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horrible the woman had been to her, she only had one mother. It made her want to reach the others as soon as possible, lest she lose her chance with them as well.
    “Please,” she looked Sullivan in the eye and—just for a moment—let her heart show, “Just let me go.”
    He shook his head, “I can’t. You have the right of it. The generals are fools. I need you here. The Conglomerate needs you. What will it take? Name your price, and it is yours.”
    I have named my price , she thought bitterly, and you have denied me twice over . She could not allow him to string her along for even another day, let alone a year. “You have nothing more I want, Emperor. We’re finished here.”
    Liz turned from the platform and strode back the way she came, but paused when Sullivan’s cry echoed throughout the chamber, “The Chief of Command has left me no choice but to see her brought to trial on the charge of treason. Guardsmen, take her into custody and confine her in the catacomb cells.”
    Over my dead body . Liz took off toward the exit as guardsmen emerged from the shadows, and a surge of noise from the alarmed Citadel drowned out Sullivan’s shouts. Four soldiers intercepted her at the door, their shoulders relaxed and their faces calm. She was easy prey in their eyes, unarmed and ensnared by their trap. They have forgotten who I am, but after today they will remember forever .
    She rushed them and launched an uppercut on the largest man’s chin, simultaneously raising a knee to his groin. He blocked the fist but not the knee, and went down like a brick. Before he even crumpled she chopped the man next to him square in the throat, and he fell to the floor choking for breath.
    The remaining two moved to grab her, and she saw twenty more—perhaps forty, she couldn’t be sure—approaching from behind. She wouldn’t have time to deal with the other two before the full force reached her, and then she really would be helpless.
    Ignis , she thought, I need to get to Ignis .
    She slid lithely through the narrow aisle made by the fallen guardsmen, evading the grips of her remaining foes long enough to squeeze through the door and shut it back behind her. Strangely enough, there was a lock on the outside, which she slid in place just as the guardsmen began pounding. She breathed a sigh of relief. Whatever the reason for the lock, it had saved her.
    She turned, and her breath caught in her throat. An arc of assault rifles stared her down, leaving her no choice but to raise her hands in surrender. She had completely forgotten about the squad already in the antechamber.
    Magistrate Costa’s cackle sounded out from behind the guardsmen, and then the man himself emerged from the arc. She felt a stab of fury as he held Ignis out tauntingly before her eyes, “Looking for this?”
    “I warned you what would happen if you touched that, Costa.”
    “You’re not exactly in a position to make threats, Aurora.” He made a show of studying the ruby hilt. “I think I’ll add this trophy to my collection. And who knows? Perhaps the emperor will allow me to collect you as well.”
    Beauty is a weapon, more powerful than any sword , the Matron’s voice seemed to whisper in her ear. Enslave a man through his eyes, and the rest of him is yours for the taking .
    “You’ll never have me, Costa,” she challenged. “The thought makes me sick.”
    Costa stepped forward, grinning from ear to ear, “Do you really think you can deny me? The Magistrate of Rome?”
    “The dog of Rome,” she mocked. “Apparently you can’t get it through your head.”
    He stepped forward again and ran his eyes over her lustfully. One more , just one step closer …
    But Costa never got to take that step, for at that moment the entire left wall exploded. Stone and ash and men went flying across the antechamber, and the shockwave threw her sideways. Keep your balance , her training warned. A fallen soldier is a dead soldier . She managed it barely, though the