Leo caught my wrist and pulled me down until the damp boards pressed cold against my back. Beneath us, the waves thrashed against the pilings.
"Elara," he said, his voice raised above the wind. "Do you trust me?"
I let out a dry, cracked laugh. "After what you did? You think I could ever trust you again?"
His jaw tightened in the dim light. "I didn't come here to fight."
"Then why did you come?"
"To keep you alive."
I searched his face for the lie. But when his eyes met mine, I saw something that almost looked like pleading.
"You're lying," I said, though the words came out too soft.
He shook his head once. "I know who's behind this," he said, shifting the conversation.
"Then start talking." My patience was gone.
He looked toward the fog. "Not here. They're tracking the signal. If you opened Liu's file, your system pinged them. That's how they found you."
I frowned. "Who is they?"
"The ones Liu warned you about," he said quietly. "They're the ones who built Prometheus."
They built Prometheus? So he wasn't the one? Why wasn't he naming names? Wasn't that his project? What in the seven hells was happening?
"And I should believe you?"
"You think I would've left you for a lie?"
A harsh wind swept through the pier, slicing the fog and carrying the sharp tang of gunpowder. Somewhere in the mist, something creaked.
"Why didn't you tell me?" I breathed.
Leo didn't answer right away. The silence scared me more than anything.
"Because I thought I could protect you without telling you what I had done."
"What you had done?" My throat tightened. "Leo, what—"
Before I could finish, a white flash seared the air. A bullet slammed into the metal pole beside us.
Leo drew out a gun from his coat. "Move."
"Wait."
But he was already up and crouching low. His eyes were scanning the fog.
I followed after him with my heart pounding. The pier stretched ahead, wood, iron, and mist. The water below roared like it didn't care who lived or died.
We moved fast, the planks groaning beneath our feet. My fingers brushed the railing. Every sound was sharper now: the hiss of the waves, my breath, the faint click of footsteps approaching.
"How many?" I asked, wanting to know if he could see the number of men that were unto us.
"Three," Leo said. "Maybe four."
"Armed?"
He gave me a look that said, what do you think?
The fog shifted and two figures emerged, tall, masked and moving in sync.
Leo shoved me behind a crate. "Stay down."
A beam of light swept past us, catching his face for half a second before sliding away.
The men split up. One moved toward the boats. The other turned our way.
"Leo," I mouthed.
He shook his head either as an assurance of safety or as a signal to be calm. Either of them, I understood and stayed quiet.
The footsteps came closer. Ten feet. Eight. Six.
The light hit my hair.
The man stopped.
Leo moved fast and silent and shot the man first. Soon, the man dropped to the ground. I gasped.
Leo didn't even blink. He grabbed my hand. "Come on."
We ran.
The pier stretched into nothing, swallowed by fog. A bullet cracked past my ear, splintering the boards. I stumbled, reaching for him.
He pulled me close. "Keep low!"
We ducked behind barrels. My chest burned. Footsteps echoed. They were closing in.
"I can't."
"Yes, you can."
"Leo."
"Look at me."
I did. His face was inches from mine, his eyes fierce. "I'm not letting you die here."
Another gunshot, then three more. Leo fired back, quick and controlled. The air filled with salt and metal.
"Run!" he shouted.
We ran. The fog turned everything to phantoms: sound, light, movement. My shoes slipped on wet wood. Bullets followed like whispers.
"We're cornered!" I yelled.
"Not yet."
Shadows formed ahead, three, maybe five, moving as one.
Leo reloaded. "Stay behind me."
"Leo."
"Don't argue."
He fired first. Muzzle flashes burst like lightning.
I dropped to the ground, covering my head. Wood splintered. I felt something hot sliced across my arm.
"Leo!" I tried to call out, but the noise swallowed my voice.
A grenade rolled to a stop a few feet away.
Leo grabbed me, pulling me back. For a second, I saw the reflection of the sea in his eyes, then white light.
The explosion ripped through the pier. The boards shuddered beneath us, and a wave of heat and pressure slammed into my chest. I hit the ground. My ears were ringing and a vision was splintering. The fog lit up in violent bursts of orange and white.
Leo was shouting something, but I didn't get it. He pulled me again, dragging me toward the side as debris rained down. Sparks fell from above and tiny meteors faded in the mist.
I tried to stand, but the world tilted. Another round of gunfire tore through the haze, shredding the edge of a crate beside us. Splinters bit into my face.
"Go!" Leo yelled, shoving me forward.
I stumbled toward the next pier section, slipping on water and blood. The sea below churned aggressively. Water sprayed on my face. Behind us, another flash, closer this time.
The impact knocked the breath out of me. Leo caught my arm before I fell into the gap. The boards beneath our feet groaned again, cracking under the strain.
"They're flanking us," he said through clenched teeth.
"Then what?"
He pointed toward a half-collapsed walkway ahead. "There."
We sprinted. Bullets chased us. One hit the railing beside me, another ricocheted off metal, whining past my ear.
I ducked, gasping. "We can't outrun them."
"We don't have to."
"What does that mean?"
Before I could finish, Leo stopped, crouching by a rusted fuse box near the edge. I noticed his hands pulling, clipping and twisting the wires.
"Leo, what are you doing?" I asked, totally confused.
He didn't look up. "Buying time."
The fog shifted.
Looking up, I saw more figures emerging and drawing close to us. We need to get out of here
Out of fear and anxiety, I shouted his name " Leo."
"Stay down!" I could feel the tension in his voice.
He tore a wire loose. A spark hissed. Then a blinding flash erupted as electricity leapt through the broken line, cracking across the wet boards. One of the advancing men screamed, his body jerking before collapsing into the sea.
The others ducked for cover, shouting.
Leo grabbed my arm. "Now!"
We ran again.
The fog was thicker now, almost solid. I could barely see the outline of Leo in front of me. Then something heavy hit him from the side. He went down hard.
"Leo!" I shouted.
One of the men came to where we were with a gun raised in his hands. He was about to fire when I instinctively took over. I swung the nearest thing I could find, a broken plank, and hit him across the head. He staggered and tried to fire again. But, then I saw Leo standing up.
He fired once and the man dropped.
I stood there shaking, the board still in my hand. My arm stung. I didn't even realize I was bleeding until I saw a red liquid dripping onto the wood.
Leo was already on his feet again. "Elara, move!"
We bolted. The end of the pier was ahead now, a blur of light and fog and nothing beyond.
I could hear sirens in the distance.
A final bullet tore through the air, grazing my shoulder. Pain shot through me like fire.
My vision tunneled. The world spun.
Leo turned, shouting my name, but his voice came from far away.
The fog folded around me, thick and heavy.
And then everything started to fade.