Page 53 of Stars in Aura

Ki’Remi mulled over recent events as they trekked toward the Allorian village.

Bear and Riva took the lead, firearms drawn, scanning the dense jungle for any remaining hostiles.

Klash followed behind them, pushing Zera’s hover bed forward.

Juno covered their flank, her gaze flicking between the path ahead and the shifting foliage.

Ki’Remi and Issa took the rear, moving in practiced silence, weapons cocked, examining for threats.

The rainforest around them was a tangle of deep indigo trees, their towering forms thick with luminescent moss that pulsed in slow, rhythmic waves.

Massive vines curled down like ancient serpents, writhing slowly as the humidity thickened.

The forests of Alloria whispered about them, a thousand shades of green breathing in time with the wind.

The canopy above filtered streaks of afternoon sun across mossy trunks and aged ferns.

The leaf-strewn path was illuminated golden as Ki’Remi strode behind Issa, his boots grinding into the soft earth.

Eyes on her, still mulling at how she’d incinerated an enemy vessel.

With nothing but the furious blaze of her hands and the strange, celestial fire that now simmered beneath her skin.

Somewhere in the distance, a significant creature shifted, branches cracking under its unseen weight.

It jolted him, and he caught up to Issa.

Twasfokkin’time he got his answers.

Drawing up alongside her, he gave her such a scorching look that she swiveled her head, mister, to meet his stare.

He raised his chin. ‘You expect me to accept what you did back there without question?’

She tilted her head, that infuriating half-smile curving her lips. ‘I have no expectations of you, Sable.’

He halted.

Spun.

‘You’re going to explainwhateverthefokkyou just pulled,’ he snapped, gritted and thunder-laced.

His chest heaved from the adrenaline, and his hands clenched his laser rifle.

Issa slanted her head, curls dancing as she looked up at him with maddening calm. ‘Explain what?’

His jaw ticked. ‘Don’t play coy. That wasn’t tech. That wasyou. Youblewa highly weaponized gunship out of the sky, Elaris. With your bare hands.’

She shrugged, sidestepping a root. ‘So?’

‘So?’ His voice cracked like a whip. ‘You think you get to shrug off something like that? I’m a Rider, dammit. I’ve seen everything from thermo nucleic bombings to planetary ruptures. Whatever you did was not something witnessed before in Pegasi. Am I right?’

Her silence was louder than a retort.

As was her disregard as she shrugged and walked on, boots whispering against leaves, eyes fixed ahead.

He followed, seething. ‘You work for me, for Admiral Rhye. You’re a doctor and a caregiver, for fokk’s sake, yet you don’tseem to give afokkabout the implications of your actions. I’m even questioning if I know what the hell youare.’

She stopped and took her time to face him.

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