by Lee Savino
“That’s not an option,” Tarish interjects. “I’m sorry, Second. You’re not charging into danger on your own. Could you take the trainees?”
I look at my group of recruits. After their initial complaining, they’ve come around. They’re making good progress. But they’re not ready.
Like Dariux, most of them cannot transform. I will not risk their lives. “They will be slaughtered.”
“You’re right.” Zunix’s voice is steady. “Liorax and I will go with you. We can both shift into dragons.”
They just volunteered for a mission that is fraught with danger. They’re half-decent fighters, but there’s a difference between training and battle. I don’t like it.
“You have a mate,” I grit out.
Zunix quirks an eyebrow. “And you don’t? Let’s not waste time arguing, Second. Lio and I will come with you. This is our responsibility too.”
And you don’t? Alice’s face swims before me. Last night, curled up at my side, she’d slept through the night. No nightmares. I’d held her, and I’d thought that I was the luckiest man in the universe.
I close my eyes for a second. “I need to talk to her before we go.” I going to face First. I have no illusions that this will be easy. I have every intention of coming back alive, but I need to say goodbye to my little human. To my mate. I need to kiss her one more time. Hold her in my arms. Just in case this is the last battle, the one from which I don’t return.
Tarish gives his advisers a look. They melt away. “About Alice Hernandez,” he says.
My shoulders stiffen. “What about her?” I demand, my voice low and dangerous.
Tarish swallows a gulp but stands his ground. “We struck a deal with Kelek ab Rahni. He has agreed to take Tanya Sinclair back to Earth. His price is high, but I will pay it because the humans have been ill-treated in this. They’ve been involved in the machinations of the Zorahn Empire through no fault of their own. Their lives have been ripped apart.”
Ice drenches my heart. “What are you saying, Commander?”
“If she wants, Alice Hernandez can return to Earth. Or she can stay here. Either way, it’s her choice.”
I freeze in place.
Alice hasn’t been happy the last three weeks. Sifax, the Draekon healer in charge of her studies, is bent on making her life miserable. Night after night, she comes into my quarters, dispirited at the way her day went.
She is my mate. My dragon has chosen, and so have I. Her smile lights up my heart. Her touch tames the rathr. She is the missing piece, the person I didn’t know I needed.
But the moment she stepped on the Sevril V, Alice’s life changed irrevocably.
On Earth, she was a respected healer. Here, she was sold in auction, as if she were property. Here, she was tortured by Zorahn scientists. Here, Cotari traders left her to die. Here, even in the supposed safety of her rebellion, her life hasn’t dramatically improved. Her tutor berates her at every turn, not bothering to conceal the contempt he feels for my human mate.
She had a life on Earth. Here, she has nothing.
Just me.
Is it enough? I’m not that vain. I’m neither rich nor powerful. I was created for battle. I don’t have blood status; I don’t wear house markings. Even in the Rebellion, I am first and foremost a tool, destined for battle and bloodshed.
All I have to offer Alice is my love.
If I go to her now, I will kiss her lips. She will discover where I’m going. She will realize I might not come back.
She might feel obligated to wait for me to return. Maybe she’ll feel guilty about choosing to put herself first.
I don’t want that. Alice matters more than anyone in the universe. I would do anything in my power to make her happy.
Including this.
She needs to choose freely. She deserves to make this decision without pressure.
“You’re right,” I respond to Tarish. My heart feels like it is breaking into a million jagged pieces. I signal to Liorax and Zunix, who are standing just out of earshot. “Let’s go.”
31
Alice
“What?” I stare at Olivia. “Go back to Earth? Why would I want to do that? It would involve leaving Kadir, and that’s not an option, any more than you would leave your mates.”
A wary expression flits over Olivia’s face. “Look, I’m trying to say this in the nicest possible way. Second has come through for us over and over again. But…” She draws a deep breath. “At the end of the day, here’s what we do know. The scientists subjected him and the rest of his squadron to all kinds of unimaginable torture. Second lives with an unbelievable amount of pain. First, his fellow-soldier, has already lost his mind. Instead of directing his anger at the Empire, he’s slaughtering innocent Draekons. What if Second snaps? What happens then?”
I admire Olivia. Given time, I could even like her. But right now, as I hear this shit yet again, my temper frays.
“I’m done with this nonsense,” I snap. “I keep hearing that Kadir is out of control, but what’s that based on?” Olivia opens her mouth, and I put my hand out to stop her. “Should I trust Tarish’s opinion? Tarish, who ordered Kadir poisoned? Should I trust Raiht’vi, who has spent a lifetime oppressing Draekons? Raiht’vi, whose father is responsible for labs in which Draekons are being tortured right now? Whose father authorized my abduction? My torture? Bullshit.”
My voice vibrates with anger. Olivia is staring at me, dumbfounded by my outburst. You shouldn’t look that surprised, sweetie. This has been a very long time coming.
“Everyone here wants to use Kadir. Everyone here has an angle. Even you. You deliberately woke Kadir from stasis and sent him after us. I’m grateful to be saved, but you had no right to treat him the way you did. You didn’t ask him what he wanted; you didn’t act as if he has free will. The scientists treated Kadir like a possession, and so did you.”
I get to my feet. I’m not going to sit here and listen to this. “Check your biases, Olivia. Maybe it’s convenient for you to pretend that Kadir is unstable to hide your own culpability in this. Maybe you just have a gigantic blind spot. I don’t know; I don’t care. My loyalties don’t automatically lie in your direction because we’re both human.”
Olivia looks at me for a long second. “You’re right,” she says at last. “I used Second. There are eight women out there somewhere. Eight women whose only crime was that they trusted both the Zorahn Empire and our government. If those women are still alive, they deserve to be rescued. I did what I had to do. I’d make the same choice again in a heartbeat.”
What would I do? The discomfort in my chest tells me that when the chips are down, I’d do the same thing Olivia did.
Kadir and I haven’t talked about the future. We haven’t talked about commitment. Or exclusivity. I don’t know where our relationship is headed.
Things aren’t easy here. It sucks to go back to school, especially when the healer in charge of my training hates all humans with the passion of a thousand burning suns.
He killed the scientists that tortured you. He annihilated the Cotari traders that left you to die. And, as much as it kills him to refrain from snarling at Sifax, he’s respected your wishes.
Yes, Kadir and I haven’t talked. But night after night, our bodies have made promises to each other.
I choose Kadir. I will always choose him.
“I’m not going back to Earth. I’m staying here. With Kadir.” If he’ll have me.
Before Olivia can reply, her tablet chimes. She reads the message on the display, and her face goes white. “Blood Heart has located a Draekon lab,” she whispers. “Liorax, Zunix, and Kadir left to save them.”
I run to the flight deck. The Bikana is gone. “He left without saying goodbye?” I whisper, broken-hearted.
“He didn’t want to pressure you,” Commander Tarish says quietly. “He didn’t want you to feel compelled to choose him.”
The empty pit in my stomach is replaced by hot indignation. “Did the id
iot really think for one second I’d leave him?” I demand. Oh, I am going to call him right now and give him a piece of my mind. I pull out my tablet and try to reach my bossy, aggravating Draekon.
There’s no response. The Bikana’s comms are down.
I have a very bad feeling about this.
Tarish notices my struggles and pulls out his own comm. He too gets nowhere. “They’re being jammed.” The blood drains from his face. “Mehr. It’s a trap.”
32
Kadir
The instant we jump out of the first wormhole, we realize our comms aren’t working. “It could be nothing,” Liorax says.
I shake my head. Every instinct in my body screams that trouble lies ahead. “Or they know we’re coming.”
I eye the two men. “Too many innocents have died already. If there’s a possibility that there is a secret laboratory in Consalas, then I can’t turn back. I will do almost anything to prevent a repeat of Kosagash. If you don’t want to join me, I will land on the nearest inhabited planet and let you off.”
Liorax and Zunix exchange a long look. “We’re staying,” Zunix says. “You’re not the only one affected by Kosagash. Had we arrived a day earlier, even a few hours earlier…” His voice trails off.
“We should have saved those Draekons, and we didn’t. This might be a trap, but even so. If there’s even a slight chance that there are innocent Draekons trapped on Consalas, we have to try.” Liorax gives me a wry smile. “We won’t let you receive all the fame and adulation, Second. You’re not doing this alone.”
Neither man cares about fame. They’re coming with me because it’s the right thing to do. They have courage, both of them. I really don’t want to watch them die. “Call me Kadir.”
I wonder if the two men are thinking of their mate. I know I’m thinking of Alice. Her smile dances in my thoughts. The choked-off moan she makes when my tongue slides over her clitoris echoes in my ears. I see the sharp fire in her eyes the night I met her. I took self-defense classes, buddy, she’d said to me, right after punching me in the jaw. You try any funny stuff, and I’ll knee you in the groin.
My mate. Strong and fierce, passionate, and beautiful. The thought of never seeing her again wrecks me. I would give anything to kiss her again. Anything to hold her in my arms, one more time.
All the things I didn’t say haunt me. I wish I’d said goodbye. I wish I’d told her that my dragon knew her to be my mate. I wish I’d told her I loved her.
No time for regrets now, though I have many.
33
Alice
Panic overwhelms my mind. I’m frozen in place.
Tarish is already shouting commands at people. The words come at me through a fog. “I’ll be damned if I’m going to stand by and watch them die,” he yells at Dariux. “Ready a ship. Gather five of the best soldiers we have. We’re going to Consalas.”
“I want to come with you,” I force through stiff lips. Oh God. I’ve never felt more helpless than I do right now. Kadir’s millions of miles away, headed into a trap, and all I can do is watch it unfold, a sick pit opening in my stomach.
“Me too,” Olivia chokes out. Her face is pale, and her eyes brim with fear. Her mates are on the Bikana too.
“No.” Tarish shakes his head at once. “The Fiende is the fastest ship we have, but it holds only six people. I’m sorry.”
The Commander is being rational. Kadir needs backup more than he needs me, but it doesn’t make me feel any better. The soldiers that are being rounded up are new recruits who’ve never faced battle. What use are they going to be against First?
Olivia rushes away. She doesn’t like Tarish’s answer either. I stay in the hanger, my body wracked with shivers. Bile fills my mouth. My skin feels cold and clammy. My thoughts buzz around in my head like a swarm of angry hornets. I want to weep. I want to shout and rail about the unfairness of it all. Damn Kadir. Damn him and his stupidly honorable streak. Of course he’d charge off into a fight if he thought he’d be able to prevent another massacre like the one in Kosagash. It’s one of the reasons I love him so much, but it’s also the thing that might kill him.
Fear drenches my thoughts. With ruthless determination, I push it back. Kadir’s saved my life so many times. He needs help now. What can I do?
The answer occurs to me in a flash. The Rebel Force. Of course. Kadir’s squadron. If anyone can face First, it’s them. I murmur a prayer of thanks that Kadir programmed a way to contact them into my comm, and I punch in the code.
Three holographic Draekons appear in front of me, and I almost jump out of my skin. For a second, they look surprised to see me instead of Kadir, and then they read the expression on my face. “What has happened?” Fifth asks.
“Kadir is in danger,” I gasp. “We got word that there was a secret lab on Consalas. Blood Heart was headed there. Kadir went to save the Draekons.” Tears spill down my cheeks. “Their comms are jammed. First set a trap for him.”
“Consalas?” Fifth looks stricken. “I’m nowhere close by. I can’t get there in time.”
Oh God. Can nothing go right today?
Sixth’s jaw clenches. “I can make it,” he says.
Forth nods. “I think I can too,” he says grimly. “Have no fear, Alice Hernandez. Kadir is our brother. We won’t let him face this alone.”
I end the call. Olivia comes rushing back into the hanger. “Do you want to go to Consalas?”
Hope flares to life. “Yes. How?”
“Kelek ab Rahni,” she says. “The smuggler will take us.”
I sprint after her. Fear for Kadir comes rushing back, almost crippling me. I can’t lose my Draekon. I just can’t.
34
Kadir
We have a plan to sneak into Consalas using a fake identity that Zunix manages to cobble together without working comms. It doesn’t work. The instant the Bikana enters the planet’s atmosphere, explosions rock our ship.
A dozen buzzfighters circle us, their weapons firing with laser precision. “The pilots know what they’re doing,” Liorax swears out loud. “How in the name of Caeron has Blood Heart recruited them?”
“And how did we miss it?” Zunix asks grimly.
Those are both very good questions. I’m more concerned with the immediate problem—our shields are made to withstand damage, but they’ve already taken too many hits. “Shields are failing,” I warn. Thank Caeron they can shift. As long as they keep calm, we will survive this first assault. “We can’t take another direct hit.” I weave around one of the buzzfighters and fire my weapons. The ship explodes, and I smile in satisfaction.
“Shields at twenty percent,” the Bikana’s computer intones.
Mehr. “The next hit will blow us out of the sky. I’m going to eject us now. Do you know how to shift when you’re falling?”
“We’ll figure it out,” Liorax says. “Do what you need to do.”
My fingers punch the eject sequence. Pressure barrels into my chest, and I’m thrown from the Bikana. I hurtle through the air, spinning, falling… Out of the corner of my eye, I see the ship explode in a burst of angry orange flames.
My dragon roars in anger and tears free.
Two bodies hurtle to the ground. Liorax and Zunix are having trouble shifting. I speed toward them. I have to save the men. They didn’t have to come with me; they could have let me walk into this battle alone.
I dive, slicing through the air as quickly as I can. My lungs burn. My wings ache. They’re falling too fast. I’m not going to reach them in time.
Despair fills me, and then the air shimmers. A pair of dragons soar into the sky, one bronze, the other midnight blue.
They figured it out. Thank Caeron.
An artificially magnified voice fills the air. It’s First, and he’s speaking Alya. “Second,” he says. “It’s been such a long time.”
Where is he? I cast around for the sound of the voice, and I spot him on the ground, enclosed in a transparent dome. Zunix spots First as well. He roars in
fury and breathes fire at the enclosure, but, as I expected, it bounces off harmlessly.
First wants to talk.
I land on the ground and shift. “They remain unharmed,” I growl, gesturing to the two dragons.
“The ships will not fire as long as they stay in the air,” First says, lifting his voice so Liorax and Zunix can hear him.
“Do as he says,” I call out to them. Whatever this is, it’s between me and First. If Zunix and Liorax intervene, they will die for nothing. “I will handle this.”
I switch to Alya. “What do you want, First?”
“A chance to catch up. It’s been such a long time, after all.”
“You blew up my ship so we could talk?”
He shrugs. “How did you end up with the rebels?” He moves aside, and I see the dead body of a woman crumpled on the ground next to him. “Tarish should hire better spies.”
Nali. That had been her name, the poor woman. And now she’s dead. Another murder that First is responsible for.
“We’re making small talk now? They found our stasis pods in Mennon. I’m assuming Blood Heart found yours.”
“They did,” he confirms. “Disorganized rabble.” His lips bare in contempt. “Blood Heart hates Draekons, or so they say, yet in a few months, I have become their leader.” He shakes his head. “Nobody has proper discipline anymore, Second. Nobody has pride in their work. The Supreme Mother would have tortured us for days if we were this sloppy. She knew how to get results.”
“And what is your work?” I demand, ignoring the mention of the scientist who created us. “Murdering imprisoned Draekons?”
Another sneer curves his lips. “Look at those dragons,” he says. “Look at the color of their scales. Green? Blue? It’s just wrong.”
