She let out a breath and moved her hand up the spear, adjusting her grip. A little bit of red sparkled on the spear’s blade, traveling in a line of sparks down her arm.

Taking another long breath, she looked at me, “I’m fine. I will want to use the spear to build up energy, but we’re not fighting anything I’ll feel guilty about using it on.”

She glared at me, “I don’t know what you’re thinking, but I’m not taking donations. I don’t want to explain it to Night Cat.”

“No,” I said, waving away the suggestion, “I don’t want to explain that either.”

Sean looked between the two of us, “What are you talking about?”

“He was stupid,” Amy said, frowning and looking away from me.

I met Sean’s eyes, “She was dying after we fought The Thing That Eats. I stabbed myself with her spear to see if I couldn’t save her except she wasn’t conscious enough to stop it and Lee had to intervene.”

“Whoa,” Sean looked over at Amy who’d turned away from the conversation, “I didn’t know it was that close.”

“Much too close,” she said. “Close enough that I’ve sometimes had moments where I understand how the Rocket suit works. That’s nothing to hope for unless I want to kill someone.”

“Hey,” Jaclyn turned toward us, “we should get moving. Bloodmaiden bought us time. Let’s not waste it.”

She started walking toward the side exit and we followed, all of us feeling more drained than when we’d walked into the room. Well, except maybe for Prime. He walked forward without any hint of tiredness or even that he’d been regrowing his leg the last time we’d fought him.

Turning back toward me, Prime said, “Where’s Lee these days?”

“No idea,” I said, “he’s unpredictable.”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Dayton took a quick look behind us, and presumably not seeing anything that frightened him said, “The last I saw him, he was on Earth, but he’d been in space before that.”

Prime grunted, “Space? No kidding. I can’t say I know the guy well, but I didn’t know he had connections out there. My experience is that whenever people from off-planet get involved, it all goes to shit.”

This was, I realized, the first time I’d ever gotten to talk with Prime in a setting where he wasn’t going to try to kill me (now). He’d been with the Cabal for at least a couple thousand years and had to have known Magnus.

I wouldn’t be able to get too much out of him before whatever fight came next, but who knew if I’d get this chance again? I should ask him something.

If he knew that Magnus was seeking the device that Lee hid here somehow, I didn’t want him to blab it in front of Sean and his team, but if nothing else, I needed to let him know I was serious about what I’d said earlier.

I asked the first thing I could think of, “Did you know Magnus?”

Prime gave a short bark of a laugh, “That guy? He was part of the inner council for thousands of years. Yeah. I killed a lot of people for him, but I wouldn’t call him a friend. You’re asking because you’re going after the Nine, right?”

“Pretty much,” I watched his face for a reaction, but he only nodded at my reply.

“Good,” he said, “that’s the only reason I stopped attacking you. If you’re dumb enough to risk dying to convince me of it, I’m figuring that you meant it. I want in on it. I want to be there at the end and get a shot at him. You beat us and humiliated us and I can’t say I liked it, but he turned my people into mind-controlled slaves. If I get the chance, I’m going to kill him for it.”

I glanced over at Bouman and Yellow Mask, both of whom were watching, “I can tell you when we’re going in, but I hope your team can spare you. This stuff never goes on my schedule. Also, honestly, we’re going to be a little leery about passing on any kind of notice given that we’re pretty much assuming that the Nine are everywhere and that even some people who don’t know they’re assets of the Nine are assets.”

Yellow Mask laughed, “Tell us about it. That’s why we’re here. Arete had our number. He didn’t have time to make us into the Nine’s slaves, but people above us assigned us to assist him and Major Justice in whatever they asked for.”

I wondered if she was telling the truth and Daniel thought at me, So far as she knows. Dominators can’t erase memories with their voice powers, but a telepath under their control could. Bouman could if he were under their control, but I don’t see any markers for memory modification in her head. Be aware though, that I can’t be confident of that without a deeper scan.

“Look,” Prime said, “if you tell me when you’re going up against Magnus, I’ll find a way to be there. People call the organization The Nine, but don’t be fooled. They should call it The One. No one but him matters. Kill him and it all falls apart.”