My friend’s voice came through the comm implanted behind my ear, clear as a bell. I nearly burst into tears. I missed her. A lot. “Willow? Is this really you? Why can’t I see you?”
“Danika, it’s me. I had to do a direct comm. I don’t have a screen. I am here with Oberon Arcas. Your mate’s cousin?”
“Yes. He is. But he’s a pilot on Battleship Karter. I thought you were matched to Commander Helion?”
“I was. We aren’t on the Karter. But we are going to transport directly to--?” I looked at Oberon, waiting for an answer. “Well, where do you want to go? Where do we need to go to save your sister?”
“Zeus. Battleship Zeus.”
“Did you hear that?” I asked. “Battleship Zeus.”
“Yes. But I don’t understand. What’s going on?”
I watched Oberon’s face as I told my friend the one thing I knew would get us the help we needed, even if she had to go directly to Prime Nial and beg. “We have the location of a Hive prison base. Amalia Arcas is one of the prisoners. Oberon and I are putting together a ReCon team to get her out.”
“Oh my, God. Amalia?”
“Yes.”
“Shit, Willow. Thomar and Bastion are going to go ballistic.” She went quiet and I had a feeling she was communication with her mates. “Ummm...” I heard the hesitation in her voice.
“What? What’s wrong?”
“Thomar is furious. He wants to know why Oberon didn’t tell them as soon as he found out about Amalia. He’s really upset. She’s been missing for a while.”
That was not a question I could answer. I looked at Oberon. “Well? Why didn’t you tell your cousins about Amalia finding the base?”
Oberon rubbed his forehead. The action did nothing to remove his frown. “Our family just had our honor restored. Thomar is on Prime Nial’s war council. I didn’t want to take the chance that Prime Nial would discover what I was up to and order me not to go.”
“You went AWOL anyway. What difference did it make?” I asked.
“I risked my honor, my freedom. Not his. Not the rest of our family’s. They have all suffered enough.”
“Plausible deniability, huh?” This Prillon warrior had just gone up another level on the honor score as far as I was concerned.
“I do not understand.”
“Never mind. Doesn’t matter. You were protecting the rest of your family.” I crossed my arms and sighed, anxious to get this done. “Did you hear him, Danika? He said he was protecting Thomar, and he was afraid Prime Nial would tell him not to go after her.”
“Yes. I heard.” Danika sounded frustrated. I wondered what was being said in her telepathic conversation with her mates. “Thomar will explain to Bastion. He is angry as well.”
I didn’t have time for family drama. Now that I’d committed to this course of action, the need to getoff this shipwas like a worm gnawing away at my insides. Every moment I lingered hurt a little bit more.
“Danika, tell your mates we are going to need a ReCon team, armed and ready to go, and a ship.” I looked at Oberon, who had set aside his plate. He nodded, looking at me like I was a unicorn. “We’ll provide precise coordinates of the Hive base once the team is assembled.”
“Okay. Be careful. Keep your comm open in case they need to reach you.” I heard her mumbling to herself and remembered she was part of the only known set of Prillon mates who had full telepathic communication, thanks to some Hive experiments that nearly killed all three of them. “Thomar says Bastion is coming.”
“Like I said, we’ll be on Battleship Zeus. You can reach us there. Transporting over in about five minutes. Willow out.” I ended the call. The banging on the door escalated, changed to exploding blaster fire. Or was that something even bigger? A cannon? Did they make ion blasters that big?
Of course they did. Probably for spaceship battles.Pew! Pew!
Whatever it was, the door was turning red from the heat.
“How do you expect us to get there?” Oberon stood to his full height. Fully clothed in what I realized was his battle armor, he was every bit as forbidding—and huge—as Helion.
A week ago, I would have thought about nothing but getting him naked.
Now that thought made me want to beat someone with a baseball bat—and we all knew exactly who thatsomeonewas.
