Athena’s Ashes (Star Thief Chronicles #2)(67)
Author: Jamie Grey

“Doesn’t seem to be working,” Renna said with a shrug. “Give yourself up, doctor. There’s nowhere else for you to run.”

“I don’t need to run.” Samil pulled a small tablet from the pocket of her white coat.

Renna rolled her eyes and reached for her gun. Her hand stopped halfway to her hip. She blinked at her non-responding limb, trying to flex her fingers, but her arm wouldn’t move. Like it was made entirely of cement.

Her gaze flew to Finn’s. “Run!”

FORTY-ONE

“Nobody move,” Samil barked. Whatever the woman planned to do with Renna wasn’t going to be good. She needed to get Finn and the Athena out of here. “Finn. You need to run!”

“I’m not going anywhere, Ren,” he said softly. “I let MYTH convince me that pretending to betray you would be the best way to get Samil out in the open. I’m not turning my back on you again.”

Gods, how she wanted to believe him, but she was still so hurt, so angry at his betrayal that she could barely speak. She stared at him, trying to read the expression in his eyes and finding nothing but regret.

“So touching, this little reunion.” Samil pressed a finger to the tablet, and Renna’s arm jerked again.

Beside Samil, Renna’s mother had pressed her hands to her lips, her frail body trembling as she watched the scene unfold. Tears welled in Ryla’s eyes, but she still stood at the doctor’s side, a mute servant.

Screw her. Renna tried to clench her muscles, to stop the movement of her body, but she had no control over anything. Her arm straightened, and she tried to struggle as Samil made her grab the gun at her waist.

“Please, Finn. Get out of here now,” she begged. “I can’t control this.”

He shook his head. “Fight it, Ren. You can’t let her win.”

Even furious at him, she couldn’t face the prospect of losing him again. It had felt like someone had ripped out her heart and left it beating on the ground. If nothing else, she could make sure they were all safe. “I’m the only one who can stop this. Let me go, Finn.”

Finn’s lips thinned. “I’m not letting you do this alone, Ren.”

The gun was heavy in her hand as she raised it. Tears streamed down her face. “Please.” She didn’t know if she was begging Finn or Samil or some unknown god. She just needed it all to stop before Samil made her shoot someone she loved.

“I don’t want to hurt anyone else,” Dr. Samil called. “Come with me now, and I’ll let your mother and your friends live.”

Renna glanced at Major Dallas, still pointing his gun at Samil. At Keva, who wore a grim expression and carried a shiny new rifle. At Finn. She couldn’t live with their deaths. It might be too late to save the tenement residents, but it wasn’t too late to save her friends.

“Let them go,” she called to Samil. “I’ll come with you.”

“Renna! What are you doing?” Finn demanded, grabbing her other arm.

She shook her head. “We have to stop her. This is the only way I know how.”

“No!”

She smiled sadly at him. “I’m glad you’re alive, Finn. I could barely live with myself thinking you were gone. Please do this for me.”

“No. Renna, we can stop her together.”

“We can’t. She’ll make me kill you. Get out of here while you can. I have a plan. Trust me. You owe me that at least.”

Finn’s gaze flicked to Samil and then back to Renna. “I do. But I don’t trust her.”

“Go.”

He frowned at her, pain seeping into his blue eyes. “But it’s not supposed to end like this.”

“It’s not supposed to end at all, but sometimes life has other plans. Despite your recent lapse in judgment, you’ve turned into a good man, Nicholas Finn. I’m proud to have known you.” To have loved you, she almost added.

He traced a finger down her cheek and pulled her into his arms, kissing her gently. “Don’t make me do this, Renna,” he whispered.

“You don’t have a choice. You have to get as far away from the Athena as possible. As soon as you landed, she took control of the ship with her network, and I don’t know what she’s planning.” Renna’s muscles tightened, and her brain throbbed as Samil ordered her other arm to move. “Go,” she said.

Finn spun on his heel, barking commands into his comm with one last long look at Renna. The Athena’s crew sprinted from the ship, and the platoon quick-marched away from the tenements.

“Now that your touching goodbye is over, I have my own goodbyes to take care of,” Samil said. “Did you really think I’d let them leave? Poor Renna.”

The hybrids surrounding the park suddenly snapped to attention, eyes flashing red.

“No! I’m coming with you. You don’t need them,” Renna protested, feeling the tug of the neural network surge through her as well.

“You should know by now that I hate loose ends.” The hybrids marched like a well-oiled army platoon after Finn’s team.

But Renna’s mother hadn’t moved, hadn’t obeyed the command to follow the Athena’s crew. Ryla watched them go with a frown, then her gaze fell to Samil. Renna wished she knew what was going through her mother’s mind. Was she happy with her choice? Was she truly Samil’s slave? Or was there something else left inside?

Ryla smiled sadly at her daughter. “I wish things could have been different, Renna. I wish I’d been the mother you deserved. I’m sorry for everything, but I’m so proud of the woman you’ve become.”

Before Renna could react, Ryla launched herself at Samil, knocking the tablet from the woman’s hand. It went spinning away from them, kicking up a trail of dust.

Instantly, the painful pressure in her brain cut off, and Renna’s arm dropped to her side. She was free.

Across the park, Samil and her mom struggled together on the ground. Gray dust streaked Samil’s once-white coat and her neat bun hung in scraggles down her back as she flipped Renna’s mother onto her back. Ryla’s worn dress was torn and her face battered, but she was holding her own.

Until Samil dug her fingers into the fresh scar’s on Ryla’s head.

Renna’s mother let out a bloodcurdling scream as she flailed beneath the doctor. Ryla’s fingers clawed at Samil’s face, but years of drug use and starvation had made her weak, and Samil easily overpowered her.