I grinned and punched it, the palace finally in view.
I circled upwards, hitting the belly jets to hover when we got to the right spot, but I couldn't see any activity below us. The greenhouse looked deserted. Most of the windows were shot out, and I could see bodies on the ground, but no Patty, and no Rema.
“Any idea where they went, Aga?”
It took him a second to answer.
“Yeah. They are inside the palace. Land over there on that grassy area and we can make our way down.”
I rotated my ship and had to bank sharply to avoid having my viewscreen crushed by a goddamned winged nightmare.
“Sonofabitch! What is that?” I yelled, steading the ship.
Whatever it was, it was at least twelve feet tall, four armed, and had six bright red wings moving separately to keep it stationary, and a huge plasma rifle pointed at us.
“That,” Rathal said, leaning forward, “is Immainthe, the Neldre Queen. And the smaller but no less lethal female that is behind us is her mate and consort Dhenea.”
Well she was in my way, nightmare or not.
I flicked on the external speakers.
“This is Callisto Ramirez of Clan Ramsey. Get your Queenly ass out of my airspace.”
She swooped close enough I could make out her features.
Oh fuck.
She had six eyes.
Creepy.
All six of them narrowed at us.
“Callisto Ramirez. Patty and Rema are under orders to clear the palace. You can not help them right now. Your skills arebetter put to use helping us clear the skies of the Unity fighters. Help us secure the city. You may retrieve Patty then.”
I glared right back at the creepy, bible accurate angel. “I don’t take orders from you, Your Majesty.The Rijitera are my people.”
“Then tell the Rijiteran’s we need you doing your job, not rescuing a female that does not need your assistance.”
I looked back over my shoulder at Aga and Rema. “Well? What do you two think?”
“Link Hella. She can decide,” Aga said, his glare lethal as he stared through the screen at the red winged queen.
I turned inward, finding Jack’s shiny beacon in the mental darkness and tapped at the proverbial door.
“Hey, patch me through to your mother. I don’t know how to reach her through the nanoLink.”
A beat of silence and then Jack’s voice spoke inside my head like she was standing right beside me.
“We heard. Drop Aga off to continue to Patty and then meet me in the city. There is a central garden—uh museum zoo thingy—land there. We will help secure the city and then we can have our happy family reunion. Mom’s eager to see Rathal anyways.”
“Copy that. See you in a few.”
I raised my brow at Aga. “You heard all that?”
“Yep. Land this heap so I can go find Patty before she blows the palace up. Rema is probably tired of reeling her stab happy ass in.”
“You’ve been hanging out with us humans for too long, Aga. You are starting to sound like one,” I said, grinning at him.
