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She snorted, but tucked the blade’s sheath into the back of her pants. “And to think, a few hours ago, you wanted this blade out of my hands.”
“If you were planning on stabbing me, I still would. I don’t care if you want to stab others. Stab away.”
Inez drew her fingers across his face, as if memorizing him. Rylec grabbed her hand and kissed her knuckles. “I love you, Inez. I have since we met five years ago and I will until the day I die.”
“I love you, too, Rylec. I never stopped.”
A high-pitched tone blared through the forest. The Imperial Guard, announcing their presence. Inez pulled out of his arms but didn’t let go of his hand. Rylec squeezed. Her green eyes met his black. A thousand things went unsaid between their gazes. Inez smiled at him, a grin of both hope and despair.
They would get through this. Rylec wouldn’t fail his family twice.
“Rylec Vanoriel,” an electronic voice blared through the trees. “Surrender yourself and your star-maid to the Imperial Guard of Empress Calanthe the First. Disobey, and we have orders to use force.”
“Go now,” Rylec said. “I’ll draw their attention.”
Inez didn’t move. “We stand together. I’m not leaving you again.”
Rylec wrapped her hand in his and brushed a quick kiss against her knuckles.
“Rylec Vanoriel,” it started again.
“Yes, yes, I heard you the first time,” Rylec shouted. “Pass along a message to your empress for me. Tell Calanthe to go fuck herself.”
The horn cut off. Good. He had always found the Imperial Guard stuffy and annoying, even when they obeyed his father rather than his father’s murderer. “We should—”
A blast flared through the meadow, throwing Rylec and his mate off their feet. Inez hit the grass and rolled. Rylec glanced up—
A guard dropped from the sky.
Rylec threw up a hand and the guard flung into the air. As they went up, Rylec twisted. The guard’s body wrenched in half. Two other soldiers fell through the foliage, but Rylec flung their comrade’s body at them. They crashed to the dirt.
Rylec flipped up into a standing position. Inez had already returned to her feet. She punched her knife straight through a guard’s chest. Rylec grinned. What a bloodthirsty wife he had.
Eight more guards dropped from the ship above.
Neither Rylec nor Inez hesitated. She threw her knife and followed the path, knocking out an opponent with a twirling kick. When two guards raised their weapons at her, Rylec spun them around. Their laser blasts fired at each other, and they went down in a pile of seizing limbs. Rylec grabbed another with his magic—
Something hard knocked against the back of his head.
Rylec went to his knees. Another ship had arrived. Imperial Guards swarmed into the meadow, so many that he couldn’t count them all. They rammed into Inez, tossing her to theground. Rylec roared and rammed to his feet, but hands wrapped around his arms and tugged him down.
Rylec pulled on his magic—
Inez went pale. Shit. He hadn’t yet recuperated from theParadiseand his magic was nearly depleted. But he couldn’t pull from her, not when they both battled for their lives. Rylec wouldn’t risk his star-wife. She needed her strength for their plan to succeed.
Rylec growled and struggled, but the hold was too tight without his magic.
An approaching guard pulled something from his belt. Rylec jerked at the flap of black fabric. A blindband.
The guard threw the fabric and it morphed, becoming almost gelatinous. It split into two, one splattered against Inez’s face before the second hit him. It invaded his mouth and his eyes and his nose until nothing remained but endless darkness.
Rylec roared into the silence of his own mind.
Chapter 9
Six hundred and ninety-eight. Six hundred and ninety-nine. Six hundred and fifty. With each number, Inez breathed deeply, savoring the taste of air in her lungs. With the blindband still around her eyes, mouth and ears, her sense of smell was all she had left. Why the nanites invading her brain didn’t suppress that sense too was a mystery. Probably because eliminating all senses would drive a person to madness.
The Sollirians didn’t want her mad. And that was perhaps more terrifying.
