Jack memorized the instructions on the parchment paper Madelaine showed him.
He expected to hate Malvoraxis Veil and how its inhabitants were making his new wife—he really loved calling her that—silent and unseen while they visited the planet. Still, he’d play along and do what was necessary. He wanted his wife to succeed. He needed her to know that she could trust him, always.
He’d gone back to his place to pack for two weeks, since his go bag only held five days’ worth of stuff.
By the time he returned to Madelaine’s rental house, she was packed and ready to go. She led him through the woods to her hidden ship, thePaladin Seeker.
“Cam will not like this,” Jack said. “Something similar to this happened during the Interstellar Colony Inspection a while back. I thought I’d found all of the possible places in the area where a spacecraft could hide.”
“Guess you missed one.” She wasn’t trying to be flip. She knew the Alphas took security very seriously here on Earth. She’d lived that for all her life before she’d been sent to Alpha-Prime for Paladin Cabal business. “Or whoever you sent missed it.”
“Well, even if I’d come here to look for myself, I wouldn’t have seen anything.”
“True. My cloaking device is state of the art. It not only hides the ship, it projects an immovable structure or object in its place—for example, a small hill made of granite—so my ship is even more securely hidden.”
“Yep,” Jack said, shaking his head as in dismay. “Cam will not like this at all.”
“Are you going to rat me out before we even start this trip?” she teased.
Jack looked at her in surprise. “No. I will not rat you out ever, okay?”
“Okay. Thank you.”
“Thank you for trusting me with this big secret.”
Madelaine smiled.
Chapter Thirteen
Malvoraxis Veil, on the edge of the Tri-Spiral Galaxy
The ship shuddered as it broke through the upper atmosphere of Malvoraxis Veil, the viewport bleeding from star-streaked black into a dim, ashen twilight.
Madelaine felt it first. Not the gravity, which seemed iffy as they descended toward the planet. And not the atmosphere, which was rather depressing so far.
Perhaps it was expectation. Or maybe it was the wild and mysterious anticipation of the coming package retrieval on this desolate and unforgiving planet.
Whatever it was pressed firmly inside her chest like a warning. Now that they had crossed the upper atmosphere leading to the planet surface, Madelaine needed to remain completely silent. Not a word. It took a certain mindset in order to instruct one’s brain to basically shut up and try to be invisible for the foreseeable future.
Madelaine knew this might be the toughest challenge she faced on this journey. As if to thwart her before she’d even stepped foot on the planet, the mental chant she’d been practicing voiced itself without her permission.
“Don’t speak,” she said under her breath—
Then promptly stopped herself.For space potatoes’ sake, pay attention!
Too late to take it back, but quiet enough that maybe—maybe—the ship’s systems swallowed it.
Jack didn’t look at her. His hands tightened on the control yoke, knuckles whitening just slightly.
“I heard you,” he murmured, voice steady. “So, you’re done talking now, right?” She’d made him clearly understand the gravity of her speaking in this realm. He sent her a quick side glance that was not angry, but definitely worried.
Madelaine nodded, swallowing hard.
Done.
The landing platform rose to meet them like a slab of polished bone—wide, circular, and carved with lines that pulsed faintly blue beneath the surface. Symbols, maybe. Or warnings. There were no welcoming lights or signals. Given what little she knew about this planet, anything welcoming was certainly not an expectation she had.
