Page 4 of Kazmyr: Molten for Her
The rune flared brilliant gold, matching Kazmyr's eyes. Energy surged through the ship, lights blazing back to full power. The ember lines in the walls and floor pulsed in perfect rhythm with the marks on Kazmyr's skin, and the ship steadied beneath us.
Kazmyr's massive hand covered mine on the rune, his heat sinking into my bones. "Hold tight, flame-born," he growled, something fierce and triumphant in his gaze. "This is just the beginning."
The ship lurched forward with sudden acceleration, throwing me against his chest once more. His arms locked around me, a fortress of living flame that promised both danger and sanctuary. As we shot into the stars, I realized I'd just willingly bound myself to a being made of the very element that had haunted my nightmares since childhood.
Fire had found me again. But this time, it wore a charred face and called me by name.
CHAPTER 2
KAZMYR
The Heartforge bucked under my palms as Jenna's whispered "yes" threaded into the Fire-Seal, my ship answering like a starving beast. Heat surged through the console, ember-veins throbbing in perfect sync with the scars etched across my skin. The vessel knew her now… recognized her essence, and that terrified me more than the Voraxx signature pinging against our hull. My people had legends about ships choosing their captains. Never about ships choosing their captain's mate.
"What the hell was that?" Jenna's voice cracked, eyes wide as the console beneath her fingers pulsed with amber light. The ship's response to her touch sent an unwelcome surge of pride through my chest.
I moved behind her, reaching around to secure the safety harness across her chest. Her breath hitched at the proximity of my heat, the familiar flinch of a fire-survivor confronted with living flame. The scent of her skin, clean sweat and that strange Earth soap, flooded my senses.
"Heartforge recognized you as... authorized." Not the full truth, but we had no time for cultural translations about ship-bonds and fire-mates.
Jenna glared like a cornered spark, her jawline tight with defiance despite the fear rippling beneath her surface. "That's not an answer."
Another ping rattled the hull, sharper this time. My ember marks flared in response, the fissures along my forearms brightening as if sensing danger. The Voraxx signature was unmistakable… too deliberate to be random bandits, too small to be main fleet.
"Hunting party." I guided her fingers to the proper contact points on the navigation panel. "Likely hired. Six ships. Light armament, heavy engines."
"For me?" Her voice held no self-pity, just tactical assessment that resonated with the warrior in me.
I killed the main engines with a sharp gesture, the ship's power cycling down to minimal output. Our heat signature would bleed into space more slowly this way, leaving a confusing trail of thermal echoes.
"For us. An unbound match is valuable to certain interests." The words tasted ashen in my mouth. I should have anticipated this. The Vorthar-Terran treaty was too new, too fragile, and too profitable for those who trafficked in genetic rarities.
The asteroid field loomed ahead, a churning mass of carbon and silicate behemoths. Each rock turned lazy cartwheels that could pulp my ship in a heartbeat… a calculated risk better than certain capture. I angled us toward the field, feeling the Heartforge's reluctance through the bond-connection in my palms.
"You're taking us in there?" Jenna's eyes tracked the massive rocks, her body tensing as understanding dawned. "That's suicide."
"So is capture by Voraxx." I didn't elaborate on what happened to pairs caught before official bonding registration. The Intergalactic Dating Agency claimed an inability to track missing matches. Convenient blindness that benefited those with credits to spend on genetic rarities.
The first asteroid rolled past our port side, close enough that its gravitational pull tugged at the ship's stabilizers. Jenna fumbled with the sensor array, fingers sliding across unfamiliar controls. The panel flickered erratically, responding to her erratic pulse rather than deliberate commands.
I covered her hand with mine, ignoring the jolt that passed between us. "Steady your breath. The ship feels your panic."
"The ship feels—" She broke off as the console stabilized, the chaotic readings smoothing into legible patterns. "Great, now even the spaceship knows I’m freaking out. Is it going to text my therapist too?"
"It can't contact humans on Earth on your behalf, no." I guided our joined hands across the thermal imaging display, revealing a maze of paths through the asteroid field. The Heartforge hummed beneath us, settling into a balanced rhythm I'd never felt before, a duet rather than my solo command. "The Heartforge is... responsive to compatible energies."
Her free hand lifted, hesitating midair before brushing the cooling beads at my wrist. The touch sent a cascade of reactions through my system… marks brightening, core temperature spiking, the ship responding with a harmonious pulse that stabilized our trajectory between two tumbling rocks.
"Like that?" Curiosity edged past her fear, the scientist in her cataloging the reaction.
I nodded, not trusting my voice as the Heartforge calibrated to our combined touch. The sensation was dangerously intimate. My ship had never responded to anyone but me. Certainly, it never adapted its systems to accommodate another's bioenergy.
The proximity scanner chirped a high-pitched warning. A micro-drone blinked on the tactical display… a metallic mosquito designed to lock onto thermal signatures and report positions back to its masters. The Voraxx favored these devices, programming them to follow heat trails like the predators they were.
"We're being tracked." Jenna's voice remained level, her gaze fixed on the tiny blip circling our aft shields.
I dumped energy into the hull, feeling the familiar burning sensation as my connection to the ship deepened. The ember-lines across the Heartforge's exterior brightened like rivers of molten stone, buying us precious seconds of camouflage against the larger heat signatures of the asteroids.
"Steady," I rumbled as the ship shuddered, responding to both my deliberate energy transfer and the involuntary flare of my heat phase beginning to build. The cooling beads at my wrists dimmed as they absorbed excess temperature, a temporary measure at best.
