Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 55108 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 276(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55108 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 276(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
My eyes sting because I want that scenario so badly. But my heart can’t handle being trampled again. And Tarek’s done nothing but abandon me.
I shake my head. “He had his chance. I’d rather King Zander assign me to another male or males than open myself up to heartbreak again.”
It’s a lie. I know it the moment I speak it, but Abbi nods. “I’ll get you on the roster for the next royal visitation.”
I swallow down my heartache. For my baby’s sake, it’s time to be strong.
Tarek
I’ve been numb for planet rotations. It feels like I’m underwater. Or in an atmosphere where the gravity is far stronger than Zandia’s. Every movement takes effort. Every word is difficult to form.
Thank veck. Get some space from Zina. Time to think.
Only I can’t think. I can barely function.
And the rest of the team is relying on my enhanced navigational skills to get us through the harrowing trash fields of space debris so we can plant our monitoring devices.
The noise at the back of my head—that bellowing darkness I tried to pack up and shove in there so I could work makes thought impossible.
“Are you ready to enter the trash field, Tarek?” Benn asks me. We’ve been hovering outside the dangerous no-fly zone for a planet rotation now, waiting for an opening. But an opening won’t come. The more space debris accumulates here, the more dense it has become. Which is why it’s the perfect place to drop our spy-monitors.
This way, if there is ever an attack from Ocretions on Zandia—and with diplomatic relations getting more and more difficult, that seems more and more likely—then we’ll know about it.
I draw a deep breath in through my nostrils and exhale. My king and species are relying on me. “Let’s go in,” I say.
“Are you sure?” Benn asks. “It would be better to abort than to risk getting killed or captured. This isn’t a critical mission.”
Benn and his best friend Gorde share a human mate back on Zandia and she bore them a unique child who carries both their DNA. I know he’s thinking about his mate Danica as he considers the risks.
A sharp blade of pain stabs through my own heart at that thought.
Veck.
I have my own young to consider—
No. I can’t think about that.
I just. Can’t.
“I’m sure. Put on your harness.” I snap mine securely in place and bring my attention to all the data streaming from my sensors.
I can do this. For Zandia.
“Moving in.”
Benn holds his breath as the craft darts forward, into the minefield of debris. I maneuver quickly, shifting us up, down, to the right, forward. Potential hazards come from every direction, but I dodge each one, my confidence returning as we go in.
This is what I was born for. This is the only place where my blindness isn’t a detriment, it’s an enhancement. My special skill. My superpower, of sorts.
Time slows. I dart in and out of the spaces between debris until, at last, we arrive on the other side of it. Right in Ocretion airspace where they have a gap in their own surveillance equipment.
“We’re in,” Benn reports to Master Seke, back on Zandia.
“Well done, Tarek,” our master-at-arms praises me.
“Cloaking enabled,” Benn says, flicking the switch. “We should be able to get over the military bases now and drop the equipment.”
“Report back when it’s done,” Master Seke says. “Do not get caught.”
Right. Our capture could set off a war between Zandia and Ocretia and our species is not prepared to take on the galaxy superpower. Yet.
“Better to die than be captured,” Benn mutters and I know he’s thinking about his family again.
Veck. Why did Master Seke select a male with a family for this mission? I’m expendable—he is not.
Except I’m not expendable.
That thought hits me like a fist to the gut. I’ve been trying to pretend I never learned Zina’s pregnant. Pretending I never knew the human who completely twisted my life and my heart around her finger.
But, I too, have a young at home. And because of my gene defect, its mother may not even survive the pregnancy.
The despair that washes over me nearly makes me double over with pain.
Zina.
I can’t lose her.
Don’t think about it.
I have a mission that is not yet complete.
When I get back, I can face the situation I ran from like a coward.
I navigate to the first military site, careful to stay out of range, even though we’re cloaked. “This should be close enough,” I tell Benn.
“Initiating spysat drop,” he replies, his fingers working over the controls. After a few moments, he reports, “Drop complete. Next location.”
We continue for the rest of the planet rotation until all the spysats have been dropped. We’re just leaving the last one and headed back to the debris field when a blast hits the ship and explodes into a ball of fire.