Born of Defiance

“Thank you, Majesty.” He hung up.

Stunned, Talyn leaned forward in his seat to clap him on the shoulder. “Congratulations, Prime Commander.”

Lorens snorted. “Don’t congratulate me, Lieutenant Commander Batur. I’m appointing you as my second-in-command. I fall. You fall.”

Talyn sat back, completely slack-jawed as that sank in. He wouldn’t have been more stunned had Lorens shot him in the head. “Pardon?”

Lorens glanced at him over his shoulder. “There truly is no one else I’d put at my back right now. No one I trust more. We win this overthrow, and your rank will be permanent.”

Her face a mask of fear, Felicia swallowed hard. “And if we lose, both of you will be executed for treason.”

Talyn tapped at the markings on his neck. “I’m already branded a traitor. I’ve publicly insulted them all, and with their challenge, they’ve made it clear they want me dead. In the goriest way possible. You think if Eriadne retakes her throne she won’t be coming for me, anyway?”

Felicia wanted to deny it, but she knew the truth. “You are all that matters to me, Talyn.” She placed her hand on Lorens’s shoulder. “And you are my family. My blood. I don’t want to bury either of you.”

Talyn winked at her. “Don’t worry. I don’t lose. Haven’t you seen my fighting record?”

Rolling her eyes, she didn’t appreciate his lame attempt at humor. “You’re not funny.”

“But I am funny-looking.”

She laughed in spite of the terror inside her. “You stole that from me.”

“Hope it’s not the only thing of yours I’ve stolen.”

She stroked his jaw with her hand. “It’s not. You stole my heart the first day I met you.”

Lorens cleared his throat. “All right. Knock it off, you two, before you make this any worse on me. I am the big brother, you know? No gru-gru in the backseat or I might gut Talyn myself. Geld him, at least.”

Talyn laughed as he put a little more room between them. “So what are our first orders, Commander?”

“Put a two-Andarion space between you and my sister on that seat. Then establish ourselves at the command center. We need to make sure our troops see their leaders and know who we are.”



Felicia hesitated at the sight of Talyn in his formal uniform. Her heart pounding with pride and fear, she brushed her hand over the lieutenant commander epaulette badges Lorens had loaned him. Two stars and two stripes for his new rank, and the winged skull with a dagger through it that marked all Andarion military designations. In that instant, one of their first conversations went through her mind.

All Talyn had wanted was to make a commander’s rank.

“Does this mean you’re going to retire from the Ring?”

A slight smile hovered at the edges of his gorgeous lips as he looked down at her through hooded lashes. “Only if you stay with me.”

“I have no intention of leaving.”

“Then once I fulfill my current contracts, I’ll retire, and never look back.”

Those words choked her as she remembered that she was the entire reason he had those upcoming fights. But for her, he’d be done with it now.

“Don’t,” he breathed as he fingered her lips. “You are the only reason I’ll be able to stop fighting this year. Without your brother, I’d still be Lieutenant Batur. Not a lieutenant commander.”

“You earned that rank. Had Anatole not been a bastard, you would have made it by now.”

“Maybe. But don’t look over your shoulder, and don’t dwell on what we can’t change. Keep your eye on the horizon and focused on what we need to do now. Upwards and onwards. Always.”

“Spoken like a true fighter pilot.”

He winked teasingly at her. “And a Ring fighter.”

She smiled then and kissed him. “Good luck.”

Closing his eyes, he held her against him for a moment longer. With a deep breath, he forced himself to step back and meet Qorach’s gaze. “Keep her safe.”

Qory inclined his head.

Talyn left her to head toward Lorens’s office, down the hall from the prime commander’s lounge where Felicia was being guarded by Sentella.

He just “adored” the way the other soldiers’ gazes went from his rank to his bald head and back again. It was obvious they wanted to comment, but didn’t dare since he was now second only to Lorens in rank… he even currently outranked his mother.

And it took all his willpower not to self-consciously brush his hand over the light dusting of hair that was just starting to grow back. He refused to give them the satisfaction of seeing how much their judgment stung. They weren’t worth it.

Scanning his hand, he half expected the door to not open. To everyone’s surprise, including his, it did, and admitted him into Lorens’s office, which was still in perfect order from the last Andarion who’d held it. Nothing had been packed or removed from the room.

Talyn frowned. “You’re not moving?”

Lorens shook his head. “I doubt my rank advancement will be permanent.”