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‘Damn that was close.’

TheAsh Talonlimped forward, systems failing, flames licking along one side of the port wing.

‘Reactor’s holding,’ Dia muttered, clutching her shoulder. ‘But just.’

‘Main cannon’s fried,’ Yani added, blood trickling from a cut on his brow.

‘I’ve lost rail gun two plus a thruster,’ Calyx said. ‘I can nurse us home, but we’re gonna rattle like a tin can full of rocks in a hailstorm.’

Savvine didn’t answer.

Her jaw clenched behind the re-breather seal of her HUD helmet, and her eyes burned with fury as the scorched and broken wreckage of the Lombardi interceptors drifted by.

‘That was aHades-class weapon,’ she hissed. ‘No way the Lombardis had that in their arsenal. Someone gave it to them. Who in the Wildlight deals in death-tech of that caliber?’

No one answered.

Because they all suspected the truth.

The Signet Group.

Ex-prisoners. Former rebels. Now privateers in all but name. Mercenaries to the highest bidder. Everyone praised their precision, their delivery, their damn honor.

This was no glory.

‘They can’t play both sides,’ Savvine muttered. ‘They don’t get to sell weapons to our enemies, then claim neutrality.’

She stared out at the black, burning void, chest ablaze.

‘They won’t make a market out of our fight for survival,’ Her voice hardened. ‘I won’t let them.’

Dia raised a chin at her. ‘What will you do?’

‘I’ll freakin’ find the head of Signet, Alexandrwhateverthefokkthey-call-him is and tear him a new one. We have families, children, entire clans getting wiped out because of them. I’m unsure if he realizes it’s the little people, the innocent, who are harmed by his callousness.Fokkhim!’

‘You’ve never met the man to do so,’ Yani teased.

‘Fokkyou too.’

‘I’d do it with pleasure.’

Yani’s flippant answer broke the tension, and the crew tittered.

‘Merda, what’s with the lame lines and hitting on me?’ Savvine murmured, shaking her head.

‘We can’t help but shoot our shot with a beautiful, badass, Chief of Security.’

Savvine rolled her eyes. ‘I’m all of that?’

‘Naam, and more,’ Yani winked.

Savvine huffed, for she never thought of herself that way.

She was a simple woman who sought peace for her loved ones and perhaps the embrace of a man’s arms around her at night, whispering sweet nothings in her ear, and rocking her to sleep.

None of the men on theVenantia Eternamade the cut for her.

They had either married young per their mafia family traditions, or were sluts, literally.