“I can’t leave them, there’s too many. What the fuck—”
“Willow’s been taken,” I interrupted whatever heroic, save-my-friends babble was about to come out of his honorable, self-righteous, warrior’s mouth. “So shut the fuck up and transport. I need a pilot.”
He didn’t want to leave in the middle of the fight? I didn’t fucking care. The warriors on that base were tough. Experienced. Killers. Every fucking one.
Willow was not.
My Willow. Bends, but never breaks…
I was going to break every bone he had, tear that blue fucker’s head off his neck and shove it down his throat. Gut him.
The Nexus unit knew her. Wantedher. Alive.
He wouldn’t kill her. At least, not soon.
No, he wanted to have some fun with her first.
* * *
Oberon
I stared at the Elite Hunter sitting in the co-pilot’s seat.
What the fuck was taking so long?
Willow had been gone for over an hour.
Sixty fucking minutes with thatthing,the creature who had tortured her, taunted her, frozen her half to death and starved her until she was so weak, she couldn’t stand. Experimented with her body and her mind. Pushed her to the breaking point. Nearly killed her half a dozen times.
Every word Willow had whispered to me in the dark became a living, breathing nightmare in my mind.
The ship was small, built for one-on-one combat. It was also the fastest thing in the Fleet. Every seat in the tiny cockpit was occupied. Me. Helion, looking as sick as I felt. The warlord from Helion’s ship, Razmus. And Kayn. The Elite Hunter who had insisted my sister was dead.
Right now, I hoped he was every bit as good as Helion claimed.
Kayn’s hands roamed over a star chart on his navigation panel, his gaze darting from one star to the next, moving on.
“Here.” He pointed to a nearby star system.
I pulled up the data and frowned. The red dwarf was surrounded by at least fifteen inhospitable planets. Twice that many moons. Nothing lived in that system. Nothing could survive there. The Fleet didn’t bother mining, too much effort when the raw materials were more readily available in hundreds of other systems.
“Why would he take her there?”
“Shut the fuck up and go where he tells you. He’s not wrong.”
I glared at Helion, who was in the seat behind Kayn’s. I pulled up my own navigational chart and pointed to the place we’d lost the trail. “If he continued on this course, he’d be on the opposite side. Here.”
“A ruse. He is there.” Kayn pointed to the same system he had before, at the piles of dust and death that barely passed for planets.
“Do as he says, Arcas. Every moment we delay is another he is alone with her.” Exactly. Helion didn’t need to remind me. I knew. I fucking knew, and it was making me sick. How the fuck was he so calm?
“This doesn’t make sense. His ship has not altered course since we found his trail. Why would he make a hard right into a place like that?”
“Trust me.” Kayn’s gaze locked with mine. “Trust me. I can feel him. He is there.”
“You willing to bet her life on that? And yours? Because I’ll kill you if you’re wrong.”
“Yes.” The Hunter faced forward as I entered the coordinates into the ship’s system. “And you are welcome to try.”
