Page 143

With life – there can be death.

Reality hits me, and so does the fading agony of Quint’s aura in my mind. Hot blood covers my hands as my proud warrior fights to stay alive.

The Toad mothership will have no choice but to surrender. Orb-Shifting into Aurelian space is an act of war – and Colossus is the Aurelian homeworld, no less.

Making matters worse, Lord Oblog has human slaves aboard – along with Gods-know-what-else in terms of contraband. When he’s captured – one of the ten highest ranked Toads in their entire Empire – it could be the spark that sets the universe aflame with war.

But I don’t care.

In the midst of universe-changing politics, my triad may be collateral. If the Aurelian Empire decides that their actions were treasonous…

I just want the universe to leave us alone.

Quint’s eyes roll backward. He’s got a faint smile on his face, even as his aura weakens in my mind. He passes out just as brighter red blood spurts across my hands – his life blood.

I press my palms against the bullet holes, alongside Lucius and Marcel – working desperately together to keep his life blood inside of him.

But even as he fades from life, the haunted, beautiful man lying in front of me is at peace.

He’s found me.

I glance up. Through the viewport, I see more ships are taking off from Colossus. They dart up from the Aurelian home planet like hornets from a disturbed nest. More Reavers and attack ships break out of the atmosphere and warp towards us, shifting out of reality – but these ones are marked differently to the black attack ships circling the Toad vessel.

“The Priesthood,” Marcel explains. “They’re in those ships – and they’re running.”

The Toad mothership will expose what’s been going on – the clandestine business arrangement between the Aurelian Priesthood, and the natural enemies of the Aurelian Empire – the Toad confederacy.

Oblog’s ship is filled with evidence that ties the Priesthood to their peoples’ greatest enemies. Of course they’re rushing to escape – even risking death to Orb-Shift away.

A huge battleship starts to disappear out of reality – one of Priesthood ships, trying to escape.

I watch as the front half makes it…

…but the back half stays above Colossus, sheared as if by a knife – leaking tumbling Aurelians, and steaming oxygen, as the vessel slowly breaks into pieces above the atmosphere.

The Orb-Shift failed.

I gasp, watching the rest of the chaos.

Out there, in the orbit of Colossus, the disaster with the battleship doesn’t dissuade the rest of the fleeing Priests. Reavers and battleships wink out of existence, disappearing to Gods-know-where.

I watch, and it’s all like a dream to me. The politics of the universe surround me, but none of it matters. All that matters is my triad.

The Toad mothership shudders as boarding vessels latch on. Soon, Aurelian shock troops will flood this vessel – slaughtering all the remaining Toads and Bullfrogs who try to put up a resistance.

As if on cue, I hear the sound of armored boots echoing down the hallways. The doors burst open, and Aurelians pour into the Orb-Shift bay, their Orb-Weapons activated.

“Stabilize him!”

The leader of the Aurelian shock troops sees Quint lying in Lucius’s arms, and bellows the command in the High Tongue.

I blink. Iknowthis language – like I was born to it. Like my understanding of the Toad tongue, it must be residual knowledge, shared across our Bond.

Aurelians surround me, and I’m dragged away from Quint. I reach out – Ineedto touch him. As his aura fades, Ineedto feel him.

I watch as the Aurelians seal his wounds with hand-held sealant guns – which shoot beams of black energy that forges his skin back together.

Quint’s aura no longer fades from my mind. It’s weak, but stable.