Page 65 of Alien Prince’s Fake Bride (The Tentacle Throne #1)
I discreetly draw the gun and follow him. He holds out his hand to help me, but I ignore it. I still don’t know what this is.
It’s a terrace on the side of a building, clearly meant as a landing pad for flying transports. But it’s so full of debris and aviat droppings, and the markings are so faded, that it can’t have been in use for decades. It’s high up, and the lights of the palace stretch away on three sides.
A cool night breeze brushes past my face. I stay close to the wall, gun ready. Nobody’s going to push me off this ledge.
Nerox puts his hands on his hips, back to me. “We won’t see them until they’re— ah.”
It’s a big shadow that obscures the light behind it. Then it comes closer and I hear the soft whine of engines in stealth mode. Nerox and I back up to the wall as the dull black gunship lands, taking up nearly all the space on the ledge. It bristles with weapons and sensors.
I know they can take me out if they want. But it seems like a lot of trouble to go to, when Prince Nerox could have killed me in my bed.
The door on the side of the gunship slides open.
This is it. I clutch the gun, ready to lift it and start shooting.
One Khavgren soldier in all black jumps down on the ground, unarmed.
She takes her helmet off. “Umbra, in case His Highness didn't say it: Ashlynn.”
I relax a fraction and replace my gun in its holster. “All right, Sigise. Extraction plan activated.”
“We have no time to lose,” Sigise says, looking around but focusing on the Prince. “The enemy could strike at any moment.”
She helps me into the gunship.
Prince Nerox stays on the platform, his cape snapping and billowing in the strong wash from the gunship’s engines. “When you see my brother,” he yells to be heard over the whining turbines, “tell him that the Empress is dead. He will understand.”
The door slides shut, and the gunship takes off before I can ask what he means. Someone killed the Empress?
Sigise sits beside me, her face tight as the pilot has the craft accelerate so fast we’re both pushed back in our seats.
Suddenly a flash of white light fills the cabin, and the ship starts to wobble in the air as if thrown around by a storm. The soldiers grab handholds and mutter.
“They chose a dramatic method,” Sigise says as the craft stabilizes and she leans over me to look out the window. “The army warehouse is on fire.”
I look out, too. Indeed one part of the giant building complex we just came from is burning brightly in the night, pretty far away. “Did they try to blow me up?”
“They did indeed,” Sigise says. “That was a large explosion. They really wanted to be sure.”
“Is Prince Nerox safe?”
“I don’t know if he’s safe , but that explosion didn't kill him. He’s much too far away from it.”
“Who’s they ?” I ask, starting to tremble a little as I realize I just escaped a murder attempt.
She sits back in her seat. “All I know is that they’re enemies of the Empire. It seems that includes the Calanian Guards.”
“How did you know it was happening?”
“I didn’t know, but Prince Nerox persuaded me that you were in danger.
I didn’t trust him, but when an Imperial prince first takes the trouble to track me down and then talks to me like the sky is about to fall down, it’s hard to resist. He just asked me to fly a gunship here at a certain time and keep an eye on that platform from a distance.
The risk seemed small. After all, if there was treachery, I was pretty safe in a gunship. ”
“How did he know about you and the extraction plan?”
“He didn’t,” Sigise says flatly. “It quickly became clear that he came to me only because he’d seen me in the palace and he knew I’m a shock trooper. There aren’t that many active soldiers left on Khav now, but he needed a good one to help him get you out, and he didn’t have a lot to choose from.”
“He knew the password,” I point out. “He must have been extremely persuasive.”
I swear her cheeks go a little red. “I took a risk,” she admits.
“If anything he said was true, then you had to get off Khav. And I couldn’t get to you because of the Calanian guards.
They changed after Prince Mareliux left.
I didn’t recognize any of them anymore, and they wouldn’t let me see you when I came to check on you after the Prince had contacted me.
That was the main reason I agreed to his request. Something felt very strange about the Calanians. ”
The millions of lights from the palace pass by underneath us. It’s even more beautiful than the starry sky at night, a dense and sparkling ocean of light points that seems to go on forever. I will never see them again. And probably not Mareliux.
“What now?” I ask to take my mind off that great loss.
Sigise checks her gun. “Now the extraction plan is active. We didn’t need the rest of the team for this, so I left them where they are. We could travel to Earth in this, but it would be uncomfortable. It’s too far away. We have a bigger ship for that.”
I nod. “I suppose this could be a way for Prince Nerox to get me off the planet in the easiest way. I’m no longer a problem for him now.”
“It could,” Sigise agrees. “But this extraction plan had certain criteria for activation. Number one on that list was an attempt on your life. Number fourteen was me unexpectedly losing my access to contact you because of a sudden change in the guards surrounding you. As it turns out, both criteria have now been hit. It would actually have been difficult for me to do this without the prince’s help.
We might have had to carry out a direct assault on the Calanians. Or whatever they are.”
The gunship rises fast through the atmosphere, and the lights below draw away. “Do we know what’s happening? Is it the Empress? Nerox said she was dead.”
The colonel shrugs. “Your guess is as good as mine. But I have to say I feel better with you out of that deadly palace. Even if it means taking you back to your own planet. At least you’ll be alive.”
“What will you do? After you take me back to Earth.”
“Then I’ll find out where the Twenty-Ninth Legion is, and I’ll go do whatever they’re doing. Hopefully it’s a battle of some kind, not another secret mission. Turns out it’s not my kind of thing.”
“Could have fooled me,” I mutter in English.