Renegade Magic (Star Renegades Book 1)

by Jennifer M. Eaton

  He had no idea why she’d changed teams, but if anything happened to her, they were dead.

  “Can we shield her?” Cal asked, but the blast had already hit Dania head on. The light around her dwindled before brightening again. The Star Renegade drifted farther toward the black hole. “Ethan, I need engines!”

  His red curls stuck to his temples as he shook his head. “We barely have power. There’s nothing I can do.”

  34

  Dania

  Dania bolstered her air shield bubble and stared down the ship throttling through space toward her. She opened herself and connected with the pilot just before she met First Lieutenant Shivana’s gaze. The large woman’s frame filled most of the cabin and she looked right into Dania’s eyes before she bombarded her former general with another round of munitions.

  Dania steeled herself, casting the artillery back toward the ship at minimal velocity, giving Shivana time to move her craft out of the way.

  It was foolish of her. Shivana wouldn’t show Dania that kind of mercy. Still, Dania couldn’t harm one of her own people. Shivana was only following orders, as any good soldier should.

  Shivana banked right, just as another ship flew past the blasts, firing larger rounds at Dania’s shielding. The artillery rocked her barrier, sending a lashing jolt through Dania’s core. Pain seared across her skin.

  Those were grade three rounds…much heavier munitions than were needed. She reached out and felt the familiar waver of Miguel’s power from within the ship. Either he had a grudge, or he’d been ordered to take her down no matter the cost.

  She deflected a second volley, and a third ship joined, shooting rounds between Dania and Miguel…cautionary fire not meant to harm either side. Whoever that was, they were trying to thwart the attack. There was only one among her enforcers who’d stand between Dania and destroyer grade munitions.

  Alexander.

  Was he out of his mind? He’d be punished for going against their prince.

  Unless Dania’s friend hadn’t been given a direct order to stop her. He might be acting on his inherent need to protect his general. Either way, the others would punish him for this impertinence.

  Both combat crafts fired heavy rounds at Alexander’s ship. Dania threw up a small barrier, enough to knock the artillery off course, then drew the power back into her palms.

  She quaked as the missiles slammed into her defenses and spun off course. If those rounds hit something, they’d still explode. They should have been using shorter-range lasers. They were safer in tight battle.

  But this wasn’t Dania’s command. Whoever was giving the orders didn’t seem to be concerned with collateral damage.

  The shielding around her wavered. Behind her, the Star Renegade pitched as Dania’s power buckled. The ache in her shoulder deepened. She couldn’t hold the smuggling ship away from the vortex and deflect these attacks for too much longer.

  She needed to find a way, though. It would be several minutes before the black hole she’d conjured would be ready to use for travel. Until then, it would tear the Star Renegade apart if they were sucked inside.

  Her arms burned and her eyes grew heavy. She needed sleep.

  More so, she needed her prince to restore her energy supplies.

  Dania blinked away the thought and tried to gulp the ache in her throat away. Recharging her primordial energy was no longer an option. She’d turned against her prince. He’d never share his power with her again.

  A shot clipped Alexander’s right wing. Dania threw another shield in his direction. One shot bounced off, but the other got through. She recoiled as the back edge of her friend’s main injector column exploded.

  His ship couldn’t take much more.

  Closing her eyes, she pressed a thought toward him: Return to the ship. Don’t risk yourself.

  His voice filled her mind. Only if you come back with me. Stop protecting those smugglers.

  Dania shivered. Within the welcoming walls of her prince’s star cruiser was peace, bliss, and freedom from all her worries. Once she was returned to her normal self, she’d be able to let the Star Renegade go…allow the criminals to meet their deaths, as all criminals should.

  Returning to that cruiser was what she should do—what everything she’d been brought up to know and trust told her was right. Still…

  She glanced back at Cal’s illegally modified smuggling vessel. Her hands trembled.

  Calling up the singularity had been a mistake. She was far too weak to tame the natural energy of the universe and defend against her enforcers at the same time.

  The Star Renegade’s hull buckled and dented from her invisible fingers holding them back from the black hole’s pull. In this state, the ship would come apart and be crushed in the mouth of the vortex, and she’d be to blame.

  The other ships banked up and over the cruiser and came toward them again, one flying toward Dania, the other toward the Star Renegade.

  The ache in her limbs intensified. Closing her eyes, she pressed out more power, but the rings around her wrists where the shackles had been burned; a phantom reminder of the illegal steel’s presence.

  How much of her power had the bindings drained away? Was she still as strong? Was she even a general anymore, or was her power no greater than any of the enforcers under her command?

  Enforcers who used to be under her command.

  She threw out a wall between the Star Renegade and the attacking ship. Shivana’s craft bounced back like hitting a pillow. That was only a short-lived barrier, though. Shivana would get through, and Cal’s ship didn’t have enough power to get away.

  This was a no-win situation for any of them.

  Standing against her prince would not be forgiven. She’d made a fateful choice, and she’d have to learn to live with that for however many more breaths she took before the black hole that she’d meant to be their salvation crushed them all.

  The vision of her sponsor’s ship phased in and out of sight.

  A warmth spread over her, like a hug from beyond a foggy veil.

  Geron.

  She opened herself as a small trickle of her prince’s power shot from the ship and swirled up around her, healing the ache and making everything okay.

  It was a tease, the promise of all he still offered.

  Her hands trembled. Her body craved more—a need deeper than any other.

  Her prince was right there, within sight. All she needed to do was give in, relax, and let him take her back. She lowered her hands an inch, and more warmth spread through her.

  This was right. This was how it was supposed to be.

  But was this really what she wanted anymore?

  Her mind screamed ‘No!’ but her arms wanted to reach out and embrace her old life. Embrace him.

  The two assault crafts hovered, one on either side of Alexander’s ship.

  Shivana’s weapons were poised on Dania. Miguel’s were still locked on Alexander. Miguel had never been fond of Alexander. Still, she knew this wasn’t personal. His orders had come directly from Geron, and Miguel would have no problem with carrying them out.

  In one, simple show of force, her prince had given her an ultimatum. Return to him, or pay the price—not only her life, but Alexander’s.

  And once she was gone, they’d probably destroy the Star Renegade as well.

  Maybe if she returned, she could get Geron to finally listen. She just needed to get him to hear her out before he returned her power and took away her freedom to think, her freedom to choose.

  Dania still didn’t believe the crew deserved to die, but fighting was too much, and she had nothing left to give.

  She lowered her hands just as Shivana’s artillery banks sparked red.

  The blast from the First Lieutenant’s ship slammed into Dania’s chest. Her shield wavered, then winked out.

  She gasped, her lungs burning from the low oxygen. She wouldn’t be able to take another blast.

  Miguel’s ship fired a volley in Alexan
der’s direction. Her friend’s ship turned, but the disabled wing and damaged injector slowed his retreat.

  Dania’s heart sank. The glow of the munitions turned from yellow to orange. Death blows.

  Alexander’s ship didn’t raise its shields.

  Her chest clenched, as if her heart had exploded.

  “No!” she cried, but her voice didn’t breach the small bubble of atmosphere she’d conjured around herself.

  “I’m coming back!” she screamed into space. “I surrender!”

  Miguel fired again.

  Alexander was her only true friend. They’d grown up together, gotten in trouble together, and always found their way out…but together. That was what he’d been out here trying to do—to save her from herself, just like he’d done for as long as she could remember.

  She couldn’t let him die for it.

  Flicking her left wrist, she shoved the Star Renegade from the mouth of the black hole. It wasn’t much, but it would give them more time.

  Taking a deep breath of the last cubits of air around her, she held out her hands, calling everything left inside her and throwing a barrier of energy between Miguel’s missiles and Alexander’s ship.

  Dania, don’t! Alexander’s voice brought tears to her eyes.

  He knew as well as she did that this was the last of her strength. She’d told him once that she’d die for him, and she’d meant it.

  She caught one last glimpse of his ship as she drifted toward the vortex.

  He was better than her in so many ways. He deserved to be the one to live.

  35

  Cal

  Cal held on to the edge of his chair as the Star Renegade spiraled out of control. “What the blazes just happened?”

  Ty shook his head, blinking like he could barely see. “I have no freaking clue. It’s like we got hit with a bat.”

  At least they were moving away from the black hole. “Ethan, any good news about the engines?”

  “I got engines. Power is the problem.” The engineer looked over his shoulder, his hair a damp mass of curls. “Boss, we don’t have enough juice to run everything.”

  The ship lost momentum before they started to shake again. The stars shifted, but in the wrong direction.

  Cal’s grip tightened on his armrests again. “Are we going in reverse?”

  Doc swiped through screens on his panel. “We’re getting drawn back to the black hole.”

  Ty stood, pulling on two levers on the control panel. “Ethan, divert everything to the engines.”

  “Everything?”

  Ty wiped his brow. “We won’t need lights or air if we get sucked in there.”

  Ethan gaped, looking to Cal.

  If there was another idea, he’d take it. Ty was right, though. They were out of options. “Do it. Give Ty every speck of power we have.”

  Ty’s face reddened as he pulled on the controls, but the ship continued to move backward, tilting to the left. “Ethan!”

  The engineer pulled at his hair. “Everything but the power and air in this room has been diverted to the engines.” His hands fell limp at his sides. “It’s just not enough. It’s like the propulsion centers aren’t even there.”

  One of the enforcer ships fired on Dania, and the soft glow around her faded to almost nothing.

  Why were they attacking their own person? Weren’t they here to get her back?

  Alanna covered her mouth. “I’m not getting a reading on Dania anymore.” Her eyes reddened as their ship rattled again. “I think she was protecting us, holding us out of the black hole’s gravitational pull.”

  And without her, they were all royally screwed. Dania had probably intended to use the cyclone as a portal like she had last time. Before, though, she’d been with them to keep them from being ripped apart. Now they were alone and at the mercy of one of the most destructive forces in the universe.

  Ethan cursed under his breath. “We have major structural damage on the right side of the ship. If we take another hit, we’re going to start venting air.”

  Great. “Can you seal it?”

  The ship rumbled, pitching up.

  “Not without supplies and a crack ton of time.”

  The arced set of the engineer’s ginger brows iced Cal’s veins. Nothing scared Ethan. The guy was a borderline mental case.

  Alanna twirled a circle of blue light in the air. “I can’t get a lock. There’s no way I can jump us.”

  She lowered her hand, and the gears of light winked out. Alanna took two steps toward the window.

  “Cal?”

  She pointed to the stars, where Dania’s wilted form lay limp, nearly lost in the void of space.

  The navigator’s eyes filled with tears. “That glowy shield around her is almost gone. She’s not going to be able to breathe out there.”

  A weight formed in his chest. Dania had looked so beautiful at dinner. Normal. Maybe even a little awkward and scared. Last night, he would have done everything in his power to save her.

  He’d watched her grow, become more than he’d dreamed an enforcer could be. He wanted to see this through as much as Doc and Alanna, but now he needed to concentrate on what he could control, and Cal had four people on this ship counting on him to survive.

  He pushed away the sympathy, the innate need to help others that always crept up at the worst times. “She’s an enforcer. She’ll figure it out.”

  His gut twisted before the words had left his mouth. He wanted to help her. Dammit, he’d traipsed through the galaxies trying to save her. But at the moment, he wasn’t even sure how to save himself.

  Alanna stepped toward him. “She helped us. We can’t leave her out there.”

  Was she freaking serious? Cal pointed at the growing mass of swirling space outside the window. “Excuse me—black hole, imminent death, and barely enough power to keep us out of being turned to space dust. What do you expect me to do?”

  In the distance, the light around Dania winked out. Cal’s chest clenched.

  Yeah, she’d turned them in, but his crew was right. She’d been defending them in the end.

  If there’d been any way to save her, he’d have done it. But it didn’t look like that was an option anymore.

  The ship rattled again, and something screeched.

  “What was that?” Cal asked.

  Ethan tapped on his panel, then looked at the ceiling. “The secondary comm juncture just ripped off.”

  This black hole was going to eat them one bite at a time.

  Cal looked at each of them. His crew. His friends. His family. They’d been through hell and back, and now they all stared at him, waiting for Cal to save them.

  But how? They were the smart ones. All Cal had going for him was luck, and even that had been running pretty scarce these days. The good thing was, when they worked together they were resourceful enough to make luck into reality.

  “I need everyone to focus.” He pointed out the window to the swirling mass of space. “Is there any chance of breaking free from that thing?”

  Silence pressed in on all sides, giving him his answer.

  Cal rubbed his face with his palms. Sometimes the hardest decisions were the ones that had only one answer. “We’re just wasting what little power we have. Cut the engines.”

  “What?” they all shouted.

  “We’ll get sucked in,” Ty said.

  Cal pointed back out the window. “There’s no escaping that thing. Either we stay out here and get ripped apart, or we take our chances inside.”

  The stars shone brightly in the distance. Space held an ethereal beauty that Cal needed to remember to enjoy more often.

  If he got the chance.

  He took one last look as his crew. “It’s been a pleasure.” He nodded to each of them before focusing on Ty. “Buckle in. We’ve done this once. We can do it again.”

  “You do realize Dania was on board last time,” Doc pointed out.

  Cal glared at him but chose not to answer. He knew
the risks. They all did.

  Ty took a deep breath and sank into his seat. “Okay. I guess let’s get ready to break the space and time barrier.” He pressed several buttons on his panel.

  Cal turned to Ethan. “Can you give us just enough punch so we go in head-first?”

  Ty snorted. “The boss has definitely lost his mind.”

  Maybe he had lost his mind, but if they didn’t make it out of this alive, he at least wanted to look into the mouth of the beast that killed him.

  Ethan pressed a series of buttons on the wall. “Sorry, but it looks like that thing will be swallowing us however it wants. I’ve got nothing to give you.”

  In the distance, the royal cruiser backed off. Two specks of light sped from the massive vessel toward them. The tracking didn’t have the light signatures of missiles or any artillery Cal had seen. They could only be ships.

  “Are they seriously attacking us?” Cal asked.

  Alanna leaned closer to her screen. “I don’t think so.” She pointed at the glass. “Those lights are engines firing in reverse, but they’re still moving toward the hole at high velocity. It looks like they’re caught in the pull of the vortex and trying to break free.”

  Yet the Renegade was only feeling a quarter of the singularity’s pull, while the royal cruiser was right in the black hole’s suck zone. They had been pushed to the side, maybe by Dania before she’d lost consciousness. They were still far too close, though.

  The space around the massive cruiser wavered and darkened like it had taken shape and come alive. The darkness split into three tendrils and reached out like hands, grabbing the fighter crafts from space and drawing them back toward the ship. The third tendril reached for the Star Renegade.

  Cal leaned forward. “What is that coming at us?”

  The tendrils opened, looking very much like fingers.

  Ethan grimaced. “I’d take a wild guess and say that’s the hand of a really pissed-off prince.”

  Cal had a choice: be plucked from the jaws of death by a prince, or take his chances with the most destructive force in nature.