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“Yes, yes, I misspoke. Please, my God, if we reward the Toads with gold, they would trade women to us, and we do not have to risk war on more than one front…” His raspy, wheezing voice has an urgency to it.

Obsidian’s black eyes focus on the triad of Priests. “These men served for their Mate. It is my oath.”

“Of course, of course, but we are about to attack the Aurelian Empire.”

Obsidian growls. “There will be war on all fronts soon enough. Until the universe is tamed and I am on the throne next to my mate. Silence.” He barks the word, and the Priests mouth clamps shut before he can speak.

I watch Obsidian through the stars, casting a strange glow against his chest. He has a mark just like I do, but where mine is a brand, his is a birthmark. I wonder if the prophecies are true. That he was born of a wolf-mother. That he lived like a beast for hundreds of years.

That he will turn us to brutal predators to conquer the universe.

When I see his dark Shadows, I believe it.

As Obsidian focuses on the holograph, stars shimmer and grow until he brings a single galaxy, then a sector into focus. There’s a small planet, on the outskirts of the Aurelian Empire. It’s labelled Trebulous. It was one of the latest to declare Independence, and now it’s unprotected against what’s coming.

Thousands of white eggs. Scorp Org-ships. I’ve cut down many of horrendous, scything, scaled monsters before. In the last decade they’ve been hitting harder and harder, but I’ve never seen anything like this. In less than ten days, whoever is on that planet will look up, and the sky will be blotted out by the organic ships filled with their deadly cargo.

General Ra’al’s Mate is on that planet.

I feel a wave of sorrow for him. Perhaps I owe it to the man to fight at his side, but I can’t leave behind my Mate.

Not for anything.

“I am responsible for guiding warships through the rift to this planet. Ten billion lives, and thousands of my followers depend on my aim being true. Two jumps.” He stares into my eyes. “I gave you your Mate. Let me try…to give you something else.”

“What?”

His Shadows are slavering. Spittle drips down their cheeks as they stare at me, with black eyes that betray nothing.

“Your battle-brother. When I brought you to your Mate, he was watching. From the void.”

I get a pain in my chest, and I double over in shock as the agony of hope washes through my being. I had just laid my battle-brother to rest. I had finally accepted that he was gone. That hole could never be filled, but I had something new, a love that made life worth living.

“Obsidian!” one of the Priests shouts in a shrill voice. “You must conserve your powers! You need to—” Obsidian raises his fist. The Priest shuts his mouth.

“Leave. Have men bring the mirror into the Proving Grounds.” The Priests slink away, and my heart is pounding as fast as when I first felt my Mate, standing victorious with my battle-brothers over another battle won. That battle meant nothing when we felt her being rippling through us. I felt him in my mind, our most savage, violent third, ready to level planets to find her.

He would have done anything for her. In his last moments, he asked us to go to her.

We saved her.

Maybe our War-God can save him.

Obsidian looks over at Tarak, then me, then to Athena. “My Mate was taken from me. Now she’s gone. My only hope is I can regain her again. I know what it is to have an aura cut out from your mind. I must be a brutal War-God to the universe. I must be savage to lead these men into combat.” He sighs, then stares straight into my eyes. “Let me be something else, here, with you. This is what Fay would want.”

26

Athena

Ididn’t think I could feel fear as bad as when I thought my warriors were leaving me. Now my heart is pounding like crazy as I experience their fresh torment.

Obsidian has filled them with a hope they still don’t truly believe, a hope so desperate that I fear if he fails in bringing Raython back, it will destroy them forever.

I look over at my men and run my hands over each of their arms.

Even if they are shattered by this, I will be there to fix them.

No matter how broken they are, I will nurse them back to life.