“What the hell, Jayne?” Those clipped words were even more rattling than the near miss.
Even so, Jayne couldn’t speak. Not at the moment. She was too glad to see Eve alive and whole.
She’d been so sure that her sister had died a few moments ago when the structure shielding her had been blown apart.
But she should have known better.
No one was a better survivor than Eve.
Shadows played in her sister’s eyes that mirrored her own horror and misery. “Get your skinny ass behind me. Now! Fall in line!”
Jayne obeyed out of habit. It was why her sister was a commander at the tender age of twenty-one. She’d risen up through their military ranks faster than anyone in Hyshian history. Her military prowess was without equal. Eve’s intellect was off the charts and her skills far beyond her years.
But then they’d been forced to survive and thrive in conditions no one should endure.
Eve grabbed her. “Are your wings injured?”
Jayne’s eyes bugged at a shouted question they were never supposed to speak about. “No.”
“Then you need to unfurl them and get out of here.”
Was Eve out of her mind? “Not without you!” Unlike her, Eve hadn’t inherited the recessive gene of their family that gave Jayne a set of wings she could hide beneath her skin.
And Jayne wasn’t strong enough yet to carry both of them out of this hell.
Eve shot and killed an enemy over Jayne’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about me. I can take care of myself, but not if I’m worried about you. Get to safety. Now!”
While Jayne believed that, she wasn’t willing to abandon the last member of her family. That wasn’t what Erixours did. It wasn’t what they’d been taught.
“No!”
Eve growled at her. “You stubborn little bitch!” She fired more rounds. Clicking the mic in her ear on, she glared at Jayne. “Tweedle? I need you to turn around and—”
“Ah, hell no, Evie. I just got clear of that shithole. And not by a lot. By the yactos. And I mean the yacto of the yacto . . . of the molecule of a yacto. Are you out of your luna mind, woman?”
“Jed, turn it around or so help me I will skin every piece of you raw the next time I see you. Now!”
He cursed over their comm-links. “Why do you hate me so much?”
“Because you’re one of only two males alive who hasn’t disappointed me. Now move it!”
Tweedle cursed again.
Jayne laughed in spite of the hell raining down on them.
But really, this wasn’t funny. “You’ll be behind me?”
“I’m not going to die and leave you alone. You get into enough shit with me here. I cringe to think of the trouble you’d find without me.”
Kissing her sister’s cheek, Jayne unfurled her wings and took off.
But not before she heard the most precious words from her sister’s lips. “I’m getting you out of this life, little bit, if it’s the last thing I do.”
ChapterOne
FOUR YEARS LATER
Jayne sighed heavily as she waited for Eve to arrive. Heartbroken, she read back over her rejection.
