He laughed, genuinely amused, and pulled himself into the cabin.
The helicopter began to ascend.
And I was powerless.
Completely, utterly powerless.
My rifle was useless, too far, too unstable a target, too risky with the detonator in his hand.
Rushing him was impossible.
Shooting was impossible.
Everything was impossible.
"Am I going to die, Kael?"
Aria's voice cut through the rotor noise and the blood pounding in my ears.
I looked down at her face, bruised, bloodied, terrified beyond anything I'd ever seen.
"Am I going to die?" she repeated, her voice breaking. "I don't want to die. Please don't let me die."
And suddenly I was back in that military base camp.
In that clearing. The ambush. Bullets raining down like metal hail.
Ivan bleeding out in front of me, looking up at me with that same expression, please don't let me die, while I pressed my hands against the wounds that wouldn't stop bleeding, that I couldn't fix, that killed him anyway while I watched.
