Mayhew struggled to dodge Fletcher’s hail of punches. Still, the lieutenant managed to ram his head into the injured spot in Fletcher’s side. A net of red pain spread through Fletcher.
“Maybe I won’t wait for Redmond,” Mayhew sneered. “Maybe I’ll detonate the ship now, and you, me and your pretty brown friend will all die together.”
He tried to twist out of Fletcher’s grasp. But Fletcher held on. And when he grabbed onto Mayhew’s mechanized heart with his other hand, the lieutenant’s eyes widened. He thrashed and screamed, begged.
“Threatening her was your undoing,” Fletcher said, grim and calm. Then he pulled on the heart.
It didn’t break off cleanly from its port. The heart had connected with the telumium fibers implanted in Mayhew’s body, and as Fletcher tore it off, wires ripped from Mayhew’s skin, taking masses of flesh with it. Exposing muscle tissue and bone. Blood sprayed onto Fletcher, but he didn’t stop. Not until he’d ripped the mechanized heart completely free.
Mayhew’s shrieks echoed off the mountains.
The device in Fletcher’s hand dimmed, the humming within it slowing, until it finally stopped. He threw it aside like the useless scrap it was. And he waited as Mayhew choked and shivered and bled, body shuddering. Then, like the mechanical heart, Mayhew simply . . . stopped. He slumped in Fletcher’s grasp. When Fletcher released him, Mayhew slid to the deck, smearing blood on the companionway enclosure.
Fletcher gave him a kick. No movement. He checked Mayhew’s pulse. Nothing. But then no one, not even a Man O’ War, could survive having half his chest torn out.
Without sparing Mayhew another thought, Fletcher ran to Kali. She’d managed to lift herself up onto one elbow, and though she was pale, her gaze was clear, locking on to him as he neared.
He crouched beside Kali, carefully supporting her. It took all his willpower not to hold her close and tight. But she was hurt, so he had to resolve himself to gentleness. All he understood was his unruly joy at seeing her alive and holding her again.
Their voices overlapped. “Are you—” “Did he hurt—” And together, they said, “I’m all right” and “Nothing serious.”
Her gaze strayed to Mayhew’s body. She gave one shiver of disgust, but said, “Thank the gods and goddesses.”
“He’s rigged the ship with TNT,” Fletcher said. “Didn’t tell me where the detonator is.”
She cursed at his news. Then, “I can disable it. Help me up.”
“You certain you can stand?”
Her look said she wouldn’t be argued with. So he carefully assisted her to her feet. And together, they went slowly down into the hold, where, true to Mayhew’s word, crates and crates of TNT were stacked. Kali quickly found the wires that led to the detonator, and with a few snips of her pliers, disarmed the explosives.
Fletcher cocked his head, catching a sound. “The Demeter is almost here.”
“We should greet her.” Despite Kali’s easy words, she still winced in pain as she moved. He scooped her up in his arms, and carried her topside.
They both watched the approach of the Demeter, a sleek form that glided trimly through the sky. As they did, she murmured, “I keep waiting for it, now that everything’s over.”
“Waiting for what?”
“The fear. The whole time I was terrified, but kept putting my fear in a little box, telling myself that I’d let myself feel it when the fight was done. I thought for certain I’d be a trembling, crying disaster by this point.” She shook her head. “No shaking. No sobbing. I’m just . . .” She looked out at the mountains plunging into the water. “I’m relieved. And so bloody glad that we both survived.” Her gaze turned back to him. “I didn’t want to imagine life without you.”
They’d come so far, the two of them. Changed so much from the two wounded, isolated creatures they had been.
“It wouldn’t be a life if you weren’t in it.” He dragged in a breath, and took the biggest risk of his life. “I love you.”
There was a moment. A long, terrifying moment. Where she said and did nothing.
And then—
Her answer was to pull his head down for a hungry kiss.
“I love you,” she gasped when they finally broke apart. “So much that I think I might die of it.”
“No, sweet.” He brushed his lips back and forth across her forehead, marveling that such a woman—such a gift—could be his. “It’s love that gives us life.”
EPILOGUE
* * *
New Liverpool.
“The line for the ether tramway will run this way,” Kali said, pointing to the plans on her desk. “From the outer suburbs to the main marketplace.”
The young clerk standing beside her nodded. “Everyone can have access to fresh food and the goods right off the ships.”
“You’re a quick study, Miss Roth.”
Despite her attempt to maintain a professional demeanor, the girl reddened. “It’s not so difficult with the right teacher, Mrs. MacNeil-Adams.”
Now it was Kali’s turn to fight a blush. She ought to be more dignified, but she couldn’t help the rush of gratification that came from helping other young women become better engineers. Her own engineering firm employed an even mix of men and women, and every day she received letters from people around the world, eager for work. And there was much work to do in the rebuilding of Liverpool.
Nine months into the job, and there was still so far to go.
“Now take our designs for the tram to the City Planning office,” she instructed Miss Roth. “We’ll need them to sign off on the design before we can proceed with the construction.”
“Of course they’ll approve it. We’re the best engineering firm in the city.” The girl turned red again at her boldness, but instead of scolding her, Kali only smiled.
“From City Planning, you can head back to the main office,” Kali said.
“Yes, ma’am.” The clerk stopped on her way out to give Four a little pat. The rat gnawed gently on Miss Roth’s finger, then went back to climbing up and down the series of tiny ladders mounted to the wall of Kali’s field office. Miss Roth murmured a final goodbye before quitting the gently swaying room.
Kali looked out the window and waited until she saw the jolly boat glide away from the Persephone II, Miss Roth sitting on one of the small vessel’s benches and holding tight to the portfolio of designs.
After the clerk had gone, Kali returned to examining her design for the electrical streetlamps, powered by efficient tetrol-fueled generators. Even the low-income districts would have enough light to keep their streets safe and bright. Herein lay one of the advantages of starting a city from scratch: the ability to create a place that benefited everyone.
She almost jumped from her chair when she felt a warm pair of lips against the back of her neck. Lips that were surrounded by a silky beard.
Spinning around, she looked up into the smiling face of her husband. “How do you always manage to sneak up on me?” she demanded playfully.
“Because when you’re working, you wouldn’t notice a steam-powered elephant trundling through here,” Fletcher answered. “And you’re always working.”
She stood and smoothed her hands over the front of his uniform jacket. Every day she saw him in the crisp blue wool and brass buckles, and every day it made her pulse speed. Although, her heart wasn’t steady when she saw him out of his uniform, either. “Not always,” she murmured.
His gaze heated. “No spouse dare ask for more.”
“While I have you here,” she said, “how are those new crane mounts working out?”
“Top-notch,” he answered. “But I’d expect nothing less from your designs.”
While the Persephone II had been built new, she’d been modified from her original warship design to a vessel equipped for creation, not destruction. There were some weapons on the ship, but her decks were more likely to carry lumber and bricks than cannon shot and ether rifles. She was the only ship in the fleet with a
flat hull. It helped in her service of rebuilding Liverpool. For Kali, it meant that the Persephone she and Fletcher had built lived on.
“I’m glad to see you,” she said, “but aren’t you supposed to be commanding your crew like the rest of the Engineering Corps captains?” She nodded toward her window, which showed a view of the rest of the sky, and the naval airships hovering over the city. The ships had been engaged in the rebuilding of the city, outfitted like the Persephone II with cranes and hoists so that they could perform construction tasks that other machines could not. When Kali wasn’t in her field office on the ship and back on the ground at the main offices, she kept a telescope beside her other desk so she could watch her husband’s work.
“We’ve got a skeleton crew. I decided to give my men the afternoon off.” He slid his hands around her waist.
She checked to make sure the door was closed. “That’s generous of you.”
“Not especially. It was this morning that I realized something. A year ago today a boat sailed up to a tiny island. It left behind what I thought was going to be the ruination of my solitude.”
She couldn’t believe she’d forgotten the date. But he had remembered, and warmth cascaded through her. “It certainly was ruined.”
“Ended, yes,” he corrected. “Ruined, no.”
Lacing her fingers behind his neck, she said, “We were refugees, from the rubble of our old selves. But we helped rebuild each other.”
“I couldn’t have asked for a better engineer,” he murmured.
“Nor I a better captain. Because here we are, whole again.”
“And home. You’re my home, Kali. My home, and my heart.”
“Fletcher?”
“Yes, love?”
“Is the door locked?”
He gave her one of his unhurried, smoldering smiles. “Locked it on my way in.”
Perhaps it wasn’t the most professional behavior to make love with one’s husband in one’s field office flying high above the city, but Kali didn’t care. All that mattered was the man in her arms, the man who set her atop her desk and kissed her as if she was the source of all his happiness. She knew his touch, the feel of his skin. More than the physical aspect of him, she knew the rugged beauty of his soul. Just as he knew her.
Right before she closed her eyes and lost herself in his caresses, she saw the room fill with light. The sun broke through the clouds, turning everything to gold.
If you loved SKIES OF GOLD,
don’t miss the rest of Zoë Archer
and Nico Rosso’s smart, sexy
Ether Chronicles collaboration,
available now from Avon Impulse!
NIGHTS OF STEEL
By Nico Rosso
Bounty hunter Anna Blue always finds her fugitive. But her latest mission is filled with mystery—a high price for an eccentric inventor. A twisted trail. And a man tracking her every step. Her biggest competitor in the Western territories, Jack Hawkins, is also hunting the bounty. Two of the best at what they do, neither is willing to back off.
When a rogue Man O’ War flies his airship out of the coastal fog, guns blazing, Anna and Jack are forced to team up, or die. But it isn’t the danger that has them ready to flare like gunpowder. For years they’d circled around each other, but never said a word, thinking their interest was just rivalry. Deeper, though, a hot passion draws them together. Fighters and outsiders, they never thought they’d find a kindred soul. Can they survive this mission long enough to track the most elusive fugitive—their hearts?
SKIES OF STEEL
By Zoë Archer
The prim professor
Daphne Carlisle may be a scholar, but she’s far more comfortable out in the field than lost in a stack of books. Still, when her parents are kidnapped by a notorious warlord, she knows she’ll need more than her quick thinking if she is to reach them in time. Daphne’s only hope to get across enemy territory is an airship powered and navigated by Mikhail Denisov, a rogue Man O’ War who is as seductive as he is untrustworthy.
The jaded mercenary
Mikhail will do anything for the right price, and he’s certain he has this mission and Daphne figured out: a simple job and a beautiful but sheltered Englishwoman. But as they traverse the skies above the Mediterranean and Arabia, Mikhail learns the fight ahead is anything but simple, and his lovely passenger is not entirely what she seems. The only thing Mikhail is certain of is their shared desire—both unexpected, and dangerous.
NIGHT OF FIRE
By Nico Rosso
Night of fire, night of passion
US Army Upland Ranger Tom Knox always knew going home wouldn’t be easy. Three years ago, he skipped town leaving behind the one woman who ever mattered; now that he’s seen the front lines of war, he’s ready to do what he must to win her back.
Rosa Campos is long past wasting tears on Tom Knox, and now that she’s sheriff of Thornville she has more than enough to do. Especially when a three-story rock-eating mining machine barrels toward the town she’s sworn to protect.
Tom’s the last person Rosa expects to see riding to her aid on his ether-borne mechanical horse. She may not be ready to forgive, but Rosa can’t deny that having him at her side brings back blissful memories . . . even as it reignites a flame more dangerous than the enemy threatening to destroy them both.
SKIES OF FIRE
By Zoë Archer
Man made of metal and flesh
Captain Christopher Redmond has just one weakness: the alluring spy who loved and left him years before . . . when he was still just a man. Now superhuman, a Man O’ War, made as part of the British Navy’s weapons program, his responsibility is to protect the skies of Europe. If only he could forget Louisa Shaw.
A most inconvenient desire
Louisa, a British Naval Intelligence Agent, has never left a job undone. But when her assignment is compromised, the one man who can help her complete her mission is also the only man ever to tempt her body and heart. As burning skies loom and passion ignites, Louisa and Christopher must slip behind enemy lines if they are to deliver a devastating strike against their foe . . . and still get out alive.
ABOUTTHE AUTHOR
* * *
ZOË ARCHER is a RITA Award-nominated author who writes romance novels chock-full of adventure, sexy men, and women who make no apologies about kicking ass. Her books include The Hellraisers paranormal historical series and the acclaimed Blades of the Rose paranormal historical adventure series. She enjoys baking, tweeting about boots, and listening to music from the ’80s. Zoë and her husband, fellow romance author Nico Rosso, live in Los Angeles.
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By Zoë Archer
Skies of Gold
Skies of Steel
Skies of Fire
By Nico Rosso
Nights of Steel
Night of Fire
Give in to your impulses . . .
Read on for a sneak peek at four brand-new
e-book original tales of romance from Avon Books.
Available now wherever e-books are sold.
LESS THAN A GENTLEMAN
By Kerrelyn Sparks
WHEN I FIND YOU
A TRUST NO ONE NOVEL
By Dixie Lee Brown
PLAYING THE FIELD
A DIAMONDS AND DUGOUTS NOVEL
By Jennifer Seasons
HOW TO MARRY A HIGHLANDER
By Katharine Ashe
An Excerpt from
LESS THAN A GENTLEMAN
by Kerrelyn Sparks
New York Times bestselling author Kerrelyn Sparks returns to romance during the Revolutionary War with the sequel to her debut historical novel, The Forbidden Lady.
Matthias gazed up the lattice to his balcony. As youngsters, he and his cousin had used the lattice to sneak out a
t night and go fishing. Of course the doors had not been bolted back then, but climbing down the lattice had seemed more exciting.
Matthias wasn’t sure the lattice would hold his weight now, but with Dottie’s restorative coursing through him, he felt eager to give it a jolly good try. Halfway up, a thin board cracked beneath his shoe. He shifted his weight and found another foothold. The last thing he wanted was to slip and tear Dottie’s stitches from his shoulder.
He swung his legs over the balcony railing and landed with a soft thud. How odd. His door was open. Of course, he reminded himself. Dottie had gone there to fetch his clothes. She must have opened the door to air out the room.
He slipped inside. Moonlight filtered into the room, glimmering off the white mosquito netting. He strolled over to the secretaire, then kicked off his shoes and dropped his breeches. When he draped the breeches on the back of the chair, he noticed something was already there, something thick. He ran his fingers over the folds of cotton. The scent of roses drifted up to his nose. His mother’s perfume. Why would she have left one of her gowns in his room?
Odd. He pulled off his stockings. He’d talk to his mother in the morning. For now, he simply wanted to sink into a mattress and forget about the war.
He unwrapped his neck cloth, then removed his shirt and undergarments. How could he forget the war when he had so much to do? Ferryboats to burn. Supplies to capture. He untied the bow from his hair and dropped the thin leather thong on the desk. And those two missing females. Where the hell could they be?
He strode to the bed and slipped under the netting. With a sigh of contentment, he stretched out between the clean cotton sheets.
The bed shifted.
He blinked, staring at the ghostly netting overhead. He hadn’t budged an inch. There was only one explanation.
Slowly, he turned his head and peered into the darkness beside him. The counterpane appeared lumpy, as if— He listened carefully. Yes, soft breathing.
Zoe Archer - [Ether Chronicles 03] Page 25
