SSS Rank: Strongest Beast Master

Pain had a funny way of clarifying things.

Seraph lay in the mud, staring at the smoke rising from where the train had just become a fireball, and realized her arm was bent in a way arms really shouldn't bend.

That seemed important.

Also important: the sound of engines in the distance. Getting closer.

"Anyone alive?" Her voice came out as a croak. She tried again. "Sound off."

"Here." Torres. Somewhere upslope. He sounded about as good as she felt, which was to say terrible.

"Kira?"

"Broken ankle. But I'm good." She paused. "I'm lying. I'm very not good."

"Draven?"

Silence.

Seraph's heart did something unpleasant in her chest. "Draven!"

She heard a groan. "Stop yelling. My head hurts."

She forced herself to sit up. Her arm screamed at her. She told it to shut up and deal with it.

The ravine stretched below them, a five-hundred-foot drop into nothing. The train burned at the bottom like a funeral pyre for Sterling's arrogance. Black smoke poured into the sky, visible for miles.

Which meant Sterling's people could see it too.

Those engine sounds were getting louder.

"We need to move," she said. "Now."

"Move where?" Torres crawled into view, covered in dirt and blood. "We're in the middle of nowhere. And they're coming."

He wasn't wrong.

Seraph looked around, trying to think through the pain and exhaustion. They'd landed about halfway down the ravine's slope. Scrub brush and rocks. No real cover. No obvious escape route.

Except.

There. About fifty yards downslope. A dark opening in the rock face. Could be a cave. Could be nothing. But it was better than sitting in the open waiting to get shot.

"Cave," she said, pointing with her good arm. "Move."

Nobody argued. They were too tired for that.

Getting everyone together took longer than she wanted. Draven was barely conscious, his leg soaked with blood. Kira hobbled on one foot, using Torres as a crutch. And Kaine, their prisoner, just sat in the mud looking like his whole world had ended.

Which, to be fair, it kind of had.

"Up." Seraph grabbed Kaine's collar with her good hand. "You're walking."

"I could've died," he said. "You pushed me off a train."

"And you're not dead. You're welcome. Now move before I change my mind about the whole keeping-you-alive thing."

That got him moving.

They half-walked, half-slid down the slope toward the cave. Every step hurt. Seraph's arm swung useless at her side, sending fresh waves of pain through her with each movement. But she kept going because stopping meant dying, and she was getting really tired of that option.

The cave was real. Thank whatever gods were listening for small miracles.

It wasn't much. Maybe ten feet deep, barely tall enough to stand in. But it was dark. Hidden. And right now, that was everything.

For a moment, nobody spoke.

Then Draven said, "That was stupid."

Despite everything, Seraph laughed. It hurt her ribs, but she laughed anyway. "Which part?"

"All of it. The train. The jump. Surviving." He leaned against the cave wall. "Definitely the surviving part."

"Yeah, well. We're not good at making smart choices."

"Clearly."

Outside, the engines were getting closer. Searchlights swept across the ravine, bright beams broke through the smoke.

"They're looking for bodies," Torres whispered. "They think we died in the crash."

"Good. Let them think that." Seraph pulled out her comm unit. Cracked screen, but it still worked. Small miracles again. She switched to the encrypted channel. "Nomad, this is ground team. Do you copy?"

Static.

"Nomad, come in."

More static. Then, finally, a voice. Vanessa. "Ground team, we copy. Your transponder signal cut out. What's your status?"

"Train's gone. We jumped. We're alive. Barely." Seraph looked around at her broken team. "We need immediate extraction. Current location is..." She checked the coordinates. "Sending now."

"Received. ETA twenty minutes."

Twenty minutes. An eternity when people were hunting you.

"Make it faster if you can."

"We'll try. Nomad out."

The comm went silent.

Seraph let her head fall back against the stone. Twenty minutes. They just had to survive twenty minutes.

Outside, voices. Sterling's forces, calling to each other as they searched. Getting closer.

Kira had her gun out, despite the broken ankle. Torres too. Both of them looked ready to fight even though they could barely stand.

Seraph's eyes moved to Kaine. He sat in the corner, still looking shell-shocked.

"Your people are going to find us," he said quietly.

"Maybe."

"They'll kill you and save me. I'm too valuable to lose."

"You're valuable to us too. That's why you're still breathing." Seraph shifted, trying to find a position that didn't make her arm scream. "Those codes you carry. The ones that access the Lunar Defense Grid. We need them."

Kaine's expression changed. Hardened. "You won't get them."

"We'll see."

"I mean it. Those codes are biometrically locked. Fingerprint. Retinal scan. Voice authentication. You can't access them without me, and I'm not giving them to you."

"Even if it means staying our prisoner?"

"Even if it means dying. Sterling will come for me. Or he won't. Either way, those codes die with me." Kaine actually smiled. Small. Bitter. "You lost. You just don't know it yet."

Seraph wanted to argue. But she was too tired and too honest with herself to pretend he was wrong.

They needed those codes. Without them, Jonah's fleet would be torn apart trying to reach the Moon. Everything they'd sacrificed, everyone who'd died, it would all be for nothing.

But Kaine was right. The codes were locked behind biometric security they couldn't break. Not here. Not with what they had.

Outside, the searchlights swept closer. Voices grew louder.

"Everyone quiet," Torres whispered. "Don't even breathe loud."

They huddled in the cave's darkness, watching lights play across the ravine. Waiting. Hoping the shadows were enough.

A Sterling soldier appeared at the cave mouth. His rifle swept the darkness.

Seraph held her breath. Her good hand rested on her gun, but firing would give away their position to everyone in the area. They'd be swarmed in seconds.

The soldier's flashlight beam cut through the cave. Passed over them.

They were pressed against the sides, hidden in the darkness. But it wouldn't take much. One good look. One more step inside.

The soldier's radio crackled. "Sector seven, report."

"Sector seven clear. Moving to sector eight."

He turned away. Left.

The team exhaled as one.

"That was close," Kira whispered.

"It's not over yet," Torres said. "They'll do another sweep. Maybe two. We need to be gone before then."

Seraph checked her comm. Fifteen minutes until Nomad arrived. Fifteen minutes to find out how to get codes from a prisoner who'd rather die than cooperate.

She looked at Draven. He was pale. Blood loss and exhaustion and probably a dozen injuries she couldn't even see.

But he was still breathing. Still fighting.

That had to count for something.

"Rest while you can," she told the team. "When our ride shows up, we move fast. No second chances."

They settled in to wait. Wounded. Hunted. Trapped between Sterling's forces and a prisoner who held the key to everything.

Outside, the sun was setting. Night would come soon.

And with it, whatever came next.

Seraph closed her eyes, just for a moment. Just to gather strength for whatever impossible thing they'd have to do next.

Because there was always a next thing.

There always was.