Heart of Iron (Heart of Iron #1)(105)

They hurried out into the square, now a graveyard of sweet-smelling food stalls and half-destroyed tents. Di followed, too vicious to be slowed down.

Robb realized they weren’t going to make it out of the palace alive.

He turned to Siege frantically. “Where’s Jax? What do we do—”

A roar—so loud it sounded like a starship—came from above. The smell of thruster exhaust exploded through the square.

From the dawn-filled sky fell a ship he never thought he’d be happy to see again. The Dossier.

Jax.

The ship landed in the center of the square, flattening tents and stalls. The cargo bay door lowered, and in its yawning mouth stood Lenda with a heavy machine gun slung under her arm. She shot cover fire over their heads, raining sparks of white-hot bullets onto the Messiers in pursuit.

“WE’RE ON, JAX! FLY!” Siege howled after she’d climbed into the cargo bay, followed by Talle.

She spun back, extending her hand back to Robb. “Grab it!”

Twenty feet away, Di was closing in. His eyes flickered like rubies. A pulse throbbed from his Metal body and made his hair levitate, infused with static. Every comm-link and holo-pad in a twenty-foot radius exploded, leaving gaping holes in the Ironbloods still trying to escape.

The chip in Robb’s wrist sparked. He hissed, shaking away the pain. He took Talle’s hand and was pulled up into the cargo bay.

Siege cradled Ana in her arms. Blood was everywhere, soaking her opal dress crimson. The fiber optics in Siege’s hair shimmered with panic. “Ana, darling. Please—please, darling. Talle! Get a med kit! We have to stop the bleeding. Stay with me. Ana,” she choked, cradling her. “You’re safe, you’re safe. . . .”

But being safe didn’t matter now.

Thrusters hummed as the ship shifted, rising.

Robb glanced out between the closing cargo bay doors one last time and met Di’s ruby eyes. He was still coming, quickly, without remorse. Fifteen feet—ten.

The Dossier rose higher into the air.

Then Di stopped. He reached his hand up as if to grab the ship. Robb felt a shift—brief, like a magnetic pull—

And Di snapped his fingers.

The chip in his wrist lurched. Robb clutched it with a cry, dropping to his knees. Pain, swirling, throbbing, raced up his swordfighting arm as the chip grew brighter. And brighter. Blazing like the sun through his skin. He screamed. Pain curled up around his shoulder, seized hold of his heart, and squeezed. It squeezed so hard he barely felt it when the chip burned away the nerves in his wrist. When it tore apart the blood vessels in his hand. When it spread like molten lava, up and up and up his arm until the pressure was too much and the light was too bright—

The tracking chip burst.





Jax


The stars passed by slower and slower the farther they sailed from Eros, the stretches between them growing larger the longer they sped. Their destination was Xourix, a space station hidden in the asteroid belt, out beyond Cerces. Out of kingdom space. It was safe only for the right price, and Jax didn’t want to know what price Siege would pay.

Jax had never flown so recklessly in his entire life. Messiers had pursued, relentlessly hot on their solar trails, until Siege’s friends finally helped him shake them off around Iliad’s rings. It was a detour they couldn’t afford, and now the quickly-patched sails groaned at full mast, catching the solar winds out into no-man’s-land.

He hadn’t slept in two days, his hands barely leaving the helm. He couldn’t risk autopilot. Too much computer interference might tip off the Messiers, and he didn’t want to risk that. The entire kingdom was on high alert, and so little sleep was making him bleary-eyed and numb.

He tapped his fingers on his armrest, eyeing the comm-link. He was tempted to radio the infirmary. He wanted to know if . . .

A knot swelled in his throat.

He didn’t know Robb’s fate anymore, and worry kept him company as he watched the screens for any ships that might try to ping them.

And Ana . . . he would rather not think of Ana. Thinking of her only made his chest ache, and he didn’t think he could hurt any more in his lifetime.

“Jax?” Talle greeted him, knocking on the cockpit doorframe. “I can keep the cockpit for a while.”

Jax twirled his chair around. “Nah, I’m fine. It’s quiet up here—”

“He woke up,” she interrupted.

He jumped to his feet. “I hate quiet. Tell me if you see anything pop up on that screen,” he said, motioning to the half dozen holo-screens. “Any of the screens.”

He was out of the cockpit and down the main corridor before Talle had the chance to nod, past the galley and crew’s quarters, to the infirmary downstairs. A curtain separated two beds, and he threw it back, not even pausing to catch his breath.

Captain Siege sat in a chair by Robb’s bedside. They were talking in quiet tones until Jax appeared. “Sorry,” Jax excused himself breathlessly. “I’ll wait outside—”

“Nah, he’s been asking about you. Couldn’t get him to shut up,” said the captain, standing. “Think about it, okay?” Robb nodded and she left, clapping a hand on Jax’s shoulder.

When she was gone, Jax finally got up the courage to look at Robb.

He lay on a gurney, his face sallow with a thin sheen of sweat. He couldn’t look more dead even if he tried, but he was awake, and his blue eyes were piercing like a clear Erosian sky.