Chapter 42
CHAPTER
FORTY-TWO
I only had a vague recollection of how I got onto the fighter.
Kal was burned into my mind, however. His face appeared behind my lids every time I closed my eyes—pale with terror as I careened down the hall, blood pouring from the wound I’d made in my arm to remove the tracker.
But he hadn’t stopped me. By the time I’d reached him, he’d slipped into a corner of the hallway I somehow knew was out of sight of the cameras, torn off the his face covering, and grabbed me to wrap the fabric around my gushing wound.
“There’s a fighter at the end of the row, full of fuel,” he’d whispered.
He hadn’t said anything else, just pressed his brow to mine before I took off running, so fast it had felt like I’d blinked and appeared in the cockpit.
With hands that didn’t feel like mine I now powered up the engines, priming the thrusters.
I’d never flown before but right now it was as if I’d been flying for cycles, like it was muscle memory to fire the thrusters and shoot out of the hangar.
There was no plan, but the warm stone in my hand hummed, the song of the universe louder than my own thoughts.
My heart beat in my chest so heavily it was as if it’d grown two sizes and I pressed a hand over my sternum, rubbing at the space while maneuvering around the Kuxatana and punching it.
I ignored the hails Rys sent again and again.
I needed to find somewhere safe—if such a place actually existed. Somewhere Asher couldn’t find me. Fuck, where the Federation couldn’t find me.
I reached the jump point. I couldn’t stop to consider, I only had time to act. Even now they were probably on my heels. So I jumped, blue and white light pouring across my face.
Quadrant three rocketed into view but I didn’t stop.
I shot through free space as fast as I could until I came to the next jump point.
I knew if I could get to quadrant four there were a few planets in the Outer Rim of our galaxy I had a chance to hide on.
In my palm, the stone gave another pulse of radiant energy.
You need to let go, my instincts roared, you’ll burn up.
But my body fought the idea, even as I slowly peeled my fingers back one by one until it remained pressed only between my thumb and my palm.
No, it wasn’t safe to let go. Once I landed somewhere and hid I could.
My fist closed over it again and I let out a sigh as a small blue-green planet came into view.
It was far enough past the last outpost of the quadrant I could only hope the inhabitants either didn’t belong to the Federation or didn’t give a damn.
With a deep breath, I maneuvered the ship through the atmosphere, my teeth clacking with turbulence before a thick canopy of trees appeared in my viewscreen.
Even through the haze of the stone, the sight made my chest ache and I touched it again with two fingers before activating the side thrusters to turn, looking for a break in the trees so I could touch down.
A slice of a clearing appeared ahead and I landed effortlessly.
I sat back in my chair and looked down at the stone in my hand. “What the fuck is happening?”
The stone hadn’t unraveled me at a cellular level.
Instead, it’d given me the strength to fight almost an army of soldiers, the speed to run from the crew, and the ability to fly a Maker-damned fighter.
Maybe it had all just been another lie, but I understood why so many wanted this stone.
The power was addicting. Even now when I was safely hidden, part of me didn’t want to let it go.
You need to let go, sweetheart. This time the voice in my head sounded too much like Asher.
I tried to shake it away, but the echo of it remained, as if he was standing right behind me.
The feeling was so tangible I twisted to look over my shoulder, half expecting him to have somehow smuggled aboard. But I was alone.
I didn’t want to think about Asher either.
I was grateful he’d been wearing his helmet.
The roar of my name had been desperate, broken even, as I’d run from him.
But how could I not run when to turn would have most certainly meant my death?
I was at best a passing fancy for the male—the stone was his purpose.
And since I didn’t know his plans for it, the last thing I wanted to do was put it in his hand.
There is so much you do not understand, the universe hummed.
I rose from my seat, tucking the stone between my chest and my breastband, and checked the atmospheric readings on the screen beside the ramp.
I didn’t need a respirator for the surface and I took a second to lock my bio-ID into the security system so no one else could enter.
Hitting the release, I made my way out into the jungle, palm wrapped around the hilt of my quara blade.
Food and hydration were my first priorities, the rest would come after.
Unforgiving heat beat around my shoulders like a cloak and I turned, squinting up at the two suns.
The crunch of grass beneath my boots gave way to moss as I slipped beneath the trees, the bark of the trunks a deep, rich brown.
Around me verdant life blossomed in blazing greens, bright purples and oranges.
The call of animals above made me spin, head craned back to catch a glimpse.
But I couldn’t sense any other intelligent life close by—and I knew, somehow, I would be able to.
Instead, it was just lush vegetation and skittering creatures too small to be a threat.
With each step I took, the stone hummed against my chest, the melody mingling with the swaying breeze and the calling from the trees like the sweetest music. And there, beneath the cacophony, was a voice.
Juniper.
Run.
I didn’t question it. I turned on my heel and ran, shooting through the forest fast enough the trees blurred around me.
The stone burned against my skin and I gave over to the feeling, ducking beneath a fallen branch and catapulting myself over a wide stream.
I could only hope I was going in the direction of my fighter.
Blaster fire ripped through the forest, the trunk of a nearby tree exploding on impact.
The ground shuddered as it fell, taking two of its fellows with it.
I barely ducked in time, hopping up only a few feet away.
A dark shape slipped into my peripheral vision and I thrust my hand out, a wave of energy pulsing from my fingertips.
Maker. This power was beyond my understanding, even as it passed through me.
I fought the horror itching beneath my skin—I had no time for it.
There was a garbled cry but I was too far away to know what had happened.
My boots slipped against bracken but a break in the trees appeared ahead.
Sunlight glinted off the dark metal of the fighter I’d taken.
The stone burned hot against my chest and a pulse of power bubbled outward.
A moment later the ramp lowered and I jumped, cleared a mind-boggling distance and slid inside, slammed the button to close and threw myself into the cockpit.
I punched the down thrusters, careening up into the sky and barely avoiding the fighter on my left—identical to the one I’d grabbed.
There must have been a tracker on board.
For now, I could only hope they hadn’t anticipated I would be fast enough to get back to the ship, not with the uniformed soldiers scrambling back up the ropes and onto their own.
The hull of my fighter groaned as I pushed it through the thinning atmosphere before gravity bottomed out and I rocketed into free space.
A warning light came up to my left and I clicked the shields into place a second before cannon fire blasted against my wing.
And…I knew what to do. I banked right away from the fire, slipped around the waiting ships and used the hidra-boost to punch it straight to the jump point.
They would follow, but I could only hope I could make it to an outpost to destroy the tracker before they could catch up.
And there again, in the back of my mind, a voice that sounded so much like Asher whispered:
See you soon, sweetheart.