The Alien's Equal (Drixonian Warrior #7) - Ella Maven Page 0,29

across the plain as the gates opened.

“Squad up,” Bosa ordered.

The Kaluma surrounded us in a circle and blanked. It was eerie to be so exposed, except I knew should anyone look out across the plains, Justine and I would mostly be invisible, blocked by the Kaluma bodies that blended into the background. We’d be visible from above, but we were between drone flyovers. Grego and Uther had disabled the motion and heat sensors for the back gate.

Bosa’s disembodied voice called out in a harsh whisper. “Now.”

I scooped Justine in my arms and sprinted across the open land. I had to trust the Kaluma to run at my pace, and a few times I detected a blur of motion ahead of me, ensuring I was still surrounded. My feet pounded the ground as I ran with Justine bundled in my arms. She clung to my neck silently, knowing this was the plan.

I slipped through the gates and heard a soft. “Be brave, Drix,” in Bosa’s gravelly voice right before the gates shut behind me. Placing Justine on her feet, I ran to the stairs that led to the gate’s control tower. Taking the steps two at a time, I reached the top. The only evidence anyone had been there was a slight drop of blood on the wood-planked floor. I had no idea what the Kaluma planned to do with the guards’ bodies, and frankly, I didn’t want or need to know.

I waited for the signal, and when I saw a flash of white hair and a raised golden fist at the edge of the tree line, I smiled. I turned the gate’s security back on and ran back down the stairs where Justine waited for me at the base as a lookout.

The Uldani would know something had happened. They’d get a log of nighttime activity at sunup and would then see that the gates had been opened. But they’d get no reports of an immediate breach. They would likely investigate and find the guards missing. They’d raise the alarm then, but with any luck, Justine and I would be on our way to disabling their entire city.

I grabbed Justine’s hand, gave her a grin in the dark, and we took off for the city’s mainframe.

Eight

Justine

This was insane. I wanted to gawk at the sheer gaudiness of this city, but we were running at light speed in the dark. There were a few dim solar lights within the walls, but I still expected to slam into a wall any minute or trip over my own feet.

This place gave me the heebie-jeebies. The floating pods of the elite hovered ominously over the tall buildings, and the smaller huts sat depressingly squat and sad on the ground. From below, I could smell a rank tang of copper and filth, which I assumed came from the mines Nero mentioned.

We reached the large one-story building that housed the hub of the city, the one we had to enter to descend a few floors to the hub. Arriving at a paneled door, Nero flicked a small card between his fingers. That key had been given to Sax by an Uldani who helped him and Val escape when they’d been imprisoned here.

Both Nero and I were skeptical it still worked. I worried it’d been deactivated like a stolen hotel key card. We had a plan B if that were the case, but this would make our lives a helluva lot easier if it worked.

Nero shot me a look and I nodded. Inserting the key card in the slot, I held my breath until a small light appeared. The metal doors flung back, and my heart pounded in my chest like a trapped bird as we stepped into the elevator.

The doors slid closed and before I could say one word to Nero, the entire elevator dropped. I nearly hit the ceiling as it plummeted down. Nero’s hands were the only thing keeping me on the ground since gravity had all but abandoned me. My stomach was in my throat, my head spun, and I was pretty sure I was going to vomit all over the place when the descent into madness slowed then stopped abruptly. I stumbled and nearly landed on my ass if it wasn’t for Nero’s strong grip keeping me upright.

“What the fuck was that?” I gasped. “Christ, you’d think the Uldani could make a better elevator with all their damn technology.”

Nero only stared at me, and I realized he was completely unaffected by the tower