Page 152 of Us Defiant Few

Breathing was becoming an exhausting affair, but she gulped and nodded erratically. “Yes.”

He urged her forward with one hand at her back. He scanned every store they passed, his finger steady on the trigger, ready to annihilate anyone who stood in their way.

When they turned right onto a golden street corner, a group of ten guards turned in unison and raised their guns. Takeshi immediately pulled her behind him.

Her mouth opened in a silent scream.

But masked men on top of the buildings threw small gray spheres to the street…and they exploded.

The shockwave slammed into them, and she crashed to the ground, ears ringing. Takeshi cursed, helping her to shaky feet.

The masked assailants on the roof disappeared, but another group swarmed the remaining guards. The soldiers aimed their guns, but the masked men were faster, more vicious. They stabbed them in the chest, cut their throats, broke their necks.

Her jaw hung open as the guards were brutally cut down like paper. When they were all dead, one of the masked men dressed in black ran toward their group.

Takeshi raised his gun, but Khalani quickly put a steadying hand on his wrist.

“Raziel?” she called.

The top half of the Enforcer’s face was spattered with bloodstains as he came to a grinding halt. His knife was drenched in red, and he casually wiped the evidence from his arms. He gave Takeshi—who still didn’t lower his gun—a hard look before exchanging a wordless nod with Brock.

“Good to see you all alive.”

“Are you all right?” she asked, noting the wild fervor in his eyes and the neurotic twitch of his fingers on the blade, like he needed to sink the steel into someone else.

“Don’t worry about me. This is the most fun I’ve had in ages.” Raziel wiped his nose with dirty gloves as his men checked for survivors, killing anyone who so much as twitched.

“Where’s Jack and Spade?” Brock asked.

“They’re on the other side of the city. They radioed that the guards were slaughtering a bunch of people coming up from the underground elevator. They’re trying to save them.”

Serene gripped her hand. “Your message worked, Khalani! The people are rising.”

She barely had time to process the pivotal moment before Raziel’s bloodthirsty gaze settled on her.

“What do you need from us?” he asked, gripping his knife tighter.

She looked at Takeshi, who nodded, giving her the courage to speak. “We need to get to the Governor’s house. Can your men help us?”

“On it.”

Raziel waved over the group of twenty Aces, relaying the plan. They grabbed extra weapons from the fallen guards and stood at the ready.

“Where?” Raziel asked.

“This way,” Takeshi answered, leading the charge.

They ran like a black plague through the city, shooting down every guard in their path. She couldn’t look anywhere that wasn’t splattered with blood. Couldn’t walk without pain stabbing her foot or the unnerving scratch of glass grating her ears.

But they were almost to the end.

Khalani could feel it.

And if the people of Apollo were fighting back, they might have a chance of survival.

“Get down!” someone yelled.

Bodies dropped to the ground, and she was tackled by Takeshi. Serene huffed next to her as Brock did the same. She lifted her head, and a whole unit of guards—at least fifty—rushed the opposite end of the street and began firing.