Page 36

I hold my breath as Allele portals us to Mars. One minute, we’re outside Earth. The next, I’m staring out the windows at a dusty red sphere in the sky. Allele cloaks. Green light turns my view of the planet a shade of brown.

I need to get me one of those.

Eluni, who’s taken the pilot’s seat, gets up and starts toward the back. “Denarso need their cores punched out to properly die. I’m going to assist. Allele will keep you safe if you stay onboard.”

A bolt of electricity arcs between the ceiling and the floor, stopping her, and catching the males’ attention.

“No females on Denarso missions,” Allele says. “It’s too dangerous.”

Eluni staggers back into her seat. “Why?”

“Aura’s rule. No females on Denarso missions. If the males do not return, I will get you out of here.”

I take the copilot’s seat as Fieri and Blaize clomp into the airlock in their rocket boots. Jorusk frees a band from his wings and shakes them out. He turns to us. “We will be right back with your friend, Jovie. Promise.”

His chest lights up with crags of light like lava, and a leathery mask crawls out from behind his ears and swallows his face, leaving only his glowing red eyes visible. Then he joins the others, and the airlock door shuts.

We watch them onscreen upfront as they jump and soar across space to the Denarsoan ship.

“Can you please tell me what’s going on?”

“Trade deals went south with Denarso,” Eluni says, like she’s annoyed with the whole mission.

“They took Talros, who we agreed to guard via Aura’s request after Denarso appeared on Catalyst Five.

From what we know, they had a drone tech working for them from Ominous Artifacts who has recently been incarcerated.

So they’re likely looking for a replacement that will allow them to crack future security systems. Which is why we need to get him now . ”

“How are you more worried about him than Aura?”

Eluni covers her mouth with a hand, looking deep in thought.

“I know where they have taken him,” Allele says.

“Allele,” Eluni growls in warning. “We don’t know that for sure.”

“He is under arrest,” Allele states. “I registered a significant drain to Aura’s Storm before he requested com-break.”

Eluni sways in her seat. “Prison ship Ermaea then.”

“I’m afraid so,” Allele replies.

“Why Talros over Aura?” I reassert.

“Aura’s already asleep in stardust.” Eluni shivers and looks like she’s about to cry. “By now, they’re draining his Storm. But we can’t just yank him out. There’s a procedure. If we don’t do it right, it will rip him apart. Have you ever seen a soul torn from a body?”

“Only in movies.”

“They did that to my mate.” Eluni curls her lips inward and nods.

Even Allele is quiet this time.

“What in stars for?” I ask.

“I was supposed to Bond to an official from another ship. He found out I had carried a child with another male, the one I loved, the one who ignited my Storm as you do with Aura. So he killed my mate to punish me. And make me an example. I tried to hide our son. But our motherships are limited in space. Rylorn and I were planning to take a transport to Anurra the next week. We were going to start a new life. They took my son, too.”

My body suddenly feels heavy in my seat. I’m starting to regret picking Aura. Not because of who he is but who his people are.

Eluni clears her throat, taps a screen, and pulls up a scan of three males moving through a hallway toward a cell with someone inside.

“My son did not die by accident either, even though Royals will frame it that way. They say I called it upon myself because I was abandoning my duty, being selfish.”

“For wanting to protect your family?”

She leans over a different screen. “For choosing myself over the honor of serving the Royal stratum.”

I fear what happened to her son, but by the shimmer in her eyes, I dare not ask and make her relive it again.

“So I swore through my teeth and resubmitted my oath to guard Royals. But I have been waiting for this chance for many years.”

She checks the screens, monitoring four bodies moving through the Denarsoan hallway.

“No confrontation?” I point to the screen.

“If we can avoid being directly seen.” Eluni looks back at the airlock. “Denarso are not very advanced in space travel or technology. We can usually slip under their radar.”

I swallow against a growing lump in my throat. “Do you think they killed Aura?”

“I don’t know. But I imagine they’ll want to use him because of his power and try to figure out why a Royal who wants to be Rogue has a stronger Storm than anyone else in Fleet Amphir.”

“I thought those were just job positions.”

She shakes her head. “We are born Royal, Rogue, or common. We stay in those positions for life. I am descended from Royal Guards. That is my job. My mate was a Rogue Guard. My match was a Royal pain-in-the-ass Elder’s representative.

One would think, with us having been the first to space, that we’d have worked out all the kinks in our government and social hierarchy by now.

But change is all around us. We adapt, or we die. And Amphirans are dying off.”

“You sound like Aura.”

“Maybe.”

A flash of portal light illuminates the airlock. Allele immediately reverses her engines.

“Hang on,” Eluni says. “One more portal jump.”

A bright green electric rope swallows the ship as we lurch forward. It races over the windows and deposits us among different stars.

My body jolts in my harness, and I’m glad I’m strapped in. Eluni doesn’t even seem to notice the bump.

The airlock opens, and Fieri and Blaize help Talros into a medical bay.

I unbuckle and hurry to him. “Tal?”

His face is badly beaten, but when he sees me, he sets his duffel bag down and hugs me. “Jo—e. I— glad you’re okay. I heard ao—ut Aura. I— so sorry.”

“Stars, Tal. What did they do to you?”

His eyes smile even though his split lips and swollen cheeks don’t really move. Eluni mutters in shock behind me.

“Oh, you know. Put the trainee on hazing duty. Pussy-ass —itch hit —e a lot. Nothing I couldn’t handle.” Tal chuckles and shrugs. “Just glad to —e here now —ith you.”

Blaize opens a cabinet and pulls out a vial of yellow solution. He slips it into an injector and plants it in Talros’ neck. “This should help with the swelling.”

My friend sighs, and his face starts looking better. “That’s nice. Thanks.”

“Serum from a Lazariot Aura helped,” Allele offers.

“Then I ow-we b-both of them.” Talros lifts a finger and taps something on his gauntlet. “P-please tell me you can get a signal from the Spider B-byte I left in the Denarso’s system, Allele.”

“Confirmed. Data downloading.” Allele’s response is prompt.

Talros claps his hands once with enthusiasm. “Getting b-beat to shit was worth it. F-fuck yeah.”

Eluni lets out a disbelieving laugh.

I glance between the two of them. “What?”

Tal finally sees her, and his whole body stills. “Who is this?”

“Eluni. She’s a Royal guard,” I tell him.

He offers Eluni his hand. “B-beautiful. I— I m-mean, hi.”

Eluni glances at his hand and uncrosses her arms. “A strange custom of humans, but I want you to know you are welcome here.”

Tal’s face is looking better already. “The portal that saved me was yours?”

“Yes.”

Fieri hands Eluni’s Royal guard badge back to her before returning to the pilot’s seat. “We’re heading into Amphiran space, so everyone, please strap in. We need to discuss what’s happening next.”

“We’re rescuing Aura, right?” I ask.

Blaize takes the copilot’s seat. “Yes, but how do we do it covertly?”

I belt in behind Blaize and help Talros ease into the cushions beside me. He looks like he’s in pain.

Eluni and Jorusk take the seats behind Fieri.

“Not sure if this helps,” Talros says, but when they took me, the Denarso argued over whether or not their tactics with the Talhuskins were going to work.

Said something about stealing females in exchange for promised goods, like a form of blackmail.

A double abduction for goods. But I’m not sure about the context or who the next target is. ”

“Denarso have taken females from several planets and ships,” Jorusk offers while binding his wings with a strap. “They hold them in exchange for products they want so they don’t have to pay for the items. What they tried to take this last time was likely medicine.”

“Is asking or compromising really that hard for Denarso?” I ask.

“They’re a p-proud species that doesn’t like agreements which require them to make concessions or offer something of their own.” Talros licks his lips and seems to get them working again. “Denarso tend to mimic Novarks but with the more ruthless hand of Nebulous soldiers.”

Fieri flips through programs on the dash screens. “One of these days, they’re going to attack the wrong people and really learn their lesson.”

Eluni picks up a nearby crate, braces it between her boots, and begins assembling small metal parts from it. “They like to rape the females, send them back carrying half-breeds to water down a species’ purity.”

“Makes sense why Allele didn’t let us help.” I give Eluni a look, hoping she’s less upset about the situation. I can tell she doesn’t like being helpless. I feel the same.

“I cannot have children, so it would not have mattered if they tried with me.” Eluni takes an orb, locks it in a long cylindrical tube, and feeds it into a slot in Allele’s wall.

Above the slot is a screen that reads Silversprites .

“After Ijor killed Rylorn, I wanted to be sure he could never force himself on me. So I had myself sterilized.”

The ship quiets as the pain in Eluni’s voice digs into all of us. Only the beeps and peeps of Allele’s navigation and scanners dare break the silence.

My sister did it by choice for a different reason, one that meant far less than Eluni’s.

And I know now that I truly never care if I see my sister again.

She has no idea what a hard life really is.

“If I had any power in your world, I would destroy Ijor and any others who dared tell you what to do with your body and your Storm.”

“You are part of us,” Allele says. “As Prince Aurelius’ mate.”

Eluni’s eyes widen. “ Is it official?”

“Not formally , no.”

“But you did…” Blaize makes a finger gesture that earns him a hard backhand to the chest from Fieri.

“Do not make such a gesture to the princess!”

I roll my eyes. “Yes. And don’t call me a princess, Fieri. If Aura is just Aura, then I am just me. Please consider that.”

Eluni draws in a deep breath and smiles with genuine relief. “Thought I caught his scent on you. But even if we don’t call you the name, you’re still on Genesis’ radar as their Royals.”

I don’t think he’ll like that.

Talros seems to pick up on my discomfort and changes the subject. “Looks like you’re missing some gauntlet parts.”

I look them over. “Abr took my defense system.”

“I’ll help,” Eluni says. “We’ll give you some upgrades while we’re at it.”

“Plan first,” Fieri grunts in irritation.

“There will be resistance from Royals and their guards,” Blaize offers.

“Undoubtedly.” Jorusk shifts like he’s uncomfortable. By the way that his wings are bound and crushed against the seat, I’m certain he’s in pain. But he doesn’t complain. “Your people do not strike me as instinctively vengeful.”

“ I am,” Eluni mutters. “I want to take some heads.”

Jorusk nods. “Rightly so. But I have seen civil war. We used to live under the rule of Talhuskins. Served them. Paid taxes to them. They did nothing for us but let us live.”

“How did you become your own colony?” I ask.

“We waited until one of their holidays where they get utterly shitfaced, then we quietly took all of our belongings, our people, and left. We stole their best warships, and we got as far away from them as we could.”

“Talk about a rude awakening in the morning.” Talros scratches his chin like he’s thinking hard. “Doesn’t really work when the fleet is already pulling apart.”

“How do you know?” I ask.

Talros darts his eyes to mine. “Allele and I have been talking for a few days. I’m aware of what’s going on.”

I rack my mind for helpful ideas. “Is there a place the Storm-faithful can go that Royals won’t or can’t?” I ask.

Fieri gives Blaize a glance.

Blaize shrugs. “Allele is the only one who would know the way, who can navigate the nebula. So it’s up to her.”

“Aura found her,” Fieri counters. “Someone else must be able to.”

“I called him to me,” Allele states. “I was dying. Aurelius was, too, after a crash during Sol Federation operations. I can find my way. But I will not go without Aura.”

I’m a little jealous of the ship’s connection with my mate. It seems special in a way none of us can understand.

“We have to spread the word of our plans quietly,” Eluni remarks. “We need to give people time to get their things in order.”

Talros grins. “I have the perfect tools for the job.”