Hero's End (The Black Wing Chronicles Book 2)

by JC Cassels

  “I think about it sometimes,” he said, “having a family with you.”

  She met his stare in the mirror. “You do?”

  He smiled. “Don’t you?”

  “Sometimes…but I try not to dwell on it.”

  “Why not?”

  She turned to face him. She leaned back against the edge of the basin as she dried her hands and face. “Well, I’m the Commonwealth’s Most Wanted. You’re an IC agent. We can’t be together for very long at a time. I can’t stay in one place. It was bad enough when it was just strangers trying to kill me, now I find out my own family wants me dead, too. Hardly the kind of environment to raise a child without having him turn completely psycho.”

  “It’s still a nice dream, isn’t it?”

  Tears stung her eyes. She nodded and smiled. “Yeah,” she said. “It’s a beautiful dream and there’s nobody else I’d like to share it with.”

  Blade pushed away from the bulkhead and wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight. He rested his cheek against the top of her head. “Same here,” he said.

  Closing her eyes she clung to him. “What will we do if…”

  “We’ll worry about that if it happens,” he said. “One thing at a time, Bo. First we’ve got to find out who’s trying to kill you and your father. When we know that, we’ll have a place to start looking for the proof we need to clear your name.”

  “Babies don’t care if it’s convenient, Dev.”

  He chuckled. “You’re not pregnant, Bo,” he said. “I checked. I’m your medic, remember? I always check for that before I treat you.” He eased his hold on her just enough to let her look up at him. “I’m not without resources, love. You need two seasons of rest and rehab. It may be too dangerous to take you to your home, but not too dangerous to take you to mine.”

  Bo’s bile rose again. “Cormoran? But Dev…”

  He shook his head. “Kah Lahtrec,” he said.

  Her stomach settled. She peered up at him in confusion. “But I thought you didn’t want me on Kah Lahtrec.”

  “I never said that.” A slow, tender smile spread across his face.

  “But when you left…”

  “I said it was complicated, which it is. You and me together, we’re about as complicated as things can get. There’s a lot I have to take into consideration and I can’t even discuss it with you. You saw how it was with Kendall. One wrong word from me and, Barron or not, you’re on a hit list. He would be relentless and unstoppable, and he wouldn’t be the only one. There wouldn’t be any place to hide. They would kill you, even if they had to destroy an entire planet to do it. Those are the stakes I have to deal with every day.”

  “It’s complicated.”

  He nodded. “I have to be high-handed and I’m sorry. I wish it could be another way. You deserve more than ‘it’s complicated’ or ‘State Secrets.’ I can’t tell you everything. Hell, I can’t tell you anything. I’ve had a lot of time to think about things, Bo; our situation, our relationship, what you mean to me.” He searched her face. “I need you to trust me. It’s never been more important. I need you to know that I love you, and every decision I make, I’m thinking of you. I always want you with me. It’s not always possible for us to be together, but never once doubt that I would rather be with you than without you.”

  He brushed the hair away from her face. His fingertips lightly skimmed along the contour of her cheek.

  “If we go to Kah Lahtrec, it’s going to get a hell of a lot more complicated,” he said. “But it’s a complication that will give us the advantage in the long run, and only if you trust me.”

  Some of her tension melted away.

  He watched her, patiently waiting for her answer.

  Bo bit back a sigh.

  A sensible woman wouldn’t place her faith in a man so consumed with secrets and lies. A sensible woman would have found a safe place to live out her days of exile in anonymity. A sensible woman wouldn’t adventure across the Commonwealth getting herself shot at and injured taking a flying leap off the edge of a cliff, either. Let’s face it, sensible women didn’t have a lot of fun. Sensible women didn’t have that much faith in anything.

  Someday, Bo was going to run out of faith. Until then, there was no sense trying to be sensible. It wasn’t any fun.

  She nodded. “Kah Lahtrec it is,” she said.

  Really, how much more complicated could things get?

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  The small blue-green planet grew larger in the forward screens. Under Bo’s watchful eye, Blade adjusted the ship’s course for a more desirable approach.

  Tahar was right. Meditation was imperative. Blade rubbed his forehead. He hadn’t had a quiet moment to himself all day, and the strain was already wearing on him. He had thought he’d understood what Tahar was opening him up to, but he hadn’t been prepared for…this.

  “Hey.” Bo touched his arm.

  He shook the fog from his brain and turned to her with a smile. “Hmm?”

  “Are you feeling alright? I can bring my ship in. I just thought you needed the practice.”

  He nodded. “I’m fine,” he said. “Just anxious. I’ve never landed for real before.”

  She beamed at him. “Don’t worry. Sundance won’t let us crash, and I’m right here. I can land a ship with one hand tied behind my back.”

  He winked at her and nodded towards her arm in the sling. “Or strapped to your torso.”

  “That too.”

  Somewhat appeased, Bo sat back in the co-pilot’s chair and resumed her study of the controls.

  Blade sucked in a deep breath and blew it out.

  While he was a little anxious about the impending landing, it hardly accounted for his tension. The scope of his new awareness threatened to overwhelm him. Even with his eyes closed, he could sense exactly where he was in the universe. Auric threads, unseen with the eye but sensed through the Sentaro, wove through the galaxy, spinning an intricate web that bound together seemingly random people, objects, places. How had he missed all that before? It was huge…impossible…and humbling.

  “You’ll never be able to make sense of it.” Tahar’s words echoed in his memory. “You must accept it, for it simply is, just as the Maker is.”

  Now that he was open to the Sentaro, there was no denying it. When he was alone and still in meditation, the wildly spinning energies around him settled into quiet. There in the stillness was a sense of perfection, acceptance, a wholeness that soothed his fragmented soul and made him feel at peace in ways he couldn’t explain.

  “That is the Maker,” Tahar had explained.

  He scanned the long-range sensors for any sign of other vessels in the area.

  “Cut your speed a little more,” Bo said. “You don’t want to come into a planet’s gravity well too hot.” He complied and she nodded her approval. “You’re doing great. Hold that approach pattern.”

  Maker, she radiated like a star, and he basked in her. The energy rippling from her wrapped around him like a comforting embrace. He had always sensed their attraction to each other, but to see it with a new perspective confirmed what he’d long suspected. Despite her fierce independence, and her insistence at keeping their relationship casual, without demands or too many questions, she loved him…perhaps as much as he loved her.

  A light flashed on the console. Pulling himself back to the mundane, Blade leaned forward. In his distraction, he’d let the ship drift slightly off course. He corrected and risked a glance at her.

  Of course she’d noticed. The corners of her mouth curved in a small, indulgent smile. Good thing she didn’t expect much from him on this flight.

  “Am I going to use repulsors to reduce speed for landing, or is there some other trick you want to show me?” he asked.

  Bo shook her head. “Let’s not get too fancy on your first landing,” she said. “When we get too close for sub-lights, we’ll transfer to braking thrusters and then repulsors. I want you to work on using the atmosphere to slow yo
u down in the sim a little more before you try it with a real ship. You need to know what you’re doing before you do it for real.”

  Maker, he was going to have to get a better handle on the Sentaro before he tried anything more complex. Sensing and feeling all the subtle nuances of his connection with Bo played out in the energies around them proved far too distracting. If this was what Tahar had seen, no wonder he’d said their destinies lay with each other. Her energies meshed so completely with his that they practically created something new, with a life of its own.

  “We have a landing beacon from the port.”

  Blade nodded. “It’s not much of a port to speak of,” he said. “More like a landing field, like the Catarrh.”

  “Which makes it perfect for your first planetfall,” she said. She leaned forward suddenly. “That’s an awful lot of water,” Bo said. “I like planets with a lot of water. Reminds me of home.”

  An aching longing pierced his heart. He pressed his hand against his chest as the force of it stole his breath.

  Shockwave?

  He glanced over the readouts.

  No.

  Damn Sentaro.

  It was Bo.

  He reached over and gave her thigh a reassuring squeeze.

  “You are going to love Kah Lahtrec,” Blade said. “I can’t tell you how much I’ve wanted to bring you here. My home is right on the southeastern coast…just there.” He pointed towards a large, lush peninsula jutting down from one of the major landmasses. “The jungle starts at the mountains over there and runs down to the coast. That large brown area above it is the Aveen Plain. About two days travel from the port into the Aveen Plain is Mount Jihat. It’s just a large rock rising out of the plain, but it’s a sacred site. That’s where the Tahar’s Holy Temple is. The view from the Temple watchtower is incredible.”

  The tightness in his chest eased.

  “Why don’t you focus on bringing the ship into port in one piece,” Bo said, not bothering to hide her amusement. “You can give me the tour later.”

  Blade grinned and tossed her a jaunty salute. “You’re the boss.”

  “Get ready to switch over to repulsors,” she said. “Look at the gees that you’re pulling and cut your speed…tap the braking thrusters again.”

  Blade did as he was told, for once, forcing his focus out of the ethers and onto what he was doing. The process of landing a ship for the first time demanded all of his attention. It wasn’t until he’d brought the ship to rest on its landing gear and powered down the engines that Blade realized his awareness of the energies around him had all but completely faded.

  “Great job, Blade,” Bo said. “That was excellent for your first real landing. We may make a pilot out of you yet.” She grinned at him.

  “High praise indeed, coming from The Barron.”

  Blade popped his g-locks, leaned over and deftly released hers as well. The safety straps fell aside.

  “Thanks.”

  “Don’t thank me yet,” he said.

  He’d put it off as long as he could stand. Resting his hands on the armrests of her seat, he pulled himself out of his chair. Leaning down, he braced his knee on the seat between her thighs. Her eyes widened as she recognized his intent. Her breath caught, and a tiny spot of color spread from her chest upwards to flood her cheeks. His fingertips traced the rising color as it spread to her hairline. His fingers threaded through her soft hair as he pulled her closer. His lips touched hers as her good arm went around him. Closing his eyes, he pulled her into himself. The warm essence of her energy rose up and wrapped around him like a cocoon. His heart thundered in his chest and locked into rhythm with hers.

  Something shimmered around them. Their energies mingled and crackled almost substantially. Blade tried to push past it, to shut it out. It was like someone was switching on a new power console for the first time. If he didn’t know better, he’d say something was rewriting the base code of their very souls. Bo’s essence poured into him, filling an emptiness he’d carried for so long he hadn’t known it was there.

  It felt like – home.

  ***

  An explosive kiss that left her knees weak and every bone in her body as liquid as if she’d just taken a hit of Trizian, and what did that man do? He stood up like it was nothing, and walked away.

  Bo chewed the inside of her lip and stared out the window of the ground cruiser.

  She wedged herself into the corner against the door in a futile effort to keep from touching Blade. Instead of getting the message, he settled in against her side and rested his arm along the back of the seat behind her. He shifted slightly, invading her space just a little more. Bo’s eyes narrowed. For someone so attuned to body language, either he was completely clueless or he was ignoring her signals. Arms folded across her chest – as well as she could with one arm in a sling – and legs crossed, she studied the scenery like there was going to be a test later.

  “My wife, Madine will be pleased when she learns we shall be having you as a guest at our home, Barron,” Ballanshi said in yet another attempt at engaging Bo in conversation.

  Manners overriding her annoyance with Blade, Bo relented and looked to the older gentleman. “I wasn’t aware that anyone else lived there.” She looked to Blade. “I was under the impression that the home was yours alone.”

  Blade shifted again. He cleared his throat and glanced at Ballanshi. “It is. No need to put Madine out,” he said. “Bo will be staying with me…at the villa…just the two of us.” He stressed the last meaningfully.

  Ballanshi’s dark brows gathered. He shook his head and said something in the local dialect that Bo couldn’t understand. Blade nodded and replied in kind, his tone level and calm. It sounded like a disagreement of some sort. The two men went back and forth until finally, Blade leaned over and pressed his lips to her temple.

  “Hey, you have to make a choice,” he said. “Ballanshi doesn’t want me taking advantage of you in your weakened condition. He’s inviting you to stay with him and his wife during your rehab.”

  Bo glared up at him. “What do you want?”

  He grinned. “I want to take advantage of you. Remember? I’m not a gentleman.”

  Ballanshi said something in Lahtrecki. Blade shrugged.

  “Remember what I told you before you agreed to come here…the complications?”

  Bo nodded. With a sigh, she uncrossed her legs. “I don’t think I’d be able to handle you and me without complications.”

  His grin widened. “So I can take advantage of you?”

  Against her better judgment, her lips twitched into a small smile. “Only if I can take advantage of you.”

  “And you consent to the complications of your own free will?”

  Bo rolled her eyes. “Yes,” she said. “I do.”

  Approval shone in his blue eyes. “Maker, I love you.”

  What she wouldn’t give to believe he meant it.

  He looked to Ballanshi and raised his eyebrows in silent question. The other man lifted his hands in surrender.

  “You will, of course want to take her to the shops,” Ballanshi said. “If I know Madine, there’s going to be a gathering this evening in your honor.”

  “That won’t be necessary…” Blade began, but Ballanshi silenced him with a wave of his hand.

  “It is useless to tell me no,” he said. “You know the Tryrine, and she will have her way.”

  Bo’s eyes narrowed. “Tryrine?”

  That sounded like a title.

  “The Tryrine…wife of the Tryrium...Ballanshi’s wife.”

  “Ballanshi?” Her brow furrowed as she looked to the other man. “Tryrium? The Tryrium te Kah Lahtrec? You mean to tell me you… You’re the Tryrium?”

  Even white teeth flashed in a grin behind his thick, black beard. “I can see Blade has been remiss, as usual, in protocol.”

  Blade shrugged.

  “You didn’t tell me your best friend rules this planet,” Bo complained.

  He gr
inned and shrugged. “What’s so strange about that?” he said. “My girlfriend rules Mondhuoun.”

  He did have a point.

  “You’re really making a name for yourself, Dev Fossey. Your girlfriend rules one planet, your best friend rules another. What’s next? You looking to be adopted by a Sovran House?”

  “Nah. I’m good.”

  Ballanshi said something in Lahtrecki and Blade burst into laughter. He pulled Bo up against his side and kissed the top of her head.

  “Te sa, you have little faith in me,” Blade chided him, switching back to Basic. “I’m not that man anymore. Maker willing, I never will be again.”

  Bo rolled her eyes. “Why? Does he live in a box in your closet, too?”

  Ballanshi laughed as Blade relented and gave her some space.

  Back on Cormoran, Blade kept a collection of false identities in his closet, along with the wardrobes and disguise elements that went along with them. When they had first met, he’d been undercover for the IC and wearing the one he called Darien Roarke. Blade Devon…, Dev Fossey…, Darien Roarke…, with that man there was no telling from one moment to the next who you were spending time with. Between his holofeature roles and his myriad identities, Bo often wondered if Blade knew who he was anymore. Until her run-in with Agent Kendall, it hadn’t occurred to her that connecting the man beside her to one of his aliases would get her killed. The question was, which one?

  Bo tried to roll the tension out of her shoulders, but stopped short when the throbbing in her left shoulder jumped quickly to stabbing pain. She winced and stretched just enough to ease the worst of the pain.

  “What’s the matter? Meds starting to wear off?”

  She nodded and reached for her sore shoulder intending to massage it. Her touch sent fresh waves of throbbing pain through her arm, so she reluctantly withdrew her hand. With a small sigh, Bo leaned against Blade, drawing a small measure of comfort from the contact.

  She peered up at him. “How many languages do you speak?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. Enough to order drinks in just about any bar in the Commonwealth and the Outland Fringe.”

  Ballanshi nodded. “A man must have his priorities.”