“And he took them?”
“Abducted them.”
“Holy shit, Killan.” The color drains from her face. “What the hell are we going to do?”
“The Guild.” I launch the InGal search function and typeInterplanetary Guild.The first result is a contact button, which I press, and the speaker of Roan’s datapad crackles into life.
“Thank you for contacting the Interplanetary Guild. All our lines are currently busy. Your call is important to us. Please hold for the first available officer.”
“Useless fools!” I toss the cracked datapad onto the damaged bed and direct Lydia back to my house and the transport tunnel. There is a rail track between my house and Sorin’s cottage. There are empty carts waiting for passengers on the track, but when I check the records, I can see no signs of Briar having left Sorin’s.
I race upstairs to the mudroom and peer out the window. The transport Freighter is still parked several yards away. My relief is palpable. If the Freighter has not yet left, then there is still hope.
I rake my gaze over its hull, searching for anything information that might be useful. It is covered in a thick layer of dust, meaning it has remained stationary for at least a full day and night. That timing aligns with the last time Roan checked his datapad messages.
The question is: what are they waiting for?
“Move over.” Lydia tries to shove me out of the way so that she can look through the window.
I refuse. “Keep out of sight. Atakis might not yet know about you.”
“Perhaps…” She sounds unconvinced.
“Sorin and Roan will not have told him about you.” I move toward her, forcing her to step back and away from the window. I should close the shutter, except that I worry such movement will draw the attention of the Freighter’s external scanners, which are surely trained toward the house.
“Neither will Harlee or Briar, if that’s what you’re implying,” Lydia snaps, but much of the anger in her voice is tempered by the way she tugs at the hem of her shirt, twisting the fabric between her shaking hands. “They won’t betray us. They could torture…” Her voice shudders. Her breathing is too shallow. “They could torture Harlee and Briar, and they wouldn’t tell Atakis about me. But, um, the first time Atakis was here, I was watching him through the window”—she gestures at the window behind me—“I don’t think he saw me, but I can’t be a hundred percent sure. Maybe that’s why he’s still here. Maybe he’s waiting for us to return so that he can abduct us too.”
“If he has not already killed Sorin and Roan.”
Her mouth drops open. “You think?—”
“My brothers would not let their Mates be taken. They would have fought.”
Which might explain why Atakis has not yet left. He might not know about Lydia, but he most certainly knows about me, and he will not want to leave any witnesses to his crime.
“You must return to the cave.”
“What? No way!” Lydia crosses her arms over her chest.
I take another step, forcing her even farther from the window. “If Atakis sees you?—”
“Haven’t you been listening? He might’ve already seen me.”
Frustrated, I shepherd her back downstairs to the kitchen.
The moment she reaches the fallen table, she turns to glare at me. “
I’m. Not. Leaving,” she says, a decisive pause between each word, as if to strengthen her argument. As if her repeating what she has already said is enough to change my mind.
“Lydia. This is not the time for one of our arguments. You must go back into the caves.”
“I agree. We shouldn’t be arguing. We should be thinking of a rescue plan.”
“No—”
But she speaks over my remonstration. “We need to get onto Atakis’s spaceship somehow. Better yet, we need to get everyone off his ship. Maybe we can create a diversion?—”
I cross my upper arms, too. “You cannot expect me to risk your life when there is a chance you could be saved.”
