Page 49 of Stars in Umbra (The Sable Riders #8)

Ruthless Gods

MOLAN

H igh above Eden II, amid bruised skies and thunder-thick clouds, a shape tore through the upper stratosphere, a harbinger of death.

Sleek, dark, needle-nosed, its body glimmered with anti-radar plating and infernal red fins that bristled with autonomous missile turrets.

It bore no insignia, no flag, just a stylized insignia across its flank: twin blades coiled in a serpent’s mouth.

The mark of Caidan Thrall, AKA Apex Wraith.

Inside, trapped in the bridge behind a sealed inner hull door, Rina sat still within the reinforced restraints locking her into a chair.

The atmosphere around her thrummed with the high-frequency hum of pre-armed warheads, all wired to detonate on impact.

Her HUD comms were dead, and she knew he must have a blocking shield on the ship; her neural link to Mirage and Mo was a gaping void.

Still, she refused to panic; her pulse remained steady, unwilling to let the circumstances break her.

Moments later, her captor appeared, striding into the cockpit.

‘Sidoni, or shall we call you Rina Mendi, Colonel of the Dunian Army and United Pegasi Military peace corps. We meet again, but in fokkin ’ dire circumstances given you’re about to sacrifice your life.’

She lifted her head, eyes narrowed on him. ‘Not if Molan has anything to do with it. He’ll be your reckoning.’

He laughed, a cold, cruel sound that held no mirth.

He closed the distance between them with a swift, inhuman motion, and his hand connected with her cheek.

The slap was a jarring crack that rattled her teeth. He leaned close, his essence chilling, causing her skin to crawl.

‘Such arrogance, the same you showed sashaying into my estate and damaging my home on your righteous crusade. You and your Rider friends wrecked all I worked for over the years, so I now return the favor. I will annihilate Eden II, wipe it off Pegasi’s map.

You’re the cherry on the top. The general who stymied our chances in Dunia and continued to aid the Riders in hunting Klatsch members.

Until they, like my father, were dead or imprisoned.

You are a destroyer, and now you too shall be destroyed. ’

He sneered and stalked out.

As he disappeared from view, a sudden jolt pulsed through her gut.

A kick from her baby.

At the same time, sun rays streamed from the skies beyond the viewscreen.

Another thrust in her stomach, and a surge of power coursed through her, so forceful that sigils of ancient energy glowed under her skin.

In that instant, she got a neural vision of Mo soaring through the skies for them in a burst of light. So bright, it phased out all the umbras in the firmament.

A slow smile touched her lips, and she murmured to her unborn offspring.

‘Look at the sky, little one. It’s the color of love.’

She gazed back at the view, her fears overshadowed by the might of her unborn treasure and the words she whispered. ‘It seems your father is about to be the avenging angel we need in our time of despair. I adore him and you so much, so hold on, daddy’s coming.’

Mo streaked through the firmament in a blur of elemental and unyielding power, chasing down the fast-moving bomber.

‘Thrall’s bomber is reaching a speed of Mach 9.

3. You need to up your velocity to reach it.

Also, its gun turrets are hostile and will shred you if you don’t use their own blind spots against them.

Once you’re on the hull, you’ll need to lock your gravity boots to the surface and brace hard.

The nanites in your suit will do the rest.’

‘ Sante ,’ Mo rasped.

He closed the distance with divine propulsion, the clouds screaming by him.

Arcs of white-blue sky fire gathered around his gauntlets. His breath was steady. His muscles coiled with righteous fury.

In the far distance, Eden II’s orb appeared, its spires glittering like glass needles, unaware of the doom headed their way.

With a surge of otherworldly speed, he was on top of the runaway bomber.

A shield rippled as he fell through it, slamming feet-first onto its hull like judgment incarnate, metal buckling under his landing.

A doorway on the bomber’s outer surface split open with a hiss of pressure, revealing a tactical drop-ramp.

Apex Wraith stepped into view, helmet off, clad in his lean, armored suit of carbon-mesh and bio thread.

His face was calm and cold.

This was a different man from the slick host of parties, galas, and the smarmy military salesman.

Standing before him was the architect of Mo’s torment, his betrayer, his nodal controller.

Wind howled around them.

He caught Mirage’s neural whisper. Molan, watch your six. You’ve no safety net, no fallback.

I don’t need it.

It’d be just him and his years of experience. Plus freakin’ luck and his divine potency.

This was the time to tap into his inheritance and let it loose.

‘You’re too late,’ Caidan shouted, his voice like a blade. ‘Our trajectory is inevitable.’

Mo’s jaw clenched.

‘You turned me into a weapon,’ he growled, stepping forward. ‘You forged your insane commands into my mind, made me commit the worst atrocities. Now you think you’ll rewrite history. Fokk that shit. You think I’ll let you harm her?’

Caidan smirked. ‘The sacrifice of her life will render her sacred. Tis poetic justice.’

With a growl, Mo lunged.

The impact of his force meeting Caidan’s armored frame was seismic.

Metal buckled beneath their clash.

Mo’s fists moved like thunder cracks, Caidan countered with calculated savagery.

They whirled over the hull, weapons drawn and discarded mid-strike, blades flashing, punches landing with bone-cracking force.

Caidan ducked, lashed out with a shoulder slam, and sent Mo sliding toward the bomber’s edge.

Mo twisted during a slide, caught the ledge, and launched back with a burst of Sacran propulsion. He spun, then delivered a rising knee into Caidan’s chest that cracked reinforced armor.

Electrical discharge sparked around them as Mo opened himself to the fullness of his power.

Glyphs ignited across his body in ancient Sacran script. His eyes flared with pale fire. Flight, hyper-speed, cosmic pulse, it all surged out of him in a wave of fury.

Gunfire erupted from the bomber’s turrets, trying to track him.

He blurred past the bullets. Arcs of white-gold lightning cascaded from him like divine lashes, creating a tempest of divine proportions.

He let the storm feed on his wrath.

‘I am not your blade,’ he snarled at Caidan with divine resonance. ‘I am your reckoning.’

Caidan tried to retreat, but Mo’s Sacran precognition perceived every move before it happened and anticipated each of Caidan’s maneuvers.

The ambiance around them shimmered with raw magic.

Mo struck again, and again, fast, agile, brutal, his fists speaking the rage of years lived in servitude and silence.

Then, from somewhere ancient within him, older than memory, Mo began to speak.

Not in Kwavi, not even in Standard, but in Sacran.

‘Kai’thun asara’ven. Tor ma’shakar eneth kai. Rin surai’vak.’

Chains of pure, glowing ether lashed through the air, shackles formed from the language of gods.

They encircled Caidan’s limbs mid-leap, binding him.

He struggled and roared.

But the more he fought, the tighter the bonds became.

Mo stepped forward, breathing hard, lit from within by an immaculate, divine blaze.

He planted a boot on Caidan’s chest and knelt, his heeled justice crushing the man’s sternum.

‘You stole my past. You manipulated my mind. You almost destroyed the only woman who’s ever made me want to live again.’ His voice dropped, steel wrapped in fire. ‘But you will not take her, nor will your evil and wrath touch Eden II.’

He lifted off the man, then with a flick of his hands, the divine tethers moved.

They lifted Caidan high in the air, then flung him onto the reinforced bulkhead, lashing him to it with bright, glowing whips that whipped his skin every so often.

The impact sent a grunt tearing from Caidan’s throat, his head lashed back against the metal.

Caidan roared in agony, and Mo caught the sound of bones breaking.

He didn’t give a flying fokk .

The sacred shackles continued to burn, tethering the man infamous as Apex Wraith to the hull like a condemned soul.

Mo turned his head, gaze scanning through the bomber’s fortified seams.

He sensed his woman’s presence beyond them, her indomitable spirit unbroken.

‘I’m coming, my love,’ he murmured. ‘Hold on.’

Mo crashed through the unlocked doorway of the bomber.

He moved to the inner cabin. Its biometric locks gave way, the interface hissing open as he surged into the bomber’s bridge.

Rina.

Her eyes met his, and she cried out.

Mo reached her in two strides, his divine fire melting the latches as if they’d been made of wax.

She fell forward, into his arms.

No words were shared, touch, his hands gliding all over her.

Her pulse was steady, but a bruise marked her face, and her wrists bore the red lines of restraint.

His lips found hers, starting with gentle firmness that evolved into a bruising, melding that was hungry, laced with a hint of relief.

His form shuddered with held-in fear and rage.

Her hands gripped his face as if anchoring herself to him.

He pulled her to his chest, his heart pounding with the fury of a thousand regrets.

‘I’ve got you, mi kaya ,’ he whispered. ‘No one will ever harm you or take you from me again. Not while I breathe.’

A shimmer of light signaled Mirage’s arrival.

The AI, in glittering armor, swept Rina from Mo’s hold.

‘I’ll get her out. You handle the rest.’

Mo nodded, releasing his woman with reluctance, eyes tracking Rina as she vanished with Mirage who flew her to safety.

Only then did he stride back outside onto the exterior, ignoring the wind that lashed his face.

Caidan was still slumped on the hull, shackled by the same ancient Sacran bindings that had long held divine tyrants across millennia.

He was bleeding from the mouth, yet he still tried to maintain an arrogant tilt of his jaw.

Mo stalked toward him, eyes lit with quiet ruin.