by Natalie Grey
“Eh.” Nyx lifted a shoulder.
In the other room, she could hear the clatter as Jessica packed kitchen implements. The woman had insisted on helping, and had made Mala promise at least eight times today that she would stay in touch. No amount of reassurances, it seemed, could absolve her of her feelings of guilt.
I could have gotten you killed.
Yeah, but you didn’t report on me.
Mala looked back from the kitchen and frowned when she saw Nyx still staring off into the distance.
“Seriously.” She put the shirts down and went to crouch by Nyx’s chair. “What’s going on?”
“The mission report came in today.” Nyx wouldn’t meet her eyes.
“Oh, no.” Mala felt her heart sink. “You did as much as you could. You got everyone else out before yourself and if you couldn’t get her out, you know—”
“It’s … not that.” Nyx reached out to take Mala’s hand. “They want to give me my own crew. Team 11. Mallory’s old team.”
“That’s fantastic.” But Mala felt her smile die. “Isn’t it?”
“Yes.” She bit her lip. “I just didn’t think it would be so soon,” she said quietly. “I didn’t get to run any more missions with them before….”
“Okay, but think of it this way: your last mission with them was taking out the Warlord.”
“That’s true.” Nyx brightened. “Anyway, I’ll go talk to Wraith tomorrow. The Conway’s in port. Obviously—they’re here for a new commander. So.”
“You’re going to do great.” Mala knelt on the bed and dropped a kiss on the top of her head.
“Ugh.” Nyx flopped back over onto the comforter. “Can we talk about something else? Thinking about this makes my stomach feel weird.”
“Yes, because I’ve been meaning to ask, anyway—this Aryn woman. You’re sure she’s going to be okay with you just dropping me off on her ship?”
“Aryn’s wonderful,” Nyx said firmly. “And Cade and Tera should keep everyone safe if they don’t kill each other in sparring. Keep an eye out for that, would you?”
“I will.” Mala smiled.
“And you’ll have Lesedi. She’s fun. I actually envy you a bit, living with her.” Nyx sat up with a grin. “I bet she has the best stories.”
“I’ll get them all out of her for you. Promise.” Mala folded a shirt and placed it in her bag.
“That’s a tall order. Anyway, you ready to leave?”
“Yeah.” Mala looked around at her apartment, shaking her head. “You know, you’d think I’d worry about giving this up.”
“Eh.” Nyx lifted a shoulder. “You didn’t complain once when we were on the ship. I think the only thing you’ll miss is water for your nails.”
Mala stretched them out, grimacing. “I should just give up on that, huh?”
“Yeah, that was always weird. You like working on engines and you really like your nails to look good?”
“I didn’t want anyone to know I was working on engines. It was….” Mala waved her hands. “Not important. I’m not going to miss this city. And I suppose I should be glad I’m not in jail.”
“Are you kidding? You know the intelligence computer systems, discovered an intergalactic smuggling plot, created one of the best algorithms to fight money-laundering, and had a fistfight with a cyborg senator. I’m surprised they didn’t send you away with bribe money to keep quiet.”
“They, er … well, they might have done that, too.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Nope.” Mala grinned. “Come on. Let’s go out to dinner. Somewhere expensive. I take it I’m not going to have steak again for a while.”
Loki’s heart was hammering in his chest. He waited as Talon read the letter and then put it down. Green eyes looked him over.
“I won’t argue with you,” Talon said finally. “I’m disappointed, of course, but I won’t argue. If you say you need to go….”
“I do.” The closer they drew to Talon’s return date, the more Loki had realized what he needed to do. “I talked to Nyx about it.”
There was the flash of Talon’s smile. “I should hope so. Otherwise, she’ll just wind up with another Dragon on her ship and no explanation for it.”
“She spoke to you about it, I’m guessing.”
“No. She’d never betray a confidence that way.” Talon’s voice was emphatic. “If this is really what you need to do, I won’t stop you.”
Loki nodded. Even standing this close to Talon made his heartbeat come a little too fast. He knew this was nothing. It was an infatuation. It had to be, after all. Talon was never going to feel the same way.
But it was a distraction no one needed—and when Nyx had announced she was taking a promotion to her own ship, Loki had gone to speak to her the same night about joining her crew.
“Hey.” Talon stood and held out his hand. “Come here.” He pulled Loki close for a hug. “You ever want to come back, you tell me. There will always be a spot for you on my team. Don’t care if I have to bump Aegis to do it. It’s pretty much the only way we’ll get him to retire, for one thing.”
Loki managed a laugh. “Right. Well, I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other. Nyx mentioned we might be running some missions together soon.”
“We are, and I’m very much looking forward to seeing a whole new group of bad guys underestimate you. See you around, Morel.”
“Major.” Loki gave a salute, knowing it would piss Talon off, and left with a grin before the man could throw anything at him.
Cett Irwin guided the small ship through a cloud of rubble. He had been at this for eight hours, but he was nothing if not patient and methodical.
It was why they had hired him for this job.
This was the last sector to check in the wreckage of the space station. If he did not find what he was looking for here, he would start again in the hopes that the tumbling pieces of metal had shifted in a way so that he could hear the signal.
The packet wasn’t destroyed. He was almost entirely sure of that.
The signal, when it finally came through, was behind him. He turned the ship slowly, relying on thrusters that wouldn’t move it before he got to it, and went gliding back through the dark.
Now he saw it. He gave a satisfied smile as the mechanized arms on his ship reached out and grabbed the metal box. They retracted and dumped the box into an airlocked container, which then cycled up next to Cett’s chair.
He ran a quick diagnostic and waited for it to warm for a few minutes, and then plugged it in. He opened a call.
“You should be getting the upload momentarily.”
“Good.” The man on the other end nodded curtly. “Come back soon. We have a lot to do.”
Cett nodded and broke the call. They did have a lot to do.
Quite a lot.
The data stream took some time to transfer, even using the FTL data buoys near the wreckage. Dr. Ezra Trieu paced as he waited.
This had been a delicate job. At times, he hadn’t been sure it would work.
He still wasn’t sure what would happen now. There had been a long way to go, in his estimation, before they got here. But matters had accelerated, entirely outside their control.
He’d done his best.
The sound of metal behind him made him turn. The framework, metal bones and struts, false skin stretched over the body, sat up jerkily.
Trieu inclined his head. His heart was hammering now. “Senator.” Why hadn’t he called security before this thing woke up?
It looked at him coldly. “That title has no meaning to me anymore,” said the android with Maryam Samuels’ face. “Now I am only Ghost.” The android smiled horribly. “Don't look so worried, Dr. Trieu. You have done well. Now the real work begins.”
Thank you for reading Dragon’s Promise! Read on for an excerpt of Dragon’s Echo!
-Nat
Afterword
Thank you for reading Dragon’s Promise! This book kicks off a new arc in the D
ragon Corps universe, pitting us against Ghost. I can’t tell you how excited I am to be sharing this universe with all of you, and returning to it in Dragon’s Echo!
I want to thank my beta readers—Jim, Sam, Sandy, Keelia, and Kim. You help me tell the stories I want to tell, and I have no words for how grateful I am.
I want to thank Ian, for beginning his work on the narration for this series (that’s right! There are audiobooks coming!), for all of the people who spread the word online and who tell their friends about the books, and for my friends, who help me refine my ideas and who cheer me on.
Thank you to B, to T and M, and to L, for teaching me to see the world with new eyes.
<3,
Nat
Dragon’s Echo
Excerpt
Nyx gave a small sigh as the dock workers swarmed around the truck. She’d been offered a chauffeured car to take her from the Alliance Intelligence headquarters to their small set of docks on the outskirts of town, but she had hitched a ride with one of the supply trucks, instead.
She could just imagine the shit she’d get if she showed up in a car with tinted windows, wearing a dress uniform. Aegis would refer to her as “sir” for the rest of her damned life.
She was chuckling to herself when she remembered that Aegis wasn’t on her team anymore—or rather, she wasn’t on his team anymore. As of one week ago, Nyx officially commanded Team 11, the team formerly led by Mallory Saga. All but one of her former teammates, meanwhile, remained on Team 9.
Her smile died. She blew out a long breath.
“I don’t know what’s taking so long,” the driver said apologetically. He looked mild-mannered and unassuming, but even the drivers and dock crew for these particular docks had high security clearances and combat training. He shrugged. “Looks like they have a new worker. He’ll be trying to do everything by the book.”
He gestured to the side mirror and Nyx leaned forward slightly to catch a glimpse of the man he was referring to. Reddish-brown hair had a few streaks of grey in it, and the man was indeed going over every part of the truck with methodical interest while the rest of his crew had begun chatting to one another in the shade.
“Weird career to pick up at that age,” Nyx observed.
“I hadn’t thought of that. Good point.” The driver sighed as the back doors opened again. “He’s already scanned back there. What does he think could have gotten in there in the last five minutes?”
“Newbies are the same everywhere.” Nyx let her head drop back and gave a sigh. “I just want to get out of this uniform.”
The driver chuckled. “Everyone worth their salt hates wearing a dress uniform, that’s what my Pop always said. He was in the Navy.”
“He had it right.” Nyx bit her tongue on the rest of what she wanted to say: the only person I ever liked who wore dress blues was Aleksandr Soras. And we know how that turned out. She wasn’t sure she could joke about that yet. Besides, she hadn’t ever found it easy to open up to people.
The dock worker came to the driver’s side window. “You’re clear to go through.” His brown eyes lingered a bit on Nyx and she looked back, trying to be as pleasant as she could. He’d be quick and methodical soon enough, she hardly wanted to yell at him for doing his job.
It wasn’t his fault she was on edge, after all. He didn’t know she’d been officially promoted two days ago. Since then, she’d had to do more paperwork than any reasonable person should have to do in a lifetime, not to mention get a full day’s worth of medical checkups.
And Nyx’s dislike of doctors and hospitals was legendary.
Add in the fact that she was leaving her old team and taking over for a well-respected commander who had been assassinated, and her anxiety was through the roof even before she’d been hauled back to Intelligence HQ for one last briefing in her dress uniform.
At least the new head of intelligence was tolerable.
“Which dock?” the driver asked, interrupting Nyx’s reverie.
“Oh, ah….” Her eyes picked out the familiar shape of the Ariane and she felt a dull stab of loss. She had to look much more purposefully to figure out where the Conway was. “Seventeen.”
“Right-o. Got stuff to deliver there, anyway.” He put on the gas and looked over at her. “You’re the one taking over for Mallory, then.”
Nyx nodded.
“You know, I’ve driven a few commanders back and forth over the years,” the driver told her. “They all look like you. And then I see ‘em again a few months later and they’ve settled in. Every one of them.”
Nyx smiled at that. “Thanks.” She bit her lip and reminded herself that she was hardly the first one to leave her team for a new command.
“Is that your old crew?” the driver asked. He nodded over to the Ariane. “Here to see you off?”
Nyx looked over at the crowd of Dragon’s mingling in front of the ship and felt her throat tighten. She nodded. “Yeah, I think so. Me and Loki. He’s coming with me.” She shook her head slightly at herself. This guy would hardly care about team dynamics.
But she couldn’t seem to stop herself now that she was talking.
“I feel bad taking him from Talon, but the kid’s got a crush on him, and it’s better for everyone. And it’ll help not to feel so alone, you know?”
The man snickered slightly. “Sorry, it’s just the idea of a Dragon with a crush.”
Nyx laughed as well. “It’s as ridiculous as it sounds. Trust me, it’s as weird for everyone else, too—this kid looks like … I don’t even know, he’s one of the most beautiful people you’ll ever see, and young, and then he just wreaks havoc. I’ve seen it every time I’ve gone into combat with him and I still don’t expect it.”
The driver grinned as he pulled to a stop. “Well, I wish you luck. Tom Davis. I’ll see you around, and I’ll bet you a drink at Yulie’s that the next time I see you, you’ll feel much better about your life. Deal?”
Nyx reached over to clasp his hand. “Deal.” She jumped down out of the truck and Tom pulled away to take the truck over to the loading port at the side of the ship.
Both crews were milling around in front of the Conway, trading stories and calling wagers. It wasn’t uncommon for a Dragon to move across teams, and some of the Dragons had fought in the Navy together before being recruited. Tersi was deep in conversation with a weathered-looking man Nyx recognized as Centurion, her own crew chief, and Wraith, her XO, was talking with Talon.
The docks were relatively empty today. In the flurry of activity that had been Aleksandr Soras’s trial, most crews had come in—almost all of the commanders, after all, had found rogue Dragons on their teams. All but one had summarily executed the traitors.
That one, unfortunately, was Mallory Saga, commander of Team 11.
Nyx looked around at the group. Centurion caught her eye to give her a nod, but she otherwise had the jarring sense of being a little kid again, starting at a new school where no one knew here. She tried to smile at that, but she didn’t feel very much like smiling right now.
Then Talon was there and the rest of both teams melted away to give them some privacy.
They stared at one another and Nyx saw a suspicious sheen in Talon’s eyes. She jabbed a finger at him.
“Fuck you, don’t cry. If you cry, I’m gonna cry, and I hate crying.”
Talon gave a bark of laughter and pulled her into a hug. “I’m gonna miss you, Alvarez.”
“Nyx,” she said, into his shoulder. Most team commanders went by their names, but it had been so long since Nyx had been Melissa Alvarez that the name just sounded weird to her.
And giving up the nickname Talon had given her was more than she could take right now.
“Right.” He pulled away from her and looked into her eyes. “Remember to keep your visor down.”
Nyx gave a snort of laughter and wiped at her eyes. Talon was famous for that advice. He gave it to every new recruit until they were sick of it, and he always responded the same way:
if you’d just keep it down, you wouldn’t have to hear me remind you.
“And we’ll see each other soon, anyway,” Nyx said, trying to reassure herself.
When Talon had come to her with a list of the remaining rogue Dragons, there hadn’t even been a discussion. Both of it had taken it as a given that they would be collaborating on this mission. Talon might have been the team leader for their mission against Soras, but there was no way Nyx was going to walk away when there was still a score left to settle.
He grinned at her. “Absolutely. Lesedi’s on the trace and—”
The explosion came from the side of the Conway, a boom that rocked the pavement of the docking bay and flung Nyx and Talon from their feet. Winded and with her ears ringing, Nyx struggled to turn her head and search for an enemy.
Someone hauled at her arm and she saw Talon’s lips moving: Come on.
A look down at her dress uniform showed tiny wounds bleeding through the fabric and Nyx could feel blood trickling down the back of her head where it had hit the pavement. Her enhancements started to work as she moved, however, pushing the shock away for her to sprint. She didn’t have her rifle, but even in her dress blues, she carried a sidearm, and she drew it as she and Talon skidded into cover behind some crates in front of the Ariane.
Nyx looked around herself to do a quick count. She didn’t see Loki nearby.
Dammit. Gunfire was ringing out over the docking bay, keeping them pinned down. At the side of the Conway, black smoke and flames were billowing out of the shell of the delivery truck. A single figure lay prone on the ground near it and Nyx felt a sudden ache in her throat. Tom.
He’d been right by the explosion. He hadn’t had a chance in hell of getting away from it.
The gunfire ended as abruptly as it began, though none of the Dragons had yet found a target in the smoke.
“There’s something on the bed of the truck,” Talon called.
