Was this still the serum causing my discomfort? Shouldn’t mating the Drakes have snapped me out of it?
“When does the serum stop doing its thing?” I asked them.
They glanced to each other. Then Rhodes said, “Not sure. It is likely still altering you, that would take a while to complete.”
Altering me. Great. Not unsettling at all.
The ache made it hard to concentrate as I adjusted theStardrifter’scourse. Shewas only one of many ships moving into Givnia’s atmosphere, and they were a varied bunch—I noticed others very similar to our ship’s age and model.
“Our power core emissions allow us to integrate with this lot,” Xandros said as I slipped the ship into the queue for the Xalcim spaceport.
Over the radio, a rather bored voice asked something I did not understand. Rhodes answered in a language with far too many hissing s’s to be Drakonian. The bored voice gave us coordinates and a docking assignation.
Rhodes acknowledged before shutting off the receiver. “I told him we were visiting the market,” he said in Primal. “It caters to a wide variety of merchandise—everyone in the sector shops here.”
“Are you sure that Xalcim is where Brentoq will take him?” I asked. “What if she just keeps him on the ship?”
“Xalcim is the place Brentoq calls home, and where she took Zyair last time.” Rage radiated from Xandros. “She’ll have other members of her hive waiting to enjoy him too.”
Rhodes continued in a calmer tone, but his eyes burned with repressed emotion. “Her family’s stronghold is along the northern edge of the city.” He poked at the navcube holograph, zeroing in on Xalcim. It was a sizeable city, and now it showed a walled compound with its own landing pad.
“We must stop Brentoq from bringing Zyair within those walls.” Xandros sounded unusually tense, and I glanced back to him. His eyes flashed sapphire at me. “We barely rescued himfrom there last time.”
“Our plan is viable.” Rhodes’s voice was dead calm, but I sensed how keyed up he was.
Xandros grunted agreement, before glancing at me. “Anything more from Zyair?”
I shook my head. It had been over three hours since we’d last managed to gather images from him. “He’s still shutting me out.”
Rhodes exchanged a look with Xandros.
My worry had formed a hard lump within me. “He will not try anything dumb, will he?” I pressed.
After a moment, Xandros shrugged, “He might.”
“Zyair—he has a disturbing tendency for self-sacrifice,” Rhodes growled. “At its best speed, the battlecruiser will not reach here for another two hours. Zyair must acknowledge that we will rescue him. He cannot stop us from doing so. Send images that show him we are already here.”
“How do I do that?” I asked.
Rhode’s lips pulled straight. “Picture his dead body, and us reclaiming it.”
I gaped at him, my heart constricting. Yes, that is what I’d been most afraid of. The self-sacrifice thing.
Big hands closed on my shoulders. “It is alright, my little drifter,” Xandros soothed. “Be your normal bossy self. Do not let him block you out.”
Now I was determined to make contact, to reassure myself that he was okay. Well, not okay, but alive, at least.
I drew strength from Xandros’s presence as I closed my eyes, and formed Zyair in my mind. The height of him, the way the muscles rippled over his bones, his scent…
It was the last that proved the most powerful, and for an instant, I felt him. Relief flooded through me, right before he shoved me away.
That was a peculiar sensation. But I wasn’t about to take no for an answer. I imagined myself as a spear piercing the barrier he’d erected. Focused, and pushed hard…
There was the briefest of struggles as he attempted to escape my determined thrust. But then I caught a glimpse through his eyes.
Senaik was gone. Zyair appeared to be alone in the room—but things were different now. I sensed a burning that nearly consumed him—an ache that seemed focused in a way that I recognized.
The venom was working on him. I shoved images toward him—ofStardrifterin orbit over Givnia.
