He turned to see her.
Androma Racella, cutting through the chaos like the sharp edge of a knife, her blades swinging as they took down soldiers. Her crew followed behind her, Dex’s white constellation tattoos seeming to squirm across his skin as he ran, Breck hoisting an Adhiran man over her shoulder. The pilot, Lira, screamed and sobbed as she followed, her skin illuminated by bright purple scales, smoking in the night. In front of them, the smallest crew member held a stolen rifle in her arms.
One shot. The blast of a light bullet soaring from the chamber.
A Xen Pterran dropped in front of them, and Gilly leaped over his fallen form, dropped to a knee and aimed again.
Another shot, a second bullet set free, a whistle that soared just past Valen’s head.
Behind him, a body dropped.
All Valen could hear was the hiss and crackle of Andi’s blades. With each soldier who fell in their way as Andi came to get him, Valen winced.
“I am Valen,” he whispered. “I am Valen, I am Valen.”
Again, he saw the world flash from bleeding stone walls to the terrorized Adhiran desert and back. He shut his eyes and rocked back and forth, back and forth, until a hand gripped his shoulder, trying to shake him from his trance.
“Valen!”
Andi’s voice, but behind that the sound of explosions, gunshots, more screams. Her crackling swords like Lunamere whips that wanted a taste of his burned skin.
Hands ripped him from the ground, forced him to his feet. He opened his eyes to see Andi staring at him, blood splatters staining her face, her hair. Her mouth was moving, but he couldn’t make out her words.
Instead it was the pounding of his heart, the echo of his labored breathing, that he heard.
Andi smacked him across the head. Sound flooded into his ears.
“We have to run!”
A fleet of ships was closing in overhead. Each ship was like a living corpse, born from the ashes of Xen Ptera’s past, visible by the light of the moon and the raging fires.
Some of them were mostly old scattered parts of ancient warships. Burn marks and dents and patched-up holes littered the black metal.
But on the side of each one, a single golden symbol stared at Valen like a watching eye.
The Solis family crest. A sharp, dagger-like triangle.
They accompanied the face smiling at Valen from his mind.
A queen of death and darkness, seated upon a throne of the galaxy’s bones.
Chapter Sixty
* * *
ANDROMA
THE GROUND TREMBLED. Sand sprayed as the fleet landed at the desert’s edge. Steam billowed in clouds as the loading ramps opened and uniformed figures poured out like bugs.
Dex growled. “Reinforcements.”
“What the hell is this?” Breck shouted.
“Does it matter?” Andi yelped. “We’re in the middle of a war zone.”
On the sand beside them, Lon’s bare chest was a mess of blood.
“We have to get him to the medics!” Lira cried, sobbing as she ripped off the bottom of her gown, pressing the fabric against her brother’s chest. He was unconscious, looking near dead already.
“You have to get your emotions under control,” Breck said. “Lira. You have to, or we’ll lose you. Lon needs you to stay with us.”
Lira pressed her scales to his wound, trying to cauterize it, but each time she tried, the light winked out. As if she couldn’t control herself when she needed to the most.
“Gilly, left!” Andi commanded.
The girl swung to the left and shot off another round. Light spiraled from the barrel. A nearby soldier screamed as he was blasted off his feet, crashing into the stand that held the Unified Systems flags. Gilly dropped the empty rifle and scooped up another one from a fallen soldier, this one with two barrels. “Where to, Cap? The Marauder’s not ready to fly!”
“Hide in Rhymore?” Breck suggested. She leaped to her feet as another soldier appeared and shot. The bullets pinged off her skin. Gilly shot back. The soldier fell, paralyzed by a stunner.
“Not going to work,” Gilly said. She racked the gun twice, switching to the upper barrel. “We just lost our ride.”
In the distance, Andi could see the Albatusks’ carriages in flames.
Breck cursed. “If someone doesn’t come up with a plan soon, Lon will die. And then we’ll all go down right after he does!”
Lira began to sob again.
The girls were falling apart before Andi’s eyes.
She took it all in, her heart racing in her throat. Her mind screaming that this was her fault for drawing the Xen Pterrans here. She glanced to Valen as he knelt in the sand nearby, his eyes closed, his hands clamped to his ears as if he could block out the chaos.
Had the Xen Pterrans tracked him somehow?
“We’re not going to Rhymore,” Dex said suddenly.
Breck spun around to block a spray of bullets. She groaned, sinking to a knee, breathless. Bullets couldn’t pierce her skin, but ammo this large packed a nasty punch. Soon, she’d tire out.
“We’re not going to Rhymore,” Dex said again, eyeing the group around him. “We won’t make it far enough before they catch us. They must be here for Valen. They want him back. They won’t leave until they have him.”
“We won’t let them take him,” Andi said.
“No.” Dex peered past her shoulder, to the distant edge of the desert. “No one is taking him back to Lunamere. Because I’m going to fly us out of here right now, and finish this mission before it kills us all.”
“That’s a good plan,” Andi said. “But where the hell are we supposed to find a ship right now?”
“You’re space pirates,” Dex said. “I’m sure you can take your pick.”
Grinning, he pointed into the distance, where the fleet of Xen Pterran starships sat ready and waiting.
“And your plan to get there?” Breck asked breathlessly.
They fell silent as a group of soldiers marched by, their masks and red armor like beacons in the smoke. Flames crackled and licked up the wood just two stalls away, the heat sparking a memory in Andi’s mind.
“Remember the job on Sora?” Andi asked. She looked to Breck and Gilly, whose eyes lit up as Andi’s plan suddenly became clear to them. “Find soldiers close in size to each of us. Kill them clean and quick. We need their bodies.”
“What the hell for?” Dex yelped.
A grim smile spread across Andi’s features. “For once in your life, Dex, just do what I say.”
He nodded.
“Hurry,” Andi said.
The three of them faded into the smoke, leaving Andi behind to protect Lon and Lira.
As a soldier appeared out of the smoke, the Bloody Baroness hefted her blades and swung, thinking of another tally soon to be added to them.
Chapter Sixty-One
* * *
DEX
THE XEN PTERRAN mask stunk like rotting blood.
With each step Dex took, the stolen boots crushed his toes together and the dead soldier’s armor rubbed in all the wrong places.
Dex’s Tenebran blood boiled.