“Yeah, ’cause they’d crowned me emperor. I don’t want that shit! You know how much responsibility comes with a throne? No, thank you!” He shuddered. “I can barely tolerate being prince.”
But Ember saw through his bluster. Drake adored his older brother and the relief in his eyes was tangible. “So what’s the plan, Captain?” she asked Bastien.
“I’m planning to lend a hand with their rescue efforts.”
“Count me in.”
“And us,” her sisters each agreed.
Bastien nodded. “They’ll need every hand for a few days.”
Drake let out a ragged breath. “Just when we were about to strike at your uncle. I swear that bastard has nine lives.”
“A temporary reprieve. We secure our families and then in a week, we go for him. His defenses’ll be down. With all this, they’ll think The League is in a position of strength and that The Sentella is weak. It actually works in our favor. He won’t be expecting anything right now.”
Drake nodded.
Bastien and Ember said a reluctant good-bye to Florian before they and Drake rallied Kimmerian and Dread Reckoning forces to lead them toward the Porturnum Station and join The Sentella forces there.
Whatever Nyk and his crew needed, they’d do.
As they prepared their launch, Ember couldn’t shake the familiar feeling of being back in action with Bastien. It was just like old times.
More than that, it felt right and natural. This was where she was meant to be.
As a girl, she’d never understood how her parents could work together as a military unit. Especially given the way they fought so much at home.
But with Bastien, it made total sense. They were in synch. She knew what he was thinking without him speaking.
He did the same with her. More than that, she took strength from having him by her side. Such as now, as they prepared to launch. He stood next to her on the bridge with his hand on the small of her back while she worked. An insignificant lingering touch to steady himself while he entered data and she checked their systems.
It was automatic. He wasn’t even aware that he did it. Yet the scent of his skin permeated her head and left her drunk and calm at the same time.
“Coordinates?” he asked in that smooth drawl.
She sent them over.
He entered them, then paused. A slow smile spread over his face. “You know, when you look at me like that, it makes me want to carry you off to the corner.”
“Look at you how?”
“Like you’re already tasting me.”
Heat scorched her cheeks. “You’re imagining it.”
“Am I?”
She cleared her throat. “Yes.”
“Am I?” he repeated in a more teasing tone as he pressed his body closer to hers.
Iskander cleared his throat over the intercom. “You two do know that you’re live, right?”
“Oh shit!” Bastien cut the mic. Now he was glowing even more than she was.
“Yeah,” Iskander said slowly. “My thoughts are a little more colorful. Dude, that’s my sister.”
“I’m your brother.”
“Blood only. I actually like Ember.”
“Gee, Badger, thanks,” Bastien said drily.
“Ah, now, don’t pout. You’re slowly growing on me.”
Snorting at his dry tone, Bastien launched and took control of the Kimmerian troops and the few Dread Reckoning who’d signed on for the venture. Even though Ember and her sisters outranked him, they let him take over since he was known to The Sentella and they weren’t. Not to mention, neither the DR nor Tavali were legal organizations with a lot of protection.
They’d learned long ago to keep their heads down or lose them.
But instead of rendezvousing with the Gort Tavali, they were sent to provide backup for the Andarions who were struggling to get control back from Nyk’s and Jullien’s insane grandmother. Apparently, she’d rushed in after the bombing, declared everyone dead, Nykyrian a traitor, and had reseized her throne.
Ember sat in the navigator’s chair as she scanned the other ships around them. “How do you think this war will end?”
Bastien sighed. “I don’t know. My father always said it’d come. That it was long overdue. The League started out as a noble idea, but as with all things, people corrupted it. The idea of a single police force for everyone … just doesn’t work.”
“The Sentella seems to balance it.”
“Because they’re fighting The League. Anytime you have one group with all the guns and training … you have tyranny. Nature of the beast. It’s why all things in nature are dual. Good and evil. Hot and cold. Positive and negative.”
“Then shouldn’t that be those trained and those not?”