Another explosion landed against the ship’s hull, throwing them all to the ground. When they’d regained their feet, the fight had lost its center. Blades and Bullets darted in every direction. The melee spun around her with chaotic frenzy. This fight would kill them all if she didn’t do something about it.

“To me!” she shouted again. “Blades! To me!”

The response was instantaneous. Pine spun, the bliss of battle dancing in his eyes. The Blades formed a circle around Caledonia, giving them the ability to concentrate their attack where the Bullets could not.

Caledonia took a moment to study the scene. The Bullets no longer held the upper hand, yet they showed no sign of ceding the fight. She surveyed the faces before her, stopping the instant she found the person she wanted. Their Ballistic.

She darted forward, eyes locked on her target.

An elbow crashed into her cheek, and she was on her knees beneath a Bullet twice her size. He loomed over her, shoulders like boulders and a thin orange scar stretching from the corner of his mouth up to his ear. An eerie, painful kind of smile. He swung an arm back, and Caledonia caught the glint of sword gilded with blood. She rolled into him, thrusting her back into his chest as she rose and throwing him off balance. Before he recovered, she drove her own knife beneath his ribs, pulling away again as he slumped to the ground before her.

She had no time to wait. Their Ballistic rushed her and she fired, hitting him square in the chest. It was over that quickly. Their leader was down. Caledonia held her ground, giving the clip a moment to submit. But not one of them gave a sign of surrender. They shouted, and together the Bullet clip drove forward.

Caledonia stumbled back in angry confusion. There was no question who would win this fight. The Bullets were outnumbered and entirely surrounded, but they continued to fight. Violent cries rose from their throats as they dove toward their opponents. They slashed viciously, vibrantly even, seeming to welcome each killing blow.

With a small shock, Caledonia realized that’s exactly what they were doing. They would not surrender here, but fight until every last one of them fell.

Body after body thudded to the deck or splashed overboard until, with a sickening quiet that ballooned around them, the ship was theirs.

Chapter Ten

CHAPTER TEN

Silt had an odor like a flower that had been plucked and laid too long in the sun. It was the sort of sweet that smelled wrong, cloying and so thick it was almost a taste. It was present in every room of the sweeper, threading the hallways with its sticky promise, teasing and tempting in every breath. As soon as they’d swept the ship for stragglers, the Blades promptly returned topside and stayed there.