Born of Ice

“All right. You recharge. The gods know you’re going to need every ounce of your powers to protect my boys. Merjack is pulling out everything to come after the lot of you.”


And he knew the one thing Syn wasn’t saying. Merjack’s grudge against Nero made a mockery of the hard-on he had for Syn. Syn had only brought down the bastard’s family.

In his case, it wasn’t something he’d done to Merjack’s father and grandfather.

It was personal.



Devyn removed the mask from Alix’s face and let her breathe normally again. He’d removed her chip and destroyed it. Then he’d knitted her bone back and sealed the wound. Whoever had implanted the chip had been clumsy and stupid.

But then, everyone in her life had been that way toward her. That was something he was grateful he couldn’t understand. He’d always been a priority to his parents. Even when they yelled at him and punished him, it’d never been done maliciously. Never done with anything other than love and their wanting him to be safe and a better person.

He brushed the hair back from her pale face. “I wish I could take it all away from you.”

But right now, both of their lives were in jeopardy.

“Dev?” Sway’s voice came out of the intercom. “We need you. Now.”

“On my way. Can you come watch over Alix while I take the helm?”

The door opened for Sway. “Done. We have a shitload of fighters out there with your name on them. Go give them hell.”

Devyn inclined his head to him. “Thank you, by the way.”

“For what?”

“Being my friend. You didn’t have to help her back there.”

Sway scoffed. “I wasn’t helping her. I was helping you, buddy. I still think you’re an idiot. But I know what I’d do to keep Claria safe and I know that you’d be there with me to the bitter end.” He held his hand out. “Brothers forever.”

Devyn took his hand and pulled him into a quick man-hug. “Watch her.”

“Get the assholes off our backs.”

Nodding, he ran for the bridge, where he saw Omari and Manashe already strapped in.

He slid into his seat as the warning alarms started blaring through the ship.

“Attention, Talia crew, you are all ordered into League custody, effective immediately. Prepare to be boarded.”

“Board this.” Devyn opened fire on them.

Vik cursed through the intercom as he released the controls so that Devyn could fly manually. “Oh, that’s not smart.”

“And I’m not about to let them board us, Vik. Remember, we have contraband they’re looking for and no real manifest for it. The League gets on this ship, and helping a runaway slave is the least of our crimes.”

“Oh, yeah.”

Omari let out a hiss. “There’s more of them coming in. Dang, Dad, looks like the entire West Fleet Armada has been sent after us.”

Devyn banked hard left as the other ships returned his fire. Several shots landed on the hull, dimming their lights and shaking the entire ship. His stomach lurched as they lost gravity.

“They’re targeting our directionals,” Vik warned.

He banked again, trying to flee the range of their ion cannons. Something much easier said than done as three more cruisers came out of hyperdrive.

One of them materialized directly in front of them.

“Shit!” Devyn hit the retros and swerved to miss the newest addition, but it was too late. Their sides struck.

Hard.

The sound of the collision, breaking titanium and circuitry, echoed loudly as their lights failed.

“Shields are down to one percent.” Vik’s voice belied the pain he was in. He must have taken a hit along with the ship.

Devyn tapped orders to the ship. “Status?”

“Screwed.”

“Vik! Dammit, answer the question.”

“We need our engineer to lock down the core, which was ruptured. Oh, wait, she’s still unconscious. Our hydros aren’t leaking, they’re flowing. We’re losing life support, and unless Nero can do some major mojo, you’d better surrender before they blast us again.”

Nero flashed onto the bridge. “I can’t touch this. If I were at full strength, maybe. But right now . . .” He shook his head.

Devyn took a deep breath as he stared at the ships out there. Ships with crews who were determined to kill all of them.

But it all came down to one simple thing. “I don’t believe in surrender.”

Vik cursed. “Devyn. They are going to kill us.”

“Balls to the wall.” He slammed up the three throttles and pushed the ship as hard as he could. They careened forward as he flew through debris and blasts.

The sudden acceleration knocked Nero to the floor. Without fear or comment, Omari joined him at the helm, manning the guns to destroy anything that got in their way. His Trisani powers helped him to aim and see the traps coming before they arrived.

“The engines are failing,” Vik shouted.

Devyn ground his teeth in raw determination. “Keep her together for fifty more seconds.”

“Why?”

“Because then we’ll be in the gravitational pull of that M-class planet over there.”

Omari frowned at him. “We’re crashing?”

“Yeah,” Devyn said ominously. “We’re crashing.”