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into the barrel of the Dragon’s Breath in my hands. Apparently, he didn’t mean for me to remove the weapon as Dama did. “Do it. Free me, brother.”

My hands shook as I weighed what I knew I should do against what I knew Maksim deserved.

“Dean,” Stacy said from behind me. “Maksim will pay, just not right now. We have a mission to finish. It doesn’t mean we have to like it. We just have to do what’s best for everyone right now.”

I swallowed hard, reluctantly lowering the weapon from Maksim’s forehead. Stacy had become my frequent voice of reason, saving me from making bad decisions in the moment.

“We’re not done with this conversation,” I told Maksim. “Not by a long shot.”

“Our time will come in this life or the next,” Maksim said with a heavy sigh as if he were almost disappointed I hadn’t killed him.

Better luck next time, I thought.

“Lower your weapons,” Dama ordered her Rung.

They complied, allowing Stacy, John, and Tong to do the same.

“What’s with the change of heart?” John asked Maksim. “One second you hate us, and now you’re trying to help the Rung?”

“I was forced to trade one abomination for the other,” Maksim said with a noticeable wince of pain as he pressed his bloody hand deeper into his side to stop the bleeding. “I know what Legion wants. Legion is going to consume this planet then head off-world in search of ours. I can’t allow that to happen. If there is even the slightest chance he can find Earth, I have to prevent it.”

“It’s so disturbing to hear you speak like you care about anything besides murdering people,” Stacy said in disgust.

Maksim looked at her, seeming genuinely puzzled by her inflammatory words. “People change,” he started to inform her until Tong interrupted.

“Wait, how do you know Legion wants to head off-world?” Tong asked, worried. “How would you know that?”

“It’s what I would do,” Maksim said. “The way Legion secured the hangar bay is another point of proof. I went down there. He—it is doing system checks and working on ways to improve the design to take it off-world.”

My heart sank in my chest as I was forced to consider that Maksim might be telling the truth. The odds were stacked astronomically high against Legion ever being able to find Earth. Still, what if he were to find another inhabited planet? His reign of terror would continue, spreading from one innocent world to the next. We really had to stop this poisonous leech.

“He’s right about one thing. We can’t let Legion get off-world,” Stacy said to us before directing her next words at Maksim. “Although, granted, it’s a leap of faith that what you’re saying is the truth.”

“I have no reason to lie,” Maksim said, shaking his head in denial. “Not now, not anymore.”

“We’ll get you patched up,” Dama said, nodding to a Rung who came over with some kind of medical pack. “You said you scouted the other ways down to the lower level?”

“That’s right.” Maksim winced as his wound was treated. “Like I said, Legion knows what we want. He’s blocked every way down. The best chance we have is this stairwell. There can’t be more than a dozen infected he has assigned to guard the entry point. As far as he knows, it’s just me down here. Together, we can fight our way through.”

I looked over at Stacy, each of us cocking an eyebrow at the other. We were both thinking the same thing. What were the odds that our maniac friend here was lying out of his freaking teeth? Fifty-fifty at best.

“A dozen? Only a dozen?” Sulk said with a tone of glee in his voice. “Dama, we can take that many without sustaining any casualties. We can.”

Dama stood quiet. Her head moved from the door to her warriors, trying to assess the situation to make the best decision possible without losing her army and her people. She couldn’t afford any more loss.

“He could be lying,” Stacy countered. “It wouldn’t be the first time.”

Maksim was about to say something but was cut off by a deep inhale of pain as the Rung medic closed his wound.

I had to say I didn’t hate the idea that Maksim was feeling some of the same pain he had caused so many before.

“We will breach the door,” Dama finally decided.

“Great choice,” Maksim said as he struggled to his feet. An angry burn on his right side showed where his wound had been cauterized. “I’ll need a weapon.”

“You will get a blade and you’ll be going through the door first,” Dama advised him.

14

The sly grin on his face disappeared at once.

“A blade? I’ll need a blaster at the very least. Didn’t you hear me? There are at least a dozen of them on the other side of those doors.” Maksim looked at me like I was going to give him some help. I fought down the smirk that was threatening to bubble up. Now was not the time to be so petty. “At least arm me.”

“You’re more than enough to handle with a blade. I’m not about to give you anything else to use against us,” I told him. “If everything you say is true and you’re on our side in this, then prove it.”

The look Maksim gave me could have melted steel. He opened his right hand and extended it toward Dama, who put a long, thick blade in it.

“I’m on the side of the non-infected,” Maksim said, taking in a large breath. “So be it. I’ll lead the way down to the next level. Stay close. There are only a dozen in the stairwell, but there are more in the lower levels.” He swung the blade a bit to test it out. Satisfied, he was prepared to bring us to our first hurdle in getting past the infected.

Maksim turned back to the closed door jamming his knife in the wedge where the doors came together. He grunted, slowly prying the