Page 47 of Ashes & Aether

After a few moments of silence, he turns his gaze away from the luminous green forests of his homeworld to look down at me.

“Are you ready to face the royal court, Commander?”

I adjust the cuff of my dark jacket, ensuring the pristine white cotton beneath remains perfectly positioned over my wrists. “I navigated the egos of five London warlords. A planetary celebration for your prince’s unborn heir holds very little terror for me.”

“The Queen will likely overwhelm you with gratitude.” A faint ghost of his signature smirk pulls at the corner of his mouth.

I open my mouth to deliver a deadpan response about managing my schedule around royal adulation, but the words never leave my throat.

Because Orien freezes.

The faint smirk vanishes. His amber eyes darken, the pupils flaring. He stares through the transparent viewport, obviously communicating with someone through his nanite mind-link.

I don’t think. I just cross the polite distance I wordlessly demanded he maintain, stepping directly into his space.

“Orien.”

I reach out and wrap my fingers around his forearm. The thin fabric of his shirt covers rock-hard muscle, completely rigid under my grip.

“Orien. Look at me.” I snap the words, injecting the tone I use to pull my soldiers back from the brink of a panic attack. “What is wrong?”

He drags his gaze down, blinking once.

“Tara is gone.”

My fingers dig harder into his arm. “Gone where? Did she wander off?”

“Taken.” He clenches his jaw, a muscle ticking in his cheek. “Kidnapped from the palace grounds right in the middle of the celebration. General Korvann’s people. That is all Kairen knows so far.”

Ice floods my veins. The small, fierce woman who shared her fears with me over scavenged tea, who looked at her alien prince like he hung the stars in her sky. Pregnant. And now abducted by enemies within their own ranks.

I drop my hand from his arm, injecting steel back into my posture. I look up into Orien’s burning eyes, the awe of the new galaxy entirely forgotten.

“Well, Spymaster,” I state, my voice dropping to a lethal calm. “Looks like you have work to do.”

“Yes, Commander,” he agrees. “I do.”

15

ORIEN

Avaris should be celebrating. Instead, it’s on high alert.

I jog through corridors with Maggie matching my pace, her sensible heels clicking against the polished stone. She doesn’t ask questions. She doesn’t stumble. She simply keeps up, her jaw set with concentration.

We reach the main flight control room.

Kairen is a thunderstorm contained in an Avaren body. The purple neural filaments along his face and neck blaze with fury. He paces the center of the room, radiating a violence so absolute the technicians shrink back into their consoles.

“Where is my match?” Kairen snarls, his voice a guttural rumble.

Caden is standing near the central holographic table, his arms crossed over his chest, his indigo eyes tight with worry. “We’re all doing the best we can.”

Nireya, the flight control officer, grips the edges of her terminal, her knuckles bone white. She looks up at her fleet commander, terrified. “No one knew to intercept the Pride until they were already at the QEA. They must have disabled the tracking systems.”

Kairen stops pacing. He stares at the massive starmap hovering in the center of the room, a projection of billions of burning lights. “They could be in any galaxy, on one of countless planets, or hiding in the vastness of space.”

I step fully into the room, leaving Maggie in the shadow of the doorway.