Page 50 of Stars in Umbra (The Sable Riders #8)

He turned on his mag boots to anchor himself, crossed his hands over his massive chest, and checked his adversary with a chin lift.

‘Start talking. Why me? Why her? Why any of this?’

Caidan coughed, lips curling into a grim, bloody smile.

‘You were a tool, one that was gifted to me to help me accomplish my family’s goals.

To turn Stygian Corp into the number one power broker across politics, defense, and armaments in Pegasi.

After the Klatsch and Dunia debacles, you became our weapon against our enemies.

You were to burn bright and then be extinguished after killing the Riders, in your ultimate mission. ’

He winced as another cough racked him. ‘However, it seems your flame, your Sacran fire, will not fokkin ’ die. Tis why I wanted your power for myself. I studied the scrolls, the old glyphs, the myth fragments. I desired to walk among the gods, and a drop of your DNA enabled that.’

Mo’s brow creased. ‘How did you know about me and my Sacran lineage?’

‘I encountered a god. Years ago. A wandering deity with entire star systems in his eyes, and fire in his voice.’

His gaze glazed over for a moment in remembrance. ‘He called himself Sulfiqar . He revealed his force to me and I realized I had never experienced the kind of power he held, and fokk I wanted it for myself.’

Mo’s stomach clenched. Caidan had met his father.

‘He told me he had a son in LeCythi. He pointed me to you. The rest was easy. I recruited you via Stygian Corp. I ran DNA scans on you after your first kill at seventeen. No mortal had ever emitted such potency as you. No human was able to pierce the shadows, nor tear through battlefields like you. I got excited by the divine potency inside you, so I harvested samples and cloned fragments. Implanted the best strands into myself, and I became more.’

Mo’s voice was steel. ‘The fokkin ’ audacity.’

Caidan laughed, a weak and bitter chuckle. ‘Maybe, but it gave me power. I turned into Apex Wraith, and I grew a fearsome reputation. However, I had to make you the fall guy, the disposable one, working the more risky kill contracts. You never failed, you were my triumph.’

Mo stood, fists clenched. ‘Enough of your self-absorbed jerking. Tell me about the bomb?’ he growled.

Caidan’s smile faded. ‘It was Lucian’s idea, I liked it because it would wipe out the Riders quite spectacularly. Whoever else dies in the blast, the Edenites, your woman, yourself, all collateral damage.’

Mo went silent, his perception deepened, and he jolted, perceiving what to do.

He spoke words to life. ‘ Za’Kann yi adalci na Ka.’

I will render divine justice.

Threads of illumination within him began to stir.

They rose from his skin like living ink, melding into his already present sigils, swirling in complex arcs.

Each lightning shard bore the sacred etchings of Sulfiqar’s crest.

They spun around him in reverence as he lifted one hand and sculpted the light with more ancient phrases.

His voice echoed with such thunder that it caused the bomber’s frame to quake with residual power.

From that shaped radiance, a weapon emerged.

It was not forged from metal; instead, he crafted it from a divine principle.

The scythe was carved of twilight and starlit fire, its edge burning with celestial glyphs.

The blade shimmered, ever-shifting between states, energy, matter, and illumination.

The haft bore the markings of the Sacran war pantheon, symbols of justice, vengeance, and supernal balance.

Mo reached for it, and its glow bathed the hull and surrounding air.

Caidan’s eyes went wide. ‘What the fokk is that?’

Mo’s voice was calm and timbred as he rendered his foe’s final verdict.

‘A judgment sword. Etched by breath, bound by oath. It can only be wielded by those who remain pure of soul and true in cause.’

Caidan struggled against his bonds. ‘How can you justify this? Gods are supposed to be merciful !’

Mo’s gaze turned to flame.

‘From my meager knowledge of the gods, they’re meant to protect the innocent. To render justice. However, when evil wears a man’s face, they are purposed to be its end . An eye for an eye. A soul for a soul.’

He brought the scythe to his front, its shadows whispering around him.

‘This will finish you.’

Caidan roared his frustration, pulling hard on the divine chains, trying to escape.

It was in vain; they only grew tighter.

The blade struck.

Not with blood, but with luminosity.

A burst of sacral fire tore through Caidan’s body.

His being was purged molecule by molecule.

His screams echoed as his DNA unraveled at its core, down to the nuclei, not burned, not torn, but undone, never to exist ever again.

The abomination collapsed inward, the sacred dagger returning to the ether from which Mo had summoned it.

Mo stood above the ash-marked spot where Caidan Thrall had once been.

With a slight turn to his lips.

Justice, rendered, pure, poetic, and divine.

RINA

Hundreds of kilometers from the bomber’s smoldering hull, Mirage’s corvette’s environmental stabilizers hummed with controlled efficiency.

The Sable Rider’s synth AI, Mirage, glided into the med bay.

Her body glowed with soft pulses as she placed Rina on a hover bed.

A holo scanner hissed to life, sweeping a luminous web of energy over Rina’s body.

She lay back, eyelids fluttering shut, her breath shallow with weariness.

The aftermath of capture, the gravity shifts, and the emotional toll clung to her.

Her limbs ached. Her muscles throbbed.

Still, she was alive, and so was her child.

Mirage tilted her head as the results of Rina’s scan bloomed on the display.

Her gaze narrowed, then softened.

‘Have you told him?’ she murmured.

Rina’s eyes fluttered open, her heart stuttering. ‘What?’

Then she caught Mirage’s expression, curious, knowing, impossibly kind. Her breath hitched.

‘Oh.’ She swallowed. ‘No. Not yet. I will, soon.’

Mirage didn’t judge.

She nodded, her eyes lingering on the screen as if seeing the future unfold.

‘Don’t let it tarry,’ she muttered. ‘You’re about to start showing, hot mama.’

Rina gave a breathy laugh. ‘Tell me something I don’t know.’

Mirage’s soft tone warmed the silent room. ‘He’s carried more than his share of pain for too long. You might be the balm he needs to soothe his agony.’

Rina stared at the ceiling. A hum of medical light pulsed overhead.

‘This might be the hope he needs to continue,’ Mirage added.

Rina pressed a hand to her belly.

She sensed the hum of life inside her, created by their shared passion and incandescence.

She nodded with a sigh. ‘ Naam ,’ she whispered. ‘You’re right. I’ll let him know as soon as we’re all safe.’

Mo strode back into the bomber’s bridge to its massive viewscreen.

He reached over the holo panel and activated the manual override on the vessel’s controls.

He spoke to the rudimentary AI that was piloting the ship. ‘Destination change: Alphetraz binary system. All safety protocols off.’

When a screen blinked asking for this authority to countermand, he slammed his hand onto it and let his god energy leak.

In a flash of radiance, it rewrote the code, and the AI responded, bowing to his will.

The bomber whined, its engines kicking into peak burn as it executed a turn in high G.

The nav-feed glowed red as the route locked, a direct vector into the heart of the searing twin stars.

Mo didn’t linger.

He strode once more to the exterior, touched his gear, and his HUD shimmered on his life.

With an inhale, he launched into the expanse.

His body blurred into motion, cutting through the thinning atmosphere with supernatural velocity, trailing streaks of celestial light.

Behind him, the bomber gathered speed, heading to the glowing duplicate astral objects as it executed Mo’s final command: Detonate on impact .

He reached the safe zone, hovering weightless in the void, anchored only by the gravity tether of his suit.

Then, he twisted, eyes on the show.

The bomber struck the binary system with the fury of a god’s wrath.

A detonation bloomed across the stars, rupturing the horizon in a burning, golden bloom that clawed toward the heavens.

Arcs of liquefied, hued light streamed like molten rivers through the skies of Eden II and beyond, lighting up the moon planet in waves of kaleidoscopic brilliance.

Thunder rolled seconds later, booming as the blast’s energy wave washed over, echoing through Mo’s bones.

He hovered in silence. In stillness, in inevitability.

Mirage, please report.

Her dulcet voice flowed through his neural node. She’s safe, Mo. Resting. Half-awake. She’s got eyes on the pyrotechnics in the sky like it’s a dream.

He exhaled, closing his eyes for just a moment.

His fury ebbed.

The divine storm within him subsided.

Well done, soldier, Mirage murmured. I see you. You can set your weapons down now. It’s time to indulge in what matters: family and love.

Mo lifted a hand in a somber salute.

Yes, ma’am, he replied, his eyes turning to the horizon, where starlight bled into the night, and toward the woman who waited for him.