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I whooped, dragged up and back down so my body felt weightless for a moment, and Wesley’s startled laugh filled my ears.
Then, a crash shook through the ship. The shields screamed a warning, and the joy of the moment faded.
I hit the panel, turning the sound off, though the light continued to flare at the edges of my vision.
Crux had attacked us.
I had miscalculated. I had thought he wouldn’t dare, given the precious cargo he must think the ship carried.
“What’s happening?” Wesley sat up straight in the captain’s chair, his hands gripping the sides so tightly his knuckles went white. His face too, had turned stark and colorless. He was afraid.
I clenched my teeth, checking the screen for the area behind us to see the blare of a plasma gun at our rear. “Crux is firing on us.”
If we had stolen silks or treasures from another Thorzi, it would have been the right thing to do—attack us, take back what we had stolen when the ship was a steaming pile of rubble and the crew was injured or dead. But life was more fragile than silks and treasures. The first of our people on Thorzan had learned that acutely.
Kaelum and I had not stolen a thing, but humans. Supposedly, many humans. And with every fire of his blaster toward this ship, Crux put them at risk.
“Hold on,” I ground out, jerking the ship up. We could stay near the ground, but there were more places to crash. More danger. Less space to move.
I flew up instead, toward the outer atmosphere and beyond.
I had thought Crux would lose interest once we moved so far, but I was wrong. He stayed right behind us the whole way.
I hissed Thorzi curses between my teeth as I worked to dodge his shots. Suddenly, Wesley was at my back, his hand settling at the small of it while I leaned in above the console.
He looked worried, his eyes wide behind the mask he wore across the bridge of his nose.
“I did not think Crux would open fire like this,” I admitted, guilt flooding my chest for having allowed Wesley to accompany me on this mission. All I could think about was how delicate his body was, what might happen to him if we crashed. He had a warrior’s heart, but he had been wronged, and if he were injured, it would be my responsibility.
Wesley only shook his head. He waved a hand at the console. “This ship can basically steer itself, right? And, like, this is a video game. Avoid getting shot. I can do that.”
I scowled, but Wesley looked at me straight, pushing the mask up toward his eyes, which were flat with his stubbornness.
“Seriously. I can steer. But if we’re getting away, we need someone shooting back at him. Giving him trouble. And I—I just—I’m guessing you’ve got better aim than me in a firefight.”
“The blasts are plasma. Not fire.”
His brows rose. “That’s totally not the point.”
I clenched my teeth for a second, but he was right. The ship’s technology was such that it would not be impossible for him to guide us to safety, but if Crux got past our shields, hit an engine, we’d never make it that far.
Still, I took his hands in mine and held them over the panel. “Up, down, left, right.” I guided him across it, watching his jaw work nervously.
“Got it,” he said.
I had no choice but to trust him. If I could take Crux’s ship out, or at least distract them from firing at us, that was far better than dying in the vast, cold, emptiness of space beyond Thorzan.
I found the gunner’s seat and took aim. Crux, at the very least, struggled to attack when he also had to dodge us. But his ship was well manned and piloted by—well, not piloted by a human who had no experience.
My best attempts to bring Crux down were for nothing. Soon, the sirens were screaming again. Wes was muttering under his breath, something that sounded very much like, “Sorry, sorry, sorry,” as if he needed to apologize when I was the one who had put him in danger.
Crux’s ship swooped behind us, crowding us toward—
Fuck.
An enormous moon loomed in my field of vision: Zathkar. It looked a near-blinding blueish white with the light of the suns bouncing off the frozen surface beneath us.
Crux opened fire again, and I cursed, jumping up from my seat.
