The Draki king peeled his lips back right before he let out a guttural roar. Mayhem issued as Draki arrows flew across the air while other warriors drew their swords. She expected Femror to join the fray, but he spun around and dragged her away.
“What are you doing? Let go of me.” Lochiana tried to break free from his hold.
“Stop fighting, woman. We must leave.”
“You aren’t going to fight? What kind of warrior are you?”
That made Femror stop, only to glare at her. “That’s not my fight any longer.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m no longer bound to the king. I’m bound to you.”
“What?”
A loud boom echoed around them and the ground shook, right before a huge fissure opened in front of them. Femror held Lochiana tight and jumped an impossible distance, clearing the gap. The impact of their landing jarred her bones, and Lochiana stumbled against his chest. She tried to step back, but he wouldn’t let her.
“You are my mate,” he said before he kissed her hard.
Lochiana didn’t have time to enjoy the kiss, for Femror ended it too quickly. Her mind was still stuck on the word he had used. Mate. How can that be possible?
More explosions sounded in their vicinity. Lord Droom wasn’t holding anything back. Lochiana didn’t know if he was using his weapons arsenal or if he had elementals in his party. She was only sure of one thing—he wanted the spheres and intended to destroy them all to reach his goal. They ran as fast as they could as stones double her size whizzed too close to them. At least one telekinetic soldier was among them. They were in deep shit.
Femror and Lochiana reached the rest of their party, who huddled together behind a boulder.
“We need to get out of here,” Femror said.
“Tell us something we don’t know,” Durgin grumbled. “Your warriors won’t be able to hold my father off for much longer using their rudimentary weapons. He’s brought elementals and the telekinetic, not counting our blasters.”
“Where are the spheres?” Lochiana cut in. She didn’t need a list of how royally screwed they were. “We can’t let Lord Droom get hold of them. Maybe we should split them up.”
“Good idea.” Malachiax opened the box once more and Lochiana felt an odd pull toward them. She almost succumbed to the urge when Samiah caught her attention.
“What about the portal?”
Lochiana threw a glance to the gaping hole not too far from them and cursed.
“I’m afraid there’s nothing we can do about it, Sami,” Malachiax replied.
“That’s not true. The portal can be closed.”
They all turned to look at Chrysa.
“Do you speak lies like your brother?” Samiah replied, not hiding the bite in her tone.
“No. The portal can be closed, but not on this side.”
“What do you mean?” Gary asked.
A loud boom sounded above them right before a shower of pebbles rained above their heads. Malachiax closed the box’s lid once more.
“Are you saying we need to go through the portal?” Durgin asked.
“No. The portal’s nature is twisted and unpredictable. We must reach the other side a different way. We must travel across the galaxy.”
Another explosion sounded too close to them, and they knew they couldn’t linger much longer.
“If that’s the only way, then we need to borrow a starship from the Offworld Exploration fleet. Before the portal opened, there was one ship being prepared for a voyage. There are only two problems, though. How do we get there, and who is going to pilot it?” Lochiana glanced at them all.
“I have the solution for both problems,” Durgin said.
She narrowed her eyes in his direction, but before she could say anything, she felt a sharp pain around her neck. The next thing she knew, she was being dragged across the rough ground. She heard Femror’s yell, but she was too busy trying to break free from the cord around her neck to know what he’d said. She stopped moving only to be dragged to a kneeling position by her hair. Pain exploded on her skull, and she could feel blood dripping down her forehead. Lord Droom glared down at her with malice and undiluted hate.
“You think you can trade me for that filthy beast? How dare you humiliate me like that, you fucking whore.”
“Let go of me, asshole.”
“I’ll teach you to respect me.” Lord Droom raised his hand and slapped her hard across the face. The blow took the breath out of her and Lochiana couldn’t see straight. She heard an enraged roar before she was knocked down to the side. Leaning on her forearm, she raised her head in time to see Femror storm Lord Droom and deliver several blows to his face in rapid succession. Lochiana opened her mouth to warn Femror, but she was too late. Lord Droom used his gift and unleashed a high-voltage charge straight into the warrior’s chest. Femror’s entire frame shook before his body fell to the side, motionless.
“No!” Lochiana screamed through tears, pushing herself to a standing position.
Lord Doom stood as well and wiped the blood from his lips. He glanced at Femror’s sprawling form and spit on him before walking toward Lochiana.
“He’s not dead.” The thought came to Lochiana’s head, but it wasn’t hers. It sounded like Chrysa.
“Turn around,” the voice commanded. Lochiana did so only to be hit in the chest by two small globes. They shattered in front of her and swirling blue and red smoke escaped the broken vessels. For all the Sacred Powers. Are they Spheres of Sharra? The dual-colored smoke twisted together before it zapped into Lochiana. She fell forward and clutched her lower belly, for that was where she felt the power concentrate, in her womb. Fuck me. I’m pregnant, she thought as realization hit her.
There was no time to think about the implications, for she could feel Lord Droom’s presence looming behind her. She spun around before he could grab her, and a blast of fire shot out from her hands. He dodged out of the way, but he wasn’t fast enough to avoid the fiery jet completely. With a roar, he threw himself to the ground and rolled around, trying to extinguish the flames that had ignited his sleeve. Lochiana stared at her hands in shock. Where had the power come from?
A low growl snapped her to attention, and she ran to its source. Femror. She kneeled next to him and touched his face. “Femror, talk to me.”
He blinked his eyes open, then smiled at her. “I’m afraid this is turning into our ritual.”
“Shut up. I thought you were dead. How could you survive that powerful electrical current running through your body?”
“I’ve got two hearts, remember? In fact, I think one stopped beating for a minute or two.”
Despite the battle that still raged around them, Lochiana found herself smiling at his stupid joke. “I’m glad. I’m so not ready to raise your spawn alone.”
Femror’s eyebrows furrowed together. “What?”
“No time to explain. Come on. Let’s go.”
She helped him up. When Lochiana turned to the spot she had last seen Lord Droom, he was gone. But the battle still raged between the Nox Elite and the Draki, despite the clear disadvantage the Draki possessed in terms of weaponry. Lochiana and Femror rejoined their friends and found Malachiax and Samiah staring daggers in Chrysa’s direction.
“What happened?” Lochiana asked.
“Chrysa threw two of the spheres at Samiah, breaking them. Now their power is inside her.”
Lochiana glanced at Femror’s sister with a question in her gaze. She had done the same thing to her. “Why?”
“It had to be done,” she said without an ounce of regret.
“Focus, people. We still have three intact spheres left and a portal to close. We need to get to that starship,” Durgin urged.
“How do you propose we do that? We’re surrounded, in case you haven’t noticed.” Samiah glared at him.
“The same way we got here.”
Durgin threw the connector in his hand to the ground. After he pressed a few button
s on the control panel attached to his wrist, the circle expanded, doubling in size.
“What the—” Malachiax started.
“It’s a new connector. A prototype, actually. It doesn’t require a receiving twin at the destination. Now everyone hop on. We don’t have much time.”
Without complaint, they all followed Durgin’s command. Lochiana already knew what to expect and held on to Femror without shame.
Before the vibration from the connector reached its apex, Femror glanced in his father’s direction and Lochiana followed his gaze. The king was holding the frontlines with all his might, taking on several Nox Elite soldiers at the same time without fear or sign of weakness. Lochiana laced her hands with the warrior, her mate, and squeezed tight, right before the pressure built up and they vanished.
Chapter 40
They landed right in the middle of Morang’s Cosmodrome, Mora’s spaceport. Though landed wasn’t exactly the right word to describe it—more like slammed into the ground. Samiah’s ankles screamed, and her broken arm felt like it was in flames. If it weren’t for Malachiax holding her, she would have propelled forward. She leveled Durgin with a glare.
“What the fuck was that?”
He raised his hands. “Hey, don’t blame me. This is a prototype, and it obviously still needs a few tweaks. It brought us here, didn’t it?”
“Yes, but at what cost,” she admonished through her excruciating pain.
“You should have taken the pain meds, Sami.”
“I don’t want any fucking pain meds!” she barked, and Malachiax recoiled.
She didn’t know why she was acting like such a bitch. It wasn’t because of the pain.
“I’m sorry.”
Malachiax pulled her close and kissed her forehead. “It’s okay, Sami.”
No, it wasn’t okay. She felt raw and on edge. She couldn’t shake the feeling that her irritable behavior had everything to do with the power of the spheres that now resided inside of her thanks to the crazy Draki princess. What was she thinking? Why would Chrysa break the fucking Spheres of Sharra? Those thoughts kept bouncing in Samiah’s head, and it was an effort to shut them off. She focused on her surroundings instead.
Mora’s spaceport wasn’t the largest operational space launch facility in Arcadia, but it was the busiest since the Offworld Exploration Program was based there. The place was deserted and mercifully untouched by the Myserians. Several spaceships were docked there, but only one already engaged for departure.
“Is that the one?” Durgin pointed at the sleek spacecraft surrounded by four metal towers with scaffolding webbed around each one. Samiah had never seen such a model before. It was more compact than the ships she was used to, but it had bigger boosters that jutted out from its tail.
“Yes. It’s called Et Beatus and is scheduled for its maiden voyage in just a few days.” Lochiana glanced at Femror, who was looking at the spacecraft with his mouth open. “I take it you’ve never seen one of these from up close, huh?”
“Nope.”
“Et Beatus? What does it mean?” Gary asked.
“The Blessed,” Femror replied, still staring in awe at the starship. Lochiana raised an eyebrow and the warrior shrugged. “The Draki know many languages.”
“Well, how fitting,” Durgin murmured and started walking in its direction. “Come on, let’s go.”
A surge of excitement and apprehension filled Samiah’s heart as they took the elevator up to the platform. Durgin stopped in front of the ship’s main hatch and cursed when he couldn’t access the control panel.
“Uh, does anyone have the password to this?”
“Shit. No. I didn’t even think about that.” Lochiana put her hands on her hips and glared at the crystal panel as if it had done her great injury.
Chrysa, who had been quiet until that point, said, “Let Samiah try.”
“What? Why me?”
“You have the power in you.”
“The spheres,” Malachiax said, and the girl nodded.
Samiah inhaled loudly and took Durgin’s spot.
“Here goes nothing,” she said as she pressed her palm against the screen.
A string of information flashed on the panel, disappearing faster than Samiah could read it, and a few seconds later, the light turned green and the ship’s main hatch opened. She looked over her shoulder and caught everyone staring at her with different levels of curiosity. Only Chrysa remained neutral.
Durgin was the first to enter, and the rest followed. Samiah’s pulse pounded in her ears as they made their way to the starship’s cockpit. Suddenly, a sharp twist in her chest made Samiah’s steps falter. This wasn’t a regular exploration trip. Those had risks, but there was always the certainty that they would return home. Not this time. They were leaving Arcadia for good.
Durgin took the captain’s seat and slid into the role as if he had been born to do it. He pressed several buttons and the control panels came to life. He glanced at Chrysa.
“Where to, Princess?”
“The answer is right in front of you.”
Durgin frowned and stared at his controls. A hologram shot out in front of him, and they could all see the charted map of a galaxy unfamiliar to Samiah.
“These are the coordinates that had already been programmed. This ship was bound for a solar system on the outskirts of the Via Láctea Galaxy,” Durgin said.
Lochiana approached the hologram and squinted at the image before turning to the group. “This ship was bound for Planet X-57. We’re going to Earth.”
Visit Michelle Hercules website to find out more about the Legends of Gattica series:
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About the Author
Michelle Hercules always knew creative arts were her calling but not in a million years did she think she would become an author. With a background in fashion design she thought she would follow that path. But one day, out of the blue, she had an idea for a book. One page turned into ten pages, ten pages turned into a hundred, and before she knew, her first novel, The Prophecy of Arcadia, was born.
Michelle Hercules resides in The Netherlands with her husband and daughter. She is currently working on the Legends of Gattica series.
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