“It’s already monstrous,” Cormac said quietly. “I just want it ended.”
But Pippa said, “The Vanir deserve everything that’s coming to them.”
Bryce grinned. “So do you, terrorizing that poor boy and then deciding he’s not worth it.”
“Emile?” Pippa laughed. “He’s not the helpless baby you think he is. He found allies to protect him. By all means, go retrieve him. I doubt he’ll help the Vanir win this war—not now that we have this technology in our hands. Thunderbirds are nothing compared to this.” She ran a hand over the rim of the box.
Tharion cut in, “Where’s the kid?”
Pippa smirked. “Somewhere even you, mer, would fear to tread. I’m content to leave him there, and so is Command. The boy is no longer our priority.”
Bryce seethed, “You’re deluded if you think this suit is anything but a disaster for everyone.”
Pippa crossed her arms. “I don’t see how you have any right to judge. While you’re busy getting your nails painted, Princess, good people are fighting and dying in this war.”
Bryce wiggled her nails at the rebel. “If I’m going to associate with losers like you, I might as well look good doing it.”
Hunt shook his head, cutting off Pippa before she could retort. “We’re talking machines that can make brimstone missiles within seconds and unleash them at short range.” His lightning now sizzled at his hands.
“Yes,” Pippa said, eyes still lit with predatory bloodlust. “No Vanir will stand a chance.” She lifted her attention to the ship above them, and Hunt followed her focus in time to see the crew appearing at the rails. Backs to them.
Five mer, two shifter-types. None in an Ophion uniform. Rebel sympathizers, then, who’d likely volunteered their boat and services to the cause. They raised their hands.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Hunt growled, just as Pippa lifted her arm in a signal to the human Lightfall squadron standing atop the ship. Herding the Vanir crew to the rails.
Guns cracked.
Blood sprayed, and Hunt flung out a wing, shading Bryce from the mist of red.
The Vanir crumpled, and Ruhn and Cormac began shouting, but Hunt watched, frozen, as the Lightfall squadron on deck approached the fallen crew, pumping their heads full of bullets.
“First round is always a gorsian bullet,” Pippa said mildly in the terrible silence that followed as the Lightfall soldiers drew long knives and began severing heads from necks. “To get the Vanir down. The rest are lead. The beheading makes it permanent.”
“Are you fucking insane?” Hunt burst out, just as Tharion spat, “You’re a murdering psycho.”
But Cormac snarled at Pippa, getting in her face, blocking Tharion’s direct path. “I was told the crew would be unharmed. They helped us out of their belief in the cause.”
She said flatly, “They’re Vanir.”
“And that’s an excuse for this?” Ruhn shouted. Blood gleamed on his neck, his cheek, from where it had sprayed down. “They’re Vanir who are helping you.”
Pippa only shrugged again. “This is war. We can’t risk them telling the Asteri where we are. The order to put the crew down came from Command. I am their instrument.”
“You and Command are going to lead these people to ruin.” Shadows gathered at Ruhn’s shoulders. “And like Hel am I going to help you do it.”
Pippa only snickered. “Such lofty morals.” A phone buzzed in her pocket, and she checked the screen before saying, “I’m due to report to Command. Care to join me, Cormac?” She smiled slightly. “I’m sure they’d love to hear your concerns.”
Cormac only glared, and Pippa let out a sharp whistle—an order. With that, she sauntered down the quay toward the side cavern, where the rest of the rebels had gone. A moment later, the human Lightfall squadron walked off the ship, guns at their sides. Ruhn snarled softly, but they followed Pippa without so much as glancing toward them.
The humans were bold as Hel to stride past them, putting their backs to Vanir after what they’d done.
When Pippa and Lightfall had vanished, Tharion said, “She knows where Emile is.”
“If you can trust her,” Bryce countered.
“She knows,” Cormac said. He gestured to Tharion. “You want to interrogate her, go ahead. But with her and Lightfall now in charge of the Valbaran front, your queen will have a mess on her hands if you move against them. I’d think twice if I were you, mer.”