Raaevik turned.
Emperor Daaynal stood inside the blast doors in full combat leathers.The crown was gone, his hair pulled back to reveal the link band for the four hugedrakeenbehind him.Thyaar was at his left shoulder, and behind all of that, a squad of the Emperor's personal guard fanned across the entrance.Daaynal's eyes swept the bay.The bodies.The blood.The burn mark on Raaevik's side.
Raaevik's knees hit the deck.Not a choice.His body just stopped holding him up.
He knelt in the blood of the males he'd killed, head bowed, and the weight of his failure pressed him into the floor like a physical force.
"Majesty."His voice was barely a rasp.
Daaynal walked forward.His boots were quiet on the deck.He stopped close enough that Raaevik could see the scuffed toes of his combat boots.
Safe in your hands.
"They took her," Raaevik said.The words were ground glass in his throat, his voice deeper than it was before."A stealth transport launched from this bay.I was..."He swallowed."I was not at my post.I failed to protect her."
It wasn’t the whole truth.Not the confession of her warmth against him in the dark, and the quiet that had settled over him because she was there.He owed Daaynal that truth, but he couldn't give it.Not now.Not when every second he spent on his knees in front of the emperor was a second she didn't have.
"They have a ship," he forced his voice to hold despite the rasp."They were gone before I could reach the bay.The shuttle's transponder will be scrubbed, but I can track the engine signature if I move now."
He looked up and met the Emperor's gaze.
Daaynal was studying him.His expression was still and composed… unreadable.But then a flicker of calculation moved behind those green eyes.The warrior-emperor who'd killed his first assassin as a child looked at Raaevik the way he looked at a battlefield, assessing what was left that could still fight.
"You failed," Daaynal said, the words soft.
Raaevik flinched.It wasn’t a condemnation.It was worse.It was a fact.
Daaynal reached for his belt, drew out a dataflex, and unfurled it."So fix it."
He tossed the dataflex.It dropped against the deck in front of Raaevik's knee.
"The W'Raaith," Daaynal said."Stealth interceptor.Bay One.Fast enough to catch a transport if you leave within the hour."
Raaevik looked at the dataflex, then back up at his Emperor.
"Bring her back, Raaevik."Daaynal's voice was quiet."Bring her back, or don't come back at all."
He grabbed the dataflex.Rose to his feet.The burn on his ribs screamed, but he didn't feel it.The exhaustion that had been pulling at him since he woke fell away, replaced by something cold and clean and singular.
He didn't look at Thyaar, though he felt the other warrior's gaze on his back.
He didn't look at the Emperor again.
He just ran.
* * *
The thunderof Raaevik's boots faded down the corridor, leaving Thyaar standing in a cargo bay that smelled like blood and engine wash, staring at the carnage in front of him.There were four bodies on the deck.Three dead, one breathing.
And Raaevik had done it in what, ten seconds?Fifteen?Aftertaking an energy bolt to the ribs at close range?
Thyaar blinked.Draanth, that wasn't normal.Nowherenearnormal.And no amount of training could account for it, or even sheer adrenaline.He’d fought beside Raaevik for decades.He knew the male's capabilities the way he knew his own weapons kit.What he'd just witnessed went beyond all of it.
"Clear the bay," Daaynal ordered.“Secure the doors and alert Healer Kellat that we need a team down here.”
The guard squad melted away as though they’d never been there.Thyaar didn't move.His attention locked on the blood trail Raaevik had left, from where he'd knelt to the blast doors and beyond.He doubted Raaevik had even realised he was bleeding.
"Your Majesty," Thyaar turned, his voice rougher than intended."Why did you…”
