Cinder kept advancing. Gold-hair girl backed away until her back came up against the forcewall. “No, please! I don’t want to fight you! I’m not with them!” Her voice was high and terrified. Cinder kept coming. “I can tell you things! About the others, why they were looking—” Cinder came to a stop fifteen feet away; red light sprang up at his hand and he lifted it to point at the girl, a dull red orb forming at his palm. Her voice rose to a scream. “Wait! Don’t you want to know why we’re here?”

The orb sprang from Cinder’s hand and exploded against her, the force of the blast slamming her torn and burning body against the forcewall before letting it drop. “No,” Cinder said to the corpse, then turned and vanished into the smoke.

“Bev!” Will shouted.

Will had his back to me, silhouetted against the lights and fire of the laboratory. Without hesitating I drew my gun and fired. Some sound or sixth sense warned him just in time and he threw himself sideways, moving in a blur of motion faster than I could adjust my aim. Will fired back and I stepped down a side passage as the deafening crash echoed down the narrow corridors. Yellow light flared as Will cracked another light and charged after me.

I fired and moved, leading Will deeper into the tunnels, away from help. The sounds of battle from behind faded away, drowned in the roar of gunfire. I watched the futures, counting off the shots in Will’s gun.

Will’s gun clicked empty and I stepped out into the corridor, trying to line up a shot, but Will flicked out his shortsword and charged. I fired, missed, and had to drop the gun and draw my own sword as Will came in low. Blades clashed and Will was driven back.

“Just you and me,” I said.

“You bastard,” Will said. He was breathing fast and his eyes were wild in the yellow light. “I’ll kill you!”

“So far the only ones you’ve managed to kill are your friends.”

Will screamed in fury and lunged, stabbing for my throat. His blade was only a flicker in the darkness, but my jian outranged his shortsword and again he was forced back. “You did this!” he shouted. “They’re dead because of you!”

“Because you led them here,” I said coldly. “Was it worth it? All of them dead for your revenge?”

“This was your fault! You set this up!”

“Of course I set this up,” I said, putting as much contempt into my voice as I could. “What did you think I’d do, wait for you to kill me? Were you really that arrogant? I thought I’d have to work to lure you here, but you walked right in. Though I guess you had some cannon fodder in case it went wrong—”