The Twisted Way (Champions of the Crystal Book 3)

Chapter 26.1

"Stop what you're doing, Malvarak, or I'll blow you to hell," Scotty said grimly. "I mean it."

Malvarak reached down and yanked Sabrina to her feet. "Not with your sister in the way, you won't. Well, Sabrina, you have doubtless surmised what I am doing; now you may assist."

She looked down at the table and saw Tirqwin's still, pale form, giving no sign of life. There was a wire embedded in one of his temples. She could smell burnt skin and blood.

"Malvarak, you can't do this," she whispered, feeling sick. "Please. I know you're sick but you can't do this. It's...ghastly!"

His lips pulled into a thin, humorless smile. "It is survival. It is vengeance. It is all I have, all I am, now."

Sabrina's eyes kept moving independently of her thoughts, taking in the path of the wire from Tirqwin to a nearby wall panel that aboard Khediva held a direct interface to the Ship's main processor. He's downloading Tirqwin's mind, she guessed.

"Rina!" Scotty said, his tone half threat, half plea. Sabrina knew he meant: Shoot him yourself or get out of my way.

"You are too late, you know," Malvarak said, keeping his grip on her arm even as he turned back to his work. "He's been dead for several minutes. I don't need his body, after all. I detest clutter."

Sabrina looked down at the immobile face of the man who had been her rescuer, her mentor, her friend, and her responsibility, who had laughed with her, understood her, and believed in her, and thought her heart would break. Tears blurred her vision, but only for a moment as fury welled inside her instead.

With a ragged, hoarse cry, she threw herself at Malvarak, sending them both toppling. The laser scalpel he'd been holding seared the sleeve of her suit; she felt it burn down to her skin as she crashed to the floor on top of Malvarak, her hands going for his throat. She noted in a flash of clarity the shock on his face; it gave her a grim satisfaction.

Scotty was yelling in the background, running toward them. Malvarak was fighting to raise his arm and use the only weapon he had; Sabrina bore down on it with all her strength.

"Rina, use your gun! Rina, shoot him!" Scotty shouted.

Malvarak threw Sabrina off in a sudden burst of strength; she went skidding across the deckplates and crashed into the bulkhead. Stars danced in her field of vision, and she brought her gun up blindly to defend herself. But it was already over.

Malvarak fell to the deck, a smoking hole in his back, as Scotty lowered his blaster, turning slightly green at the smell of charred fabric and flesh.

"Rina!"

"I'm..." All right, she tried to say and couldn't. She closed her eyes and tried to breathe, to do anything but sit there and cry uselessly.

"Rina!" Scotty said again. "Help me with him!"

The call for help brought her partly back to her senses, and she climbed painfully to her feet, dropping her blaster. "Is he dead?"

Scotty aimed a careless kick at Malvarak, who did not respond. "Close enough," he muttered. "Leave him. We gotta figure out how to revive Tirqwin."

Sabrina looked at the equipment, none of which made any immediate sense to her. "He's dead."

"He's not dead, you idiot, Malvarak wanted his brain, not a bunch of soggy tissue!" Scotty retorted. "Get with it, Rina, he lied to you so you wouldn't think." He let a small grin escape him. "Only you didn't think in the direction he thought you would."

"Do you think Nllata's studied healing?"

"Rina!" Scotty said in exasperation. "Did Malvarak steal your brain too? We can't let her anywhere near him with that Pharon crystal; he's linked to Mara and Khediva!"