Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 56021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 280(@200wpm)___ 224(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 280(@200wpm)___ 224(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
I miss her charisma. I miss her captaincy. I miss her.
“But I discovered something about myself down here. I was chipped. Like you. I wasn’t a good soldier, but I couldn’t feel fear. Mine malfunctioned. Stopped stopping the fear. I’m not who I used to be. I don’t know if I would even be able to function as captain anymore. Raine might be the better option.”
“Raine is never the better option,” I snark.
“I will take that as a compliment,” Raine says, her voice dry.
I jump in my seat, turning around to look at her. She must have snuck back in while nobody was looking. Or maybe the saurians just thought we’d all calmed down. Sullivan and I exchange looks and unspoken thoughts as our eyes meet.
Raine is insufferable. She’s always lurking. Always aware of everything. I am so tired of it.
“Why are you talking to me? You think I’m a robot.”
Her brow rises. “You’re mouthy on this planet.”
I could say a lot back. A lot of things I don’t say at all.
“If you knew how much people don’t say around you…”
“What do you want, Raine?” Sullivan asks the question with the authority that comes from having been captain of her own ship for years, and being alpha Thorn’s mate. Sullivan might be the only person who has never been afraid of Raine.
Raine folds her arms over her chest. “I want to know what is going to be done about Lettie. They’re talking about shooting the ship down. If they do that, there’s no getting off the planet.”
“There’s a whole entire port,” Sullivan says. “I almost escaped through it myself. The Mare isn’t the only way off the planet.”
“There’s another reason not to shoot the Mare down,” I add, horrified at the absence of common sense from this discussion.
“What’s that?”
“Lettie’s baby is on that ship,” I say. “You’re talking about shooting down a baby.”
“Not something your species historically seemed to care much about,” Avel mutters. I don’t know what the hell he means by that. I wonder what Raine has been telling him.
I’m now very much aware that Sullivan and my conversation is not at all private. Everybody is listening in. That’s kind of good, and kind of bad. Bad, because I really want to spend some time with the only person who has approximated a friend in years. Good, because this way I get to influence their thoughts and decision-making process.
The saurians exchange looks as we mention the baby. I don’t think they care about the baby, but I think they care very much what their mates think. Funny that such a heinous act should only be halted by disapproval. Saurian social ties are just as strong as human ones, even if respect for the young and attachment to those they create is not.
“Then we need another way to bring the ship down, because that crazy woman and her traitor mate cannot be allowed to threaten the peace of Grave City,” Avel says.
“I want my damn ship back. And not in a thousand pieces, either,” Sullivan scowls. “There better not be a scratch on that thing.”
Thorn gives her a look, which she ignores blithely.
“There’s only one thing Lettie wants. Well. Two things. Thorn. And Wrath. She’d probably settle for Wrath,” Raine says.
Wrath clears his throat.
“She can have me.”
Thorn lifts a brow at him.
“What? You’d give yourself to save some random half-bred baby?”
“I will go up to the ship, I will deal with the traitor, I will take the female and the baby, and this will be at an end.”
“Or you will go up to the ship, she will kill you, and then her reign of terror continues.”
Wrath shrugs. “You can always shoot the ship down if I fail.”
I am listening to all of this with a growing sense of horror. He does not have any idea of what he is getting into, and I won’t allow it.
“You’re not going up alone,” I say. “I will go with you.”
“I will go alone,” he says, immediately discounting my idea. “You are too precious to risk.”
“So are you.”
Wrath chuckles at me. Avel and Thorn exchange knowing looks. This room is absolutely filled with conversations that are not actually undergoing the formality of being held out loud.
“Cute, but you are absolutely not coming. You are going to stay here with your captain, and with Thorn. I trust them to keep you safe. You are among friends for the first time in a long time. Don’t waste that.”
He might be right, but he’s also very wrong. Thorn is not my friend, Raine is not my friend, and Sullivan was my captain, but I don’t think she’s planning on being captain again. That chapter of my life is over. And a new one is beginning.
It starts with not letting Wrath go up to the ship alone.
“Don’t worry,” Sullivan whispers in my ear. “I’ll get you on that ship.”