I’d been doing basic odds and ends for Earth Space Fleet.Nothing of value.A mindless worker bee who would fetch and retrieve without any questions or doubts.And I’d barely had a slap on the wrist for stealing Mike’s ship and half his crew.
Why?Because I was exactly where they wanted me to be so I wouldn’t rock their carefully constructed boat and find out the truth.
I flashed back to the highly classified email Rain had shown me from Earth Space Fleet asking my ex if I would be a problem the day after Lucy’s death.
I better meet with you, was his response.
They knew I would be a problem.
And they were fucking right.
A loud hum came from Jorran, still lying on the floor in his body bag.His eyes widened.A red, pulsing light shone from within his right eye in rhythm with the humming.
“Speaking of the ship, someone’s inside it,” he said, his voice panicked.“If they don’t know the passcode, it will self-destruct in one minute.”
“Where’s Maxx?”Axxel demanded, looking frantically around the castle.“And that fuxxing Killian he brought with him?Where are they?”
Oh no.My heartbeat stalled.The castle’s entryway grew dim and began to spin.
Roxxanne got right into Jorran’s face and growled, “Give me the location of the ship and the passcoderight now.”
“Two miles into the forest behind the back castle wall.The passcode is my right eye.The actual words, ‘my right eye’,” he blurted.“I swear it.”
Two miles.One minute.Less than that now.We’d never make it there in time to help.
Even so, Axxel and Roxxanne were already sprinting toward the rear of the castle.Axxel was shouting into his wrist communicator for Maxx.But there was no answer.
I joined them as fast as I could in heels with guacamole still inside one of them, my feet on fire, panic rioting through my veins.
Maxx.Oh god.If I lost him now, after everything we’d been through, after I’d found out the truth about him… Well, love wasn’t exactly a switch I could turn on and off.
“Hexx and Pixxle, take the prisoner back upstairs to the interrogation room and watch his every move,” Axxel shouted to a pair of nearby guards on his way past.“And for the goddess’s sake, leave him in the body bag this time.”
The two guards surged past me.I kicked my stupid heels off and ran at full speed, but not nearly as fast as Axxel and Roxxanne.My tears warped their shimmering scales as they poured out the back door into the courtyard.
How many seconds did we have left?How many parsecs did we have to travel to get to them?
Too many.
In the next moment, a great explosion shook the planet and swept it out from underneath my feet.
In the dead quiet that followed, only one word ripped free from my throat.“Maxx!”
Chapter twelve
Maxx
Fifty Seconds Earlier
“Passcode.Passwordonetwothreefourfive.EarthSpace Fleet.ESF or die.Nebula Noodlez forty-two.”Miekil spouted guesses off at rapid-fire speed while I flipped random switches and smashed buttons on the cloaked ship’s console.
None of it was working.
“Forty-five, forty-four, forty-three,” the robotic female voice continued.
My hearts throbbed at my temples, so loud that they nearly drowned everything else out.My mind blanked of all thoughts except for Nera and Roxxanne, Roxxanne and Nera, a constant loop of their faces and what they meant to me.
If I died today, another clone of me would take my place, once again powered by Faid technology, and programmed with all of my memories and experiences.I had it all arranged, just in case.The problem was that clone wouldn’t be me.
