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Dallin muttered under his breath and his eyes rolled back.
Sloane bit her lip. She’d completed basic flight combat training when she’d joined the Apocalypse, but wasn’t a natural like some crew.
“We have no weapons, we have a slow ship, and our enemy is gaining on us.” She tapped her fingers on her knee. “But I do have a huge hunk of metal I can make use of.”
Dallin sucked in a breath. “Don’t do anything risky.”
“I’m going to have to. Do you trust me?”
“Of course. How far are we from the waystation?”
“Too far for them to help. And the Siblet are moving much quicker than us.” Sloane licked her lips. “I’m about to do something that’s either really stupid, or really amazingly clever. You can decide which version I pull off if we get out the other side of this.” She slowed the ship, holding her breath, and watching as the approaching Siblet vessel gained on them.
Sloane had to dodge several rounds of fire from the Siblet ship, but maintained the slow pace until they were almost upon them. Then she slammed on the brakes and aimed the small shuttle they were towing at the Siblet vessel, using its momentum to turn it into a battering ram.
It smashed into the Siblet ship.
She flipped the back end of their ship out and repeated the move, ramming the Siblet.
The Siblet ship tried to turn, but the metal base of the shuttle had wedged in one of their engines. As hard as the pilot tried, they couldn’t shake the shuttle loose.
Sloane kept ramming the Siblet ship until it caught fire. She freed the cable, joining the ships together, and shot away. Thirty seconds later, the Siblet vessel exploded into flames.
She whooped with excitement. “We did it! We stopped them.” Her heart was racing so fast, she felt dizzy.
“Dallin! What did you think of my flying?” Sloane looked over at him when he didn’t answer, and her heart froze. He wasn’t breathing.
She set the ship on autopilot and heaved him out of his seat. “Don’t you dare. You’re not dying on me now.”
Sloane dropped him to the floor, there was no time to be gentle, and breathed into his mouth, before pumping his chest.
Brutus stood beside her, grunting and fear panting.
She couldn’t lose Dallin, not now he’d finally realized how right they were for each other. They deserved their happy ending. They deserved to be together.
She kept breathing into his mouth and pressing on his chest. “Come on, come back to me. We have a whole life to live together. I know it scares you. It terrifies me, too, but it’ll be so right.”
Sloane did another round of CPR, but Dallin still didn’t respond.
She thumped his chest, her arms aching and her head dizzy from the lack of oxygen. “I love you, you amazing, geeky Apexian. If you think you’re getting out of loving me right back by faking being dead, you have a lot to learn. I never give up when I want something.”
She kept breathing into Dallin’s mouth and trying to get his heart to restart, but nothing worked.
Her hope faded as tears coursed down her cheeks. He was dead. She’d failed.
Brutus thumped Dallin on the chest several times, seeming to want to help.
In a last desperate attempt to bring him back to her, Sloane grabbed a knife from a nearby locker and sliced her hand open, before doing the same with his left hand. Maybe she had enough Apexian energy inside her to get his heart starting again. They just needed a small amount to nudge him back to life and get him healing.
Sloane joined their hands and pressed her lips against his. “Come back to me. I can’t live without you.”
Dallin rasped in a shaky breath, and his eyes flickered open.
Sloane choked out a sob as she pressed her forehead against his. “I’m so mad at you. You don’t get to die on me.”
He wheezed out a breath, a faint smile on his face. “Who said anything about dying?”
“You did a good job of doing just that. And that’s not happening. Especially not now I know you love me.”
“I do. I always have.” He closed his eyes and nodded, his hand faintly squeezing hers.
The panicked thud of her heart eased a fraction as she watched his breath even out.
They were going to live.
