2026-07-26 05:26:33Chapter 32
**[Elara]**
You don’t shoot a Praetorian Guard in the chest. Their ballistic plating is woven with carbon nanotubes. It will stop a point-blank rifle round without leaving a bruise.
I grabbed the back of Cassian’s tactical vest and yanked him hard to the right.
"The joints!" I screamed over the roar of the aqueduct. "Shoot the joints!"
Cassian fired. Three deafening cracks echoed off the cavern walls. He aimed for the lead guard's knee, but the massive executioner moved with unnatural, terrifying speed. He swept his humming, electrified blade in a wide arc, deflecting the bullets with the flat of the steel. Sparks showered the dark catwalk.
The two guards behind him lunged.
I holstered my pistol. In tight quarters against electrified melee weapons, a gun was a liability. I drew my twin ceramic blades, the lightweight material perfectly balanced in my hands.
The first guard swung a horizontal strike aimed directly at my neck.
I dropped into a slide on the wet metal grating, the humming blade sizzling the air millimeters above my head. I drove my left dagger upward, aiming for the soft, unarmored gap beneath his armpit.
The ceramic sliced deep, severing the brachial artery.
Hot, dark blood sprayed across my face. The guard grunted, dropping his electrified sword, but he didn't fall. Through pure, drug-fueled adrenaline, he reached down and grabbed me by the throat, hoisting me completely off the ground with one hand.
I gasped, kicking wildly, my boots slipping on his heavy chest plating.
"Cassian!" I choked out.
The lead guard was relentlessly advancing on my husband. Cassian parried a lethal downward strike with the barrel of his empty pistol, the metal shrieking in protest. He couldn't shoot. He was completely on the defensive, forced backward step by step toward the roaring glacial water.
I had to free myself.
I reversed my grip on my right dagger, driving the hilt down violently onto the guard's exposed wrist bone.
*Crack.*
His grip failed. I dropped to the catwalk, landing hard on my knees. Without hesitating, I swept my leg out, kicking his kneecap sideways. He collapsed with a heavy thud. I drove my blade into the back of his neck, permanently silencing him.
One down. Two left.
I spun around just in time to see the third guard tackle Cassian.
The massive enforcer slammed his entire weight into Cassian’s chest. The impact drove them both backward, violently crashing through the heavy steel guardrail of the catwalk.
"No!" I screamed.
They plummeted off the edge.
They hit the rushing, freezing glacial water of the aqueduct below with a massive splash. The current was incredibly fast, surging toward the massive hydroelectric turbines deeper in the cavern.
I sprinted to the shattered railing, looking down into the dark, churning water.
The lead Praetorian Guard stepped in front of me, entirely blocking my path.
He didn't speak. He just raised his electrified blade, the crimson cloak billowing around him in the damp cavern wind. The red emergency lights glinted off his faceless ballistic mask.
My heart hammered a frantic, terrifying rhythm against my ribs. Cassian was in the water. Cassian, who had almost drowned in a river a year ago. The trauma alone could paralyze him, let alone fighting a heavily armored executioner in the freezing dark.
I looked at the guard standing between me and my husband.
The Viper didn't feel fear. The Viper felt only absolute, unadulterated rage.
I dropped my twin daggers. They clattered uselessly against the metal grating.
The guard tilted his head, confused by the surrender. He raised his blade higher for the killing blow.
I didn't reach for a weapon. I reached for the heavy-duty magnesium flare Cassian had dropped earlier. It was still burning, glowing with blinding, white-hot chemical fire.
I grabbed the burning end.
The heat instantly seared the flesh of my palm, but I ignored the agonizing pain. I lunged forward, moving faster than he could track. I didn't aim for his armor. I aimed for the tiny, unarmored breathing vents on his ballistic mask.
I slammed the burning flare directly into the respirator.
The guard shrieked, an inhuman, synthesized scream echoing in the cavern. The chemical fire instantly melted the plastic and rubber, burning straight through to his face. He dropped his sword, clawing frantically at his melting mask.
I didn't stop to watch him burn.
I dove off the shattered catwalk, plunging headfirst into the freezing glacial aqueduct.
The water hit me like a physical punch. It was impossibly cold, instantly numbing my limbs. The current violently swept me forward in the pitch black. I tumbled through the water, blindly reaching out, my lungs burning for oxygen.
*Cassian.*
I broke the surface, gasping for air. The roar of the water was deafening. The cavern narrowed ahead, funneling the water directly into the massive, spinning blades of the hydroelectric turbines.
Fifty yards ahead, two dark shapes thrashed in the churning water.
Cassian was fighting the guard. He had his good arm wrapped tightly around the executioner’s neck in a brutal chokehold, but the guard’s heavy armor was dragging them both under.
"Cassian!" I screamed over the roar of the water.
He didn't hear me. They went under again.
I swam desperately, fighting the violent current, ignoring the burning agony in my blistered hand. I reached the spot where they went down. I took a massive breath and dove into the dark.
Through the murky water, I saw them.
The guard had drawn a combat knife and was repeatedly stabbing at Cassian’s tactical vest. Cassian was holding on, his eyes squeezed shut, but he was drowning. The ghost of the river had caught him again.
I grabbed the guard from behind. I wrapped my legs around his armored waist, securing a terrifyingly tight scissor-lock. I reached around his throat, dug my thumbs directly into his eyes through the melted holes in his mask, and pulled backward with all my strength.
The guard convulsed, dropping his knife. His grip on Cassian finally released.
I kicked away from the dying guard, grabbed Cassian by the collar of his vest, and kicked violently toward the surface.
We broke the water just as the current swept us into the massive, illuminated chamber of the turbine room.
The water shallowed rapidly, dumping us onto a slick concrete spillway directly in front of the massive, spinning turbine grates.
We collapsed onto the hard concrete, coughing up freezing water.
Cassian rolled onto his hands and knees, violently retching. He was shaking uncontrollably, his skin the color of ash. The terror of the drowning had completely stripped him of his Don persona. He looked completely, utterly broken.
I crawled to him, wrapping my arms around his freezing, heaving chest.
"I'm here," I sobbed, burying my face into his wet hair. "You're out. You're safe, Cassian. I'm right here."
He turned, burying his face in my neck, holding onto me so tightly I thought my ribs would snap. He was breathing in my scent, grounding himself in the reality of my pulse.
Slowly, the violent shaking stopped. The terror receded.
He pulled back, his dark eyes locking onto mine. He saw the blistered, burned flesh of my right hand. He saw the absolute, terrifying lengths I had just gone to in order to keep him alive.
A dark, terrifying calm settled over Cassian Rossi’s features.
He stood up, the water pouring off his ruined suit. He looked at the heavy steel blast doors at the far end of the turbine room.
The doors to the Commission's viewing chamber.
Cassian didn't reach for a gun. He picked up a heavy, steel maintenance crowbar resting near the spillway.
"Come on," Cassian growled, his voice a low, vibrating promise of absolute ruin. "Let's go end the world."
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