Page 65

Maybe in normal cases, but Garrick and his triad are too honorable to let deadly weapons get in the hands of slavers and criminals.

There’s a long pause. Then the Toad speaks again, his voice filled with accusation. “I know your reputation, Aelon the Merciless. You killed my brother twenty years ago!”

Oh fuck.

Aelon’s infamy is personal to the leader of the Toads. They’re a callous bunch who would sell their own kind for a handful of credits, but even they hold a grudge.

Aelon snorts. “I’ve killed a lot of Toads, frogspawn. If your brother attacked me, then I put him down with good reason.”

My eyes go wide. Is he provoking him on purpose?

Or is this the only chance we have? If he doesn’t sell the bluff, we’re doomed. We have to seem like we hold all the power.

The Toad laughs at Aelon’s words, as if his brother’s death is a great joke. “You did Meelon a favor. He stole a great deal from me.” The Toad pauses, and I know he’s considering. “Tell me, Aurelian,” he gurgles. “Why do you go from killer to negotiator? ThebraveAelon the Merciless would never shy away from a fight—not even a suicidal one.”

He’s right. It doesn’t track. It’s not in Aelon’s nature to give up the Orbs, especially not all twenty-six of them. If they sniff out the ruse…

He wants to take the offer. I know it. He’s greedy, like all Toads, and he’d rather not fight a fully armed and warned Aurelian warship he was expecting to gun down in an ambush.

The HUD goes fuzzy.

“Prepare to shift,” says Garrick without emotion, his hand sliding over to the button that will start the Orb-Shift. I clamp my mouth shut, each second feeling like an eternity as I wait for the las-cannons of the Mothership to flare. We’re still in range of the disruptor, and we’re going to have to make a mad dash to safety before shifting out if this goes bad.

Aelon has no fear. He drives forward, deeper into range of the Mothership’s weapons. “What the hell is he doing!”

“Gambling,” growls Tar’ank, his knuckles white on the grips of his targeting system. Every weaponry battery on the Mothership aims directly in on the Reaver that holds my best friend.

“Tasha…get out of here,” I whisper to myself, knowing she can’t hear me. I’m only grateful that our last moments together were pure honesty. That I showed myself and hid nothing from her.

If we make it out of this one alive…

I’m not going to run from what I really want. You can’t take a second for granted.

I hear small footsteps through the sub coms-link from Aelon’s Reaver as Tasha moves in view of the Toad.

“Who is this!” Meelon yells out, and I know he’s set his beady eyes on my best friend.

“My Fated Mate,” Aelon replies. “If you’d come hunting me a week ago, you’d already be dead, frogspawn. Fortunately for you, now I have more to live for than vengeance. I’m giving you one chance—take the deal or don’t. It’s your choice: riches or violence. I’m equally well-versed in providing both.”

It tracks. The story is now believable. Everyone knows the purpose of Aurelians. To find their Fated Mates and breed her. It’s the only thing that could have changed the bloodthirsty alien captain enough to give up the Orbs to avoid a risky fight.

If the Toad can see Aelon’s eyes through the holograph, he’ll see they are no longer the slate grey of the UnBonded alien species.

I’m glad it’s not me on the other side of the holo-vid. The targeting displays of the Mothership aimed right at your Reaver would feel less threatening than Meelon’s disgusting gaze. When a Toad looks at you, it sends a crawling feeling down your spine, and I’m wearing a dress so sheer it’s like being wrapped in tissue paper.

“All twenty-six Orbs? Just like that? You’d give up the entire shipment of Orbs rather than fight?”

“All twenty-six,” Aelon says. “I’m out, frogspawn. I’m retiring. You a gambling man, Meelon?”

All Toads love to gamble. They can’t resist the lure of winning big.

“I’ll take a winning gamble.”

“Well then, it’s your lucky day. If I hadn’t met my Fated Mate, you’d already be dead. Instead, you’re already rich—if you choose to be. You’d be dead, fishface. Maybe I’d be dead, too, but I can tell you now, I’d have taken you down with me. Every battle is a coin flip.”

The Toad will be tempted to take the deal, fearing a battle against the fierce space captain. But he’ll be just as tempted to take the fight and salvage what he can from the rubble. There’s also the juicy target of the mining camp below.

“Now, I know what you’re thinking, frogspawn. You’re thinking you can succumb to your greedy Toad nature and demandmore. You’re thinking you take the deal, andthenyou fight me for the scraps of ore on the planet down below, and whatever else you can salvage from my ship. Think carefully if you want to flip that coin, because I know how it lands.”