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Taraven’s eyes jerk away from me, behind me, and I follow his gaze to see the door melting away. They’re going to get in.
“Frankie, don’t you dare die,” Taraven says. “I’m coming to get you.”
I see other faces in the background: Zandro, Bekah, Mai. Mai shoulders her way into the frame, her dark eyes meeting mine.
“You’ve got this, soldier,” she says. “Fight like hell.”
I somehow crack a smile. “You know I always do,” I say. “I gotta go. Taraven, I—”
A shot interrupts the holo, forcing me to duck out of the way and spin. There are five Skoropi here, more in the doorway, surrounding me. I get off a couple shots and swing my knife in a wide arc, making sure they know they aren’t the only one’s with claws.
I draw blood.
I fight like hell.
And I go down, but at least I go down swinging.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
??
TARAVEN
“I gotta go. Taraven, I—”
I stand in silence after the connection terminates, my fists clenched at my sides. My tail thrashes in the moss at my feet, the only sound besides the ringing in my ears.
It’s Agent Nguyen that finally breaks the tension, raking a hand through her short hair and muttering, “Well, fuck.”
I look from Mai to Zandro, his brow furrowed as he strokes his beard. Bekah grabs his arm, squeezing once.
“We’re going,” she says.
“This was not the plan,” Zandro says. ”And I am endangering our entire crew—the last vestiges of the Fifth House—if we go to Liatra. The weapon there could destroy us all, it would be suicide to fly into orbit.”
“Jokahn will help us,” I say. “He told us he wants a war…so let’s give him one. If we rally our combined forces on Azoth, we can take the weapon as ours and use it against Dalphox. Once we’ve taken Liatra, he’ll be encircled by opposing forces on Traika, Razakii…”
“Dalphox has a massive army on Razakii, and a planet full of supporters on Skoro,” Zandro says. “And Jokahn is just one man—and not even the warlord of the planet, who is firmly in Dalphox’s grip.”
“If you’re not going, then send us,” Mai cuts in. “Me, Reza, and Taraven—we’ll get our people back.”
“That would be even more risky, and I will not simply throw you all away,” Zandro says. He frowns and shakes his head, tugging on his beard as his tail twitches. He’s schooling his features, his bioluminescence neutral even though he is most assuredly agitated. “No…we need to be strategic. I need to talk to Nixeris.”
“There’s no time,” I say. There’s a ball of anxiety in the pit of my stomach, and I’m sure my eyes are blood red—but I don’t have ability to wait. I’m tempted to take the otherzephtan,or even a shuttle, and fly down to Liatra myself. “You saw her. She’s in dangernow.”
“And yet she said they had detained Malix, not killed him,” Zandro says. “Dalphox prefers to take prisoners and play games…not to kill them.”
“How would you have felt if I hadn’t come to save you?” Bekah asks.
We all go silent, Zandro turning slowly toward hisekirah. She puts her hands on her hips, looking up at him with a defiant scowl.
“I know you’re afraid,” she says. “I know that you’re cautious, that you’re always playing the long game. But these are our friends, Zandro; we can’t just leave them behind.”
“Nor can we fly into orbit around Liatra,” Zandro says. “We’ll be shot down.”
“So we navigate through a wormhole to the planet’s surface,” Bekah says. “We did it on Skoro.”
“There’s just one problem,” Zandro says. “The location that Frankie sent us is underground, and we cannot take Jaya under the planet’s surface. Her mass is too great.”
