Celdrake gave a begrudging nod. “I’ll make sure the men mind your brothers. Just don’t be gone too long.”
“I won’t.”
Lyk left the bridge, heading straight for Bay 2. His plan was simple. Find a way to sneak on the same shuttle Ally was trying to steal without her catching on.
And then “it will all work out,” as Mayra said, and Ally will realize that she belongs to me.
Even as he thought those words to reassure himself, Lyk couldn’t help but think of how ridiculous it all sounded. Why the need for this detour? How was spending a few minutes alone with Ally on the stolen shuttle going to do anything other than piss her off at being thwarted?
And why was she stealing the shuttle in the first place? Did she really think he would let her go haring off to Dazimin alone? Why did she insist on refusing his help?
His temper mounting, Lyk decided exactly how he was going to spend those few minutes on the shuttle with Ally.
I’m going to give her another spanking.
CHAPTER 20
ALLY
Damn, I wish I knew what these symbols meant.
Ally stared down at the lifeboat console, biting her lip. Up until this moment, the gods had been on her side. She’d managed to sneak into Bay 2 behind two crewmembers and hide until they left again, and she’d somehow found a shuttle with a bay door that wasn’t fully closed, so the lock hadn’t engaged.
But now she stood at the console, confused by symbols on the controls she needed to pilot this little boat out of there. Ally felt like her luck had run out.
Closing her eyes, she tried to focus.Come on. You can do this.
She thought about her sister, fear for her well-being filling her.I can’t afford any more delays. I need to figure this out.
Opening her eyes, she asked herself for the hundredth time if she was making a mistake. Could she really steal a ship from Lyk and think he’d let her escape? Could she really take on all the forces of Hell by herself?
Letting out a growl of frustration, she looked again at the symbols. “I have to try something,” she murmured, then hit the one that resembled a child’s drawing of the sun.
Half the panel lit up, and she let out a rush of air. Good. I figured out how to turn the power on at least.
Her finger hovered over what she assumed was a direction pad. She could move the ship forward, but until she figured out how to open the bay doors, she didn’t know what to do. But there didn’t seem to be anything on the console in front of her that could stand for the doors.
Maybe they’re automatic. Maybe if I start rolling toward them, they’ll open themselves.“It’s worth a shot.”
She hit the direction pad, apparently with a little too much force, as the ship shot forward. She glanced up, frightened to see that the doors weren’t opening. “Oh no! How do I slow this thing down?”
The doors were approaching, and Ally was about to reverse direction at speed when suddenly they started to move. The bay doors slipped open just before the lifeboat shot out of the ship and into the openness of space.
Ally let out the breath she was holding, then slid to her knees, her heart beating hard enough that it sounded like a drumbeat inside her head.
She was sailing away from Lyk’s ship at a fast clip, maybe too fast. “Shit.”
One of his brothers’ ships was straight ahead, and until she learned to steer, she was on a collision course. Having thought she’d mastered the directional pad, she hit the area that she thought would correct her course. Instead, the ship jolted in the opposite direction, lurching crazily.
The ship was even closer now. Pulling herself back to her feet, Ally struggled to grasp the controls. “Shit! Shit! Shit!”
Suddenly, a pair of hands lifted her by the waist and set her out of the way. Ally let out a squeak of surprise, then realized it was Lyk. He hit a few controls on the console and the ship righted itself and sped past his brother’s ship unharmed.
“What are you doing here?” Ally asked when she’d managed to recover her voice.
“Saving your ass, as usual.” His stance radiated anger. She watched as his fingers were a blur on the console. When he got a course laid in, he turned to her. Lyk crossed his arms over his broad chest and frowned at her. “Well, you want to explain yourself?”
“You first,” she said. “How did you get on this lifeboat?”
