26. Tan

26

Tan

Connection initiated.

The feeling slams into me like a hammer blow to my center, and I stumble. Ano, who is at my side as we head for the temporary security hub to prepare for the ship shutdown, grabs my arm.

"Tan?"

I barely hear him. My mind is reeling from a sense of love. Terror. Hope?

The feelings taste like Skylar, and as I sink into them, I smell rotting flesh.

Deities save me. Something is very wrong.

"Ano," I gasp out. "Contact Skylar's security detail. And her sistan."

I lean against the nearest wall. There's something more in this. A sense of something I can't quite grip with my mental claws. My wrists and ankles ache like they are bound too tightly. And I am cold. And scared. And—

"I can't reach the security detail," Ano says.

My guts are ice, and I know something has gone terribly wrong. My mate is in danger, caged in the dark, and time is running out.

"Sistan Tylan?"

Ano nods and taps at his earpiece. The wash of emotions and sensations is getting stronger, along with it, the sense of a direction. I step toward it. Closer? Farther. I am uncertain, so I walk farther, trying to see if Skylar feels closer.

"They had been returning to your quarters but were called back to their family quarters for what appeared to be a home emergency. When Tylan arrived, the others did not know why they were there. "

A setup. It has to be. The Gice Kohath took Skylar, and now she is in danger. "She's in the dark," I explain, trying to understand the sensations I'm feeling and translate them into something we can use. "There are walls and a ceiling, but it is tight. That way." I point. "I do not know how I know this, but it must be true."

"She is your bokdazi."

"Yes, but our mating is new. And her species does not have a known tendency to form telepathic bonds."

"Maybe some do, like our Janu."

I nod. "She is in a container, perhaps in the cargo bay?" Yes, that feels right. "She is there. She must be. Ano, I trust no one but you, my friend. Make a show of searching for the Gice Kohath in engineering, and the Janu sector. I will go to the cargo bay."

"I dislike you going alone."

"Until we find the Gice Kohath, I cannot trust anyone else. I know I can trust you because you have been with me for the past two hours, so you cannot have abducted my mate. But our ship instrumentation is off, our Janu are dying, and we are running out of time." I hold out my hand, and he takes it, our hands clasping at each other's forearms.

"As you command," Ano says. "And keep your com open to my channel."

"Yes."

Ano releases his grip, and I start, half running, toward the lift. The cargo bay is four levels down and on the opposite side of the ship from me. As I move, the sense of Skylar strengthens.

Her energy pulses with each frantic heartbeat as our bond translates her position into a clearer visceral awareness knowledge of where she is trapped.

With each step, her presence grows more tangible. Her fear and desperation wash over me, chilling me to the core. I feel the pain in her wrists as she struggles to free herself.

I am coming. I am coming. I am on my way.

I send the thought with a fierce urgency I hope she can feel.

Every second feels like an eternity. Skylar's presence in my mind is a beacon, guiding me even as her thoughts becoming more fragmented and desperate.

When I reach the cargo bay, the emergency lighting casts a red-yellow glow over stacks of cargo crates. The interior is pressurized. It should not be—a sign someone has tampered with the system. A sign that the connection between me and Skylar is real.

I break into a sprint, following the tether of my mate's terror between the massive cargo crates.

Which one?

Skylar?

Fear. Dark. Walls.

He is here.

I take a moment to parse her thought. The Gice Kohath is here. I throw myself into the air, wings spread. Which container? The array of cargo containers spreads below me.

Skylar's terror spikes as she screams.

I dive.