Page 158 of Tempting Fate

I may have been naive, but I wasn’t foolish. Once this bucket of bolts took off, the chances of me being saved were slim to none. But what could I do?

Nothing if I lost control of my thoughts.

“We have to wait for the aft thruster to recalibrate.” The pilot slammed her fist on the control panel. “Skikking thing.”

“Take off anyway.”

“But it will—”

“I don’t care!”

My fate is the softest flower that blooms in moonlight.

“Okay, Cap, but we’ll have to book into a shipyard as the next stop, it won’t last any more takeoffs,” she said.

“With the credits Stalker is paying us, that won’t be a problem, but it will be everyone’s problem if we don’t take off now!”

Despair cradled me like a lover, beckoning me into its embrace. Not only captured, but taking me to the bounty hunter who’d been after me this whole time.

The pilot turned back to the controls. The low-level whirr became a throbbing, grating hum.

For the second time in as many months, another ship took off into space, taking me from the planet I called home.

At least this time I knew I needed rescuing.

CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE

Ghosts

Imani

I COULDN’T STOP screaming.

Not when my captor’s arms were wrenched from me, and I heard the sounds of fists meeting flesh. Not when soothing voices mixed with angry ones. Not when I dreamed someone called my name.

The cold, empty air around me was somehow more terrifying than being held by the stinking corsair. At least he’d held me up. My legs gave way, and I sank to the floor, my screams turning to harsh sobs that racked my body.

Only then could I process the words around me.

“I’m sorry, it was the only way. You’re safe. I’ve got you.”

Kira. That was her voice. I was on Kira’s ship. Not Redtusk’s. They’d pulled us on board. Tractor beam? Didn’t matter. Safe.

My friend gathered me in her arms, holding me tight, calming me.

As I sobbed in her embrace, rational thought returned. My voice came out thin and reedy, panic writhing in my chest. “I’m in space again.”

“Not yet we’re not, and I know how much you hate it. We’re still hovering, and we can set you down at the village if we have to, but it will waste time. Valuable time.”

I took slow, deep breaths. Time. “They took Airida.”

“We know. We’re going to save him.”

Airida. Yes. Get a grip.

My ribcage felt too tight. But the thought of losing Airida, of jeopardising a chance to save him… I clapped a hand to my mouth. I couldn’t. But going into space again…

“We need to go, Imani. We need to save him.”