PROMISE

CHAPTER 29

Muscles tensed through Hain's body. He planted his hands and catapulted himself off the table, the movement smooth as a curling wave, his body charged with renewed strength. Tactics flashed through his mind while he hung in the air, and in those frozen moments he realized that escape would not be possible for both he and Lilith. One would die if the other was to escape. A trade. One life for one life. Redemption for leaving that Boy in the woods to be flayed by the Vrai.

He would make sure that Lilith escaped.

The plan was good. Brave. But as Smith had arrived a mere two minutes into the bone healing process, the plan was even less effective than Hain's decision to foil the Vrai ambush outside Memory by kicking a very heavy door. Hain's feet met the floor, followed by the heavy thunk of his body as the rest of him followed it down.

Hain cried out in pain.

"What in Heaven and Hell was that supposed to be?" Lilith said as she dropped to his side.

"I'm trying to protect you!" Hain shouted through gritted teeth. He swatted at the hand she set on him. "Don't! Run!"

"Don't run?" Her face screwed up. "I wasn't going to run."

"Don't stay. Run." He shoved her away. "He'll kill us both!"

"I think you're delirious with the pain," Lilith said before calling out to Sanger. She looked back down at Hain. "Just hold still, alright?"

But Hain was going nowhere. In his rolling anguish, he'd met Smith's eyes, the pale orbs as smooth and featureless as freshly fallen snow.

Hain mustered the strength to drag himself up–to make one final stand against this intruder–but stopped short when Smith set the rifle down, resting the muzzle against the wall, and crouched opposite Lilith.

"Calm yourself." Smith's voice was a bass drum. "I'm not here to kill anyone."

Lilith looked to Hain with confusion carved into her face.

"Was that what you thought he was here for?" Lilith's surprise reverberated from the walls. "You're such an idiot, Hain."

"Help me get him back on the table," Smith said, he slid his hands under Hain's back.

Hain might have fought, but the lack of violence from Smith coupled with the pain in his foot was enough to stun him into silence as four hands hoisted him off the ground. The pain made the breath slide from his lungs in short gasps, and he groaned when they set him on the table with a dense thunk.

The temperature in the room dropped when Sanger returned, but her attitude warmed when Lilith explained what had happened.

"Obviously Smith came here to kill you," Sanger said, her unwillingness to speak to Hain apparently gone. "Because everyone knows that the best way to get your victim to let their guard down is to knock on the door first."

Lilith laughed. Hain stared knives at her.

"I'd heard you thought I had something to do with the attempt on your life," Smith said, sounding incredulous.

"So even though you knew that I thought you were behind the attack, you decided to come here with a gun anyway?"

"The guards found this weapon in a ventilation shaft abutting the meeting chamber. The barrel matches the rounds that nearly killed you." Smith's mouth tightened. "I'd hoped that it might serve as some measure of proof that I had nothing to do with the attack."

Beside him, Hain saw Lilith's face go white.

"You're sure that's the rifle?"

"We are," Smith told her.