” I yelled.

There was no way she could have heard me above the screams, shouts, and blaster fire still zinging across the lawn, but her head turned, and she stared right at me, her gaze locking with mine.

In that moment, everything slowed down and crystallized, as though I had hit a button, frozen a video mid-scene, and zoomed in on the specific details I wanted to see. Asterin’s long black hair whipping around her face. The glitter shimmering on her skin. The fury flashing in her silver eyes, making them glow even more brightly than the stars above.

Then the Black Scarab dragged her into the woods, shattering the scene, and she vanished from view like a moon that had disappeared for the night.

My heart hammered in my chest, the roar in my ears drowning out everything else. I sucked down a breath and started running again.

CHAPTER EIGHT

ZANE

Behindme,moreshoutsrang out, but they were the human cries of the House Rojillo guards and not the mechanized clanks of the Black Scarabs. Rigel and the guards should be able to help Leandra and Tivona kill the remaining machines and secure the lawn, so I kept running.

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