“What?” Skoria spat out. “You ask for my help and then want to try to act like there’s still nothing between us? We have chemistry, Toryx. Why do you keep trying to deny that?”
Evie felt her blood boiling. Who did this woman think she was? There was no chemistry between Toryx and Skoria! But Toryx probably wasn’t going to say anything. He was too worried about getting a ship and water to get back to Zocrone, so he was going to tiptoe around Skoria’s feelings and try to appease her. Evie wished there was a way to tell him that everything was already taken care of so that he wouldn’t let Skoria bully him around. But at the same time she also wished that Toryx would stand up to Skoria despite not knowing that Xeywyn had already set up everything they needed. Evie wanted Toryx to stick up for her no matter what.
But he wasn’t going to do that. He’d already proven that earlier today in Skoria’s office.
Or had he? To Evie’s surprise Toryx wasn’t backing down now. In fact, he was standing taller than before, and leaning in to get right in Skoria’s face.
“Skoria, whatever we had between us is gone. It’s ancient history. I don’t mind catching up over dinner as old friends, but I’m not going to date you again. I’m with Evie now. I know you realized that, so don’t try to play dumb.”
Evie felt her heart leap. He was actually sticking up for her!
Skoria wasn’t thrilled about this. She stuck a finger right in the middle of Toryx’s chest and glared at him with her three Mognerthian eyes. “Are you sure that’s how you want to act? I can make a little call right now to Xeywyn and tell him I was wrong about everything, and that he shouldn’t give you credit.”
Evie’s heart tightened in her chest, but Toryx didn’t flinch.
“Do what you want to do, Skoria. If you don’t help me, I’ll find another way. I’m not going to be threatened or intimidated into cheating on Evie. I don’t care how much is at stake. Evie means more to me than anyone or anything in the Seven Galaxies, so do not cross me on this. If you insist on making this dinner into something romantic, then I’m leaving right now.”
“You wouldn’t dare!” Skoria said.
“Yes, I would.” Toryx threw his napkin down and turned around to storm off. He took about three big strides and then his gaze fell on Evie. He stopped mid-stride and his mouth fell open. “Evie? What are you doing here?”
Evie’s mouth had been hanging open as well, but she snapped it shut now. She glanced around and saw that the entire restaurant was staring at them. Skoria had just seen her and was starting to storm over with a raised fist. Evie wasn’t sure whether Skoria was intending to actually punch her or just make a threatening gesture, but she wasn’t intending to stick around and find out. Especially not since many of the restaurant’s guests had apparently realized that one of the people arguing was the famous Skoria. All over the dining room, aliens from every race imaginable were pulling out their e-assistants and starting to snap pictures.
“Come on, Toryx,” Evie said, reaching out to grab his arm and pull him toward the exit. “We have to get out of here. Now. I’ll explain on the way to the Docking Station.”
For a moment, Toryx looked like he was going to protest. Thankfully, another angry scream from Skoria made him reconsider, and he nodded at Evie.
“Well, then. Lead the way.”
Evie took off at a run with Toryx right behind her. As soon as they were outside, Evie hailed one of the many water taxis that were constantly zipping through Mognerth’s canals. The boats looked like old-fashioned gondolas that used to be used on Earth, but these were anything but old fashioned. They were computerized and solar-powered, and they could travel at speeds rivaling the fastest modern hovercrafts.
Evie jumped in with Toryx right behind her. “The Docking Station, as fast as you can!” she yelled at the water taxi’s operator.
Only once the water taxi had taken off from the dock and Evie was sure that Skoria hadn’t managed to jump in with them did Evie take a deep breath and start to explain to Toryx what was going on. She quickly briefed him on what Xeywyn had said.
“I brought all our stuff with me,” she added, gesturing to the bags she was carrying. “We can leave right away, and we probably should.”
“I agree,” Toryx said, glancing over his shoulder uneasily. “I’m sure Skoria will be following us before long. She’s probably hailing a water taxi right now.”
“Exactly. And I’m sure she realizes that we’re heading to the Docking Station. We have to get out of here before she figures out a way to stop us. This is our one shot. Thankfully, Xeywyn is too busy and too far away at the moment to stop us, but once Skoria realizes that I’m sure she’ll try to find another way.”
Toryx was already scrolling through his messages on his e-assistant. “Okay! I have the codes right here. This is exactly what we need.” He turned to the water taxi’s operator. “Hurry! There will be a thousand extra credits in it for you if you can get us to the Docking Station before Skoria.”
The operator’s eyes widened. “You guys are running from Skoria?”
“Yes!” Evie said. “And she’s quick, so make sure you’re quicker if you want those extra credits.”
The operator turned around without another word of protest, and a few moments later the water taxi noticeably sped up. Evie’s pulse sped up as the boat sped up, and she and Toryx constantly looked over their shoulders. The water spray rising from the canal had soon soaked them both, but neither of them cared. They only cared about not getting caught by Skoria.
And they cared about each other.
Evie turned to look at Toryx, her eyes filling with tears. He probably couldn’t tell that she was on the verge of crying, since they were both so wet from the canal already. But when she spoke to him, she couldn’t keep her voice from breaking with emotion.
“You stood up for me,” she said. “You stood up to Skoria, even though you didn’t know yet that we already had a ship and water.”
Toryx looked back at her with a gaze more intense than Evie had ever seen it. “Yes, I stood up for you. For us. I realized after our little argument earlier that it didn’t matter to me if I saved all of Zocrone but lost you. If you aren’t in my life, there’s nothing left for me. I never intended to hurt you, Evie. I’m so sorry that I wasn’t clearer on where we stood from the beginning. But let me be clear now: I want to be your man. I want you to be my girl. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, and you alone.”
Evie blinked back more tears. “You really mean that?”
Toryx took her hands in his. “Yes. You’re my destiny, Evie. And wherever that destiny leads us tonight—whether it’s to escaping and saving Zocrone, or to losing everything—it doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is that you and I do this together. That we do all of life together. We’re one sludging good team.”
Evie felt her heart warming, and a smile spread across her face. “You’re right. We are a sludging good team.”
Behind them, Evie could suddenly see the bright lights of a water taxi coming toward them way too fast. Toryx looked over his shoulder and saw it too.
“Looks like Skoria found us,” he said. “Let’s hope we can outrun her.”
Evie nodded, but she felt strangely calm and at peace. Now that she knew that she and Toryx were on good terms, nothing else could get her down. And she believed with everything in her that together she and Toryx could make this escape attempt work. With the two of them working together, nothing could get in their way. They were going to save Zocrone together.
And then they were going to spend the rest of their lives enjoying living together in Zocrone.
“We’ll outrun her,” Evie said confidently as the lights of the Docking Station appeared ahead of them on the canal. “Let’s do this.”
Chapter Ten
Toryx jumped from the water taxi onto the Docking Station’s pier when the taxi was still a good three feet away. He was holding Evie’s and his bags of supplies, and it was dark, but he still
made the leap easily and landed with sure footing. He turned around quickly and reached back to grab Evie’s hand and help her onto the dock, then he quickly pulled out his e-assistant and paid the operator. He included the extra thousand credits he’d promised, plus a generous tip. And then, he turned and ran. Evie was already running ahead of him.
Skoria’s water taxi was closing in fast, and he had no time to lose. If he and Evie didn’t manage to get out of here before Skoria caught up, things were going to be complicated by a factor of about one thousand.
Xeywyn had put the new ship in the same hangar where the dropship had been. Toryx wasn’t sure what had been done with the drop ship and he didn’t care. That tiny ship was useless to them now.
But the ship that had replaced it was better than Toryx had expected. He stared at it in appreciation for a moment, even though they didn’t have a moment to lose. The ship was huge. It looked like it had a reinforced hull, and the most modern of engines. Xeywyn had made sure to get them a ship that had the best possible chance of making it through Zocrone’s unforgiving, stormy atmosphere. The ship also looked brand new. Its silvery blue paint shimmered in the bright lights of the Docking Station, and the word Savior was painted on the side in a bright red shade.
“The Savior indeed,” Toryx mused. “You did right by me Xeywyn, old friend.”
If anything could save Toryx and Evie and the entire planet of Zocrone, it was this sturdy ship.
Toryx pulled out his e-assistant and pulled up the codes to access the ship. When he entered them into the console in front of the ship, the ship’s engines whirred to life and the access door began opening, letting down a long staircase of steps for Toryx and Evie to climb up. Evie was closer to the stairs and made her way up quickly, but Toryx was hot on her heels. Evie ran directly to the bridge to begin preflight checks, but Toryx went to check on the cargo.
Despite the fact that he was a big, tough Zocronian, the sight of that cargo brought tears to his eyes. Dozens of giant metal cylinders, marked on the side in Universal with the words “potable water,” filled the cargo hold. In fact, as Toryx checked on the rest of the ship, he saw that every spare space on the ship had been filled with water. Zocrone was saved, if only Toryx and Evie could get this water to them.
The sound of Evie’s voice on the ship’s intercom system snapped Toryx out of his reverie.
“Tor, get to the bridge and get strapped in, now! I’m less than a minute away from being ready to take off, and I definitely don’t want to wait around for Skoria to catch up with us.”
Toryx forgot about the water and ran toward the bridge. He had barley sat down in his seat when the Savior started lifting off the ground, its engines roaring with a deafening sound as Evie guided the ship into the Docking Station’s exit tunnel. Toryx gritted his teeth together as Evie picked up speed, flying way too fast through the tunnel as she made her way out. But if anyone could handle this, it was Evie. Toryx tightened the straps on his safety harness and vowed to enjoy the ride.
Less than a minute later, the Savior made it out into Mognerth’s open skies, and Evie immediately banked the ship upward, speeding toward the upper atmosphere and space beyond.
But their escape was not complete quite yet.
“We’ve got company!” Evie yelled.
Toryx looked at the video feed that showed on a screen in front of him, giving them a clear view of what was behind the ship. A ship twice the size of theirs was closing in on them with alarming speed, and he knew exactly who was in that ship.
“Skoria! She’s gaining on us!” He knew he was stating the obvious, but his nerves were so on edge that he couldn’t help yelling like a damn fool. He hadn’t come this far just to be stopped by a crazy ex-girlfriend who had let fame and fortune go to her head.
“Gaining on us, and shooting at us!” Evie called out as she banked the ship wildly to the left just in time to avoid a plasma blast that had just been shot in their direction.
“What the sludge!” Toryx gawked at the view screen that showed him Skoria’s ship behind them. “She’s going to kill us both just because I wouldn’t sludging kiss her?”
“It appears so, darling,” Evie said without ever taking her eyes off of the ship’s gauges. “Can you man this ship’s weapons and return fire? Just keep her back for a few minutes until I can get out of Mognerth’s atmosphere. Once I’m in open space it will be easier to speed away from her.”
“Alright.” Toryx brought the Savior’s weapons systems online and then carefully took aim at the space right in front of Skoria’s ship. He didn’t want to actually blow up her ship. He didn’t have the heart for that. After all, he’d saved her life once. It didn’t make sense to kill her now. But if he could scare her enough that she backed off, then Evie could get them out of here.
Unfortunately, the shots right in front of Skoria didn’t do much to deter her. She only flew faster and shot at them more rapidly than before. Evie banked the ship wildly left and right, avoiding the constant stream of plasma blasts that Skoria was sending toward them. But it wasn’t enough. Flying like this was going to mean it would take twice as long to get out of Mognerth, which meant twice as much time where Skoria might bring them down for good.
“Stop being so nice!” Evie yelled. “I know you don’t want to kill her but she’s trying to sludging kill us!”
Toryx sighed. Evie was right. He had to end this now.
“Goodbye, Skoria,” he whispered. “You leave me no choice.”
And with that, he let out a shot that he knew would be a direct hit. Toryx had always been a good shot, and after going through training for the Zocronian military, he almost never missed.
Tonight was no exception. His shot landed true, hitting the exact perfect spot on Skoria’s ship to take out an entire engine. Skoria’s ship banked sharply to the left from the impact and then began to spiral downward in a plume of fiery smoke. Toryx stared at the viewscreen until the smoke disappeared completely from view. Less than a minute later, Evie broke out of Mognerth’s atmosphere and into open space. The Savior leveled off, and Evie turned its nose in Zocrone’s direction.
She reached over and patted him on the knee, seeming to understand that trying to come up with words of comfort would do little to help right now. No, he hadn’t wanted anything to do with Skoria anymore after tonight. But he still hadn’t wanted to kill her. The crazy Mognerthian had left him no choice, however.
Toryx let out a resigned, frustrated sigh. It had been a long night, even though it was technically still only dinner time.
But then, Evie finally spoke, and said the only words of comfort that could truly have been comforting to him in that moment.
“Hang in there, Tor. We’re going home.”
Chapter Eleven
Five days passed relatively uneventfully as Evie guided their ship back to Zocrone. She and Toryx spent their free time making love like there was no tomorrow, because they weren’t sure if there would, in fact, be a tomorrow. As they drew closer to Zocrone, the knots in Evie’s stomach turned into double and triple knots.
Was this going to work? Would they really be able to get safely back into Zocrone’s City Dome?
She would try her best, of course, but she had her doubts. For one thing, the storms had severely crippled Zocrone’s communication systems. It was impossible to get in touch with anyone inside Zocrone until you were well within Zocrone’s atmosphere. This meant that Evie wouldn’t even be able to alert anyone that she and Toryx were coming and needed the airlock gates opened for them until they were already in the middle of the storms. Hopefully they would be able to get in touch to open the airlocks. Otherwise they were screwed. There was no way they’d have enough fuel to get this giant ship back up and out of Zocrone’s storms.
As the Savior approached Zocrone’s atmosphere, Evie knew her attempt at keeping up a calm demeanor was failing. Toryx reached over and gave her arm a squeeze.
“Don’t worry so much, babe. We’ve made it this far. What
’s one more flight through the storms? We can do this.”
Evie bit her lower lip and nodded. “I hope you’re right. In any case, it’s now or never.” She reached for the flight controls to start their descent, but before she could touch anything, she felt Toryx’s hand on her arm once again.
“Hey,” he said, his voice husky. Evie looked over at him and felt her heart flip-flop in her chest. His eyes were darkening from fog gray to velvety black the way all Zocronian eyes did when they were filled with emotion.
“Yes?” Evie asked, feeling heat spread through her body at Toryx’s touch. She wished they could delay their attempt to get into Zocrone for another day. She would love to hover out here in space and snuggle with Toryx under the warm blankets in the ship’s sleeping quarters instead of heading into the turmoil and danger ahead of them.
But delaying things another day was only going to draw out the inevitable. Evie and Toryx both knew that any more delay wouldn’t ease their worries any. Better to get this done and hope for the best.
Toryx smiled sadly at her—the smile of a man who knows that nothing is guaranteed and that he might be about to lose everything. But it was still a brave smile and it warmed Evie’s heart.
“Listen,” he said. “Just in case the worst happens and we don’t make it—”
“Don’t talk like that,” Evie said, feeling like her heart might break at the thought of losing her future with Toryx. They both knew all the horrible possibilities of what might happen once they were in the thick of the storms, but Evie couldn’t bear to think of Toryx dying.
Toryx wasn’t going to let her avoid reality, though. “Evie, of course I hope we both make it. But just in case, I have to tell you this.” He squeezed her arm tighter and looked deep into her eyes. “I love you. With every breath I breathe I love you more, and I will love you until my last breath.”
Evie choked back tears. Even though she and Toryx had been tossing around the word “forever” with each other over the last few days, Toryx hadn’t actually said he loved her yet. Hearing the words now filled her with a strength she hadn’t even known she possessed.
The Alphas of the Seven Galaxies Page 51