Blightfall (Riftwake #1)

Prologue Arturo

Prologue

Arturo

I fell.

The foreign planet loomed beneath me, hundreds of thousands of acres of deadly forest stretching in all directions, as I plummeted toward it without the protection of anything but my flightsuit.

The land below grew larger, as if rushing up to meet me.

It might have been beautiful, were it not about to be the instrument of my demise.

Wind buffeted my skin, the atmosphere growing thicker, providing more resistance as my body cut through it.

My stomach lodged in my throat, adrenaline coursing through me.

I held tight to Naga, my hyperslug, who trembled violently in my arms. The inhibitor field around the planet prevented her from hyperjumping until we were near the ground—and then Naga could ask for and receive permission to teleport us to safety.

If permission didn’t come, that would be that.

My team couldn’t catch us. They had already been chased toward the forest by countless enemy ships. If I died, they’d be left here, fighting for their lives.

Stars, we’d fallen so far, so fast. I couldn’t open my mouth, couldn’t speak, couldn’t even scream except in my mind, a silent wail of terror as I dropped down, down, down, gripping Naga because if the wind pulled her from my grasp, there was no hope of anything but a swift death.

I began to make out the texture of the trees.

We had mere seconds before we would crash through the branches and become a fine paste of blood and decaying bark.

Alanik’s face flashed across my mind, and I regretted failing her the most. My head swam, and I wondered if I would faint from panic and fail to experience the last moments of my life.

Though she couldn’t hear me, I silently pleaded to Naga. Give me another chance to find a way out of this.

Don’t let me die here and abandon my team.