“Wait!” I gasp. “How do you light this?”
Trey moves his thumb away from the grip on his lighter, revealing a small groove in the side. “Press here,” he says.
I nod. “Got it,” I exhale, lighting mine for a moment before I let it extinguish. His hand moves to the canister outside his window once more. He waits for me to do the same with the one on my side of the hovercar. “On the count of two,” he says again, and I nod. “One . . .” The hovercar lurches upward closer to our enemy as we swing lazily in midair. “Two!” Trey shouts. I open the control jet; noxious gas spews out of the canisters in a steady stream. Lighting the gas, it erupts into flames that blast us sideways. He grabs my head and pulls me to him, covering me in the center of the hovercar.
Our hovercar rockets laterally; its roof crashes into the side of a building. The glass of the skyscape’s window rains around us. The hovercar lands on top of its roof, suspending us upside down in our seats. As the fireballs on either side of the hovercar continue to burn, it spins us around as if we’re on a flaming teacup ride in a traveling carnival.
The canisters finally run out of gas and the hovercar comes to a reluctant halt. Dizzily, I grasp the belts holding me in place upside down. From somewhere outside the vehicle, a fem-bot voice announces, “All active-duty personnel are ordered to report to assigned combat stations. Code Amber. Enemy infiltration is detected. All noncombat personnel are ordered to seek shelter in your designated areas—follow protocol Code Amber.”
CHAPTER 7
OVER THE EDGE
Trey is already out of his seat, reaching over to hit the release button on my seat belts. He catches me before I fall against the roof, and then he releases me to rest on it. Crawling out the side window, he pulls me with him just as the hovercar lurches backward, scraping across the shattered glass on the floor. The tension of the lines attached to the hovercar slacken for a moment, causing the car to pause. It sits idly, rocking back and forth before the lines attached to it lift upward once more, forcing them taut. Abruptly, the hovercar makes a horrific screeching sound; the metal rooftop drags over the floor as sparks fly everywhere. The vehicle lifts up, careening backward through the smashed window by the twisted lines from the E-One. It dangles outside for a moment before it floats upward and out of our line of sight.
Trey hurriedly lifts me to my feet. His fierce hug causes my ribs to ache, but I don’t care. I never want him to let go. He kisses my temple, murmuring, “They’re going to realize you aren’t in the vehicle soon and come looking for us. We need to make a decision, Kricket.” He loosens his arms around me. His hand moves to my chin, tipping it up so our eyes meet. His wary look speaks volumes. “We’re both wanted for treason. If we plan to survive, we’ll need to leave the Ship of Skye.”
“If we do that, what happens to Jax and Wayra?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “They die,” he answers in no uncertain terms. “They’ll never let them out of their cells. If this ship goes down, they go with it. If it doesn’t, they’ll be executed for treason.”
“I won’t leave without them! I won’t let them die unable to defend themselves!”
It’s in his eyes: Trey can’t leave them here, either. “I agree. It’s up to us to get them out.” He bends down and kisses me. I’m overwhelmed by the potency of his nearness. My knees weaken.
He must feel it because he lifts me up in his arms, allowing my head to rest on his shoulder. Carrying me over the shattered glass and debris that litter the floor, he moves in the direction of a bank of overups that lie open not far away. The fem-bot warning continues to sound, “All active-duty personnel . . .”
Behind us, wind stirs the glass on the floor, causing me to glance over Trey’s shoulder. In the gap in the window, the outline of the E-One throws a long shadow upon us. I stiffen in Trey’s arms, causing him to pause and look behind him as well.
The static snap of high-intensity electricity sizzles the air near the E-One. Trey turns away from the heli-vehicle and dives with me in his arms. We land behind a concrete pillar; Trey flattens us against it. The crackle of a lightning strike branches out from the E-One with bright, webbed fingers; it glows golden, raising the hair on my neck as it misses our entwined bodies by mere inches. Closing my eyes, my hair whips up around me while the fem-bot voice short-circuits.
After the shock dissipates, Trey’s mouth brushes my ear as he asks, “Can you run?” I nod. He puts me on my feet. “When I tell you to, run toward the overups.” I nod again. Trey peeks around the pillar for a moment, his strong hand gripping my forearm. “Now, Kricket! Go, go!” He urges me to move toward a grouping of elevatorlike doors ahead of us. Behind us, more windows crash in, shattering as Alameeda troops rappel in with jet packs attached to their backs.