Page 103 of Smuggler's Beauty

“You still have the sheer Amplification energy circling you,” she said. “What are you going to do with the tree?”

“Well, as it’s significantly heavier than a rock or a marker, but far, far lighter than a ship, I was thinking of first trying to raise it. Then move it.”

She nodded solemnly and took a few steps back from the tree, giving him room to maneuver. Aiden followed her and framed her face in her hands as he stole a kiss. He’d intended a swift, cheeky peck, but the moment his lips met hers, the hunger that always raged in him for her exploded forth, and the kiss turned desperate.

“For luck,” he said, breathless as he pulled away.

“Luck,” Evelyn repeated, equally breathless. Her cheeks had that flush that crept over her skin so prettily when she was the focus of attention — public or personal. He was addicted to making that color bloom in her cheeks, pleased at knowing he affected her at least a fraction of the amount she did him.

Focus.

He took two steps backward and faced the tree. It was far larger than anything he’d ever tried to manipulate without the help of Evelyn’s active Amplification. He studied the trunk, its craggy bark a grayish color that hid streaks of rich brown underneath. The branches were in bad shape.

As good a place to start as any.

Aiden focused on the broken branches of the tree. They jutted out in odd directions, crushed green leaves hanging on by the barest thread. He imagined them removing themselves from the tree, shooting into the air, and stacking themselves neatly at his feet. He flicked his fingers up, then pulled them back toward his body. Cracking noises filled the clearing as the branches divested themselves from the trunk, the sound of snapping wood echoing through the forest before the branches flew through the air to lie in an orderly stack at his feet.

“Wow,” he whispered. The wood had flown to his feet with little to no effort. Aiden remembered the first time he’d managed to purposefully levitate a marker. He’d strained to control his telekinesis something awful and wound up with a hell of a headache by the time he’d achieved it. This had felt as easy astwirling Carin’s candy wrappers. The psychic power had flowed through him effortlessly, but his body was not so unaffected. Sweat was blooming at his temples, rolling down his back and sticking his T-shirt to his skin.

The broken branches were a hell of a lot heavier than a dry-erase marker. They sat in their orderly pile at his feet, dripped sap at their broken edges. Some of the lengths of wood were wide enough that they’d make decent bo staffs for Nannette if they could find someone with the skills to transform them. Aiden looked at the trunk of the tree.

As he looked toward it, Aiden heard Evelyn creep toward him. He reached his hand behind his back and made a grabbing motion with it. Her laughter rang through the forest as she grabbed his hand and poked her head around his shoulder.

“Nice pile. Where does this fall on a technical scale for you?”

“It’s definitely a harder task than anything I’ve done without the benefit of Amplification. It feels right, like I should be able to move anything I want, but I also feel a physical toll I haven’t in years.” Aiden considered as he wiped his brow. He couldn’t remember the last time telekinesis had made him break a sweat.

“Do you want to take a break?” Concern lined her face, teeth biting into her lower lip so hard Aiden was sure it had to hurt.

He shook his head. “I want to keep trying. Planets this isolated with breathable air are harder to find than you’d think, according to Cairn, anyway.”

“If you don’t want to rest, you should have the paste before you try the tree,” Evelyn said.

Aiden fished the paste out of his pocket and tore the packet open. He raised it to his mouth and sucked, downing the entire packet of strawberry goo in a few gulps. No sense in prolonging the unpleasant mouthfeel. After drinking some water, he turned to assess the trunk.Gotta be seventy feet tall. Aiden didn’t wantto know how much the damn thing weighed. It wasn’t as much as a ship, he knew that for sure.

He planted his feet and focused on the beauty of the tree as he raked his gaze over the bark, the leaves, the remaining branches. He saw the tree lift from the ground in his mind’s eye and raised his hand in a slow, steady upward path.

The tree stayed planted. Brow furrowed, Aiden focused harder on the tree, picturing its path more intently. It began to tremble. He could feel the weight of the tree and again pressed against it with his mind. He clenched his jaw and felt the muscles in his neck tense. He was determined to ignore the physical toll, his desire to be useful to Evelyn drowning out any doubts that he could accomplish the goal at hand.

The trunk jerked off the ground. It seesawed up, alternate ends raising and stabilizing as Aiden poured all of his focus into the attempted levitation. Sweat was pouring down his face, but he paid it no mind even as it stung his eyes. Every breath he took seemed to refuse to fill his lungs, and his pulse started to beat rapidly. A small voice inside him screamed at him to stop, but he ignored that, too. None of it was as important as finishing this experiment. He got the tree to stabilize four feet off the ground.

He went to swipe the sweat from his face and saw his hand come away bloody.

That’s not good.

He heard Evelyn’s cry as his eyes closed and his knees gave out. The thump of the trunk hitting the ground echoed throughout the forest.

Evelyn foundherself at Aiden’s side in the blink of an eye. She hadn’t registered moving toward him, just that he was hurt.He was splayed on the ground, blood pouring from his ears. His breathing was coming in shallow gasps. His eyes were closed, and he didn’t respond to her calling his name.

She fumbled in her pocket for her communicator and sent an emergency message to Nannette before throwing the device aside and pressing her fingers to the side of Aiden’s neck. She couldn’t find a pulse. She pressed her ear to his chest and held her breath. There. A thump, followed by another, slower than they should be coming, but his heart was still beating.

What had they been thinking, wandering out onto a strange planet like this to practice martial psychic skills with no guidance? Nutrient paste wasn’t going to save the day here.

Were you supposed to do CPR on someone with a faint heartbeat? Evelyn didn’t know.

I need an adult.

She wasn’t sure if it would do more harm than good to thump on his chest in the condition he was in. Pale, clammy. Barely breathing with blood still dripping from his ears, crusting in the coarse hair of his beard. She sat back and stared at the trees.