Chapter 20

Evie

The sight of the sleek black shuttle parked in the distance made my heart leap in my chest. That was our meeting spot; it was safety, an end to this terrible burden. Aramon said his captain would know what to do, and I could sense how deep his faith in the scary-looking Naga ran. It was easy to put the same faith in the male, even if I worried a tiny bit that he’d be upset to discover the trickery Theronix and I had performed.

The shuttle was still a few hundred feet away—a shiny obsidian shell with its engines glowing faintly with a blue hue as they powered down. Aramon steered our pilfered hover cycle closer, its engine humming gently as he kept us low to the ground to avoid detection. We were almost there, and I craned my head to peer around my mate’s shoulders, hoping to catch a glimpse of Solear or the captain.

Nothing yet, and then the hatch opened, and I saw movement. Black armor—or were those black scales? I squinted but couldn’t bring the figure into sharper focus. Aramon braked so suddenly that I flung forward, first colliding with his back, then slipping past him to careen ass-over-teakettle along the loose sand. The helmet and suit, which covered every inch of me, protected me from getting a mouthful of the fine white grains or scraping my skin raw, but I still felt bruised and battered when I rolled to a stop.

“Ah, fuck! Evie, are you hurt?” Aramon said. He’d parked the bike and was rapidly closing the distance between us. Instead of helping me to my feet, he threw himself down on the sand next to me, his hand coming down on my back to press me down with him. Instantly aware that something was really wrong, I lowered myself to my elbows and peered over the edge of the dune we lay against.

“Not hurt,” I whispered, though that wasn’t true, but a few bruises didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Now I could see who had exited the shuttle, and while I was right about the black suit, it wasn’t the armor suit the mercenaries typically wore. It was a male, standing with his hands on his hips as he peered in our direction. We’d approached enough that, without the swaying of the bike, I could see who we were dealing with.

It wasn’t anyone I knew, but I recognized the species. “I was right! Aramon, I was right. It is the Sythral! Look!” He did not respond; his expression was grim. Then, I realized what I should have from the start. If a Sythral male was on the Varakartoom shuttle, what had happened to Solear and Asmoded? And Aramon’s argument still stood. The Sythral were a nasty species, but they were also very secular and rarely left home. With exceptions like the now-defeated crimelord Drameil, most never left their planet or interfered with the politics of other planets.

“That bastard has my family,” Aramon muttered instead of responding to what I said. “They knocked Solear out before he could warn me. I did not sense that he was in danger, Evie. How could I not sense that? But he roused just in time and warned me. We’ve got to free them.”

“Okay,” I agreed immediately. Not long ago I had decided that I did not like fighting, and that I would leave it to Aramon, who did like it. But this was his family, of course I’d fight to save them. “Give me the gun. I’ll lay down cover fire and you sneak around.” He shot me a feral grin, tapped the side of his helmet to lower the protective, transparent face plate, and then he was off.

I waited as long as possible, but when Aramon got closer, it was inevitable that they discovered him. As soon as the Sythral turned to raise a gun at my mate, I squeezed off a shot. I did not aim to scare; I aimed to score a hit. This was the target that deserved all my rage—the one that had played a hand in the attempts on my life and in the death of Evadne and her guard. He deserved a laser shot to the chest. This felt like life or death, and I wanted to be the one who came out victorious.

My blast struck true, hitting him square in the chest and causing the Syhtral to stumble back. At that moment, Aramon leaped from his hiding place with a feral growl, and the two clashed. Now, I could no longer fire, or I’d risk hitting my mate. Waiting patiently was also not my strong suit, so I searched the dunes around me. Certain there was no sign of another threat and the Sythral was still the only visible opponent, I climbed to my feet and ran for the shuttle.

Solear and Asmoded had to be inside, tied up. If I could free them, it would turn the tide of battle. And if they weren’t in there? I could still put the barrel of my gun to the back of that bastard’s head. Up close, I would not miss.

I never saw the strike coming. There was a sudden lance of pain to the back of my neck. Even through the armor, it was crippling. I sank to my knees, tumbling forward with a last view of Aramon as he fought the Sythral. No, it wasn’t a Sythral—the male had worn a mask. That was the last I thought before blackness claimed me.

***

Aramon

It was a trap. I knew that as soon as my first blow struck the male across the jaw, and his skin split and cracked beneath my knuckles. It revealed that I was not fighting a clever Sythral, the orchestrator of all this death and chaos. No, this was only a simple goon—a sacrificial pawn to serve as a distraction. The Krektar male barely passed for a Sythral up close, his tusks pressing against the ill-fitting mask, his body too stocky. I should have seen it sooner, and now it was too late.

With a final strike against his rock-hard jaw, I sent the male sprawling. I climbed to my feet and scanned the sands for any sign of Evie or other dangers. I saw nothing, and fear grew in my chest. Then I heard it: the hum of a hover cycle. I spun and realized the bike Evie and I had abandoned was rising into the air. “No!” I screamed. Breaking out into a run, I chased after the vehicle. There was a male astride it in white clothing, and across his lap was Evie in her black mercenary armor. Her long red hair waved like a flag in the wind as they sped away, taunting me.

“No!” I screamed again. They had her! They had my mate. How had the tables turned on us this quickly? Rage always simmered in some part of me, quick to incite, quick to flare, but today it turned into a conflagration of fire and anger. When I got my hands on the bastard who’d stolen her, he was going to regret ever having been born.

“Aramon!” The shout barely reached me, but I could not chase after Evie on foot, and I had halted just in range. Panting from exertion, from the desert heat, and from the fight a moment ago, I clutched my fist against my side and searched the dunes. Which way did they go? They’d sped around a dune, and now I couldn’t see or hear them. Where did he take my Evie?

“Aramon!” the voice shouted again, penetrating the haze of anger and fury that had sunk its claws into my brain. “Aramon! Come back here! That’s an order.” Oh, the captain wanted me. For the first time in my life, it was tempting to disobey a direct order from the one male in the universe to whom I owed everything. The father-but-not-father, the male I trusted beyond trust—the captain. Turning on my heel felt like betraying my mate, and each step I took toward the shuttle felt like putting a thousand miles between myself and Evie. Somehow, I did it.

My feet were heavy, my chest aching, as I stepped over the collapsed form of the Krektar in disguise and onto the shuttle. There they were: Solear and Asmoded. My brother lay collapsed against the deck, bleeding from a gash across his white skull. He was breathing, but he was not conscious. It was Asmoded who had called to me, tied to a chair, his long, powerful tail locked to the deck with maglock bands. Their blue forcefields hummed and crackled against his scales.

“They took her, Captain,” I said. “They fucking took my Evie.” His golden eyes glowed at me, and when I looked into those shimmering orbs, it felt like they were telling me everything was going to be all right. For the first time in my life, that look did not feel as reassuring as it normally did. All right? How could anything be all right when Evie was in the hands of some evil, power-hungry bastard? If they had harmed so much as a hair on her head, I was going to lay waste to their entire world.

Moving stiffly, I freed Asmoded from his bonds, my body trembling with rage. The captain was talking, and it calmed me down, but that calm was merely a drop in an ocean of rage. When Solear woke, he’d be a feral, untamable beast. It was surprising that I was not tearing everything to pieces around me myself. But what good would that do for Evie? The shuttle was our only chance to follow her.

“The Varakartoom has a trace on the armor suit she’s wearing. Fly this shuttle, Aramon. Find your mate.” I flicked my eyes from my captain to the pilot’s chair he was pointing at, and, with a heavy feeling in my chest, I threw myself into the seat and did as I was told.