“I took you down.” I angled myself to protect him and had to admit that it was a good thing for both of us that my uncle didn’t want me dead.
“I wasn’t trying,” he said. “And I was worried about Bonk.”
The ice in my heart melted a little too much, and a little too fast. It hurt.
“Is he okay?” I asked, anxious. “I don’t hear him.”
Boom! Bridgebane let off a shot, and I jumped.
Boom! Boom! Shade fired back, pushing us up against the wall.
“He’s sedated. I didn’t want the bag to freak him out.”
The bag was mesh on both sides. Ventilation. I looked up at Shade with wide eyes.
“Come on!” He pulled me forward. “How the hell have you survived so far? Or on the fucking Mile?” he ground out.
“I’m not useless.” I was working on getting us out of here, although I wasn’t nearly as panicked since discovering that Shade wasn’t my enemy, and that my uncle would rather shoot himself than shoot me.
Maybe I was still in shock over both those things.
Shade growled something foul when I stopped again. Ignoring his protest and my uncle’s approaching steps, I reached for the blue keypad on the ventilation access panel next to us. I’d created a system-wide code about ten years ago and secretly programmed it to forever status—Queen Bee was the password. The overlying code could have changed a hundred times since then, but the lock would still remember me.
“Shortcut,” I told Shade as I quickly punched in the numbers corresponding to my permanent password. I stayed in front of him, so my uncle wouldn’t shoot. The corridors were monstrously long, the elevators were far away, and Bridgebane would be relentless if he thought he could still catch me without hurting me.
The door to the ventilation shaft swung open. “See? Skills. And on the Mile, I had Jax.”
“I’ll shoot him in the head, Quin.” My uncle was practically on top of us, his gun raised, his finger on the trigger, and Shade in his sights. He’d made up some serious ground the second we stopped shooting to keep him back.
My heart pounding, I covered Shade as he dove into the crawl space, leaving blood on the rim of the panel.
Bridgebane looked livid, but he didn’t shoot. He did start to run, his free hand lifting to grab me.
I dove in after Shade, turned, and slammed the door shut, nearly catching Bridgebane’s fingers in the crack.
My uncle roared.
I roared back. “See you in hell, Uncle Nate!”
“Quin!” He beat what must have been the butt of his gun against the ventilation shaft door.
To the thud, thud, thud, I followed Shade as he started to crawl.
“You’ve left me no choice,” Bridgebane bellowed. “I’ll take one. You choose. Mareeka or Surral.”
I froze, icing over. Shade stopped with me, turning back.
I suddenly felt light, but that was just the effect of my blood pressure dropping like a stone.
Fighting dizziness, I spoke over my shoulder, spoke toward the door. “No, please don’t,” I begged.
“I can save you from him,” Bridgebane said, his voice tinny through the wall, “but you have to give me something to go on. My position is not a given. If I go, I can’t protect you—or Starway 8.”
My stomach roiled. I always knew I would do whatever I had to for this place. My whole life was tied up in it. My past. My present. My future. There was nothing that mattered to me more.
“Mareeka or Surral,” he repeated. “Who can the orphanage live without?”
Neither. They were the heart and soul of Starway 8.
Tears welled in my eyes, and I screamed, slamming my fist against the tunnel wall.
Shade spun fully around in the tight space and took my face in his hands. I saw the fear in his eyes, illuminated by the low light that ran along the metal shaft.
He shook his head. “No. No, baby. You stay with me.”
My breathing turned fast and pounding.
“Just give him some blood,” Shade said, still holding my head. “That’s what he wants, right?”
I nodded, swallowing hard.
“Blood exchange,” Shade called through the wall. “Ten days from now at the Grand Temple on Reaginine. No goons. Six bags of her blood, and you leave the women here alone.”
Shade had taken over the negotiation, but he still looked at me for confirmation. It was my blood, after all.
I nodded. What else could I do?
But the Overseer had the formula. He would make the enhancer again.