“Unaffected scum!” the child spit out.

The scent of electricity filled the air, mixed with the sour tang of blood as Lira and Gilly finally reached the stage. From this vantage point, Lira could see just how many fought for Nor; too many for Arachnid’s soldiers to overcome. They would find a way to get her out, to get her to safety so they could clear the area without any danger of the queen getting hit.

Little by little, the circle of Nor’s guards pressed toward the waiting transport ship, keeping the queen in the center, protected. Safe. Then another helmeted figure emerged from the crowd, firing off shots. Bodies dropped all around, and Nor screamed from somewhere inside the circle, the sound of a mother watching her children die. Lira felt that pain in her own chest.

So many deaths. So many, who’d finally seen the light, now fallen.

Breck fired three times. The stunner rounds hit the soldier in the neck. A convulsion—one, two, three—and the figure was down, still as stone.

“Tighten the circle!” Breck commanded, her voice echoing both inside Lira’s com and out as the giantess stepped up alongside her. Gilly pressed in from her left. Together, the three of them joined the circle of soldiers guiding Nor to the transport. Another wave of red-helmeted enemies flooded the city streets, the moonlight dripping across their shoulders like blood.

Another fifty paces, and they would be at the ship. Ahead of them, Lira could see a young man waving his arms. Valen, his face desperate as he screamed his sister’s name. The transport engine roared to life, steam spitting from its valves as it readied for takeoff.

Protect the queen. Lira heard that whispering, constant voice again, leaking its way into her mind.

She obeyed it.

She believed it.

“Faster!” Breck hissed.

Lira tripped over a fallen body. A large hand caught her by the elbow, lifting her back to her feet. “Keep moving, Lir. We’re almost out of here,” Breck said, grip tight as she guided her forward.

Protect the queen, the sweet song chimed again, and Lira stumbled once more as the back-and-forth of it all hit her with full force.

“LIRA! To your left!”

Her head felt like it weighed too much, like it was going to tumble from her shoulders, as she looked to the left. Then to the right.

A wave of crimson helmets rushed out of the shadows from all sides. More enemy reinforcements that had come from nowhere. The symbol of Arachnid was painted on all of them, hideous and horrible and enemy, enemy, as the group seemed to soar down the city streets. Lira’s unit readied themselves, but now the tide had changed.

They were too few.

The enemy was too many.