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I shivered. I remembered that event – just a few years into our tour of service with the Aurelian Army.

“You remember how we were ambushed by Toad fighters?”

Of course I do. It was hundreds of years ago – but I remember it like less than an hour has passed.

It was back during our earliest years in the Aurelian Army. Lazar, Brennan and I were in our Reaver, and we’d just taken heavy fire after chasing down a band of pirates who’d been attacking Aurelian sector shipping lanes.

The navigation system of our Reaver had been destroyed, and we badly needed repairs. By this point, Brennan and Lazar were navigating by the stars alone – and it was questionable whether we’d even be able to find safe harbor in the endless, empty expanse of space.

But then, something found us instead.

Out of nowhere, two Toad fighters had hit us. They’d blasted us with a salvo of fire that shredded through the last of our damaged shields, and our Reaver had taken heavy damage.

All three of us panicked. I’m not proud of it, but as the alarm bells flared, we’d all felt terror like never before.

The panic had overwhelmed me – but then, I’d let it wash over me.

I remember how I’d centered myself. I remember how I’d grabbed the control of my las-cannon tightly, and I placed two perfect shots that landed on each of the Toad fighter’s vulnerable drive nacelles.

Like a surgeon, I’d triggered a cascade that blew first one fighter, and then the next, to little more than space dust.

It was a shot worthy of a medal – but I wasn’t proud of myself. One more burst of firepower from those Toad vessels and all three of us would have died in the emptiness of space.

My accuracy wasn’t rewarded with a medal. It was rewarded with our lives.

But I’d been rewarded with something else. In the midst of all that chaos, I’d found my calm. I’d been living at the center of a hurricane of terror and panic – and found the eye of the storm. That place of pure control.

Now, Brennan is asking me to find that focus once again – to use as a shield to brace against the tidal wave of lust and need I feel.

I take a deep breath.

Brennan is staring at me expectantly. Behind him, Lazar cocks his head to the side.

I hear his voice, soundless yet clear inside my head.

You can do it.

I nod.

I don’t know if I’ll truly be able to – but Lazar is a great deal smarter than me, and I’ve learned that he can sometimes read my own aura better than I can.

Resolute, I turn to look at Natali. There she stands – so small. So innocent…

…and yet – she has afireto her; one that burns me up inside.

Natali Carani isn’t just beautiful – she’ssharp.Her mind is already running circles around ours – processing information like a computer. She’s playing a game of chess, and is thinking two moves ahead.

Which is why I’m nervous.

I don’t know why Natali pickedmeto deliver her punishment – but it wasn’t a random choice. It’s because I’m the one whose actions she feels she can best predict – whatever that prediction might be.

But Brennan and Lazar are staring at me, waiting for me to bolster the challenge.

I turn to my battle-brothers and nod.

“I’ll do it.”

I won’t just do it – I’ll do itwell.