Page 77 of Grounded (Convergence #1)

Commander Vor gave the signal.

The device within the barrier detonated. With the size and origin of the explosion, the barrier burst into pieces. Metal flew across the pit to lodge into sheer rock. There would be no repairing it this time.

His army cheered and rushed forward, the battle claws affixed to metal legs and arms scraping stone.

Vor ran in after them, never one to lead from the back.

No, he wanted to be up front where the killing was.

The faster he got the fortress secured, the sooner he'd have his woman beneath him. Great tech, he was already erect.

Vor's helmet dulled the sound of darts firing, his own weapon included. So he felt no disorientation when he emerged to find Aethari assembling at the lip of the pit. They'd be upon his people in seconds, but they wouldn't be enough. Not this time.

Vor had brought four hundred soldiers with him.

He wasn't going home empty-handed. He wasn't going home at all. Vor was there to stay. First, they'd take the fortress, and then they would swarm over the face of Para, claiming it city by city. He would become King of the Nethren with his Medean Queen by his side.

“Up!” Vor pointed at the rim.

Hooks shot out of launchers—over twenty of them.

Nethren scurried up the chains attached to those hooks.

Some even climbed the sheer rock with their battle claws.

So many of them surged over the side with such speed that their enemy didn't even have enough time to get in the air.

For once, the Aethari had to face them on the ground.

And that was not where they were strongest.

Vor grinned even as he climbed a chain, the sounds of darts and screams assuring him that all was going as planned. By the time he reached the top, half of the Aethari forces sent to fight them were down. Soon, they'd be overrun, and his army would clear the fortress.

Which meant he had to find his woman before she got hurt.

A flash of red caught his eye. Was that her?

Vor chased after the banner of hair. But wait, that hair was too red—a deep, vibrant color instead of a rich brown with red highlights.

And then he saw the wings. Not his woman.

It was a fucking Aethari. But his tech arm suddenly zinged, giving Vor the urge to follow the man.

He tried to sense his woman as he chased the Aethari, but he couldn't. He didn't feel her anywhere.

Was she even in the fortress? Panic took hold.

If he had claimed the fortress only to have lost her, Vor would be furious.

His arm zinged again.

Vor followed the red-haired Aethari.

Or tried to.

The man was heading into the fortress instead of toward the battle.

The fucking coward. He was running away!

He was also going against the flow of soldiers—all of them headed toward Vor.

Pulling his second dart, Vor fired upon the Medean and Aethari soldiers.

Men and women dropped at his feet, most unarmed.

He didn't give a shit. This was not about honor.

Behind him came more of his men, and they helped him clear a path.

Still, the Aethari evaded him.

Vor lost the man a few times. Exterminating his enemies slowed him while giving the Aethari time to gain distance. But his tech parts kept sending him signals, guiding him through the maze of corridors that looked exactly the same.

There he was! He had a Medean woman with him. But it wasn't Vor's woman. No, this woman had blond hair. Despite this, he knew she was the key to finding his woman. And then the couple ran out of the fortress.

With a curse, Vor slaughtered his way to the exit and burst out after them.

They were fifty yards away, getting into an erial.

He ran toward them. The redhead met his stare through the glass viewing panel of the machine.

He said something to the woman. The woman took the wheel and drove the erial straight toward Vor.

But after a few feet, she turned and headed for a long strip of stone-covered land.

Vor ran faster even though he knew he had lost. The erial leapt into the air, propelled up by its extended legs and forward by an explosion from the tail.

He came to a stop and stared after them.

Then he looked to his left at the line of waiting erials.

A commander shouldn't leave his army. Vor was supposed to lead them. But victory was assured. He knew it. By the time he returned, the fortress would be secured. And so would his woman.

Vor opened the converged machine. He had never flown before, but he had read many books stolen from the surface, and a few had been about erials. He knew the basics. Dangerous? Yes, but he kept feeling that urge. This was his only way to her.

After climbing onto a leather seat and closing the glass hatch, Vor carefully looked over the controls.

The information he'd read surged into his mind as if the book was open before him, and he pressed the button to start the machine.

It whirred to life as he took the wheel, just as he'd seen the Medean woman do.

Within seconds, he was shooting down that clear road.

All right, this was really fast. Faster than he'd ever driven a vehicle. It was fine. He could—

Vor's hand twitched, moving the wheel slightly, and the erial veered off course. Since the runway was within the fortress compound, it wasn't spared a lot of room. Which meant that he was suddenly headed into the side of a building.

Vor let out a shriek—something he had never done before—and jerked the wheel back toward its correct path.

Heart racing, he tried to remember what he was supposed to do next.

How the fuck did he get this thing to go up?

Then a drawing from the book came to mind—an arrow pointing back from the wheel.

Was it that simple? Pull back to go up? No, there was more to it. Something about legs and wings. Shit!

His metal hand felt drawn to the control panel as if it were magnetized.

He pulled a lever. The body of the erial rose.

Not in flight, but rather was lifted upon metal legs.

Still, he didn't rise further than that.

The erial began to shake. Something was wrong.

He missed a step. Fuck! He was losing ground.

In seconds, he'd hit the fortress wall. The wheel!

Vor pulled back on the wheel.

Metal wings suddenly came to life, flapping smoothly.

Faster and faster. The erial lifted off the ground.

Still, it wasn't high enough to clear the wall.

He pulled back harder. The wings moved faster.

The wall loomed. Was he going to die in such an inglorious manner?

No! He yanked on the wheel, his finger accidentally hitting a button on the steering device.

A blast erupted behind the body, and the erial practically went vertical, shooting straight up and over the wall.

The thing shuddered as the legs clipped the top of the wall. But he had made it.

It took a few seconds to get his breathing back into a normal range.

But then Vor realized he was still gaining height, the wings that jutted out to either side of the main compartment flapping rapidly.

He pushed forward on the wheel and brought the erial horizontal.

The wings stretched out and settled into an occasional flap.

But the erial shuddered. What now? The legs!

He pulled up on the lever, felt a movement within the metal encasing him, and then the erial's flight became steady.

Stabilized and still alive, Vor searched the sky. There, ahead of him, was the other erial. It had a significant lead, but that was for the best. He didn't want them to know they were being followed. If they did, they wouldn't lead him to her.

Around Vor, the erial murmured and pinged, functioning perfectly.

He didn't understand all the information displayed on the dashboard screen, but he wouldn't worry about that.

He was flying! Holy shit. Vor had spent his life underground.

Just to glimpse the sky was a rare delight.

But to be in it? It was miraculous. Even more so because it was by his own hand.

He was driving this machine, and it was taking him to his woman.

Vor grimaced at the control panel. Long ago, the Aethari had lied to the Medeans, telling them that not only could a Nethren kill Aethari with their bite, but they could also kill magic by simply touching it.

What utter shit. If that were true, then so would the opposite—Aethari would kill tech by merely touching it.

No, converged machines worked just fine for Nethren.

That is, if they could get their hands on one.

His people did not kill magic or convergence.

That thing about the bite, however, was true.

They could kill an Aethari with their bite and paralyze a Medean.

But the Aethari could do the same to Nethren. They just didn't know it.

Vor started to smile. If that black-haired Aethari was with his woman when he found her, Vor would give him a little nibble. A nice fuck you before he took his woman back to where she belonged—with Vor.