I rush to Ignus, not understanding why they took him. Clawing off the latch, I fling the hatch open.
“Ignus, brother.” I pat his cheek. He’s severely bruised like Zorin. I give him my last booster and slash him free of the belts. Then I lug him over my shoulder, lift my rifle with one hand and clear the hallway and stairs.
Reaching Marne, I crouch to lay Ignus down when a bullet lances through my shoulder. I topple, my rifle falling from my injured arm. Ignus crumples beside Rorsar. I twist, pick up the gun with my less damaged arm, and fire back at the soldier.
The Myndrous gnashes his teeth at me from behind a bodyshield that deflects my shots. He jabs me with a voltspear. The electric shocks surge through me, hot and mind-numbing until I’m a shuddering pile of flesh and bone.
He drags me by a boot away from my team.
Marne picks up the gun I’ve dropped and empties the magazine. But it’s pointless. I pry a piece of trim off of the wall as I’m dragged through the hallway and slash at my captor, but the strip just bounces off of his shield with infuriating ease.
He snarls back at me and stuns me again. My whole body tingles, and muscles give out.
If ever there was a time, goddess… Show me how to get out of this. Everyone else is down or on other ships, fighting elsewhere in our system.
I feel like nothing I ever give is enough. And maybe it won’t be until I take my last breath.
38: Tessi
Zorin is adamant, even as he groans and barely gets himself upright. “We need to get you out of here.”
I help him stagger toward my ship, up the ramp, and into the co-pilot’s seat. Radar, whose cut paw I’ve wrapped, wedges himself between Zorin’s boots, like he knows my chosen is injured.
“No.”
Zorin looks over at me with surprise.
“I am tired of running and starting over.” I can help. I want to help. Hunting is how I survived when I didn’t have enough credits for city food.
Carnas and Corzin join us. Corzin closes the ramp.
“Kren and Davarok are targeting returning Neb fighters. Better make the move quickly. It’s getting messy out there.” Corzin climbs his way to the front while Carnas takes a seat in the back at a defensive weapons array. “I can get you into an actual hangar.”
He pulls out a device from his armor and types on the screen as I race us across space toward the last Neb ship. Corzin motions toward a hangar, sets the device over my dash, and taps it. The hangar door scrolls open for us.
I ease the ship inside, wondering if we’re going to get shot at. The moment we’re through the sealscreen, I catch sight of Myndrous and Neb bodies lying on the floor.
Carnas checks his rifle and his ammo and is the first to the ramp. Corzin is next. The moment we’ve landed and the feet have secured us to the ship, I get up. Zorin tries to join me.
I rest a hand on his shoulder and ease him back into his seat. “They didn’t beat me up before they threw me in the chamber. You stay here. Guard Radar and the ship.”
“Tessi…” He snatches up my wrist. “Please don’t do this.”
“You can barely move. Your other team is down. Azrim hasn’t called back.”
“Because whoever is on this ship is much more brutal, more dangerous, Tessi.”
“Then if I don’t make it back, if none of us do, you find Sky and Rhysan, and build your own family again.”
He tries to protest, but grimaces and holds his stomach.
I kiss him, linger in the heat of his mouth and the sharp points of his teeth when they accidentally graze my lips, and then rest my forehead to his.I love you, Zorin.
He looks up at me like I’ve shot him.
I count the bullets I have left in my magazine and follow Carnas and Corzin to the ramp.
“You sure about this, chica?” Carnas asks.
