Page 13

Mop up took a while, so long, time bled into a different day. When battle assessment came on scene after the Sweeper threat was eliminated, they estimated that the Sweeper mother ship and attached child ships had contained over two hundred prime fighting males as well as thirty distinct harems, most on the mother ship.

Not exactly a small nest.

After, Jos all but threatened to tie Tyelu up and transport her back to Yarinska with a chip if she didn’t go on her own. She went, but only after leveling an icily mutinous glare on him.

She’d make him pay for that, no doubt. Maybe it made him crazy, but he was looking forward to it.

She’d waded into battle uttering a whooping battle cry, a blaster in one hand and a knife in the other. The scream had made more than a few Sweepers pause, which made him wonder if they’d encountered Banam’s famous Queen’s Guard before. The renowned Lady Warriors weren’t known for going easy on their enemies. Tyelu certainly had no qualms about taking out the Sweepers that had kidnapped her. She’d left a trail of dead and dismembered bodies behind her, nearly as many as Jos had, and he was better equipped.

Just thinking on it made his blood race. Stars, what a woman.

Magda waded through the icky goo coating the deck, her helmet retracted, drying blood spattered across her face over two separate welts. “Your princess isn’t too bad in a pinch. I’ll give her that.”

“She’s a trained warrior,” he reminded his first, his voice neutral thanks to the drugs pumping through his system. “And she took care of her own.”

“Last I checked, you could take care of yourself.”

“Everybody can use a friend at their back.”

Magda grunted as her gaze drifted over the mess they’d made. “This lot’ll be spaced and the ship salvaged.”

“Offer a percentage to Yarinska for hauling it in. You and the dal have better places to be.”

“Ayup. Already got a message about a nest in the next system over. You coming with?”

He flashed a grin at her. “I’m officially on leave.”

Her mouth twisted into a grimace. “Frekking lovebirds. I can’t believe you’re keeping her.”

“More like she’s keeping me.”

“And you’re letting her, which is just a bad.”

He clapped her on the shoulder. “Someday, you’ll get bitten by that bug, Magda.”

She shot him a horrified look. “Bite your tongue, spacer. I’d rather eat a raw Sweeper than fall in love.”

He laughed and went with her to check on the rest of his dal, then ‘ported back to Apedemak to download the after-battle paperwork and cleaned up while he was there. He didn’t want to bring any more stink near Tyelu unless he had to.

Finally, after what felt like three years of his life, he checked in with Captain Coppev a final time and ‘ported back to Yarinska .

While he’d been bogged down in mopping up, Yarinska ’s crew had been busy doing their own cleaning. Partly, anyway. They’d limped into orbit around Lodem and begun offloading cargo and Sweeper corpses alike. By the time Jos arrived, Coppev had already sealed a deal with Ryn and Ziri to salvage the Sweeper ships for a percentage of the take.

Tyelu’s next-sister greeted him now as he swung out of the nearly empty cargo bay into the corridor on his way to Tyelu’s quarters.

“The man of the hour,” Ziri said, beaming a smile at him. “Thank you for rescuing our Tyelu.”

Jos accepted her easy hug with a bemused smile of his own. “She mostly rescued herself.”

“But she didn’t think to offer us a lucrative salvage contract.” Ziri blew out a sigh as she swiped a loose strand of red-gold hair out of her eyes. “Unfortunately, we’re going to have to bring in some help. Yarinska just isn’t big enough to handle the salvage on three ships that size.”

“It’ll still bring a pretty profit.”

“Ah, now you’re thinking like a Pruxn?. Tyelu’s wearing a hole on the bridge, if you want to speak with her.”

His heart leapt at her name and his gaze drifted automatically in that direction. “Let me stow my gear.”

“Do you need directions?”

He couldn’t tell her that his implant held specs on nearly every class of ship, including Yarinska ’s. Proprietary information, though quite a few could make an educated guess about that based solely on how easily Q-mercs slipped in and out of their assigned missions.

“I’m good,” he said, “thanks.”

“There’s food in the galley, if you’re hungry.”

She stepped over the hatch’s threshold into the cargo bay, disappearing among the remaining salvage. While he’d been away, someone had scrubbed most of the Sweeper stink out of the bay, making it a little easier to work in there.

Jos rolled his shoulders and wove through the ship’s narrow corridors. He arrived at Tyelu’s quarters at the same time she rounded the corner leading to the bridge.

She froze, her blue eyes icy. “You took your sweet time, Q’Mhel.”

“Dial it down, princess, or you’ll take a turn in those manacles.”

“I’d like to see you—”

He dropped his gear and scooped her up in one movement, crushing her against him as he swallowed her startled yelp with a hot, demanding kiss. She curled her fingers against his armor, and dimly, he was thankful he’d taken the time to clean it before donning it for the ‘port over.

She thumped a fist against his chest and wrested her mouth away, glaring. “What was that for?”

He touched his forehead to hers, one corner of his mouth tilted into a smile. “Missed you.”

“Oh. Then I suppose I’ll need another.”

“And another, and another,” he agreed, and let her help him out of his armor and into as many kisses as she wanted, until they were both completely satisfied.

Ziri roped them into work all too soon, pushing salvaged metal out of the cargo bay to make room for more. Thankfully after a sound rest period. Sleep had been all too scarce of late. The past few days had melted together, blending into one long era in Tyelu’s mind.

She didn’t mind the work itself, but she was all too aware of time slipping through her fingers. Her father expected her to take her seat at his side during his next Thing. The season’s final Choosing took place shortly after that. Jos couldn’t stay with her forever. At some point, he had to return to duty, and where did that leave her? Alone again on a planet enduring a return to an icy winter?

Of course, she couldn’t travel with him. And she wasn’t going to whine about him fulfilling his duty.

Which left her stuck not knowing exactly when she’d see him again once the Choosing passed.

She slapped a palm against a particularly troublesome hunk of scrap metal. Kraden feelings. Kraden heart . If she hadn’t been in such a rush to keep him, if she’d thought the matter through instead of diving in headfirst…

He came up behind her and braced his hands against the offending metal, boxing her in without touching her. “Problem, princess?”

She sucked in her lower lip, which had come perilously close to pouting. “Ziri says we’re stuck here a few more days.”

“You’ve got someplace to be?”

The dry humor in his voice both irritated and aroused her. How did he do that?

“You know very well where we need to be, spacer,” she snapped. “Kindly move before I do it for you.”

“Since when did Lady Warriors give away their plan of attack?”

She huffed out an annoyed breath, refusing to respond to his teasing.

He crowded closer to her, letting his body brush against her back. Heat radiated off his skin, surrounding her with the raw masculine scent of sweat and machine oil. For a moment, she was tempted to turn to him, to give in to the ever-present need burning in her blood. A need for his quiet strength, a craving for the centering calm she felt whenever he was near.

He nipped her earlobe with sharp teeth and whispered, “Your ass has been begging me to spank it since we rolled out of bed.”

She whirled then, her eyes sparking. “Do not dare, Q’Mhel.”

His easy grin only irritated, and aroused, her more. “Maybe later. We’ve got a ship to catch.”

“We’re on a ship. Or did that escape your notice?”

“Another ship. A faster ship, one that’ll get us to Abyw in less than a day.”

“You’ve arranged passage already?”

“What do you think?”

She examined his expression, watched it soften into tenderness. He edged closer to her, impossibly close, and traced a fingertip along her jaw, tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

Her gaze dropped to the sensual curve of his mouth, and she murmured, “I never know what to make of you.”

“Likewise, princess. Should keep things interesting, yeah?”

Before she could agree, he pressed a slow, soft kiss to her lips, one hand grazing her hip through the coveralls she’d borrowed from Ziri, and she realized that she was beginning to trust him.

The thought shook her to her core. Love was one thing. Trust was something else. The very idea terrified her. Aside from her father and brother, and perhaps Sigun, men were not to be trusted. Had she not learned that lesson from the first man to break her heart and all the ones who’d come after? The smallest measure of openness inevitably led to pain.

Yet somehow, she’d found a way to trust this man.

Jos broke the kiss, as if he’d felt the turmoil raging within her. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“Liar.” He sighed and eased away from her, his expression once more the shuttered mask of a Q’Mhel. “Shake a leg, princess. We’ll have to run to catch that ship.”

She nodded mutely and followed him out of the cargo bay, miserable at the loss of his touch.

The ship he’d booked them on only deepened her misery. Kartikeya was a state-of-the-art Q courier armed to the teeth.

It also carried Jos’s grandmother Zhina, Q’s current Taq.

Tyelu had only had time to stuff some of her clothes in a bag before Jos whisked them both off Yarinska . She reeked of shipside work. By the curl of Zhina’s upper lip when Jos introduced them, Tyelu guessed his grandmother could tell, and disapproved.

Tyelu kept her chin high and her gaze level, matching Zhina stare for stare. The woman looked decades younger than her age, no older than Tyelu’s own mother, save for the silky white hair she’d bound tightly at her nape. Her features held the beauty of her youth, and her eyes were the same shape and color as Jos’s.

Pity , Tyelu thought dispassionately. She’d always loved Jos’s eyes.

“When we arrive at Sigun’s court,” Zhina said coldly, “you will explain yourself, child.”

“Lady Warrior,” Tyelu corrected, just as coldly. “And if you have not discerned why I claimed your grandson, you’re not fit to—”

Jos, standing beside her, clapped a hand over her mouth, though humor twitched his lips into a near smile.

Zhina arched a single eyebrow. “Save your fire for the Choosing, Tyelu af Alna. Go now. I should like some small measure of peace before we arrive at the ball of ice you Pruxn? call a planet.”

Jos herded Tyelu away with a respectful, “Grandmother.” Once they were out of earshot, he dropped his hand and pinned her against a wall, heedless of the people squeezing by them in the ship’s narrow corridors. “Don’t push your luck, Tyelu. She has the power to separate us forever.”

A prickle of fear ran down her spine, and she narrowed her eyes. “You could’ve warned me about her beforehand.”

“And miss all the fun?”

“That was not fun,” she retorted flatly. “Parading you through the streets of Hrelum in chains—”

“No.”

She bared her teeth in a vicious smile. “Tradition. Be sure to wear your armor so everyone recognizes you as a Q-merc.”

He swore roundly under his breath, much more mildly than she would’ve. His reaction eroded the edge off her fear, tempering her mood. She cupped his cheek tenderly, remembering the way he’d kissed her before they’d left her brother’s ship.

“For me?” she asked sweetly.

His murky green eyes heated, and he growled in the back of his throat. “Only for you, lover.”

She rewarded him with a kiss and let him coax her into visiting the galley for a snack before they reached the icy climes of home.