A beam shot from our weapons system and engulfed the Dark Watch cruiser. The goon’s scorched and pockmarked craft went dead in the air and dropped. The pilot ejected, spiraling backward.
“Whoa!” My eyes widened. I looked down. The cruiser exploded below us. “It’s a good thing no one walks around outside here!”
“I might’ve souped that phaser up a bit,” Shade said, grinning.
“You think?” I swung the megaweapon toward an incoming cruiser. The Dark Watch pilot got the hell out of my line of fire.
Another fighter closed in on our right, spitting shots that left our ship shaken and blaring alarms at us. Shade fired back but only managed to destabilize it. Watching my monitor, I adjusted my aim, locked on, and fired. The pilot ejected, popping up and out before what was left of his cruiser crashed and burned on the empty avenue alongside the other.
I whooped. Adrenaline pumped through me as I scanned for my next target. “My gun is bigger than your gun,” I teased, a little smirk in my voice.
Shade rattled off more shots with his itty-bitty phaser. “I’m steering and shooting. That shows talent.”
“Being able to multitask doesn’t make up for size.”
He flashed a quick smile as two incoming cruisers banked away from us. “Watch this. You might reevaluate.”
Shade accelerated like a fiend. My whole body pressed into my seat, and I couldn’t move a muscle. He came up between the Endeavor and the two remaining Dark Watch cruisers, leveled out so fast my stomach flipped over, and started shooting. The fighters veered off in separate directions. We waited, blocking their path to the Endeavor. After a moment, it was clear they weren’t coming back again.
I sank into my seat with a heavy exhale and then caught a spark of sunlight off gray metal. I looked over my shoulder. The Endeavor hadn’t jumped yet. She picked up speed, racing spaceward and getting smaller and smaller. She made her way toward freedom, and my heart lurched after her. My hands fell from the joystick. I stared up at the shrinking dot, unblinking. The second she leaped into warp speed, I’d be out of contact.
Watching her go, I felt suddenly lost, untethered. Static already droned in my ear, the distance growing too great for our outdated communication system.
“Jax?” Tears stung my eyes with abrupt intensity. He was my home. I was his. We’d built each other for seven years now.
My hands crunched down on my knees, squeezing so hard I’d leave bruises. “Partner?”
“I’m here, Tess.” Increased interference didn’t hide the strain in Jaxon’s voice. It equaled mine. Was maybe greater.
I started shaking and gripped my legs harder as Shade rose quickly, following the Endeavor out of Korabon’s atmosphere. We jiggled from the force of the climb, and my skin pulled back against my bones again, flattening. Hot and cold flip-flopped inside me with sickening volatility, and my vision went spotty as blind panic took over.
I made a noise—something between a whimper and a choking swallow. How had I ever thought this would be okay? Jax and I didn’t separate. We hadn’t been apart for longer than eight hours since the day we met on Hourglass Mile. Prison created bonds, a pressure cooker that fucking fused people.
“Jax!” My scream flew out before I could stop it. My breath came short. I pounded my hands against my window. I couldn’t help it.
Shade looked over, frowning. Was I scaring him? Well, I was scared shitless.
“You’re a fucking badass rebel capt…” Jax’s words garbled and then cut off completely at the nearly broken connection. “I’ll see you in three da…partner.”
A bright spot in the distance glowed hot and then winked out—the Endeavor jumping away from us.
Vomit rose hard and fast in my esophagus. I held my breath and swallowed. Emotion punched up and I punched it back down, squeezing my eyes shut until I could breathe without stomach acid hurtling up my throat again.
I shook. The hot-cold sensation wouldn’t leave me. It gathered, pooling in places that felt deep and empty and afraid inside me.
Shade reached across the middle of the cruiser and squeezed my knee. “We did it. We got them out. Brace yourself now. We’re jumping.”
I nodded, closing my eyes again. I swallowed convulsively. Seconds later, we jumped the hell out of there—and likely straight into our next disaster.
Chapter 4
SHADE
Tess finally spoke for the first time since we popped out of warp speed within sighting distance of the green and blue planet. People called Reaginine earthlike. As if they’d ever been to Earth. I knew I hadn’t.
“Reaginine is pretty,” she said numbly, watching out her window as we approached the Temple Lands after a long cruise over the jungle-covered southern continent. I’d wanted to arrive somewhere with next-to-no air traffic to make sure we hadn’t been followed before flying into this busier area.
I glanced over at her. She looked nauseous, which normally I’d blame on the long jump—my stomach still felt a bit twisted up also—but she’d looked sick before the trip through hyperspace. Leaving Jax was the problem.
“You’ve never been here?” I asked, hoping to distract her.
“Dad—I mean, the Overseer—never let Mom and me come. We celebrated Emergence on Alpha Sambian, when it was actually autumn on our part of the planet.” She shrugged.
“Better than the dead of winter, like in Albion City. The cold made it hard to pray all day outside under Her rays of sunlight—metaphorically, anyway.” I winked, dragging a weak smile from Tess.
When it was midsummer at the Grand Temple on Reaginine, it was Emergence. It didn’t matter where you were in the galaxy—on a planet, in the Dark, whatever season on your rock or not—the citizens of the eighteen Sectors celebrated the birth of the Sky Mother on the summer solstice here on Reaginine. The Great Star was here, shining on us right now. And the heart of the Church of the Great Star rose before us in the form of pyramidal temples. My current destination was a hidden gem several kilometers beyond them.
“On Starway 8, it didn’t matter. There are no seasons on a spacedock, and we followed the universal calendar. It was just another date to me anyway, except we made cookies and didn’t have lessons.”
“That sounds better than freezing my ass off on a rooftop to get as close as possible to Her far-off rays of holiness.”
A fuller smile quirked Tess’s lips. “Careful, you’re sounding blasphemous.”
“Nah. My Sky Mother is concerned with the bigger picture.”
Tess snorted. I didn’t pick a fight. I got where she was coming from. The bigger picture didn’t look great.