AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I thumped a hand across my chest in salute when he reached me. “High Command—”
“I’m not him,” the Drexian cut me off before I could finish speaking. He jerked a thumb behind him. “The spy is back there.”
I eyed the Drexian with dark scruff covering his cheeks. “Then you are…?”
“Jaxon.”
Now I remembered Kann talking about him. “The Inferno Force pilot who escaped from the Kronock.”
A half-grin teased his mouth as his gaze snagged on the Wings insignia on my uniform. “You a pilot?”
“I am, but I am also friends with Lieutenant Kann, who served with—”
“Kann! Where is he?” He swiveled his gaze as if Kann might be hiding behind one of the fighter jets. “I haven’t seen that Drexian since he convinced me to be his wing man one night at a bar and we ended up in an epic brawl.”
That sounded like Kann. “He’s inside preparing for the banquet to close the battle of the schools.”
“I’m sure there will be time to catch up. First we need to share our information about the Kronock.”
Jaxon and I both turned as another Drexian walked down the ramp. Now this warrior looked every bit like a former High Commander and intelligence officer. His brown hair was cut short, his face was clean-shaven, and his uniform was pristine.
“Kax is right.” Jaxon twisted his back as if stretching from a long ride. “Business first, then we play.” He slapped my shoulder. “I am sure academy pilots still know how to have a good time, right?”
I did not want to correct him and tell him that my idea of a good time was crawling into bed with Ariana after a good dinner. “Of course, we do.”
“I know that Admiral Zoran was expecting me alone, but after Kann and Vyk reached out to Jaxon, he contacted me and offered to act as my pilot for the journey,” Kax explained as we walked toward the academy. “We both believe it is better you have as much information as possible before going into Kronock space.”
“If my wife Samaira could have been here, she would have, but she gave me leave to tell you everything we both know about the Kronock prison moon we liberated.”
Chills went through me. “Prison moon?”
“We don’t think they have any more of them,” Jaxon said. “At least, our intelligence hasn’t shown evidence of any new ones.”
The three of us strode beneath the archway with the school emblems carved into the ebony stone, and I steered the Drexians toward the Stacks. It would be quiet there since the entire school would be in the dining hall celebrating.
“That’s correct,” Kax said, taking long strides beside me. “The Kronock Empire is fractured, so they do not seem to be operating their system of prison moons or labs devoted to genetic testing, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t capable of great destruction or cruelty.”
“Is there a way to phrase that so that you do not panic my fiancé?”
Kax and Jaxon both paused when we had reached the tall arched doors leading into the Stacks. Kax put a hand on my shoulder. “The pilot who is being held is your fiancé’s sister?”
“She is. Ariana is also a pilot, and it is all I can do to keep her from stealing a plane and leaving on a renegade search mission right now.”
Jaxon grinned at me. “Sounds like a human female to me.”
“I will do my best not to panic her,” Kax told me.
Jaxon snorted out a laugh and gave me a slap on the back. “Good luck to you, brother. Just like all of us with human mates, you will need it.”
Chapter
Sixty-Five
Jess
My grip around the Assassin stone was firm as we entered the academy through one of the tower entrances and trudged along suspended stone bridges and down twisting stairs to reach the main hall. The air hummed with energy, but it wasn’t the nervous energy that I’d felt the morning the battle had started. It was both triumphant and weary.
I recognized some of the Iron cadets rubbing their hands together as if trying to warm them and a handful of wounded Wings limping past us. How many of the teams had returned because of injury or exhaustion?
