Born of Defiance

This was the first time he’d ever publicly shown them, and the first time they’d been out since he turned eight and his mother had threatened to surgically remove them if she ever saw them again.

It was also how he’d known that he and Jayne were related by blood. The day he’d first seen her wings, while staying with her and Hadrian, he’d learned that she was not only part Andarion, but that her Andarion grandmother had been the younger sister of his mother’s grandmother, who’d fled Andaria to avoid the purging.

They were family.

Talyn closed the distance between him and Eriadne. “Just so you know, that was Chrisen. He wants me to cut your throat and return his mother to Andaria to be proclaimed tadara in your stead. If I fail to do so, he’s going to kill my female.” He pulled out his tactical knife, and ran his fingertip along the black blade. “The first half of his terms are acceptable to me.”

He stepped toward her.

“Wait!” Eriadne fought against Ryn’s hold. “Spare me, and I can tell you how to get your female back.”

“You have three seconds before I trim your lineage.”

“The same way I tricked Nykyrian.” Eriadne glanced down to Parisa’s body. “She and Cairistiona are almost identical in looks. Put my daughter on the throne and he won’t know the difference. I promise you. It’ll give you time to find your female and save her.”

“Why should I trust you?”

Eriadne lifted her chin. “Because my blood turned on me. If Chrisen wants me dead, I won’t rest until I stand over his rotting corpse.”

That Talyn fully believed. He also knew that Chrisen would never release Felicia. That slimy bastard had a plan and it didn’t include allowing Talyn to live to seek his own revenge. Nor would he suffer Felicia to go free after what her father and brother had done to them.

Sometimes it’s better to bed down with the devil than the devil’s handmaiden. The old Andarion proverb played through his mind.

His fury barely leashed, he moved to stand over Parisa’s body. Eriadne was right. She bore a frightening resemblance to Cairistiona.

Talyn watched as they carried Qory away on an air stretcher and Morra followed in his wake. Rage pounded through him. So many had already been lost in this fight.

Even more injured.

It was time for it to stop.

He shoved Eriadne back toward Ryn. “Do you have a brig on your ship?”

“Yeah.”

“Keep her in it. Knock her out if you have to.”

As Talyn started to leave, Ryn’s voice stopped him. “I also have a fighter. It’ll get you home a lot quicker than a ship. It’s yours if you want it.”

Never had Talyn been more tempted to kiss a man. “Thank you.”

Ryn inclined his head in kinship before he led the way to the bay where his ship was docked.

It took Talyn only a few minutes to get into the fighter and acclimate to the controls and unfamiliar language. Basically, they all ran alike. So long as you knew where the key controls were, you were relatively safe.

At least he hoped that was true.

Talyn launched and headed home. After he set his coordinates, he called his mother to make sure she was still all right in the midst of this chaos.

“Oh thank the gods!” His mother wept. “We heard the command center had been overrun and taken by loyalists. I was terrified you were there.”

“What happened, Matarra?”

“Ironically, the same plan you had for Parisa. Once they heard she’d been set free, a group of loyalists decided to follow the lead and break in to release Chrisen and Merrell from their cells.”

Talyn cursed himself for his stupid plan. He’d never dreamed that another group would play copycat. “What happened to Lorens?”

“He was badly wounded when…” Her voice trailed off as if she’d caught some slip. “He’s in surgery.”

“I know they have Felicia. Chrisen already called me.”

“I’m so sorry, baby.”

“Do we have their locations?”

“No. They removed their chips. We have no way of finding them.”

Talyn felt his back tingling again. Forcing himself to stay calm and control his wings, he focused on what needed to be done. “Is Cairistiona sober and alert?”

“Yes. Why?”

“I have a favor to ask.”

“It’s a bad time, Talyn. Nykyrian was almost fatally wounded while extracting his wife from his enemies. He’s in surgery, too. And the prognosis isn’t good. They don’t expect him to survive the surgery.”

While he could appreciate that, Nykyrian wasn’t the most important thing to him. “It’s to save Felicia, Mom. Please don’t make me bury her.”

“What do you need?”

“A miracle.”



After the loyalists had retaken the command center and Lorens had been seriously wounded, the remaining WAR soldiers had withdrawn to Anatole Base, where the majority of weapons and ships were kept. Talyn headed straight there. His plan was to mount a two-soldier mission, just him and Ryn, to get Felicia back.

The last thing he’d expected was the mass of troops who surrounded his fighter the moment he surrendered controls to the tech op on landing. Since his engines were locked down, there was nothing he could do.