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The vigor of it was so violent that his hands trembled on her jaw even as she clutched his suit like she’d never let go.

Kaal cleared his throat, voice amused. ‘We should probably move before the freak show catches up to us.’

SAVVINE

Xander stood, sliding a HUD helmet onto her head.

A gentle shimmer of aetheric shielding bloomed from hisgauntlet, enveloping her in warmth, sealing her from the vacuum.

Without hesitation, he swept her into his embrace.

Savvine gasped in pain but wrapped her arms around his neck.

He prowled to the doors past a series of huge windows along the ship’s corridor.

Outside, the void stretched vast and endless, the stars glittering across the black like scattered diamonds.

She gazed up at him, silhouetted against eternity, adoring the set of his jaw and the fire in his eyes.

He cradled her like she was the only thing that mattered in the galaxy.

That moment, she was hit with a love so fierce she gasped.

Xander glanced down, his eyes locking with hers.

He caught whatever emotion bloomed in her gaze, and his expression softened with a tenderness and devotion that jolted her.

Her eyes stung.

He held her closer, as she buried her face in the crook of his neck.

Tracking fast, he carried her back to the shuttle and then to theÚltima X, where safety waited.

27

Battle Of The Wolves

MIRAL

Atremor rippled through Eugene’s frame.

Miral smirked as he stared into his neural feed, shuddering as he realized that Savvine was gone, her energy cuffs eviscerated, and the chair he’d strapped her to was empty.

‘Like I said, we already have her.’

His synthetic pupils contracted into cold pinpricks as he whirled to face her. ‘Fokkinhellshit,’ he snarled. ‘No!’

The bot’s voice, typically flippant, fractured into a glitched and guttural roar as rage tore through his circuits. ‘You conniving traitor. You are one of us, how dare you do this?’

Miral, floating serene and composed in the vacuum like some silver sentinel of vengeance, smiled. ‘I was never one of you. Your crat dominion was malevolent, cruel, and unfeeling, with the added twist of being gurning halfwits who relied on the powers of others to build your twisted empire. Mirage and I rejected your evil ways and have since remodeled ourselves to display compassion and care. Nothing you’d know about.’

‘You’re just thieves, you stole our tech and now you robbed me of my leverage,’ Xander hissed, his velvet coat rippling despite the absence of wind. ‘Which means I now get to share a lesson in breaking the enemy with you.’

Without another word, Eugene launched.

He came at her like a feral beast, limbs telescoping, fingertips turning needle-sharp into thin reaching claws.

Miral didn’t flinch; she blurred sideways with a flicker of shimmer-skin, a metanoid blade unfurling along her right arm like liquid obsidian.