Tiny and Fierce Margo Collins (acx book reading txt) 📖

of us still standing against the back wall of the bridge. My head cracked against metal, and stars danced in my vision.

Morpheus pushed himself off the wall and hovered in the air, his wings beating so hard I feared they might break. He kept himself aloft long enough to strap in first me, and then Evik, and then he slowly made his way toward the still-bright form of Alder.

“Stop, Alder!” he called out, shielding his eyes with one arm and reaching out to his brother-in-arms with the other. “You’ll drain yourself dry.”

“Almost there.” Alder’s voice had gone thin and reedy.

We broke atmosphere and Blue’s gravity drive kicked in, dragging Morpheus back to the floor. Still, he fought to reach his friend.

“Stay back,” Alder whispered, holding out one hand, his power pushing Morpheus away from him even as the winged man tried to walk toward him, his feet sliding in place as he pushed against Alder’s magick.

I fought against the dizziness and darkness attempting to cloud my vision and began struggling out of the restraints. My fingers fumbled with the familiar buckles and nausea roiled my stomach.

Finally, I wrestled myself out of the straps and launched myself toward Alder.

But I was too late, just as Evik—who was now right behind me, having freed himself from the restraints, as well—had been.

Even as I reached out to pull Alder away from the nav panel, more magick exploded from him, throwing all of us back again and burning an afterimage of Alder’s figure into my retinas—a dark form huddled in on itself in the center of an enormous blast of light.

I tried to blink it away, only to find myself in comparative darkness.

Alder’s light was gone.

There was nothing to stop me from reaching him now.

But there was nothing to reach.

Not really.

Just a limp, unbreathing form.

Tears welled up in my eyes as Morpheus gathered up Alder’s body and let out a wail of misery. From behind me, Evik’s jointed limbs wrapped around me to gather me close, offering comfort—even though we both knew there was none to be found. The smells pouring from the Chilchek were bitterly sweet, a garden of roses tainted with the scent of the ocean. Floral notes, saltiness, and mourning. They felt right together, flowing hand-in-hand to grieve our loved one.

Because Alder was our loved one now.

We stood frozen in a tableau of misery as Blue shot off into the darkness of space.

And then, with a gasp, Alder began choking and trying to sit up in Morpheus’s arms.

“I did it.” His voice scraped out from his throat, as if he’d been screaming. “That should be enough to get us out of here.”

Epilogue: Blue

Lise, I said to my captain via our private channel, speaking more familiarly to her than I would in a public setting. There is a new bulletin out on the coms.

She sighed, staring in at Alder’s body, held in stasis in a medbay cryochamber. “Where are we on the list now?”

You and your crewmen are now in the top five of the Galaxy’s Most Wanted.

With a curse, she stood. “How far are we from Alder’s home planet?”

We should be there in three days, given our current trajectory.

“And we have enough power to reach it?”

More than enough.

She turned to face Alder’s unmoving body once again. “What the hells were you thinking, draining yourself like that?”

The first time she had spoken to Alder after he had been placed in cryo, I had reminded her that he could not hear her. But she explained that physical creatures often liked to speak to the ill, even when they could not be heard. So I did not remind her again.

“Have Evik and Morpheus join me on the bridge, please,” she said to me. “You should join the conversation, too, as it concerns you as much as it does us.”

This was unlikely to be a sexual liaison, then. She and Evik had joined one another once more, just after they had placed Alder in stasis for the trip to his homeworld. For comfort, Lise had said. Whatever that meant.

My emotions were still new, and I did not understand all of them. But I knew I gained comfort from information. Data. Facts.

Perhaps someday I would better understand the odd, primal needs of born entities. But not yet.

On the bridge, Lise turned to face the other two beings. Despite being significantly larger than she, they both obeyed her orders—as did I.

“Blue tells me that Alder’s return to his homeworld may be problematic,” she began.

“He’s supposed to marry some princess,” Morpheus agreed. “That’s why he left in the first place.”

He says she is not his ‘type,’ Evik added. Though I do not know what that means, as she is a mammal.

“So our plan is to get him there, make sure he heals, and then get him away again, right?”

The two males gazed at Lise for a long time before finally assenting.

“I would like to discuss what to do after that,” she continued. “As you know, both the Bufo Alvarius Empress and Nimbus Prime have warrants out for our arrest. The empress is offering a sizable reward, too. That means every bounty ship in all the galaxies will be on our trail.”

“Lovely,” Morpheus muttered.

“I don’t think we’ll be safe until we take her down completely. So I’ve been thinking—the best way to do that would be to dismantle her slave trade. Make her reward useless. Bounty hunters follow the money. If the money’s gone, so is that threat. And then… well, we’ll figure out dealing with the UG later.”

Do away with the slave trade completely? Evik’s mandibles clicked, a sign I had learned from Lise indicated anxiety.

“Yes. Wipe it out entirely. It’s immoral and disgusting—and more immediately important to us, destroying it will leave her financially devastated.”

“Alder will love this plan.” If I read Morpheus’s tone correctly, it was irritated.

Lise smiled. “I’m hoping it will encourage him to get better quickly.”

Evik clicked a few more times before saying, I agree. We should do this.

“Morpheus?” Lise asked softly