In Ice We Burn
THE LIFTSAL GUARDIANS BOOK ONE
Alexandra Moody
http://alexandramoody.com
Sign up for Alexandra’s mailing list to receive updates about her books:
Subscribe
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Kindle Edition
Copyright © 2016 by Alexandra Moody
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Edited by Pete Thompson
Cover Design by Alexandra Moody
To Hen: for inspiring me every day, sharing in my weirdness and for always being there for me.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ALSO BY ALEXANDRA MOODY
THE ARC SERIES
Tainted
Talented
Fractured
Destined
CHAPTER ONE
The timing couldn’t have been worse, of that, Sloane was certain. Her years of training at the Academy had prepared her to be cautious, to be wary, and to fight like hell when it was necessary, but they hadn’t readied her for this.
The man’s helmet weighed heavily in her hands as she watched his frozen, distorted face peering out at her from the cryochamber. She turned from him and stepped her feet into his space suit. He would live. At least, he should live. She’d never put someone into cryostatus before, but her options had been limited when she’d cornered him and that needle had been the closest weapon at hand. He didn’t deserve what she’d done to him, but she didn’t have time to worry about that now.
A voice echoed off the walls in the room as it sounded out over the intercom. ‘Will the first response team please make their way to the drop pod. Ten minutes until launch.’
Sloane cursed. She thought she had more time than that. With one swift movement, she had the suit zipper up. She slammed the helmet down on her head and ran into the hallway. Ten minutes wasn’t much time, but it did give her long enough to get to her sister before the pod departed—not that she’d approve of what Sloane was up to.
Rowena took her time opening her door. When she did, her hair was hung over her face and, as usual, her eyes were focused on the ground. There was a time when the twin girls had looked so alike, not even their mother could tell them apart. But that was a long time ago, and the only similarity most people now saw was their waist-length, white blonde hair and vivid green eyes.
‘Can I help you?’ Rowena asked, shying back from the light that spilled into her room.
‘Rowe, it’s me,’ said Sloane, quickly pulling the helmet from her head.
‘Sloane?’
Sloane checked over her shoulder and moved past her sister, into her quarters. The quarters were small, like all sleeping chambers in the ship, with only a plinth to sleep on that stretched from one wall to the other and a small cupboard to house personal effects. The circular mirror that hung on the wall of most rooms was nowhere to be seen. Instead, Rowe had one of the few rooms with a porthole that looked out at the dark abyss of space. Even from the centre of the room, Sloane could see tiny stars twinkling brightly in the distance through the small circular window.
Sloane tucked the helmet under her arm and faced Rowe. ‘I haven’t got long.’
‘Why are you in a space suit?’ she asked, pursing her lips as she looked Sloane up and down. Her eyes were curious and calculating, like she had already guessed what trouble Sloane was getting into.
Sloane followed her gaze down to the massive white suit she wore and shook her head. ‘There isn’t time to explain. Something’s happened and I need to get on the drop pod going to Aeris.’
‘But you’re not in the first response team…’
‘I should be,’ she muttered. ‘But that’s not why I’m going. Ash and his team have disappeared.’
‘What?’ Rowe’s eyes darted up to meet her sister’s, causing her hair to fall back and reveal her face. Most people would recoil from the ugly scars that marred her once perfect features, but Sloane never noticed them. When she looked into Rowe’s bright green eyes, all Sloane saw was her kind and gentle soul shining through. Despite the scars, Sloane saw much more beauty in Rowe than in her own unflawed reflection.
‘Our brother has always been a bit impulsive, and he’s headstrong as hell, but he’s not stupid. Something bad must have happened for him and his team to be gone without a trace. It was only pure luck that I overheard one of the crew talking about it.’ Sloane shook her head again. ‘The Captain should have told us.’
‘I’m sure there’s a reason we weren’t told.’ Rowe spoke softly, as though her words alone could inflict pain by merely being said too loud.
Sloane’s eyes hardened and she gazed out the small window and into the dark chasm of space beyond. They’d been staring at that same view for months since they’d left Earth, and the sight of it turned Sloane’s stomach. She knew perfectly well why she wasn’t told. The Captain despised her, but she couldn’t say that aloud. It would only upset Rowe, who was clearly already struggling with Ash’s disappearance and Sloane’s imminent departure.
Sloane wished she could see some fight in her sister’s eyes, but it was like she had already accepted Ash’s fate. He may not have been around much when they were younger, but their older brother adored Rowe and always went out of his way to look after her.
Sloane didn’t have the same relationship with Ash—their interactions were always civil at best. They were both stubborn and butted heads on everything. He saw the world in shades of black and white, while she ignored the colour spectrum completely.
He was her brother though. Rowe needed Ash, and Sloane was his best chance at being found. There was no way she was leaving that up to the first response team. Those guys were a pack of morons. She’d seen them training on the trip out there and couldn’t understand how they’d even been picked for this mission. The fact she’d taken the space suit she wore with such ease only proved her doubts.
Rowe’s eyes dropped to the floor again. ‘So, you’re leaving.’
Sloane nodded, sharing her sister’s unease. There was no way she could protect her once she was gone, and she didn’t trust the Captain to look out for her either. Rowe was just so fragile, and it felt wrong to leave her behind. But finding Ash was more important right now, and Rowe would last a few days without her.
‘The team
they’re sending have other tasks aside from the missing team. I’m not even certain they’re looking for them, so I have to go. Ash would do the same for either of us.’
‘You’re right,’ Rowe said, her shoulders slouching with begrudging acceptance.
‘Here,’ Sloane said, pulling the silver necklace from around her neck and placing it in Rowe’s hand. Their mother had given it to her when she was a child, saying it would protect her, and so far it had kept Sloane safe. She wasn’t certain if she believed the necklace was to thank for that, but if it gave Rowe some comfort then she’d rather it stayed with her. ‘You should look after this.’
Rowe glanced down at the burnished silver pendant and shook her head. ‘I can’t,’ she replied, trying to pass it back.
Sloane took Rowe by the wrist and folded her fingers around the necklace. ‘Please keep it. I’ll be happier knowing it’s safe here with you.’
‘Fine.’ Rowe sighed and looked down at the pendant, twisting it in her delicate fingers. ‘What should I tell Father?’ she asked, looking back up.
The sound of his name caused the hairs on Sloane’s neck to rise. It invoked images of blood, death and torment. ‘Tell the Captain nothing.’ Her teeth ground out his name. ‘It’s better if he doesn’t know I’m gone until we’ve landed on Aeris. By then, he won’t be able to stop me.’
Rowe rolled her eyes. ‘You really need to stop calling him that. He can be trusted, you know.’
‘Our mother trusted him and look where that led her,’ Sloane fired back.
Rowe raised one eyebrow at her. ‘Fine, I won’t tell him, but you know he’ll find out soon enough.’
‘Not soon enough to stop me.’
‘Five minutes until launch,’ a voice announced over the speaker.
‘Time to go.’ Sloane pulled her sister into a rough hug. ‘Be safe, Rowe,’ she whispered into her hair before leaving without another word. She was never good at goodbyes.
Getting onto the drop pod was easy. The highly reflective helmet masked Sloane’s features, and being outfitted in the space suit meant she was ushered on board with no questions asked.
‘Cutting it a bit fine, aren’t we?’ the Commander said, as the two-minute launch warning was announced, and she moved past him to find her seat. She merely grunted in response, not daring to utter a word. She’d known the Commander for years, and though he was old, his eyes were keen and his mind was quick. Sloane had a bad reputation for being reckless, and she had a feeling her presence there was only going to add to it.
Many things tumbled through Sloane’s mind as she strapped herself in. What would happen when they found she’d snuck onto the drop pod? Would they try to send her back when they landed? Would she even have a chance to search for Ash? But her largest concern was Rowe.
The girl was like a small, broken bird, and Sloane couldn’t stand leaving her behind. Not when she knew the things Rowe had been through. Sloane was one of the few people Rowe allowed near her, and it rankled her knowing she’d left her sister aboard a ship of strangers. The girl was afraid of her own damn shadow, and with both her and Ash gone, she was going to struggle more than she had in years.
Sloane didn’t have a choice though. She needed to find Ash, and she didn’t trust the men aboard the pod to do the job without her. None of them had the same tracking skills she had, and they would probably fall into the same problems as her idiot brother and his team.
The drop pod began to disembark from the ship, and Sloane gripped her hands tightly to the armrests as the engine kicked in and the pod launched towards Aeris. She was strapped to a chair, in a stolen space suit, hurtling towards a foreign planet with absolutely no preparation for the mission. What could go wrong?
Like the gravitational pull that dragged the landing pod downwards, spiralling towards the green planet, Aeris, Sloane’s thoughts were uncontrollably drawn to the man who should be sitting in her place. Was he okay? Had she killed him? Despite what she’d trained for, she’d never actually killed a person before. She’d never had the chance.
The Academy had shut its doors when another world war had broken out, and the Captain had forced Ash, Rowe and herself aboard the Explorer before she could issue a word of complaint. Ash was practically frothing at the opportunity, and Rowe was simply pleased to be with her family. Sloane was pissed and so foul tempered that everyone on board the Explorer, except Rowe, had gone out of their way to avoid her for the first leg of the journey. She hadn’t trained all those years to become a useless addition to a space exploration mission, and that’s all the Captain saw her as.
The pod rattled violently, effectively snapping Sloane from her thoughts. Well, sort of. She still struggled to put her mind at ease because of the man she had left behind. She’d done everything she could at the time to make sure he would be okay. Still, no one wants to be thrown unceremoniously into cryostatus, do they? And there was no way to know if she’d even done it right. She was hardly an expert. Hell, she wasn’t even a novice.
She probably shouldn’t have done it, but she’d been acting on instinct at the time. She’d just overheard him telling another crewmate about the missing team down on Aeris, so she’d followed him and cornered him once he was alone. The guy was her way onto the mission, so she didn’t regret it. Her only regret was that another method to silence him hadn’t been available to her at the time.
She shivered and tried to forget the ice that consumed the man and focus on the present. There were twelve men in the landing pod with her: the first response team. Sloane was lucky number thirteen, and she was on the mission to find her brother, whether the Captain liked it or not.
It had only been minutes since the landing pod disembarked from the ship, yet Sloane felt like she had been sitting there for over an hour. It was her first time in one of the landing pods, and she was surprised by how sparse the interior was. The crew were all strapped in a circular formation looking out at the bare walls of the pod.
Each seat had its own clear glass monitor, though Sloane doubted she’d have much need for hers. The one upside to Sloane’s position was the perfect view she had out of the small window on the pod. At the moment, all she could see were stars, and she’d seen enough of them over the last month to last a lifetime. But, right now, they felt like a small glimpse of freedom.
None of the others were aware they were one man short, and they definitely wouldn’t have disembarked if they’d realised they had the Capitan’s daughter on board. Her space suit was a more than adequate mask for her identity though. As long as she didn’t say a word into the microphone that was linked to the other suits, they’d never know it was her white blonde hair and deadly green eyes behind the highly reflective visor.
Even if they did realise, it was too late to turn back. Sloane smiled into her helmet. She’d made it onto the mission, and she refused to feel remorse for any fallout that occurred because of it.
She hoped the Captain wouldn’t find out for a while and she could find her brother before she was dragged back to the ship. That was if he was still alive. She swallowed and tried not to think of that possibility.
She had overheard that three days had passed since the last communication between her brother’s team and the Explorer. The planet was supposed to be uninhabited, so there was most likely some sort of technical problem causing the lack of contact. They’d probably get down there and find her brother’s team were completely fine. But she had to know for sure.
The landing pod shook harder as it began to enter the foreign planet's atmosphere, and Sloane’s face dropped. She clenched her teeth and squinted her eyes shut as her body tried to meld itself into the seat behind her. Sweat poured down the back of her neck, and her heart felt like it was going into overdrive. The whole metal shuttle squealed loudly as the crew of thirteen plummeted faster.
‘This is it boys,’ one of the men said. The others laughed like they were about to hop on a rollercoaster, not fall from the sky to land on some unknown planet.
&
nbsp; Sloane opened her eyes to look outside the small square window. Through the condensation building on the glass, she could see flames licking at the window from the outside. The deep orange and gold wall of fire ate at the pod hungrily, and Sloane took a deep breath, closing her eyes again as she tried to fight the nausea building inside. She hated everything about space, and this experience only made her despise it more.
‘Can someone get the stewardess to bring me a whisky,’ one of the other men joked. Sloane could hear he said it through gritted teeth. It made her glad to know she wasn’t the only one suffering, but she wished they’d shut up all the same. The men who flew aboard the Explorer were cocky jackasses, and the first response team were the worst of the lot. Sloane didn’t have time for them on the ship, and she had even less time for them now she was stuck in the tiny capsule of doom with them.
The pod shuddered violently, and Sloane’s teeth grinded together harder. She would never normally show any outward evidence of pain, but her chest hurt like crazy, and it had become increasingly uncomfortable to breathe. It was like she couldn’t inflate her lungs anymore, and she felt like she’d left her bellybutton somewhere back on the Explorer.
Sloane looked at the monitor in front of her. Her vision had begun to blur, and everything was now smudged across the screen. It looked like one of the engines was lit up red on the display, but that couldn’t be right. These landing pods were sturdy, and she was pretty certain she’d never heard of them having mechanical problems. She ignored the display and closed her eyes again.
A low groaning sound resonated through the walls of the pod, only to be cut off by a loud and ominous bang.
‘Shit!’ someone swore.
Sloane’s eyes whipped open, and she tried to look over to the voice, but the way she was strapped to the chair limited her movement, and she couldn’t even move her arms anymore. She glanced at the red blur on the monitor again. She was nearly certain it was the engine.
In Ice We Burn (The Liftsal Guardians Book 1) Page 1