Page 93 of Enthraller

Before that, you were sitting around a wrecked spaceship for two thousand years, Wren teased them.I could do nothing more than bake cakes all day, and life would be more interesting.

She felt their amusement thrum through her.

Ed tapped her shoulder and pointed to a light visible through the trees.

The freighter.

Linao had landed just beyond the copse, and given the rain had started to fall again, Wren was grateful for how close it was.

They moved through the trees toward it, and she kept watch for Renard. There was no sign of him, and something about that made her nervous.

She needn’t have worried. Renard was standing at the entrance to the freighter, talking to Linao.

She was making him stand in the rain, not giving an inch to let him inside.

They were arguing.

And then Renard struck, shoving Linao hard and forcing his way in.

The door shut behind them.

She and Ed glanced at each other.

“Not sure whether this is better or worse,” Ed said.

She wasn’t either. But it was the reality they had to deal with, and she jogged to the freighter, touched the lock pad and waited a moment after the door opened, just to see what was going on inside.

The passage was empty, but there were sounds of a struggle further down, coming from the tiny bridge.

She stepped in, with Ed right behind her.

The freighter was warm, and it was glorious to be out of the wind and rain.

Wren used her hands to push back her hair, squeezing out the water, and her fingers encountered the circlet on her forehead as she did so. She lifted up her arms in surprise and saw the silver bracelets were back on her wrists.

She hadn’t even felt them.

Because they are part of you, her nanos told her.No laz fire will touch us again.

She could get behind that.

Ed had gone still, and she turned to see what was wrong.

He was watching her, eyes hooded.

“What is it?” she whispered.

He shook his head. “Sounds like Renard is winning the fight.”

She turned her attention back to the bridge, and decided Ed was right. Linao might be doing her best, but Renard was much bigger.

She got to the end of the passage and looked into the room just in time to see Renard step back, Linao lying at his feet.

He was holding a laz in his hand, and as he hadn’t had one that she could remember, she guessed he’d taken it away from Linao and used it on her.

He started at the sight of her, and then gave a smirk. “Oh, you make it so easy.”

“Do I?” Wren asked. “Thanks for disabling Linao, you can leave now.”

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