Page 9

Chapter

Nine

Tivek

T he fog had thickened so rapidly that I'd lost visual contact with the others as I’d been guiding Morgan through the swamp, a tactical error I would never have made if I hadn't been so distracted by the human.

Not that I regretted saving Morgan from sinking into the treacherous swamp, but a Shadow should never lose situational awareness, regardless of distractions. That was one of the first lessons we learned.

"Can you see them?" Morgan whispered, her voice unnervingly close in the blinding mist.

Before I could answer, the distinctive crack of a blaster cut through the fog, followed by a shout that I instantly recognized as Torq's. My blood iced as I instinctively dropped into a defensive crouch, pulling Morgan down with me.

More weapons fire followed, then silence. The absolute worst kind of silence.

My mind raced through possibilities. Had they encountered hostile wildlife? Kronock patrols? Some automated defense system we hadn't detected? Whatever the threat, someone in our group had deemed it necessary to open fire. Or someone had fired on them.

My pulse spiked as I weighed our options. The tactically sound choice would be to rush forward and assist, but that meant potentially exposing Morgan to the same danger. Yet staying put wasn't an option either, especially with our companions potentially under attack.

"Wait here," I whispered, releasing her hand. "I'll assess the situation."

Her fingers tightened around mine. "No. We stay together."

The determination in her voice brooked no argument, but I sensed that there was also fear. Not of what might lay ahead, but of being left alone.

“Stay close," I conceded, drawing my blaster. "And if I tell you to run, you run. Understand?"

She nodded, her own weapon already in hand.

We advanced slowly through the mist, every sense straining for any hint of our companions or their attackers. The marsh had gone eerily quiet. There was no sound of struggle, no voices, not even the ambient noises of the marsh that had surrounded us earlier.

Then a faint hum penetrated the silence, growing steadily louder. Something was approaching from above.

I tilted my head upward just as a shaft of sickly yellow light cut through the mist, illuminating particles of dust and spores that drifted in the alien air. The underside of a ship became visible. Even though such a swift rescue wasn’t possible, my heart illogical leapt. Then sank.

It wasn’t Drexian. It was unmistakably Kronock. The gray, scaly hull resembled the hide of its reptilian creators, its angles sharp and aggressive.

"Down!" I hissed, pulling Morgan flat against the soggy ground.

From our position, I could just make out something that made my stomach clench. Our companions were being pulled upward in the yellow light, their bodies limp and unresisting.

The beam retracted, the ship's belly closing around our friends like some monstrous predator swallowing its prey. Then, with a surge of engines that scattered the mist in concentric ripples, the vessel banked sharply and accelerated away, flying so low its wake roiled the surface of the marsh.

"They took them," Morgan stammered. "How did they find us so fast?"

I pushed myself up onto my knees, tracking the ship's trajectory until it disappeared.

“We didn’t slip in unnoticed. When we crashed, they must have sent sentries to investigate.

" My mind was already calculating, analyzing the ship's design and direction.

"That was a patrol vessel, not a long-range transport. They're taking them somewhere nearby."

"The prison complex," Morgan whispered, her strategic mind reaching the same conclusion I had.

I nodded, turning to find her fighting back tears, her chest rising and falling too rapidly in the thin atmosphere.

"We're going to find them," I assured her, gripping her shoulders lightly. "The Kronock have just done us a favor. They've taken our companions right where we needed to go and where my brother and Sasha are most likely being held."

She met my eyes, her own filled with doubt that she was trying valiantly to suppress. "You think the two of us can rescue them all? Against all the Kronock inside the prison?”

I refused to let my own doubts show on my face. Shadow training had taught me that confidence, even if it was fake, was often the difference between success and failure.

"We can," I said firmly. "We will."

"Because you're a Shadow and you're used to missions like this?" she asked, a note of desperate hope in her voice.

The truth was, I'd never faced anything like this before.

Shadows operated in stealth and subterfuge, focusing on the gathering and manipulation of information.

We weren't assault troops or extraction specialists.

But what choice did we have? I would have to use my skills as best as I could to sneak into the prison and sneak our people out.

"Yes," I lied. “I’ve trained for this.”

She straightened, drawing strength from my false certainty. "Then you can teach me what you know, so we can save them together.”

I had neither the time nor the authorization to teach Morgan any Shadow skills, but I found myself unable to refuse. We needed each other now, more than ever.

“Just follow my lead.” I turned away before she could see the conflict in my eyes, my gaze fixing on the direction the ship had disappeared.

Was I making the greatest mistake of my life or the smartest tactical play possible? Would Morgan thank me or curse me for it?

I would find out soon enough.

Morgan

What was I doing here? This had been a mistake.

I was a Strategist, trained to analyze maps and battle plans from the safety of a command center, not to trudge through alien swamps on rescue missions.

My place was behind a tactical display, not in the field where my inexperience could get someone killed. I gulped. Could get Tivek killed.

I stole a glance at his back as he moved ahead of me. He was so composed and so in control despite our dire situation. There was much more to the admiral's adjunct than anyone at the academy had suspected, me included.

What would it be like to be a Shadow? To move through the world unseen by design? There was something thrilling about the idea, something exotic and mysterious that appealed to the part of me that had always felt like an outsider.

But could I do it? Could I become someone who operated in shadows, who never received recognition for her achievements?

My entire life had been a struggle for acknowledgment.

First, to prove I belonged in the Air Force, then to prove I was worthy of being one of the first humans accepted into the Drexian Academy, and finally to prove I deserved my place among the Assassins. Could I give that up?

I sensed Tivek's hesitation when I'd asked him to teach me. Perhaps I'd crossed a line. Was he breaking some sacred oath by sharing his techniques with me?

"You don't have to tell me anything," I blurted out, breaking our careful silence. "About being a Shadow, I mean. I shouldn't have asked. I didn't think about whether you'd be violating some kind of oath or—" The words tumbled out in a bumbling rush.

Tivek stopped walking and turned to face me, his expression serious in the haze of the mist. I braced myself for his relief or for his polite refusal.

Instead, he held my gaze with an intensity that made something stir deep in my core.

"I make it a policy never to say anything I don't mean," he said quietly.

"I meant it when I said I think you would make an excellent Shadow.

Just as I meant it when I said I would teach you what you need to survive this mission. "

I swallowed, my mouth suddenly dry. "But would you be violating any oaths?"

His lips curved in a slight smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "I won't let an oath prevent me from keeping you safe." The sincerity of his words sent warmth flooding through me, but he continued in a more measured tone. "Besides, it helps all of us if you're as prepared as possible."

With that, he turned and resumed our trek through the swamp, leaving me to wonder if I'd imagined the heat in his gaze. Was the attraction only on my side? As kind as he'd been, as protective as he'd proven, I couldn't be sure that any of it meant what I wanted it to mean.

I'd never admitted to Jess or Britta how fascinated I'd been by the admiral's mysterious adjunct, how I'd relished moments when his gaze found me, how I'd made a point to talk to him when he’d invited us to the admiral’s private lounge.

They probably suspected. Jess had certainly raised her eyebrows enough times when Tivek entered a room, and my voice trailed off mid-sentence.

But I wasn’t sure if Tivek himself had ever suspected my interest. Men didn’t seem to be as quick to pick up on things like that.

And I didn’t want him to know now, either.

Not when we needed to work together to save our friends.

Besides, there was nothing more mortifying than the thought of confessing my feelings only to have the handsome spy explain that he only saw me as a promising recruit.

I squared my shoulders. I could do this. I could keep things professional. I could learn from him without revealing how much I admired him, how much I?—

A sound above made us both freeze in place.

"It's the ship," Tivek hissed. "It's coming back."