by Natalie Grey
He couldn’t have looked away if he tried.
“Williams?”
“Eh?”
“I asked, what are you planning to do next?”
“Oh.” Cade held out his arms as Aryn made her way over to him, and felt her nestle against his chest, arms wrapping around him. “I’m her bodyguard, remember? It’s a lifetime sort of job.”
Epilogue
“God willing, it won’t be long.” Wind whipped Talon’s shirt against his skin, and the Dragon squinted against the bright sunlight. “How many places does he have to go to ground?”
Cade moved him aside as someone hurried past with a heavy crate. The launch pad was an unending hub of activity these days, whole carriers’ worth of supplies arriving in shipments that landed almost every hour. Talon and the Dragons were waiting to go back to the ships in the next launch, their bags slung over their shoulders.
“He must have some allies,” Aryn said, trying not to sound nervous. The idea of the Warlord, the man she had feared all her life, as a criminal on the run did not make sense to her. She still woke up in terror when she heard a sound in the night, sure it was his soldiers at the door. She could sense him, far away, planning his return.
“Not many,” Cade assured her. His smile said that he knew her fears. “And the Dragons who are loyal have all pledged their support to this mission. Mallory, Mase, all of them—you don’t know them, but I do, and they’re not going to let him get away.”
Aryn nodded, leaning against his comforting warmth.
“You have all the supplies you need?” she asked Talon.
“We should be asking that of you.” The man grinned at her.
“We have so much of everything.” Aryn shook her head, looking around at it all. “I can’t imagine running out of things. It seems like every time I turn around, there’s another shipment of bricks, or planks, or pipes…” She held out grimy hands with a laugh. “I’m learning a lot more about building houses than I ever wanted to know. But, yes. Don’t worry. We have everything we need here, thanks to you all.”
“It may not always be this way,” Talon said seriously. “The whole Alliance is looking at Ymir right now, but their attention will shift. If you ever need anything, you tell us. We’ll intercede. Although something tells me I might be looking at the next Ymiri senator.”
“Oh, no.” Aryn shook her head and nestled against Cade’s side. “No, I’d like a nice, simple life for a while.” She smiled up at Cade.
“You may have picked the wrong man, then.” An alarm blared. “We have to go. Aryn, it’s been a pleasure. Tell Samara we said goodbye. And Williams … you know you’re always welcome back in the Dragons if you want.”
“I know.” But Cade did not look at all tempted. He was solid at her side, holding her close. “You call, if you need anything.”
“What will you two be doing?” Talon looked at them, an eyebrow raised.
“I … well, I’m going to flight school.” Aryn managed a smile. “If I get in,” she added, not wanting to jinx it. She nodded up to orbit. “Our ship’s ready to put down when yours is away.”
“She will get in,” Cade assured Talon. He reached out to grip the man’s hand and nodded over at Loki and Nyx, upright at last but still wincing as her shattered rib healed. “I’ll look forward to hearing of your victory soon.”
He and Aryn clustered into the waiting area to watch the ship take off, and she craned her neck to look at the road that led away from the spaceport. Once empty, it was now filled with carts and trucks bringing endless waves of supplies out to the districts.
As they watched, a truck full of men and women in suits clattered away, all landed on the ship that had come in just prior to the Ariane. The cruisers that had come to pick up the Kell mercenaries had not been Kell ships, but Alliance ones. A makeshift court was being held in orbit, legal experts arriving on the carriers daily to represent the Warlord’s lackeys and still others coming to represent the people of Ymir. Aryn had heard that there was a warrant out for the Kell officers who had authorized the sale of soldiers to the Warlord for his initial assault.
Reporters, thankfully, had been kept off the planet. For now.
“What are you thinking?” Cade asked.
“That none of this seems real.” Aryn looked around herself. A week after the battle, she still expected everything before her to disappear and give way to the life she had always known on Ymir.
Everyone else had, too. The citizens still walked with their eyes down out of habit, shying away from Alliance soldiers the way they would have from the Warlord’s mercenaries. But there were smiles, and children—always first to adapt—ducking and weaving through the crowds by the launch pad.
People were dressed in the new clothing that arrived each day, colorful and bright and out of regulation for the mines—mines that were presently closed down. It was nothing like the Ymir she knew, and somehow, it still felt as natural as breathing.
There was a boom above as a ship headed down for the launch pad, and Cade looked over at her. “You’re going to sleep on the ship, right?”
“Cade….”
“You’ve been working non-stop for a week. You’re up first in the mornings, and you’re always last to bed.” He pulled her against his side. “Some rest is in order.”
“Activity is….”
“Comforting. I know.” He craned to look at her.
“I don’t want to be alone with my thoughts,” Aryn confessed. She could not hold the words back. “I wake up remembering.”
He said nothing. His breathing was deep and even, his arms tight around her.
“I feel like everyone can see it on me,” Aryn admitted finally. “What I did.” She closed her eyes. “Does it get easier?”
“In a way.” He ran his fingers through her hair. “You’ll never forget. Some people might, but not you.”
“How do you bear it?” The question burst out of her.
“It’ll be different for you, I think. You bear it any way you can, but remember, always, that you didn’t go looking for this.” He shook her head when she opened her mouth. “You went to find him. But you didn’t ask for any of what he planned, what the Warlord planned. He would have killed as many as the Warlord, in the end. He would have killed you.”
Aryn nodded jerkily.
“You’re going to be all right,” Cade said, his voice low. “I promise you. You’re going to be all right.”
She nodded, quietly, listening to his heartbeat. A few tears slid across her nose and onto his shirt, but there was no storm. The fear abated, just for a moment. You’re going to be all right. The frantic pace of the past week, meant to work herself until she dropped, began to ease and her own heartbeat slowed.
“See?” he asked quietly. “Each time it hits you, you just breathe through it. Come find me and I’ll help.”
She nodded, and then she heard her name and the sound of footsteps, and she was caught up in another hug—this one from much thinner arms. “You’ll come back to see us?” Nura demanded. “You promise?”
“I promise.” Aryn’s arms were wrapped tightly around her little sister. Nura had not warmed up to her immediately—there were too many things unspoken, and too many questions Nura was not ready to ask, or Aryn ready to answer—but right now, it was as if the past few years had never happened. “And you’ll send me updates. Anything you need, you tell me.”
“I will. I promise.” Nura withdrew. “Mom and Dad said you said goodbye earlier today, right? Okay. Now, go. You’ll miss your flight. Or … wait.” She tilted her head to the side. “What about Samara? I haven’t seen her today.”
“We stayed up talking last night.” Aryn grinned. “My guess is, she’s pretty hungover.”
Nura laughed. “I’ll go bring her some ibuprofen. I want to stay in her good graces now that she runs everything.”
“Yeah, well—help her with that. She only wanted a quiet, normal life.”
“Then she shouldn’t have hel
ped the Dragons lead an assault on the palace, should she?” Nura was grinning. “I’ll help her, though. And it looks like your guy has checked out the ship.”
Aryn looked over her shoulder to where Cade was coming down the gangway. He nodded to her to tell her the ship was secure. She smiled, as did he, and she could hear the echoes of the conversation they’d had more than a few times since the battle.
You don’t need to do that anymore.
Maybe not, but I will, anyway.
Aryn squeezed Nura in one last hug and jogged out to join Cade on the gangway. It began to retract and she stood on the tips of her toes to wave until the last second before following him into the passenger quarters of the ship. She could not stop grinning these days, and she clapped her hands when she saw their quarters: the big bed and a bathtub, an unbelievable luxury after the constant construction on Ymir.
They braced themselves through the launch and then floated up in their seats as they they broke orbit, and Aryn craned to look up as the stars appeared above them.
“You look happy.” Cade could not help from smiling at her. “Very happy.”
“It’s an adventure.” She looked over at him, hair rising gently around her face. “For the rest of our lives. New places, new people. Nowhere to be. No papers. No mines.” She shook her head in disbelief. “I … can’t believe it.”
“Come here.” Cade beckoned to her, and with a mischievous grin, she unhooked her restraints and pushed off her seat, floating across the room until he caught her and drew her down to straddle him.
“Hello.” She grinned down at him from a swirl of dark hair.
“Hello.” He pulled her close for a kiss, feeling the warmth of her against him. He watched her eyes drift closed as they kissed, and smiled.
Her mouth opened against his, and she gave a little gasp when his hands slid under her shirt, trailing across the skin of her back and around, up, guiding her arms so that he could slip the cloth over her head. As the artificial gravity kicked on, she settled against him with a little sigh of contentment.
“Cade.”
“Mm?” He captured her mouth for another kiss before she could answer the question, and when she drew away she was flushed, her chest rising quickly.
“How soundproof are these walls?” She looked around herself, blushing slightly.
“Very soundproof,” Cade assured her at once.
“You don’t know that.” She was laughing.
“Mm.” He unhooked his own restraints and stood, hoisting her effortlessly into his arms. “Well, let’s see.”
The call connected at last and Aleksandr Soras turned with a look of relief. “Tera.”
“Is everything all right?” She looked worried.
For a moment, he was so relieved he could not speak. Please, let me see her again. And now he was, and he could let himself realize how afraid he’d been. Afraid that they’d gotten to her somehow. Afraid that he’d lost her.
“Everything is all right, but there’s been … a problem. I’ll be meeting you on the Blad. You’re en route?”
“Yes. I was thinking, if you gave me some queries, I could work on the trip—”
“No!” The word came out of him too quickly, and far too loud. She could not be allowed to see the headlines. The fact that she’d obeyed him even this far was a miracle. “No,” he repeated. “I mean it. I know you think it’s foolish, but you have to stay safe. Even this call is a risk.” He swallowed. “I’ll see you soon.”
She nodded. “I love you. I’m glad you’re safe.”
“I love you, too.” He nodded. “I’ll see you soon, Tera.”
Alone in her tiny ship, Tera curled up in the pilot’s seat and chewed on her lip.
She’d obeyed his orders: no news, no anything, leave the estate and come to the rendezvous with his ship.
What was going on? What had happened?
She hadn’t told him about the Warlord—how she’d managed to get his soldiers to defect and….
Tera swallowed. She’d killed Julian, and though she didn’t regret it, she wondered if her father had misinterpreted that act as a threat against him.
She’d tell him, she promised herself. Just, maybe not yet. Maybe not while he was still so worried.
“Hello.” Talon grinned at his screen.
“Hello, Hero of Ymir.” Lesedi said the title with a quirked eyebrow that told Talon she was not in the least overawed. “How is Nyx?”
“How do you know she was hurt? How do you already have sources on Ymir, for God’s sake?” Talon sank his head into his hands.
“It’s my business to know everything, darling.” Lesedi smiled. “I have some … middling news, however.”
“Yes?”
“You should get a memo shortly from the Alliance, telling the Dragons to come back in and let the Alliance handle finding Soras.”
“You’re fucking kidding me.”
“I never joke about Alliance memos.” Talon stared at her, unable to tell if this was a joke, and she smiled blandly back. “In any case, I wouldn’t go back to Seneca. I’d come right here to Akintola. God willing, I’ll have something for you by then.” She shook her head. “He’s gone to ground and I don’t know where.”
“You’ll find him,” Talon said, with easy confidence. “And we’ll be there soon. Stay safe.”
“If there were any point in telling you the same, I would.” She smiled. “I’ll see you soon. And Talon.”
“Yes?”
Lesedi looked grave now. “The assassin who came after me was sloppy. But, remember—Soras has another at his disposal. The one who took out Hoa. You had better pray he doesn’t still have them at his beck and call, because the only thing he can do now is make you hurt. Get revenge.”
Talon let this pass without comment. “Just find out what you can about them.”
“I’ve tried. Believe me, I’ve tried. I’ve even found his cash flows from around that time and I don’t see any payments. It’s like this person doesn’t exist.”
“Well.” Talon smiled. “Maybe I’ll finally have a worthy opponent.”
“Don’t wish for that,” she said quietly. “And be safe.”
Talon stared at the blank screen after the call ended. His eyes were narrowed.
“Lesedi?” Nyx asked, a bit breathlessly. She sat carefully in the copilot’s chair.
“Aren’t you supposed to be in the infirmary?”
“You have a death wish, boss?”
“Sorry, sorry.” Talon looked over at her.
“What is it?” Nyx watched him.
“Something she said. She said all he can do now is make me hurt. She’s actually worried.”
“That’s what it is to care for someone who does what we do.” Nyx shrugged her shoulders. “Don’t get all up in you head about it, anyway, that’s a good way to get dead.”
Talon laughed. “What would I do without you all? All right, set a course for Akintola. One other small—very small, very minor—piece of information, by the way.”
“Yes?” Nyx sounded wearily amused.
“We’re now in defiance of Alliance orders to let them take care of Soras. And while I could put it to a vote—”
“Nuh-uh.” She shook her head emphatically. “We’re going to bring him in. No one else.”
“I knew I chose you as my XO for a reason. Well, Akintola Station, then. Punch it.”
“Sure thing, boss.”
Thank you for reading Dragon’s Hope! I’d be incredibly grateful if you would leave a review on Amazon - it’s one of the best ways you can support authors!
Read on for the acknowledgements and the first few chapters of Book 4, Dragon’s Revenge. Justice is finally coming for Aleksandr Soras - at the hands of the person he least expects…
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Dragon’s Revenge
By Natalie Grey
Prologue
Knuckles slammed into her jaw with bruising force
and Tera watched the world go sideways as she landed hard on cracked concrete. The smell of garbage mixed with the taste of blood as she launched herself up, quick as a snake. She darted to one of the rickety fire escapes and hauled herself up. Her muscles shook with the effort, but she could not afford weakness now.
“Come down!” The boys clustered around, jeering. “Come down here, coward!”
“Don’t!” The word was terrified, half-breaking. Alia shook her head, tears in her eyes. “Don’t come down, Tera, it’s not safe!”
She wouldn’t have had to if Alia hadn’t drawn the boys’ attention back to her—if she’d just had the sense to run. The girl backed away, trembling, her hair shining gold even under its coating of mud and filth, her too-thin form weak. There were already bruises coming out on her pale skin from the start of the encounter.
Alia bruised easily, cried easily, cowered easily.
Why had she needed to be brave now, of all times?
Tera wavered. She knew what was coming if she went down there: she’d get the beating meant for Alia, the one Alia was getting because she couldn’t stand to be hungry and she couldn’t learn to steal properly, either. What had possessed her to try to take a skewer of meat? She must have known she’d get caught.
Maybe she’d thought Tera could get her out of it. Frustration and common sense warred with loyalty, and Tera wavered. She should scamper up the fire escape and away, and leave Alia to the punishment she’d earned. Not even Tera could win this fight. It was either Alia getting beaten up or both of them.
Alia’s first cry changed her mind. At the sickening sound of flesh slamming into flesh, Tera didn’t even think. She launched herself from the metal, hearing it clang against the old brick behind it, and tumbled onto the back of the nearest boy. He went down more easily than she expected and she hit her jaw as they slammed onto the concrete together.