The Mercenary Queen Strikes Back (Lily Hastings) novel Chapter 11

Chapter 11 Her Origins

“Nova, stop. Don’t kill him,” Maxwell shouted, his voice echoing with the sound of the gunshot.

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Maxwell, Hannah, Julian, and the guys in their crew cut stared in disbelief. None of them could’ve imagined things would turn out like this.

Nova–a girl who’d just gotten home–had a gun jammed into her face. She wasn’t scared at all. More importantly, after yanking the gun right out of the guy’s hand, she fired it at him with a pro’s confidence.

Murder was a crime in Zoria. Even with all the Blake family’s power in Ravenport, they couldn’t keep her out of trouble if she actually killed someone.

But that wasn’t even the weirdest part. How did a disgraced heiress, just now returning to the Blake family with no one on her side, suddenly know how to handle firearms with such skill? Ordinary people barely even saw guns, much less used them.

It was like she’d done this before.

Maxwell, Hannah, and the others were all shaken to the core by that thought.

There was a sharp noise as the bullet tore through the air. It passed so close above Maddox’s head. It eventually crashed straight into the wall behind him.

Maddox felt a rush of gunpowder heat graze his scalp. If Nova’s grip had slipped even a little, his head would‘ ve ended up like that wall behind him–drilled full of holes, a wreck of shattered bone and blood.

The kind of bone–deep horror crashed through his whole body.

Not even a sound could come out–he couldn’t manage a single scream.

At that moment, it was like someone hit pause on his whole body. He just stood there, totally numb, for a solid

two minutes.

It wasn’t until Nova’s soft, teasing laugh drifted over that he finally snapped out of it.

“Oops, looks like I missed,” she said, her voice light and playful.

She sounded almost disappointed.

Just moments ago, she’d been all cold and deadly, but now, she ran her long fingers through her hair, letting it fall over her shoulder with a seductive, almost careless grace.

Then she flashed a smile so sweet and innocent that it was like she’d just dropped her pencil, not nearly blown someone’s brains out.

Everything Nova did made it seem like almost blowing someone’s brains out was no more exciting than taking a morning jog.

Her words were so casually thrown out–like idle chit–chat from any regular teen girl–that everyone present felt chills run down their spines.

The sound of someone hitting the floor suddenly echoed through the room.

Nova had barely finished her words.

That wannabe gangster–the one who’d just been waving a gun at Nova like he owned the place–was so freaked out he crashed right down onto his butt, dazed and empty–eyed.

A yellow puddle quickly began soaking through his pants. He totally wet himself in fear.

“Tsk, what a bore,” Nova muttered, instantly losing all interest.

She spun around and tossed the gun in a lazy arc right at Maxwell.

Maxwell shifted from side to side, but even from feet away, he snagged the gun out of the air like it was nothing.

Nova arched an eyebrow. “You can handl

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15der Origins

As always, Nova couldn’t be bothered with any mess afterward–she hated dealing with extra trouble.

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Back when she was on the battlefield, Nova never bothered with cleanup herself–her crew always took care of the aftermath.

Sure, she wasn’t fighting wars anymore, but after a scene like this at Frostwave Bar, the cops would be swarming in to investigate for sure.

She had zero interest in getting dragged down to the station for a statement.

Maxwell just stared Nova down, completely frozen for a solid ten seconds.

In the end, he gripped the gun and finally gave her a stiff nod. He was telling her he’d handle the whole mess here.

A voice rang out. “Nova, what the hell were you thinking? Sure, he made the first move, and you had to defend yourself, but do you even realize what you just did? You almost killed him.

“Do you have any idea how much trouble you could’ve brought down on the Blake family?

“You haven’t even trained with firearms. What if the gun had accidentally gone off and you really shot him? Lucky for you, the bullet missed. Otherwise…”

Hannah jabbed a finger at the guy sprawled on the floor, her voice trembling with post–crisis relief as she shouted at Nova.

To Hannah, Julian, and the rest, Nova missing that shot could only mean one thing–she totally didn’t know her way around a gun.

All the slick moves she’d just shown off? They figured she was just mimicking what she’d seen on TV dramas, faking it and mindlessly pulling the trigger.

They thought she was just trying to look cool and show off for the crowd.

And with that careless shot, she almost turned a stupid stunt into a disaster.

Just picturing Nova trying to play the badass, showing off like she was hot stuff in front of her peers, made Hannah’s blood boil.

She was even more convinced now–Nova was just some wannabe, faking confidence with sketchy moves she must’ve swiped from TV, all flash and zero real skill.

“That’s enough, Hannah. Drop it,” Maxwell cut in, stopping her before she could keep yelling.

Hannah really respected Maxwell–he’d spoiled her ever since they were kids.

So when he spoke, even though she was still fuming inside, she forced herself to swallow her anger.

Hannah pursed her lips, shot Nova a venomous glare, and finally shut up.

Nova couldn’t care less about Hannah.

She arched an eyebrow with a teasing smirk, shoved one hand into her pocket, and just sauntered deeper into Frostwave Bar.

It was as if nothing had ever happened, and as if she couldn’t care less who Maxwell or the others were.

‘Tsk, the show’s over. Time to get down to business,’ Nova thought to herself.

“Hey, Nova,” Julian called after her, sounding a little uncertain as he watched her walk off.

When she ignored him, Julian turned to Maxwell. “Max, is your sister seriously just leaving? Like, where’s she even headed?”

Just moments ago, Maxwell had been trying to keep Nova in line, calling her back home. But now, he just stood there, watching her walk away without saying a word.

“Let her go,” Maxwell said, his voice flat.

He then looked at Hannah and Julian. “Clean up the scene. Take our guys to get patched up at the hospital. The cops’ll be here soon. I’ll stick around and handle the questions.”

Chapter 11 Bee Cugins

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As he spoke, Maxwell subconsciously looked twice in the direction where Nova had disappeared, suspicion flickering in his eyes.

He hadn’t been seeing things–Nova’s grip, her firing stance, everything about the way she handled that gun was pure pro.

So that shot she’d just missed wasn’t an accident at all. She’d meant to miss. She’d done it deliberately. Maxwell’s frown tightened, worry etched deep into his face.

He thought, ‘Just what did Nova go through during all those years she was gone? Or could it be she’s hiding something even bigger? Who is she really?‘

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