The Immortal Calls

chapter two✵kapitel zwei

"Aliyev. Vanzin. Idti."

"Is that a yes?" Heinrik asked.

"They will go with you. But we will watch."

Two of the twitches moved forward. Hassan was close. Leonor took a deep breath in, watching the weave for a moment longer before she blinked the world back into existence, lining up her sights with one of the five twitches that were imprinted on her eyes.

She squeezed the trigger.

The bullet zoomed narrowly past a tree trunk. She leaned over, exhaling, peering through the branches to get a better look. One of the men, dressed in a tan uniform with scruffy brown hair, fell backwards into the snow. She'd glimpsed a small red hole in his forehead right before he went down.

"Ipatiev!" cried the soldier closest to him, right before Hassan reappeared and smacked the handle of his pistol over the back of his head.

Heinrik rushed into the fray. He took out the one closest to him—Aliyev or Vanzin, Leonor wasn't sure—with two hands to his head, snapping the soldier's neck with a crack. One of the remaining soldiers turned in Hassan's direction and opened fire, but Hassan had already disappeared.

The other Solnayan was busying himself with Heinrik. He'd pulled out his pistol, shooting. Heinrik ducked underneath the first shot, weaving around the second, and disarmed the shooter with a kick to his chest, snatching the gun, and slamming him in the face with it.

Leonor remembered herself, then; she fiddled with the bolt handle, loading the next bullet into place. Hassan was taking awfully long to clear that last soldier, and she didn't know if she could line up her shot in time.

She paused. Where was Hassan, anyway?

It seemed the question of Hassan's location had caught Heinrik off guard too. When he dodged out of the way of the last soldier's gunshot, he faltered, stumbling. The soldier took his chance, hauling Heinrik up by the arm and pressing his pistol into Heinrik's neck.

"Come out!" he bellowed. He was the one who'd spoken earlier. Leonor recognized his voice. "Now, or I'll shoot!"

Leonor gulped. She looked at the weave again, and found Hassan a short distance away, dragging himself back to the forest. When Leonor blinked the weave away, she saw the blood that was trailing away from the skirmish.

"Now!" cried the Solnayan again.

Leonor fumbled with her rifle. She didn't need to look at the weave for this. She tried to picture herself in target practice, aiming at the small white circle painted on a board of wood with Heinrik encouraging her at her back. The soldier wasn't even moving—how hard could it be?

She lined up her shot. She took in a breath.

But the soldier moved before she did. He hurled a scream into the air and pulled the trigger, right as Leonor pulled hers.

The soldier's body met the snow with a muffled thump. Heinrik stepped away, rubbing at his pale neck. The Solnayans hadn't known about Hassan's invisibility, just as they hadn't known of Heinrik's superior strength and impenetrable skin.

"Hassan?" Heinrik's voice was muted.

"Here," Hassan groaned, phasing into existence as Leonor rushed out of the forest, rifle clutched in her hands. "Sorry, boss. They got me."

He was nestled by a tree, face set in an expression that was almost peaceful. His eyes were dull as the sun began to set, one leg laid out in front of him. Heinrik hurried over, crashing through the snow to inspect the wound.