Lightning Bringer: (Lighting Seeker Book 2)

Heart or War

Vale had managed to escape the chaos. When Kebar had placed the bounty on her head, Vale had used her metal arm to throw the table across the room and dash for the door before the girls had recovered from the mess of eyes, and dinnerware. 

Stumbling into Reign's room, she had plucked up her screen, shoved it into a small pack, and was out the window moments later.

She heard voices down the hall and held her breath as she used her metal arm as a hook, slowly making her way above the window before voices scrambled into Reign's room. Vale yanked herself through the window above and tucked herself against the wall beneath the sill, silent.

The room she entered was dark and unattended. Silk curtains flapped in the breeze, tickling her face as she pressed herself into it, the cool material like a waterfall against her skin. "She's not here!" someone below shouted.

"I told you she wouldn't be! Who would be stupid enough to hide in her own room?" The voices died down as they sprinted away, determined to find the keeper of their prize. Shaking, Vale yanked out the screen and flipped it over. Turning her arm into a screwdriver, she loosened the screws and pulled off the back panel. Her hands trembled as she worked. She knew the girls were ripping the castle apart, floor by floor. Eager to kill. Ready to end the game they had all fallen into.

Vale swore when tears pricked at the corners of her eyes. Not now, not now, not now. Fight now, cry later. Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to remember what Midnight taught her. Adjusting one of the metal plates in her arm, she slipped a small chip out and after several adjustments, added it to the screen's back panel.

Replacing the panel, Vale flipped the screen back over and turned it on. Holding her breath, she watched the screen flicker to life. A set of code flickered across the screen, and after typing out a set of commands, Vale watched in astonishment as the screen gave her a view of every camera in the Devinus castle.

That is how Vale had survived the last four hours, staying one step ahead of the hunting girls. She had stuffed her pack full of vegetables from the garden at the top of the castle and began a hunt of her own. While the girls hunted her, she made use of the game and openly looked for the central control room. It was time to end things. She couldn't stay alive and hidden forever.

It had taken two hours to map out the possibilities, and two more to narrow them down to three options. This place is annoyingly huge. As Vale scanned the schematics of the ship again while sitting behind a stuffed couch, out of sight, a slew of messages fluttered to the bottom corner of her screen. 

Tapping the text, Vale's eyes widened. She would have laughed if she wasn't so terrified of being caught.

K- What do you mean you've lost her?

L- She isn't wearing her tracker.

K- Impossible. She had shoes on when she entered the banquet hall! EVERY SINGLE PAIR WAS GIVEN A TRACKING DEVICE!

L- Then she either disabled it or ditched her shoes.

K- I don't care. FIND. HER. We can't afford to have her running around loose!

L- Yes your Highness.

Vale cracked a smile, amused by the idea that she had tricked Kebar. Thank you, Pavi.

Filling with newfound confidence, Vale swiped the screen and brought up the only other thing she had time to learn while she was with Midnight. After tapping out several commands, Vale stood to her feet and ducked into the hall. Glancing down at her screen as she moved, Vale managed to sneak up a set of servant's stairs and reached a large steel door. The blinking green dots signified that none of the hunting girls were nearby. 

Option one. Vale shoved her shoulder against the door, hoping she had found the control room. The door it gave away easily, and Vale stumbled into a dark room. The door behind Vale slammed shut, locking her inside. Shoving the screen into her pack, Vale's arm crackled to life with an angry snarl, igniting the room with a wild light as she readied to tackle whatever new trap she had fallen into.

Kebar stood at the other end of the room, an impressed smile on his face. "I assumed a day would come, where you would begin to bore me..."

His face looked sharp, harsh in the flickering light. "I made it clear to Sky that you would be dead after your first night here." Kebar looked Vale over with an appraising gaze. "But you proved me wrong. Something that is not often done."

Vale chanced a look around. They were in a medical bay. Her brain worked in a mad dash to formulate a plan. Kill Kebar, find the control room, and end this once and for all.

Vale's fingers twitched. Kebar laughed. "Always so eager to kill me."

"That shouldn't surprise you," Vale replied, her arm growing into a large sword, the metal sparking with light, hungry to sink into Kebar with a wildness that had become second nature when it came to him. "You've set up a hunt with the intention of having me destroyed."

Kebar laughed. "Hardly the plan." He shook his head.

"Then what do you call the girls running through your castle trying to kill me?" Vale growled, unamused.

"Fodder." The word was cold, calculating. "You want Sky," Kebar said leaning against the wall in a strangely casual move. Nothing like the kingly stance he normally took. "Kill them and he is yours."

Vale blinked. But refused to take more than a moment to let it settle in her mind. Hesitation is what he was after. Thinking she could be bought. "Or I could kill you, take him with me and the girls can return home." Vale offered with a dangerous swing of her sword. Kebar didn't flinch.

"And that is why I am here. I expected Sky to explain how things work, but he has been... stubborn since your arrival."

Vale's heart hammered loudly in her ears. She knew she was about to hear a truth that would change the game. One that would force her to choose. An impossible choice between her mission and her heart.

"Sky's mechanical heart that Dash so graciously implanted has received a few... necessary upgrades since his return."

"No," Vale whispered, her eyes going wide. Understanding washing over her.

"Yes. His life is connected to this vessel. If this ship is destroyed or is threatened, he dies with it." Vale felt her legs give out and she hit the ground, sharp pain ripping into her knees as they greeted the cold floor. Kebar moved towards her. "If he leaves, I kill him. If I die, he dies."

Kebar walked past her and opened the door for Vale to leave. "So I suggest you make your choice. Him, or this war you are so fond of. And remember... only one of those things will love you back."