I hit the concrete and rolled, distributing some of the impact, though it still clacked my teeth together and sent a flare of pain up my arm. Ava pulled me to my feet and dragged me away from the balcony railing just as the soldiers stuck their guns over the edge and fired down on us. We fled the room into another series of darkened corridors. This one without the swarms of soldiers, at least for now.

I leaned against a wall to catch my breath, and Ava did the same. Panting, I looked at her, at the slender body and the calm, young face. “How many times have you done this before?” I asked. She shrugged, pushing long pale hair behind her shoulder.

“I was trained for this,” she said as I wondered what Talon had her pegged for before she ran. Basilisk, Gila and Viper were the operatives that received special combat training. “My final exam was supposed to be this month,” Ava went on, staring at the wall, her eyes dark with memory. “But I knew I couldn’t do what they asked. The new management was especially unbearable.” An unexpected look of disgust broke through her composure. “Hiding what I felt was getting harder and harder. I’d been planning to leave for a long time, ever since I heard about you.” Her gaze flicked to mine, then away just as quickly. “I’m not usually this disorganized,” she admitted, hunching her shoulders as if embarrassed. “I was going to run when my test came around, but then I heard about Faith and…things happened a little faster than I originally planned.” She sighed, squeezing her eyes shut. “I hope she’s all right,” she whispered. “I promised I’d keep her safe.”

I brushed her arm. “She’ll be okay,” I said, allowing a small grin to tug at my mouth. “You don’t know Ember. She’ll burn the building down before she’ll let anyone hurt her. And the soldier…is a bastard, but he knows what he’s doing. Trust me, she’ll be fine.”

Ava regarded me with solemn blue eyes. “You have a lot of faith in them,” she said. “It’s been so long since I’ve been able to trust anyone but myself.”

“Hopefully that’ll change.” I pushed myself off the wall. “But right now, we have to worry about ourselves. Come on, we’re not out of here yet.”

We slipped through the empty corridors, keeping a close ear out for voices or footsteps, until we reached the elevator hall. Ava frowned as I walked up to a pair of metal doors and forced my fingers between the tightly sealed crack. “What are you doing?”