We moved to the door. Baleck checked the corridor with the same careful stealth I’d use on a mission. Seeing him in warrior mode did something to me. He carried hiszavatwith easy competence, his skin shifting to camouflage browns and grays to blend with the stone walls.
We slipped out into the corridor. The ruins were a maze of collapsed walls and shadowy passages. Ancient Destran script covered some of the walls. I filed that information away for later.
We’d made it maybe twenty meters when one of Vax’s guards stepped around a corner.
The male’s eyes went wide. His mouth opened to shout.
Baleck’szavatwas a blur. Energy strings hummed to life. A thin metal arrow shot through the air before the guard could make a sound.
The D’tran dropped, clutching his chest. Not a kill shot, but close. Close enough to make it too painful for that D’tran to call for help. Baleck was precise.
We ran past him, moving deeper into the ruins. Baleck kept his hand on my lower back, guiding me through turns I couldn’t have navigated alone.
“Sophie found you missing this morning,” he whispered as we hurried through a section where the ceiling had partially collapsed. “I used the Raycer’s interface and a scanner to find you, thanks to your tracker chip.”
“How many know I’m missing?”
“Sophie, Vash, Anker. We kept it quiet, like your admiral ordered.” He pulled me to the left, down another passage. “I had to come for you.”
Something warm expanded in my chest. “I know.”
He glanced at me, colors shifting with surprise. Then he smiled, quick and fierce.
We emerged into what must have been a plaza once. Ancient buildings rose on all sides, their walls crumbling but still impressive. The stars were bright overhead.
Then a new light cut through the darkness. Brilliant white searchlights stabbed down from above, sweeping across the ruins in methodical patterns.
I looked up and my stomach dropped. A ship hung in the air above us. Sleek, angular, unmistakably Brakken in design. Its searchlights carved through the night, and one of them was directly between us and where Baleck must have left the Raycer.
“Fuck,” I breathed.
Baleck hissed out a breath, grabbed my hand, and pulled me back into the ruins. We ran deeper into the ancient city, the searchlights chasing us through the shadows, as the Brakken ship descended lower over the lost Destran city.
CHAPTER 15
BALECK
Ipulled Iris through the maze of collapsed walls and shadowed passages with my heart slamming against my ribs. The searchlights swept overhead in methodical patterns, and I could hear the sound of the Brakken ship’s engines growing closer.
I felt the blaster being plucked from my hip. I glanced back to see Iris checking the charge with practiced efficiency. Of course she’d arm herself. The sight of her moving with such lethal competence while still gripping my hand made something warm and fierce surge through my chest.
That kiss. I was still reeling from that kiss. So different from the one before.
My lips still tingled. My skin kept cycling through golds and ambers I couldn’t control. She’d grabbed my face and kissed me like I was air and she’d been drowning, and for a moment the entire universe had narrowed to the point where our mouths met.
I wanted to know what it meant. Was it gratitude? Relief? Or something more? My mind spun with possibilities even as I focused on finding shelter. If it was just a thank-you for the rescue, I’d accept it. If it was an expression of true feelings, I’dbe ecstatic. Either way, I’d take whatever she offered and count myself lucky.
But right now, we needed to survive.
A tall tower loomed ahead, its upper levels crumbled, but its base still intact. I spotted an opening where a door had once stood and pulled Iris toward it. We dashed inside just as a searchlight swept across the plaza behind us.
The darkness inside was complete. I pressed my back against the cool stone wall, trying to slow my breathing.
Then I heard them. Harsh, guttural voices speaking in clipped Brakken. The language of my nightmares.
A shudder went through me. My skin rippled with involuntary camouflage patterns as my body tried to disappear into the wall. I’d fought them. Watched friends die at their hands. Spent sun cycles in constant fear that the next attack would be the one that killed me or destroyed my Sola.
The war had ended almost nine sun cycles ago, but the sound of their voices brought it all back. The smell of burning ships. The screams. The way their eyes glazed when they were consumed by lami addiction.
