A Star Pilot's Hero (All the Stars in the Sky Book 2)

by Eva Delaney

  I didn’t have to face that I was a killer and had been for half my life.

  I couldn’t ignore that when seeing people bleed and fall lifeless to the floor in front of me.

  “Orion,” I hissed in the dark under the sound of gunfire.

  “Here,” he called. I stumbled over someone, and like always, Orion and I found each other in the darkness. His strong hands grabbed my arms to catch me.

  I dropped to my knees next to him and felt along Hamal’s arm to his chest. “Is he….”

  I held my breath, my heart stopping so as not to distract me from him.

  If he had died, what would Orion do without his best friend? What would he do if he lost someone he loved and could never get them back?

  On top of that, I would lose the chance to know Hamal better. I’d never find out if I could face him without flushing or feel those healer’s hands on my bare skin.

  The world would lose a kind soul when it had few of those.

  I pressed my hands to Hamal’s chest. It rose and fell slowly, and I let out my breath in relief.

  “It looked like they had killed him,” I said, my voice cracking.

  “They might,” Orion said. “We have to get him out of here, and he’s out cold.”

  A hand grabbed my wrist on Hamal’s chest. It wasn’t Orion’s—it was larger, smoother, as though well moisturized.

  I didn’t hesitate. I raised my other fist and jabbed at the unseen person, knuckles hitting something bony and hard.

  “Fucking hell,” Rux said, his voice nasally. “Why’d you punch me in the nose?”

  “Why’d you sneak up on me?” I said.

  “To tell you that we’re fucked. I was chasing guards farther down the tunnel. The lights are on back there and at least a hundred soldiers are heading this way,” Rux said.

  “Shit.” We could never take out that many guards. “Both of you, get Hamal up. Between the two of you, you should be able to carry him.”

  I shifted to give them room and felt along the stone ground for the gun and tablet I had dropped.

  The sounds of gunfire stopped, replaced with the echo of boots on stone. Lots of them. I shuddered.

  “No, no, no,” Orion muttered.

  “What is it?” I said.

  “It sounds like prison guards….” he sniffed.

  My stomach churned. Were The Uprising’s guards cruel? Had they harmed Orion, thinking him a traitor to the cause?

  I touched his shoulder. “We’re leaving now. Antares?”

  “Right here,” he said at my side, and I jumped eight feet in the air. “Fuck, you move like a ghost.”

  “Thank you,” he said solemnly.

  I lifted my dress to holster the gun, then grabbed Antares’s hand. He startled under my sudden touch. “Take Orion’s arm. Got it?”

  “Yes,” they both grumbled.

  “Mr. Pancake and Rux here?”

  The little dog woofed at his name somewhere by our feet and Rux grunted agreement.

  “Follow me,” I said.

  I didn’t turn on the tablet for risk of the screen’s light giving us away in the dark. But I was good at remembering complex paths, all part of being a fighter pilot. Sometimes we had to go in low and blind under enemy radar.

  I found the wall and pressed a hand to it so I wouldn’t miss the upcoming turn in the pitch darkness. I hurried, leading my men in a line behind me toward safety.

  Toward Polaris.

  The echo of stomping boots followed us through the dark tunnels. When I glanced back, I saw the flare of flashlights behind us, quickly closing in.

  When those lights found us, the soldiers would open fire.

  I picked up my pace, Rux muttering curses as he and Orion struggled to carry Hamal between them.

  I turned left at the first junction and pushed my hand through leaves and tree branches to the stone below. My fingers brushed the rough edge of a door, hidden among the trees.

  “Here,” I said, letting go of Antares to trace the door’s edge until I found a hidden button tucked among tree roots. The door swung inward.

  I grabbed Antares’s arm and yanked him through. My hand trailed up his arm and over his shoulders, brushing the back of his neck. His skin goosebumped under my touch. I swallowed a gasp as my heart skipped a beat.

  As Orion entered the door, I pressed my hand to his shoulder to guide him through. His strong muscles flexed under my touch. My fingers found Hamal’s head as it lulled under my hand. Rux grunted as my hand trailed over his shoulders to make sure he made it through the door. I pulled the trees back over the open doorway and pushed it closed.

  This pathway was pitch dark too, so I took the lead again. Antares’s hand in one of mine, the other pressed to the rough stone and the warm tree branches.

  The sound of following feet was gone, but I couldn’t see where we were going or what might be waiting for us ahead.

  Any turn could hold more guards.

  Or Polaris.

  My heart thundered, not at the danger of fighting soldiers, but at facing Polaris. What would I say? What would I do?

  Would he even want me?

  Love begets love, Orion had said. But what if he was wrong about me and I couldn’t love him and Po without fucking it all up?

  Somehow Antares seemed to know, because he gave my hand a reassuring squeeze. I did the same for him without even deciding to. It came like it was the most natural thing in the world to hold hands with an enemy bounty hunter.

  Ah fuck, I was going soft. It was all Orion’s fault for convincing me that I deserved love.

  My fingers traced the outline of another hidden door and I shoved against it. It gave way and blinding white light hit my eyes.

  I scrambled to draw my gun from my hip, but fuck, it was tucked underneath the dress still. If soldiers were waiting for us, we were dead.

  I tensed, waiting for the first shot, and shifted to shield the men so they could escape.

  Something was moving through the light as I blinked to clear my eyes. The smudge slowly came into focus, revealing twilight eyes and thick dark hair.

  My heart leaped into my throat.

  “Hi, Cal,” Polaris said.

  “Hi, Po,” I said and threw my arms around his neck. “You’re safe.”

  “Why didn’t you escape Etrea?” he said against my neck as he breathed deeply of my scent. I shivered pleasantly. “I left you near a hidden docking bay…” he trailed off and pushed away from me.

  My throat closed. He was angry with me. He didn’t want me here. “Po, I’m sorry—”

  “Hamal,” Polaris said, dropping to his knees as Orion and Rux set the large, unconscious man on the floor. Mr. Pancake nudged Hamal’s face and whimpered.

  “What happened?” Po said.

  I sighed in relief. Polaris pushing away from me was because of Hamal, not because he was angry with me.

  “Stun shot,” Orion said, turning to shut the narrow stone door. “A few stun shots, actually.”

  Polaris sucked in his breath. “That could…that could put him in a coma.”

  Orion shook his head wildly. “It can’t. It won’t.” He dropped to his knees next to Hamal. “Please, wake up. Come on, I can’t…I can’t be in this small space without you.” His voice edged on panic and his chest rose and fell as quickly as an engine’s piston.

  Shit. “Ori,” I said, reaching for his shoulder to comfort him.

  He ignored me. “Hamal!” He shook the larger man. His voice echoed around the small room as he shouted his friend’s name over and over.

  I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know how to help him. If he kept panicking and shouting like that, the soldiers might hear him and find us.

  “This is why we have adrenaline shots,” Antares said, rolling Hamal onto his side to dig into the larger man’s backpack.

  “Those are for overdoses and reactions,” Polaris said. “I’ve never heard of them being used for stun shots.”

  “Then it’s a good
thing you have me.” Antares tipped his hat back to reveal eyes as dark as deep space. He pulled Hamal’s med kit from the backpack.

  Orion grabbed Antares’s wrist. “You aren’t risking Hamal’s life with your bullshit ideas about medicine.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ve done this before.”

  I squeezed my eyes shut and took a deep breath. If Antares wanted to kill us, he would have. He gained nothing by hurting Hamal now.

  I opened my eyes. “Let him do it.”

  Orion’s gaze went wide as his breathing became quick and loud. I stared back and hoped that I looked calm and reassuring. Finally, he nodded. “I trust you, Cali.”

  Antares pulled the cap off a needle, tilted Hamal’s head, and stabbed the needle right into his neck. Polaris flinched away.

  For a long, silent second, nothing happened. Nobody moved. Nobody breathed.

  Then Hamal gasped and sat bolt upright.

  I sighed in relief, sitting back on the floor. Orion grabbed Hamal in a massive hug, while Antares patted Hamal’s shoulder. “Welcome back.”

  Hamal blinked in confusion, rubbing his face.

  “Yeah, it doesn’t fully wear off the mental effects of a stun,” Antares explained. “But you can move, at least.” He glanced at me and then at Orion. “And your friends know you’re safe.”

  I could scarcely believe it. Orion had been an ass to Antares since this mission started, and yet the bounty hunter was trying to help him.

  Something warm and soft brushed my finger and I glanced down. Dark fingers gently moved among my pale ones, as though wanting to touch but not certain if they should.

  I met Polaris’s gaze. His was questioning, worried.

  I swallowed the words of apology that almost escaped my lips. We had other problems still to deal with.

  “Where’s Ursa?” I said instead.

  Polaris’s gaze dropped to the floor and his hands went limp. “The Supremacy captured her.”

  Chapter 38

  “I fucked up again,” Polaris said. He rarely swore, so I knew this was bad.

  He was cracking inside. I could see it in his eyes.

  “I sided with people who aren’t my family and that led the Supremacy straight to my sister. I fucked up and Ursa is suffering because of it. They found her and Major. They took her.”

  I was wrong. He wasn’t cracking. Something in him was broken. All his old wounds were oozing and the new ones were bleeding.

  “Only Ms. Sweet Potato escaped,” he said, crouching to scoop the cat up from where she hid under a table. She mroow’ed as Po held her close against his chest like a comfort blanket.

  I grabbed both his shoulders and turned him to face me. Po gazed up at me from where he pressed his face to the cat’s fur.

  “Is there another room where we can speak alone?”

  “There’s a bathroom,” Po said.

  I nodded and followed him into it, shutting the door behind me.

  I didn’t know what I was going to say until I started speaking, and then it came easily without thought or planning.

  It came from the heart, and that made it simple, for once.

  “Polaris, you never have to choose between your past and your future. You don’t have to choose between your childhood family and your current one. You don’t have to choose between your love of your sister and your love for me. You never have to make that choice.

  “I will find Ursa and Major and rescue them. We all will, together. If you want to stay here with them afterward,” I swallowed a lump in my throat. This part wasn’t easy, because I didn’t want to lose him. “If you want to stay with Ursa and your people, you can. I’ll come back after our mission to see you and we’ll pick up where we left off.”

  He stared at me as though I were the only thing in the universe. “You mean…I wasn’t wrong about us?”

  “I was the one who was wrong. I kept trying to deny how I felt. Love doesn’t make you choose. Love makes room,” I said. “That is…umm…assuming that you’ll have me,” I added, stammering and ducking my head so I didn’t have to meet his eyes.

  Polaris shifted away from me. My heart dropped. I nodded, not daring to look at him. “I understand,” I whispered. “I was wrong. I drove you away—”

  “Commander Cal,” he said.

  I looked up as he placed Ms. Sweet Potato on the floor and stood to face me. His hand cupped my cheek. His fingers stroked under my jawline and pressed my chin upward to meet his eyes. He hadn’t turned away at all.

  “Does this mean you love me?”

  I snorted. “It does, yeah.”

  “I love you too, Cal. I have for years. I thought my heart was a treacherous thing that fell for the wrong people. So, I never told you the truth. You’ve proved me wrong. You’ve proved that I can trust my heart after all.”

  I smiled and wiped away a tear. “Fuck, I’m getting soft,” I said. “I’m also the worst person to teach someone about love.”

  “We’ll learn together,” Polaris said. He cleared his throat. “May I kiss you?”

  I swallowed a nervous lump in my throat. “Yes,” I whispered, leaning toward him.

  Po pressed his lips to mine for the second time in the three years we’d known each other.

  His kiss was gentle as a kitten, as though he feared he would hurt me. The caresses of his fingers on my face and his tongue in my mouth were hot but hesitant, slow and testing.

  I pulled away to catch my breath. “I knew you were lying when you said you felt nothing.” My lips brushed his as I spoke.

  “How?”

  “You’ve always been a terrible liar.”

  Polaris’s lips touched mine. I pushed my body against his, and he took a step back for balance, then broke the kiss with a yelp. My eyes flew open to see him tipping backwards, the cat behind his legs. His arms whirled in the air as he tried to gain his balance, his eyes widened with sudden fear.

  My heart leaped. I grabbed his wrists and yanked. He stumbled forward against me, his body hot and hard against mine, his hands gripping my hips.

  “Mrooowwww,” Ms. Sweet Potato said, peering around Po’s legs with wide green eyes. “Mmmrrr?”

  I laughed. Polaris lifted his face to meet my gaze. “It’s okay—” I started to soothe him, but he cut me off with a kiss.

  This time, it was hard and fast. One second he was the same Po I knew, soft and gentle and sweet. The next, he was consuming me, his mouth claiming mine like I belonged to him.

  I moaned into his mouth. I reached up to thread my fingers through Po’s thick hair. But it was like something had possessed him. He grabbed my wrists in his firm hands and pinned my arms behind my back. His muscles quivered as though he were fighting the urge to do more with me.

  My gaze went wide, boring into the hot, determined look in his blue-black eyes. I was a captain trained in self-defense. I could break out of his hold, but I didn’t want to.

  His hands and mouth fell away, letting me go. “What about Orion?” Polaris said. He turned his gaze to the floor, sheepish again.

  “He thinks no one can compete with him,” I said with a grin. “Are you comfortable with…sharing?” Heat rose to my face at the word.

  I still didn’t know what to think about this. I had never been in a relationship with more than one person, but I was willing to try for Polaris and Orion.

  Po opened his mouth as though to answer, then hesitated and closed it.

  Shit. He’s not into sharing. I’m going to lose him after all.

  “Hey, Cal,” he said.

  “Yeah?”

  “Are you a photon? Because you’re the source of all light in my universe.”

  I snorted.

  “That means yes,” Polaris said. “I just want you to be happy. I know I can’t be your past or a hero like Orion is, but maybe I can be something else. I’ll try.”

  Hell, he was my steady, guiding star. My present and the only one who truly understood who I was now. “You’re enough just how you are,” I
said.

  He smiled, warm and sincere with those cute little dimples. Po stroked my cheek, and I shivered in delight. A strange, new touch from a familiar, safe person.

  But now wasn’t the time to enjoy it. “What about the mission?” I said.

  “I’m in. Together, we’ll rescue Ursa and Major, find Winters, and save the galaxy.”

  That he was determined to try was as good as any admission of love.

  He could walk away from me, from us and from this whole mess. With his skills, he could go anywhere in the galaxy and earn a decent living. But he was staying and fighting, not just for his old family, but for his new one too.

  That meant more than any words or any touch.

  Chapter 39

  “The Ansible Communications Hub is here on Etrea,” Polaris said slowly, as though thinking out loud. “All ansible signals are sent to this hub through a tiny wormhole located in the device. From here, it’s redirected through the hub’s thousands of wormholes to the receiving device.”

  “There’s a record of all ansible communications in the Supremacy,” I said.

  “If the Supremacy has Winters, there might be a message about it at the hub, but…I don’t know how to get into it. The archives are on servers that don’t connect to the holonet, so we can only access them in person.”

  “Can you get the hub and palace’s floor plans?” Antares said.

  Polaris nodded. “I think so. And the queen’s prison….”

  “Is in the palace, same as the hub,” Antares finished for him. “We can rescue Ursa and Major while we raid the comms hub for intel on Winters.”

  I grinned. “Well, Po, you’ve got the best smuggler and bounty hunter in the galaxy. We’ll find a way into the hub and the prison. I promise.”

  We spent a day planning and preparing. Antares messaged his contacts, and they dropped off supplies in hidden tunnels so we wouldn’t be spotted before the rescue attempt.

  During that day, we had to stay in a single room that was hardly larger than the Firebrand’s cockpit. Though I liked my crew and loved a few of them, I was ready to punch teeth out from the lack of space and privacy.

  “What is this place, Po?” I said.