Dragon's Revenge

by Natalie Grey

  “Yes.” Buying time with the obvious. What should she say? She had the absurd thought that it did not matter, and tried not to frown too obviously at her own stupidity. “It’s…been a while since I’ve seen you.”

  Stupid, stupid.

  Talon opened his mouth, and closed it. A smile was beginning on his face, and Tera could feel her cheeks burning.

  “It’s….” Oh, God. Say something sensible. “I’ve thought of some other places he might be.” Yes, that was good. “If you wanted to know.” Less good, but still tolerable. “I thought you might be planning something, but the ship hasn’t moved.”

  Damn. That was a miscalculation. A jump was easy to tell, but not everyone could tell the difference between a ship drifting or moving, in hyperspace or realspace. She saw his eyebrows lift at that observation—and then his brow furrowed at the rest of what she had said. I thought you might be planning something. A plaintive, childish cry. Her fear was naked between them. She held herself still while he considered what to say.

  “We’ll be able to figure out where he is soon, actually. I haven’t needed to ask you.” His hand rose as if he might rub at the back of his head, and then dropped as he recalled himself. “So I haven’t come to talk to you.” His cheeks turned slightly pink, and Tera knew—with something that was just slightly too cozy to be triumph—that he was thinking of the trips he had taken to the corridor outside the brig.

  “Oh, I don’t—it’s not—you don’t have to come talk to me.” She paused for a moment to choose her words, hoping that the next sentence would come out in one piece. “I just wondered what was going on.” She lifted a shoulder. “Not an awful lot to do down here but wonder.” The moment it was out of her mouth, it sounded like blame.

  His face split into a smile, however. “I hadn’t thought of that. Can I get you a book or something?” He looked around, smiling despite himself.

  Tera laughed. “A book might be nice.” Because she could hack the tablet, she told herself firmly. Not because she wanted to see what Talon read. Not at all.

  The thought came over her, sudden and unsettling, that she knew him. It was ridiculous, she told herself. She did not know him at all, not really—nothing beyond the information she always gleaned from a few moments of observation. She had known more about Apollo than she did about Talon, and indeed, she had known far more about any of her targets over the past years.

  But she knew him, her mind insisted. She did. It was in the way he moved, in that one look of exasperation as Apollo fumbled for his weapon, in the way Talon joked, in the way he looked around a room when he entered it. It was how familiar those mannerisms were, because she shared them. He was familiar because they were alike.

  No. Not alike. Tera tried to see past that smile that made her chest do something funny, and saw the openness in his face.

  “Is something wrong?” she asked him gently, finding the right words and ignoring the fact that she might be asking for the wrong reasons—to comfort instead of interrogate. “Three days is a long time.”

  It worked. She could not tell if she was happy about that. He stepped into the room and took a seat on the bench, stretching wearily. He had been standing over a desk, she guessed. Planning? He rubbed absently at his shoulders.

  “Your father has asked for our arrest,” he said finally. “And the Alliance seems to be acquiescing. There’s a warrant out.”

  “They’re listening to him?” Tera asked. Her brow furrowed with a sudden, sharp fear. “It could be a ploy, to get him to come in.” He would be smart enough to see through that, right?

  “I would have guessed the same,” Talon said simply. “But there’s no message for me on any of the channels. There are ways that Dragons know to get in touch with one another that even your father wasn’t aware of. If this was a ploy, another Dragon troop would have been in contact, telling me to come in. They haven’t.”

  “But even that message could have been a ploy,” Tera pointed out.

  “Dragons,” Talon said flatly, “do not betray one another.” He stopped for a moment, looking away, and she could see that the sentiment hurt him somehow.

  Who had betrayed him? She watched, noting the weakness in him, the need for loyalty. It was entirely alien to her; she worked alone.

  She felt strangely sad, however. What must it be like to trust, and to be betrayed?

  “We don’t betray one another,” Talon repeated. “Not to enemies, and not even to our commanders. If they told me to come in, it would be safe. They’ll do their duty. They’ll hunt me down if they’re commanded to. But they’re giving me a chance to run.”

  And will they avenge you if you’re killed? Tera wanted to ask. An important question, but not relevant to an ally. She could not ask. She sufficed with, “Why does the Alliance support Soras, then?”

  Frustration crossed his face in a spasm. “They don’t want to believe it.”

  Careful. She had to be very, very careful. “The only way that makes sense….” She kept her voice light and her eyes distant. “Is if they’ve learned something more. Something that means he might be innocent.”

  His eyes flashed; she had not been careful enough. “There isn’t any way to exonerate him now. If they’re taking his side, it’s to spare themselves the embarrassment of having missed the truth themselves.”

  Why can’t you listen? Tera wanted to cry. She bit her lip on the words. It was too soon to push, and yet she wanted so badly to say the words. Can’t you just admit that you might be wrong?

  “It’s not all lost, though.” Talon had been staring into the distance, too caught up in his own annoyance to notice her expression. Now he smiled grimly at her. “If he asked for my arrest, that means they’ve been in contact. It means he’ll be watching a few channels for signs that I’ve been brought in.”

  Oh, no. No, don’t say it.

  “And that means we can trace his messages right back to him,” Talon finished. He gave a shrug. “Which means we need a way to get somewhere with a hook into Alliance channels … and that’s just slightly more complicated given the warrant.”

  “I can get you into Akintola.” The words came to her lips before she had time to think.

  “What?” Talon looked over at her.

  “I said, I can get you into Akintola.” The solution had appeared in her mind fully formed and with a wave of frustration. Her father wanted Talon to do this. He knew just what weakness he was opening up, and he was certain that Talon couldn’t escape notice long enough to get the information. And….

  Tera wanted to beat her head against the wall. Talon was well aware of the danger, didn’t her father see that? And if Talon did slip up, if he did get taken in, there was no way in hell he would give up his informant to the Alliance—which meant that whoever had convinced him Aleksandr was the Warlord would still be out there, convincing other Dragons.

  Sometimes her father could be remarkably stupid. Because now the only option left open to Tera was to help Talon get in and out without getting caught. She could worry about fouling up his intelligence later—for now, what she needed was enough of his trust to get the name of who had given him the bad intel. Then they could deal with him.

  Tera nodded decisively. Talon was staring at her with his eyebrows raised.

  “I’ve assassinated government officials there,” she said baldly. “Don’t worry, they fully deserved it. My point is … I know how to get around Akintola without ever being seen by a security camera. I know who feeds information to the Alliance, and who never would. I can get you to the Alliance offices. All you need to do is get a ship that isn’t this one.” Her lips quirked. “And a pilot that doesn’t fly like a Dragon.”

  “A pilot who doesn’t….” He stared at her for a moment, blinking. Then a smile split across his face. “I know just the person.”

  11

  “Not there.” Tera’s voice was adamant. She reached to point at the map of Akintola Station, and winced as the chains tightened and the handcuffs c
ontracted. Her grimace was fleeting, so small that most people would miss it.

  Talon was not most people. He clenched his hands, shoving away the urge to reach out and undo the cuffs for her. He was not stupid. This was not his first time dealing with the underworld. He knew better than this.

  He kept his voice expressionless. “Why not?”

  “There’s a tripwire running…here-ish.” She waved her hands more cautiously this time. “It’ll do a body scan, and it’s under a broad panel, so there really isn’t any way not to step on it unless you do something dramatic…which is going to get us noticed.”

  “Huh.” Talon wrinkled his nose.

  “I’m telling you, you go through the financial district.”

  “Where everyone has armed guards.”

  “Where people don’t work overnight and everyone is rich enough that they don’t pay attention to Alliance rewards for information,” she corrected.

  “Boss?” Tersi’s voice was on the scanner. “The Io is requesting permission to dock.”

  “That was fast.” Talon gestured to Nyx and Tera. “Keep planning, I’ll be back. Tersi, grant permission.” He took the stairs from the brig with his customary speed and arrived in time to hear the sound of a docking seal being applied on the Ariane’s hull. He kept his fingers only loosely coiled around the grip of his gun in habitual caution, but released them as soon as he saw the familiar shapes in the decontamination hallway.

  “Talon.” Cade Williams was tall enough that he had to duck under the lintel. He clapped Talon on the shoulder, but his blue eyes were already wary. “Fancy seeing you again so soon.”

  “Cade.” Aryn’s voice was stern, and the woman stepped out from behind him a moment later to give Talon a hug. “Hello.”

  “Hello to you, too.” Talon gave her an approving look. Once a trophy wife to one of the galaxy’s most ruthless men, Aryn had left it all behind in a rather spectacular fashion, trading silk gowns for a pilot’s suit. There were no more diamonds at her neck and her ears, but she was glowing with happiness. She ducked under Cade’s arm and smiled up at him, and Talon’s heart squeezed to see the easy affection between them. He’d never thought that was something he wanted, but now that he saw it... “How did you get a ship so quickly?”

  “Er….” Aryn blushed. “We might have borrowed it. Without permission. But the jumps from there to here were all very easy, don’t worry. I won’t get us killed.”

  “The thought never crossed my mind.” Talon grinned and jerked his head toward the aft of the ship. “Come on. I’ll show you what we’re planning.”

  “Do we need to know?” Cade followed, but his voice was heavy with disapproval.

  “I want to know,” Talon heard Aryn say.

  “That’s because you don’t understand how crazy Talon is. I was one of his Dragons, remember.”

  “He’s still a Dragon. He needs to be crazy, that’s his job.” Aryn was laughing.

  “His job would be to turn himself in, now that he’s been ordered to.” Cade’s voice was quiet.

  “Heard about that, did you?” Talon looked over his shoulder.

  Cade gave him a bland smile.

  “Don’t worry, I’m not about to get you both killed.” He edged into the brig and pointed. “Aryn, you remember Nyx, and I think you met Jester in passing. And this is Tera.”

  Tera smiled awkwardly, raising one cuffed hand slightly in a wave.

  “So, you keep your crew handcuffed now.” Cade quirked an eyebrow. “That’s new.”

  “I’m not a Dragon,” Tera explained. “The Major is only taking reasonable precautions.”

  “She understands,” Talon said blandly. “And I’m fairly sure she’s suitably deadly even with them on.”

  The gleam of her amusement was enough to confirm it. Tera’s lips quirked in a smile, but she said nothing. He saw her eyes flick over Aryn, moving on quickly after deciding the woman was little threat—a miscalculation, but one he was not about to explain to her—and linger on Cade’s form.

  Even knowing that she was sizing up a potential combatant, Talon felt a wave of something that felt uncomfortably like jealousy. Cade was the sort of man women had always thrown themselves at, even if he preferred to steer clear of entanglements until Aryn came along. Even if she wasn’t looking for it, Tera could hardly fail to notice the man’s handsomeness.

  Talon was beginning to regret bringing these two on board. When Tera smiled back at him, her eyes meeting his with an easy familiarity, he felt something in his chest ease.

  “Talon.” Cade’s voice was flat. “A moment?”

  “Certainly.” That would get the man out of here, some primal part of Talon’s brain told him. He tried to think up a suitable introduction. “Tera, Cade Williams is a former Dragon. Aryn is a former inhabitant of Ymir. Cade and Aryn, Tera has newly joined the crew for this particular mission. Sphinx, if you’d….” He gestured for Sphinx to take Tera back to the brig and ushered Cade out of the room and down the familiar hallways of the ship.

  He wondered at the man’s silence, and when they were finally alone in Talon’s quarters, he was not in the least surprised to have Cade round on him at once.

  “Are you insane?”

  “I’m sorry.” Talon spread his hands. “They’re watching all of my usual contacts. I wouldn’t have brought you in if I didn’t need to you.” He allowed irritation to touch his voice. “You know that, I think.”

  “Not that.” Cade shook his head. “Her. That woman.”

  “You know who she is?” Talon’s eyebrows rose.

  “I know she’s in cuffs and you’re looking at her like you’d screw her up against a wall.”

  Talon heard himself give a bark of laughter. “I’ve missed having you on my crew.”

  “It’s not a joke! What the hell, Talon?”

  “How do you know how I look at women when I want to screw her up against a wall?”

  “All Dragons do it.” Cade sank into Talon’s chair and raised his eyebrows. “Yes, we do, don’t shake your head. Tersi looks at Sphinx that way, I look at Aryn that way, Loki looks at you that way—”

  “What?”

  “Shouldn’t have brought it up, not important right now. Anyway, that’s how you’re looking at her.”

  “Not true.”

  “So help me, God, I will have Aryn turn this spaceship around.”

  Talon gave a snort. “Fine.”

  “Good.” Cade considered. “Explain the handcuffs first.”

  Talon grinned. He was going to enjoy this. “She’s the Warlord’s daughter.”

  The look of surprise on Cade’s face was just as gratifying as he’d hoped. And then Cade leaned forward, his smile dangerous. “And you left her alone in a room with Aryn?” he asked softly.

  “I had Sphinx take her back to the brig. And in any case, she’s not going to hurt Aryn.”

  “How do you know?”

  “She’s on our side.”

  “Then why is she in handcuffs?”

  “Because I can’t just let her wander around.” Talon narrowed his eyes at Cade. “Or do you think I can? I should just … accept her defection at face value and give her free reign on the ship?”

  “Of course you shouldn’t. But you want to.” Cade was smiling, looking pleased to have found a weakness.

  “You’ve gotten real smug since you found someone, you know that?” Talon was only half-joking. He leaned forward and balanced his hands on his knees. “This isn’t like it was for you and Aryn. That woman is Soras’s daughter. I can’t just….”

  Cade sighed and rubbed at his forehead. “True.”

  “I’m not going to do anything stupid.”

  “She’s helping you plan your op.” Cade held up both hands when Talon opened his mouth. “Listen to me for a moment, okay? You don’t trust easily. You’re worse than Nyx. Oh, you joke around with all of us, but you don’t trust people. Not like that. And you just met her. So maybe the fact that you want to trust her like this
… maybe that means something. That’s all I’m saying.”

  “I know.” Talon looked at him bleakly. “But does it mean I should trust her, or that I’m being conned?”

  Cade was still considering his response when the terminal beeped, and Talon frowned over at it. No one should be able to contact them right now. They were dark, hiding from Alliance scans and patrols alike, and there was only one frequency they pinged…. When he saw who had sent the message, his eyebrows rose. Lesedi. If anyone could find them, it would be her.

  His smile died the next moment.

  I have to go dark. They know I helped you. This is everything I have—I hope you can make more of it than I did. Files populated on the screen, coordinates and bits of surveillance transcript scrolling past as Talon sank his mouth into one hand.

  If they’d found Lesedi….

  “Come on.” Talon was in motion, slamming the door open and catching it with one arm before it could bounce back and smash Cade in the face.

  “What?”

  “We’re running out of time.”

  12

  Tera had hardly settled herself down on the long bench before the door was sliding open again, Nyx beckoning her urgently out into the corridor and leading her up the stairs at a sprint.

  “What’s going on?” She’d heard no alarms.

  “They got—” Nyx broke off. “They found one of our informants. The person who helped us meet up with you and your friend.”

  “He’s not my friend.”

  “I should hope not.” Nyx’s lips quirked in unexpected humor. “If that’s what you do to your friends, we’re in real trouble.”

  Tera laughed before she could stop herself, and then bit her lip. She liked this woman more than she should. Nyx was all caution but no malice, beginning to like Tera more and more by the day. She’d stopped Tera with a touch after the mission on Ragnarok, and given her a quiet thank you for saving Loki’s life.

  Since Osiris, Tera had never had anyone she might call a friend. Friendships, she heard, were built on common interests, and she had none of those with anyone she spent time with. She rather thought that if she ever found a friend, it would be someone like Nyx.