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He swallowed hard, a continuous almost-purr coming from his chest, as he stood and looked me in the eye. “The Thorzi are coming.”
And wasn’t that what we wanted?
Well, except for the part where the Thorzi and Zathki were on the verge of war, and seeing the ship we’d been on shot down on the surface of Zathkar was likely to make the Thorzi jump to the worst possible conclusion.
And as a society made up of warriors, it seemed likely they would attack first and ask questions not at all.
Given the sensible example of Jax, and the calm, measured example of his prince, I wouldn’t have jumped to that conclusion... except that Jax, having turned back to look at us with worry on his face, clearly had.
His jaw clenched, eyes squeezing shut as he took a deep breath and held it. When he let it out, there was a tiny bit of that same buzzing noise that Marex was making. Distress, fear, whatever it was for a Thorzi who was unhappy because his people might be about to kill him.
Finally, he took another breath and through his still-clenched jaw and asked, “Can you fight them off?”
Marex’s eyes went wide in shock for a moment, and I suspected he knew even better than I did what such a question had cost my usually smiling warrior. But after a moment, he ducked his head and shook it. “No. Even if we could scramble every ship on the planet before they arrived, our ships aren’t made for fighting. We have already lost too many. The only reason we were able to attack Crux’s ship was because it was as poorly defended as we are.”
“A cargo ship,” Jax said, deadpan. “Your ships are outfitted with the weapons of a cargo ship.”
“We aren’t warriors,” Marex answered instantly, and despite the sharpness, it wasn’t a rebuke. It was a plea.
Jax scowled and looked away. “You made war on us once. You very nearly won.”
Marex sighed and let his head fall back, looking like he wanted to bang it against something. “A horrible mistake at best, and you can never know what that war cost us. But here, now? We are not prepared for a war with your people. They will shoot us out of the sky before we can even properly launch.”
Jax turned away, looking at me—or better put, looking through me, thinking.
This was what he was made for. Who he’d been raised to be. Maybe he hadn’t said it explicitly, but he had, sort of. He’d been raised by a genius strategist and tactician—one who could have figured out both the best way to attack in this single situation, and what outcome to strive for that would have the best effect on the overall conflict.
But right now, the only side he could fight for was not his own.
I took a step forward, hands out, palms turned up. “Jax. What about your mark? The one you told me about? We could stop this, couldn’t we? Together?”
CHAPTER30
JAX
“Together?” I asked, incredulous. “No. No it is not safe. We do not know what you’re capable of. You stay here. Marex will—”
I looked at the Zathki, who was frowning at me like I had become base and offensive in my quick dismissal of Wesley. It was the look I had first expected when I saw his kind, but not one he had given me so far.
“Stay,” I snapped at them both, and I marched into the hall.
Zathki swarmed everywhere, some rushing deeper into the tunnels, others heading for the tunnel exit. The room they had given us was near the entrance—an attempt to keep us from feeling trapped, I suspected. It was only a jog down a short hall until the tunnel opened on glistening white light to let people rush in and out.
“Jax!” Wesley shouted. Stubborn human, he was coming behind me, shuffled around by Zathki rushing to safety.
I ignored him. I ignored everything, because I had only moments to figure out what to do, how to contact my people and call them off the attack with the communications array on my crashed ship broken, and no self-respecting Thorzi willing to listen to communication attempts from Zathkar itself.
When my boots skidded over that first patch of ice, I threw my head back. There, above the crust of this barren moon, flew three Thorzi ships. They dipped low to the ground. The sirens blaring did not cover the sound of destruction as they fired the first volley of plasma shots.
It cracked the ice, blowing glistening shards high up into the air as the Zathki who had been doing repairs on our ship raced toward the tunnel entrance.
Instinctively, I knew what it would look like from above—the Zathki salvaging what they could from our crashed vessel. An attack and subsequent pillaging.
A small form crashed into my back.
Wesley. Only he was so little. But he grabbed my arm and jerked me around with surprising strength.
“I’m not asking your fucking permission,” he snarled, eyes hard and flat with anger as he pushed under the jacket the Zathki had given me. “I’m not letting people die because you don’t believe in me, Jax.”
