“He’s lying somehow.” Cade couldn’t keep the bitterness from his voice. Talon lay a hand on his arm and he shook it off. “What, do you want me to lie to her, too?”
“I told you myself that it was real.” There was an edge to Talon’s voice now. “Williams, you know damned well what this man has done, and so you know how much it’s worth to stop him. That’s what she just did.”
Cade stopped. He had never seen Talon quite like this. Talon was a man who preferred to let people fight their own battles, turning a blind eye to the fistfights and confrontations his soldiers got into. If Aryn and Cade were both under his command, he would have left right now and let them fight it out.
He liked her, Cade realized in disbelief. Talon approved of Aryn, and of what she’d done. The cold-hearted bastard was reasoning it out just like she was, and neither of them could see—
“He’s lying,” Cade said again. He looked between them. “There is something we don’t know about his plans, but I swear to you, Ellian is lying.”
They both looked away, Talon crossing his arms and Aryn biting her lip, but Cade knew they both saw what he did: a nothingness, a pattern just out of their reach to comprehend.
“I’ll find out,” Talon said at last. “I’ll see what I can learn.”
“I’ll come with you.” He might get the confrontation with Ellian that he desperately wanted.
“Williams—stay with her.” Talon’s eyes were cold. “Remember when I said that the Warlord thinks this is real? He does. And you and I both know what that means.”
“You don’t have to keep from saying it,” Aryn said impatiently. “The Warlord might try to hurt me. I know.”
“You don’t know,” Talon told her simply.
Aryn raised her chin, a smile on her lips, and Cade’s heart turned over.
“I do know.” She shook her head. “I knew what I was getting into when I came back. I’ve lived with this fear all my life. I’m not doing this because I don’t know the cost. I’m doing it because it’s worth it.”
There was pity in Talon’s eyes, Cade saw. When he left, his expression said clearly enough—to another Dragon—that he knew this might be the last time he saw Aryn alive. But he was pleased. He paused at the door.
“Take care of Williams, will you?” And he was gone.
Chapter 26
They looked after Talon as he went, Cade rubbing the back of his neck and Aryn trying to find something to say.
“Cade.”
He turned to look at her.
“Shouldn’t it be Mr. Williams?” There was no bitterness in his voice; even the sadness was held in check.
She knew, in a flash, that he understood everything. It didn’t change the fact that she wanted to say it aloud, know that he had heard the words that she loved him, that she would never have given him up for anything less than a planet’s worth of people.
“Cade, I love you.”
“Don’t.” He shook his head. “I can’t bear it, Aryn. I can’t listen to this.”
“I can’t bear for you to go away and wonder!” Tears blurred her vision and she dashed them away with two swipes of her hand.
“Aryn.” He managed a smile. “I know.”
Before she could say anything in return, he had crossed the room in three long strides to take her in his arms. She swayed against him, his hand holding her head close, the other arm wrapped around her waist. Their lips hovered apart, blue eyes meeting green, and Cade shook against her.
“I shouldn’t have—”
“Please.” She pulled at his coat. She could never have moved him if he did not want to be moved, but now he bent slowly, carefully.
“Aryn, I should go.” Forever. They both knew he meant forever.
“Not yet.”
“What if he sees us?”
She almost said she didn’t care, and he saw it in her eyes—and saw that she did not say it.
“Goodbye, Aryn.” He bent to touch his lips softly to her, just once, and released her. His footsteps were silent as he walked to the door.
She watched him go, holding herself in place with force of will. She could still feel his mouth on hers and the comforting strength of his arm around her. She watched his hand reach out for the door and wanted more than anything to call him back. But if she did, she would break entirely. His fingers closed around the handle and Aryn squeezed her eyes shut.
They broke in the same moment, running to one another, colliding with a laugh that was half sob, her hands on the side of his face and him picking her up. When they tumbled onto the bed, he braced himself, trying not to crush her, and she pulled him down to feel his weight. His lips were hot on hers, urgent, and he pulled her head back to trail kisses down the front of her throat, skipping over the priceless necklace and kissing her bare shoulder softly, almost gently.
They did not speak. Almost, superstitiously, it seemed this might not be real if they just stayed silent. Her hands tore at the buttons on his shirt, and she gasped at the feel of his hand over the curve of her hip. Aryn let her eyes drift closed, drowning in sensation. She could pretend, just for a moment, that this could be forever…
“Come with me.” His voice was urgent. “He knows about us.”
“He only suspects. I can convince him—”
“Why?” He drew away from her, his eyes filled with pain. “Aryn, he hurts people. Every day. Save Ymir, and he’ll only do this to some other planet.”
Aryn drew him down, shaking, so his forehead rested against hers.
“I can change him.”
“You can’t change him.”
“I can. You saw what happened. And he did what he said he would do—he went to the Warlord and said he wouldn’t deal anymore. I can change him, Cade. And if that robs the world of one bad man, and that man could kill thousands—hundreds of thousands—then isn’t it worth it?”
“You will sacrifice your whole life to find out,” Cade said fiercely. “What about you?”
“What about my parents? My sister? Samara and her family? There are more of them than me. And there are more on other planets, like you said yourself.”
“And you are binding yourself to a life of grief, in the hopes that you can stop someone else from…”
“What would you do?” she demanded. Fury coursed through her veins. “What would you do, if the path was ahead of you and you had only what I have? You’re going to tell me Ellian should die, aren’t you? That he’s a bad guy, one of your enemies. And I should just kill him and be done with it.”
“Yes!” He shoved himself away, leaving her on the bed. “You know some of the things he’s done.
“And he saved my family.”
The look her turned on her was haunted.
“Do you believe, for one moment, that he did that out of kindness?” His eyes met hers bleakly. “He did it so that you couldn’t walk away. Don’t you see that?”
“And that doesn’t change a thing.” She lifted her shoulders. “Because it’s still the same. Stay, and they live. Leave, and they die.”
“If he was a man you could change…” He was back at her side, kneeling by the bed, her hands gripped in his. “He would have brought them to New Arizona. Set them up somewhere with a life they would have forever. He wouldn’t have left them on Ymir.”
She stared at him, shaking, and felt her face begin to crumple.
“I don’t know what to do. I’m doing the best I can, Cade. I’m trying to make it right, I’m trying to pay back the debt.”
“It was never your debt.” He spoke the words gently.
“When you have something someone else doesn’t have,” she said quietly, “that’s a debt. I had safety. I could have lived my whole life without fearing the mines…if I’d just kept my mouth shut once I knew.”
“And what were the odds of that?” He smiled into her eyes, matching her half laugh with his own. He drew her against him and rocked her back and forth slowly. “Aryn…”
“You don’t un
derstand. You can’t.” She swallowed back a sob. “You want to know the real reason Ellian and I haven’t had children?”
His arms tightened around her, but he said nothing. His breathing was deep and even. Her eyes were drifting closed; this was perfect. This was how it should be, his arms around her, her head nestled under his chin.
“Tell me,” he said finally.
“In the rebellion,” Aryn said finally, “you weren’t allowed to. You couldn’t join if you had kids.”
“Why not?” He pulled away slightly to look down at her.
“Because…if they caught you…” She closed her eyes. “You watched your family die before you did. Unless you gave information. Then they just killed you. And so I never…”
Cade sucked his breath in through his teeth.
“Cade, if I run away now—”She took a deep breath.
“Then not now,” he said, low and urgent. “It might be the pause we need, the opening to take the Warlord down. And when that’s done, Aryn… Come with me. We’ll live here, on a new Ymir, or we will go as far as you want to. You could have children, and they would grow up safe.”
“Don’t.” Her voice was panicked. She could not bear to hear this.
He held back his words, but she could read them in his eyes as clearly as if he had shouted them out. She could see a little apartment in one of the smaller towers, maybe a view of the mountains that she’d always wanted. She could see children taking their first steps on the rough carpet with their tiny hands wrapped around Cade’s fingers.
He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her deeply, and this time when she pulled him up onto the bed, he gave no protest. He kissed her cheek, the tender skin of her neck, his fingers drawing the zipper at the side of her gown down slowly. She shivered at the cold air on her skin and arched as he brushed his fingers gently along the line of her ribs. The hem of her dress rose, gorgeous fabric shimmering over his hands as he bared her legs. She felt her hips move against his and his eyes closed briefly.
When the faint beep of his comm link went, he tore the earpiece out and threw it across the room. Another kiss, slowly, their mouths opening, and the faint, insistent beeping of the comm as it lay on the rug. Cade sighed, his head slumping against Aryn’s shoulder, and the felt a laugh bubble up in her chest.
“You should get that.”
He picked his head up and gave her a look.
“It’s your husband.”
“I know…”
“Run away with me.”
And something inside her broke. Aryn smiled back at him, recklessly.
“All right.”
“What?” He paused, half off the bed, looking down at her.
“All right. I’ll do it.” She pulled him down for a kiss. “I’ll…I’ll be a pilot. And you’ll…can you cook?”
“I’ll be your bodyguard,” he said, against her mouth, and she felt his chest shake with a laugh. “Aryn…”
“You’re right. You were right. We’ll help Talon, and then we’ll take my family and run away.”
“Damn you and your sense of honor.” He nuzzled at her neck. He pushed himself up and picked up the earpiece, murmured a few words, listened. Aryn frowned at the whispered conversation.
“What is it?”
“It’s James. Ellian wants me to help the audio hacking in this wing. In case the Warlord is unhappy.”
“How long will that take?”
“Not long, but…” Cade glanced worriedly at the door. “I shouldn’t leave you right now.”
“You know Colin is watching everything,” Aryn told him soothingly.
“Aryn…”
“Go.” She lowered her voice. “I’ll pack.”
“I’ll be right back.”
He smiled as he slipped out the door, and Aryn pulled a bag onto the bed and began sorting. All of her jewelry, of course, and the few sensible clothes she had. She grinned as she shoved them down into the bag. It wasn’t much, but she didn’t need much. When the door opened, she looked up with a smile.
The smile died when she saw James, and the barrel of the gun he had casually pointed in her direction.
“James…”
“Hello, Aryn.” His eyes were colder even than Ellian’s.
“Whatever Ellian told you—” She would give him this bag right now, tell him to leave with the jewelry… But he laughed outright.
“Ellian? No. The Warlord pays better than Ellian.”
“What?” Her throat seemed to close up.
“Come along, Aryn.” He smiled coldly. “I don’t want to hurt you, you know. I’d rather you and I have a long life together when this is over.”
“You and I?” Aryn managed.
“Ellian failed the Warlord, and I get the prize.” His smile was chilling. “But I won’t let what’s about to happen to Ellian happen to me, too. I will hurt you if you make a fuss. So come along now, Aryn.”
Chapter 27
The Warlord’s palace was a maze with no equal, each broad corridor and vaulted ceiling much like the next. Fortunately, James’s instructions were to meet nearby. Cade smiled to himself. They would hack into the audio system and James would give him a speech about Aryn. Cade would bluster, James would make threats. And then, while the bodyguard went back to tell Ellian that everything was taken care of, Cade would get Aryn to the spaceport.
He rounded the corner to his destination and paused when he saw the empty corridor. There was an electronics box cunningly hidden behind some ornamental metalwork, and he knew at a glance how to set the original blockers and open the metal cage to begin the hack. It was trivial work, with the right tools—which Ellian, in a show of generosity—made sure all of the bodyguards had.
But James should be here. Something prickled on the back of Cade’s neck and he slipped into the shadows. It would be just like Ellian to set him up, arrange for him to be caught by the Warlord. Tortured and dead, Ellian not to blame, Aryn heartbroken…and without allies once more.
He needed to get out of here, and quickly. Cade let his eyes drift closed, listening for the tramp of feet, and then slipped back the way he had come, hugging the shadows as casually as he could, one of the hundreds of suit-clad servants. With any luck…
Two pairs of footsteps approached and Cade sank into the shadows, listening. A man and a woman. From the alcove in which he’d wedged himself, he could not see them, but he noted their silence. There was a slight hitch in the woman’s step.
“Keep moving,” the man’s voice said, low and ugly.
James.
It came together in a flash and Cade was out of the alcove, slamming James sideways against the wall. The gun went sliding away across the floor and there was the click of Aryn’s shoes as she ran for it, the dainty noise out of place with the violence taking place just feet away. James had recovered quickly, a knife sliding from a forearm sheath.
The world went quiet and still. James, Cade thought dispassionately, was not quick enough. He should have trained harder. He shouldn’t rely on hidden knives and weak enemies. As if in slow motion, Cade watched the man fumble for the grip of his knife. His eyes were focused on his hand—sloppy—and his head was not yet coming up to watch the Dragon before him. James never saw the strikes coming: not the first, that snapped his head sideways; not the second, that slammed his skull back against the marble wall; not the third, that crushed his sternum. He slid sideways and fell, fingers loosening as the light in his eyes faded.
The world snapped back into motion.
“We have to get out before Ellian knows he’s dead.” Cade grabbed for Aryn’s hand.
“You killed…” Her hands were clasped around the pistol in a proper grip, but she was shaking. “You killed…”
“Aryn, we have to go.” He took her by the arm and yanked her sideways, pulling her along the hallway as she looked back at James’s body. “Don’t look, it will only upset you.”
“You killed him,” she said again. The look in her eyes said she wanted
to say something else, but shock was taking her words.
There was too much anger pounding in his blood for him to care, and some long-unused sense told him that there were people nearby, their footsteps trained to softness. More danger? Possibly.
He had wondered what it would be like to kill again, sometimes, in the endless dark of space when he looked forward in time and saw this moment coming. He had a disjointed memory of a night three weeks past, Talon saying he was impressed that Cade had never gotten back in the game. Had Talon seen this coming, too? And had he known that right now there would only be a savage joy? Horror was creeping up, cold, like water filtering into his shoes, and Cade could not even bring himself to care. This man had been a threat, been a killer.
A Dragon always protected their own.
“Cade.” Aryn was shivering now, the aftereffects of adrenaline hitting her hard. “Cade, wait.”
“What?” He did not stop; the unseen people were closer, and he had no data to know if it was coincidence or not. He wondered if he could leave Aryn outside in the hall while he went and killed Ellian. One less bad man in the world.
“He wasn’t—it wasn’t Ellian.”
That stopped him. Cade looked over at her.
“It was the Warlord. He bribed James.”
And then, as Cade reversed direction sharply, was the moment a panel of the wall came free and their attackers stepped out into the hallway. There were seven of them, dressed in the shimmery ShadowBlack uniforms of mercenaries—the colors that played with your eyes, flickered and blurred until you couldn’t see where your attacker was coming from.
Cade did not hesitate. Aryn was shoved behind him, sprawling onto the ground and pushing herself up as Cade launched himself at the woman on the far left. He pivoted on one foot, spinning her, planting his foot in her sternum to use her as a projectile against a man who had decided to chase Aryn. They went down together, the woman twitching and gasping with pain, and Cade threw himself after them to slam his fists first into her head, and then the man’s. Two of seven down.
Rules of an unfair fight: focus the damage and take them out one by one.
“Run, Aryn!”
Dragon's Honor (The Dragon Corps Series Book 1) Page 15