Page 57 of Claimed By the Wraiths

“Twenty minutes once the upload starts.”

“Deyric’s estimate. Could be less if the channels authenticate quickly.”

“Could be more.”

“Could be more,” she agreed.

The guard rotation was closing. Seven minutes left.

“When this is over,” she said. “When the upload is done. When those four thousand people are free.”

“Then I don’t stop,” I said.

“Then you don’t stop.”

I kissed her. Her hand on the back of my neck, the same gesture from the Ghost hatch. The bond caught between us, the promise we’d been making since before either of us knew it was a promise.

“I brought you something.” I peeled the spare flush comm from the inside of my upper arm and pressed it into place behind her ear. “Paired to my channel and the Raptor. Keep it on.”

Her fingers touched the patch. “That went through the door with you?”

“Flexible and flush to skin. Yes. Rigid gear stays outside.”

“I’ll be in the service corridor behind your cell,” I said. “When the Raptor hits the station, I come for you.”

“I know you will.”

The guard rotation had three minutes left. I compressed back through the gap.

On the service side, I pulled the blaster, bypass strip, and tools from the recess and put them back where they belonged.

Through the wall, I felt her settle back onto the bench. Her heartbeat steady.

Four hours until the Raptor hit. Twenty minutes for the upload inside the extraction window.

I went back into the dark corridors to wait for the attack.

JESSA

The bond changed first.

Serak’s attention snapped sharp and sudden, the way he changed when his crew was close. Relief. Focus. Readiness.

Not joy. Something fiercer. Like he’d been holding himself together inside these walls for nearly two weeks and had finally heard reinforcements arrive.

A heartbeat later, the deck shuddered under my feet.

Then the klaxons started.

Nexus Station’s external defenses engaged. The deck vibrated under my feet. Somewhere above us, weapons fire, the deep thrum of station cannons and the higher pitch of ship-mounted energy arrays.

The Raptor was drawing fire. Drawing attention. Drawing every guard on the station toward the external threat.

My cell door opened.

Serak was on the other side.

Not shadow-melded. Visible. Dark-skinned, silver-traced.