“Shit,” Druck cursed again in response to my reaction. “Come on, you’re—” He paused. “Well…you were hurt.”

  I reached up to touch my head again, finding the skin back in place, the pain subsiding. “Restore heals quickly,” I replied, keeping my attention on the tree where I had last seen Emerald. Would she press the attack or shy away? She knew that I knew she was there. Knowing how smart she was, I was certain she would stick with her original plan. Stay close but let someone else try to deal with us before moving in for the easier kill. I think she had seen I wasn’t that easy to dispatch and would react accordingly the next time.

  The first shooter didn’t make their presence known either. They remained still after Druck’s wild spray of bullets, thinking he was probably moving through the darkness and into position to prevent another sniper attack.

  A sudden commotion in the trees ahead and to my right seemed to confirm as much. The branches shook violently for a few seconds before a body fell to the ground. Ixitat followed behind it, legs surrounding the victim as she sank her fangs into them. By the lack of a scream, I figured the shooter was either dead or paralyzed. Knowing that Ixy probably wanted to eat him, I hoped for death.

  “You okay, Cap?” Kat asked, backing to our position.

  “Yeah,” I replied. “It’s already healed.”

  “So are you invincible now or what?” Druck questioned.

  “I think if that bullet hadn’t clipped my shoulder, I’d be dead right now,” I answered. “If I run out of chaos energy or die before restore can, well, restore me, I’m screwed.”

  “I guess you got lucky then.”

  “I think I’ve earned it. Keep your eyes peeled. Emerald Jones is tailing us.”

  Druck turned pale. “You’re shitting me.”

  “No. I don’t know enough about the Spiral to make up something like that. Why?”

  “I just can’t believe the assholes running Kill Spree would be dumb enough to pull her out of solitary to participate. She’s got pretty much all of her screws loose, and she’s smart enough to use her crazy as an advantage. Especially here.”

  “It seems to me like she’s looking to scavenge other contestants' near-misses.”

  “It may have looked that way, but I wouldn’t buy too heavily into that assumption. She’s too unpredictable to assign any rational actions to her. The only thing you can count on is that when she comes at us again, she’ll hit hard and fast.” He stared in the same direction I had been looking, shaking his head.

  “If she’s as dangerous as you say, I’m willing to bet Sedaya had a hand in getting her brought here. I don’t suppose you’re familiar with Colonel Coil too?”

  He laughed. “This is starting to sound like a who’s who of the most infamous individuals in the Spiral.”

  “And not by coincidence,” I replied. “We should keep moving. I don’t know how long those demon things are going to stay satisfied following us.”

  A sudden rumble from the direction we had come from turned all our heads back that way just as the trees there started swaying. Shorter vegetation laid down as if a tidal wave blasted through it.

  Only the wave wasn’t composed of water.

  “Time’s up,” Kat said.

  CHAPTER 13

  Weapons raised, we spun toward the oncoming mass of creatures streaming through the trees all around us. Druck fired a few rounds before quickly stopping, shaking his head at the futility of trying to shoot so many of them with a conventional rifle and a limited magazine. Realizing we couldn’t kill them all, Kat’s reaction was similar.

  But maybe we didn’t need to kill them all.

  I raised my hand and activated push, pull, and reflect, a complex action that held a swath of air in place while turning it into not only a shield but a barrier the creatures would bounce off of, hopefully convincing them to go around rather than pile up against it. Having seen the creatures jump, I continued to maintain the shield almost all the way around us, leaving a small open area in the rear.

  “Ixy!” I shouted, hoping she would understand my intention.

  She didn’t seem to, remaining in the nearby trees as the wave approached. The demons charged us, violently hissing and clawing the ground, the horde growing more eager when we came into their view. The leaders leaped at us, claws outstretched, sensing an easy kill.

  The first demon hit the barrier and bounced off, the ricochet sending it tumbling into the creatures behind it. Those demons suffered the same fate, slamming into the barrier, their reflected momentum throwing them back. Ixitat still didn’t move, remaining safely overhead. I didn’t press the issue. The creatures didn’t seem to care about her anyway. Sending up a loud cacophony of hisses and screams, more and more of them poured into the wooded area. They rushed across the ground, still trying to get at us, only to bounce ineffectively off the barrier.

  A shout to my left drew my attention to Emerald as she emerged from the vegetation, her ugly knife in one hand and a broken branch in the other. She held the branch like a jousting spear, stabbing the nearest creature in the chest while slashing a second. Ducking low to throw the corpse over her back, she drove her shoulder into the next creature like a football player bowling his way through the defense. She took time occasionally to kick leaves into the faces of several, distracting them long enough to slice two in half and then throw the makeshift spear into the other one. It did little more than pierce its hide.

  As more and more creatures massed around her, her eyes shifted to me for an instant, begging for help. I knew she’d never be able to take them all by herself. I couldn't just stand there and let them kill her.

  “Captain,” Druck said. “Don’t.”

  “She’ll owe us,” I replied.

  “She’s crazy. You can’t trust crazy.”

  “I have to at least give her a chance.”

  “She’s a serial killer, Ben. She kills people for fun. Innocent people. She deserves to die.”

  I continued watching as she kicked one of the demons into another before thrusting her blade into the chest of a third. Bracing herself on bent knees, she jerked her knife back and brought it around to neatly remove the arm of another.

  Respecting her courage and mastery of her weapon but considering her crimes, I watched her power through the group, coming toward us. She had to know the barrier was there. Did she realize I'd left a gap? If not, did I dare help her when she could so easily turn on us?

  “Cap, he’s right,” Kat added. “Let the monsters take care of her.”

  I hesitated as she made it a little closer to the bubble. I could feel the chaos energy draining from me. I had enough to hold the shield for some time yet, but once the stored energy was gone, it was gone. We were four against not only the other killers, but a countless number of creatures who seemed to be out for our blood.

  “We need all the help we can get,” I said. “Psycho murderer or not.” Emerald was some kind of genius scientist. No doubt she had come to that same conclusion.

  “We’re all going to die,” Druck mumbled as I waved to Emerald.

  “This way!” I shouted. “Duck under!”

  Her eyes met mine again, face wrinkling in determination as she sprinted toward the barrier, keeping the creatures at bay with her blade. One of them clipped her shoulder as she neared the shield, claw ripping through her jacket and drawing blood. She dived into a baseball slide to get under the gap, popping back to her feet inside the bubble. Her knife immediately swung toward me. Our eyes met again as the sharp edge of her blade, dripping creature blood down my front, stopped against my throat.

  “If I die, this shield dies with me,” I said, fighting for calm and praying I hadn't made the wrong move and gotten all of us killed by saving Emerald's crazy ass.

  “This might be the only chance I get to kill you,” she replied as Druck and Kat turned their rifles on her.

  “Except I’m not part of the game.”

  Her face changed as she did the math. Killing me wouldn’t get her any closer to freedom. It would only put her life in greater danger. The blade dropped from my throat and she spun around, using it to lop off the hand of the first demon to stick its head through the break in the shield. Kat and Druck turned their rifles toward the opening too, ready to stop any of the creatures that tried to come through the break.

  “You should have made a full sphere,” she said, facing away from me. She didn’t ask how I had made the shield, just complained about its overall design.

  “Then how would you have gotten in?” I replied.

  Finding the statement way more funny than seemed reasonable, her laughter sounded a little maniacal for comfort. She’d been inside the barrier for five seconds and I was already regretting my second lapse in concern of the consequences that could arise if I wasn't more careful about who I took a chance on trusting. Why did I always try to see the best in people instead of going with what their histories told me? So far, it had worked out mostly in my favor, but there was no way that would last.

  “Like I said, you should have made a full sphere,” she repeated, driving the thought home. Even she thought I was an idiot for letting her in.

  There was nothing I could do about it now. I maintained the shields as the creatures continued streaming through the trees, finally getting the hint they couldn’t reach us despite the lack of a visible barrier. Fresh gunfire erupted on the other side of the wooded area, followed by a pair of human screams echoing through the branches.

  “Sounds bad for them,” Emerald said. “Ouchies.” In the absence of demons trying to get to us, she stabbed at the ground with her knife, picking up leaves and shaking them off the blade to pass the time.

  The creatures continued circling them on the outside of the bubble for nearly five more minutes before racing through the woods, likely toward the settlement. Did they know the killers were trying to make it there too, or was that their home base as well? Either way, if Matt was on his way there, he was walking into a trap.

  “This is so boring,” Emerald said, giving up on stabbing leaves to flip the knife in the air and catch it.

  “Careful,” Druck said. “Go too high and it’ll bounce back on you with some speed on it.”

  “It doesn’t work like that,” I said. “Go too high and it’ll leave the safe zone and wind up outside.”

  She glanced at both of us before throwing the knife into the air as hard as she could. It went through the shields, the blade sinking into a branch about fifteen feet up.

  “Nice move,” Druck teased. “Now you've lost your knife.”

  “I don’t need it to kill you,” she replied, with enough conviction that Druck took a step back.

  “Whoa, hold on there. We’re on the same team.”

  “Is your name Emerald Jones?” she asked.

  “No.”

  “Then we’re not on the same team.”

  The last of the creatures passed the barrier, moving far enough away that I dropped the shield, ready to push Emerald to the dirt if she tried anything.

  She settled for a simple nod. “Thanks for the cover. I owe you one.”

  “You’re leaving?” I asked.

  “That would be the opposite of staying. Later, losers.”

  She went over to the trunk of the nearest tree, scaling it and agilely balancing on the branch where she had planted her knife. When she reached it, she jumped back, catching the limb on the way down. Holding it with one hand, she used the other to retrieve the blade before impressively pulling herself back up with one arm. She made sure to offer a flourishing bow to us before returning to the center of the tree and disappearing into its leaves.

  “Weirdo,” Druck murmured. “At least she didn’t cut our throats.”

  “Yet,” Kat said. “I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of her.”

  “Come on,” I said. “I want to get to the settlement as close behind those things as we can.” I scanned the trees, looking for Ixitat. Not seeing her, I tapped on my comm badge. “Ixy, are you coming?”

  She climbed down out of the foliage to the lowest branch of the same tree Emerald had disappeared into and dropped a webbed bundle from her forelimbs. It thudded on the ground at my feet, Emerald's head sticking out.

  She glowered up at me. "Would you mind getting me out of here?"

  CHAPTER 14

  “Emeraldssss stealssss,” Ixitat said, scrambling down the tree to point at Kat's hip.

  “My blaster,” he realized, clasping his empty holster.

  “My knife,” Druck added. “And your blaster too, Cap.”

  “Seriously, Emerald?” I realized her knife twirling had been a slight-of-hand distraction to grab our weapons and toss them out through the shields without us noticing, the knife-in-branch misdirecting us while she tried to make her escape.

  “A girl’s got to do what a girl's got to do to survive,” she replied indignantly. “If you’re going to kill me with your magic hand, just do it now and get it over with.”

  Druck looked at me expectantly.

  I glowered at him. “I’m not killing someone while they’re tied up. Emerald, we’re going to the settlement to find our other friends. You’ve seen how many demons there are. We could use your help, and you could use ours. We’re all better off together.”

  “I don’t play well with others.”

  “Traditionally, maybe not. But have you ever been on a planet infested with angry natives who want to kill you?”

  “That pretty much sums up my experience on Midas.”

  “Well, would you have preferred a little help there?”

  She huffed out an irritated breath. “I suppose I could use an entourage. I can be like Gia.” She fluttered her eyelids. “Totally cotton candy. Tee-hee.”

  “Look, maybe you see winning the game as your ticket to freedom. But it’s not the only way offworld. I came to this planet without a starship, and I intend to leave the same way. Help me out, and you can come too.”

  “Really? Can I, can I, can I? My hero. ”

  “Forget about her, Cap,” Druck said. “She’s nothing but baggage.”

  Her demeanor shifted in an instant. “Call me baggage again soldier-boy…" Her eyes dropped to his groin. "...and I’ll remove yours first chance I get.”

  “Is this whole thing a joke to you?” I asked her.

  “Everything’s a joke since Midas,” she replied. “Society and civilization are a joke. I might be better off with those creatures. I think they’ve been more transparent about their motives than any humans I’ve ever met.”

  “So you don’t trust me?”

  “I don’t trust anyone.”

  “You can trust me.”

  She laughed. “Okay, well since you said it. Let me loose, I’ll sign up for your dance party.”

  “What happened on Midas?” I asked.

  “You should ask me what didn’t happen on Midas,” she replied. “I didn’t get a chance to contact anyone. I didn’t get a fair trial. And I didn’t kill anyone!” She screamed the last part so loud I thought the demons might turn around and come back. Maybe they wouldn’t, but if there were any other killers around they might decide to drop in and try to snipe us again.

  “Bullshit,” Druck said. “Talk about overused cliches. I’m innocent. I didn’t kill anyone. I was set up. Do you know how many times I’ve heard that? I’ve seen your trial. They showed the videos. They were verified authentic. The DNA matched. That was you.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Dismiss me like everyone else.” She growled impatiently. “Just kill me already. I’m so sick and tired of being tossed around and treated like garbage. Used, abused, and ignored because some supposedly authentic video shows me killing people. I was an academic, with a good job, a husband, everything I ever wanted. Yeah, so I enjoyed shooting guns and martial arts and other forms of exercise. None of that is illegal. Because it must have been me, right?”

  “That’s what authentic video of you murdering people means,” Druck snapped.

  “Except that it wasn’t authentic,” I said.

  Druck shot me a doubtful look and shook his head. “It can’t be, Boss. She’s still alive.”

  I looked at Emerald. “You don’t have an evil twin, do you?”

  “What does that have to do with anything?” she asked angrily.

  “Do you?” I pressed.

  She shook her head. “No.”

  I sighed, my hopes that maybe she really had been set up by Blorb dissipating. She just seemed so adamant about her innocence. Then again, Druck had said she was crazy. “That’s too bad.”

  “Tell me about it,” she replied. “Nothing hurts as much as losing your other half.”

  I did a double-take. “Wait. Are you saying you do have a twin sister?”

  “Had,” she corrected. “She was murdered by a jealous ex-boyfriend. Six years, seventy-three days ago.”

  “Oh, come on,” Druck said, shaking his head. “No way.”

  “No way what?” Emerald asked.

  “Swear to me you’re innocent,” I said.

  “Why? Like you’ll believe me?”

  “I might. If you swear.”

  “Captain,” Druck said, still unsure.

  “Okie dokie. I swears, Master. I swears.”

  “Kat, cut her loose.”

  “Aye, Captain,” he replied without hesitation, pulling a small knife from his boot and quickly slicing through Ixitat’s silk. When Emerald shrugged out of it, a hastily constructed pack of branches, leaves, and vines wrapped around our weapons fell out from under her arm. Managing to put together something like that in the little amount of time she had to accomplish it hugely impressed me.

  “What does my sister have to do with any of this?” she asked, picking off strands of silk still clinging to her clothes.

  “Duke Sedaya has an alien working for him named Blorb.” I stopped there, waiting for her to laugh at the name. She didn’t, her eyes urging me to keep talking. “He’s from a race called the Aleal. They can…well, eat part of a person’s brain to capture their genetic sequence, their persona, and then make themselves look like that person. If you’re telling me the truth, his involvement in both your sister’s death and whatever happened on Midas makes all the pieces fit.”