“So I swore through my teeth and resubmitted my oath to guard Royals. But I have been waiting for this chance for many years.”
She checks the screens, monitoring four bodies moving through the Denarsoan hallway.
“No confrontation?” I point to the screen.
“If we can avoid being directly seen.” Eluni looks back at the airlock. “Denarso are not very advanced in space travel or technology. We can usually slip under their radar.”
I swallow against a growing lump in my throat. “Do you think they killed Aura?”
“I don’t know. But I imagine they’ll want to use him because of his power and try to figure out why a Royal who wants to be Rogue has a stronger Storm than anyone else in Fleet Amphir.”
“I thought those were just job positions.”
She shakes her head. “We are born Royal, Rogue, or common. We stay in those positions for life. I am descended from Royal Guards. That is my job. My mate was aRogueGuard. My match was a Royal pain-in-the-ass Elder’s representative. One would think, with us having been the first to space, that we’d have worked out all the kinks in our government and social hierarchy by now. But change is all around us. We adapt, or we die. And Amphirans are dying off.”
“You sound like Aura.”
“Maybe.”
A flash of portal light illuminates the airlock. Allele immediately reverses her engines.
“Hang on,” Eluni says. “One more portal jump.”
A bright green electric rope swallows the ship as we lurch forward. It races over the windows and deposits us among different stars.
My body jolts in my harness, and I’m glad I’m strapped in. Eluni doesn’t even seem to notice the bump.
The airlock opens, and Fieri and Blaize help Talros into a medical bay.
I unbuckle and hurry to him. “Tal?”
His face is badly beaten, but when he sees me, he sets his duffel bag down and hugs me. “Jo—e. I— glad you’re okay. I heard ao—ut Aura. I— so sorry.”
“Stars, Tal. What did they do to you?”
His eyes smile even though his split lips and swollen cheeks don’t really move. Eluni mutters in shock behind me.
“Oh, you know. Put the trainee on hazing duty. Pussy-ass —itch hit —e a lot. Nothing I couldn’t handle.” Tal chuckles and shrugs. “Just glad to —e here now —ith you.”
Blaize opens a cabinet and pulls out a vial of yellow solution. He slips it into an injector and plants it in Talros’ neck. “This should help with the swelling.”
My friend sighs, and his face starts looking better. “That’s nice. Thanks.”
“Serum from a Lazariot Aura helped,” Allele offers.
“Then I ow-we b-both of them.” Talros lifts a finger and taps something on his gauntlet. “P-please tell me you can get a signal from the Spider B-byte I left in the Denarso’s system, Allele.”
“Confirmed. Data downloading.” Allele’s response is prompt.
Talros claps his hands once with enthusiasm. “Getting b-beat to shit was worth it. F-fuck yeah.”
Eluni lets out a disbelieving laugh.
I glance between the two of them. “What?”
Tal finally sees her, and his whole body stills. “Who is this?”
“Eluni. She’s a Royal guard,” I tell him.
