Page 36 of Sixth
Apex pointed. “Lower panel. Blue coupler. Swap it.”
Emmy dropped to her knees, hair falling in long, wild curls as she tore the casing free. Sparks danced across her fingers. Apex crouched beside her, his body too close, his restraint fraying. The scent of her skin mingled with the heat of the machinery. She didn’t seem to notice—focused, determined, eyes shining. For a moment he saw not fear, but resolve, something fierce and alive. She was learning how to fight besidehim.
“Done!”
Core hummed approval.“Power at twenty-one percent. Partial shields engaged. Advisory: Council channels active on open spectrum.”
Apex nodded once. “Route them.”
The comm crackled. The Head Councilor spoke in the measured cadence of a man who believed rules would always shield him. “Vessel Apex Six, you are in violation of detainment code thirty-seven. Submit for inspection.”
Apex drew himself tall, as if the Councilor could see him through the hull. “Inspection will be conducted on site underquarantine protocol. By registry proclamation, aValenmark cannot be purchased, severed, or transferred. You will stand down.”
The Councilor paused. “Your bond is unregistered. The court will decide whether it is authentic.”
“It is authentic.” Apex’s voice held iron. “You will not touch her.”
Voss cut in with a sneer. “You keep saying that like you matter. She’s an account entry, Apex. Nothing more.”
Emmy flinched. Apex felt the spasm in his own chest. He wanted Voss’s throat under his hand, the world silent again beneath it. He wanted to take her face in his palms and tell her the truth. He couldn’t. There wasn’ttime.
“Core,” he said, eyes on the viewport, “I need a harmonic decoy.”
“Specify parameters.”
“Mimic our Valenmark signal at reduced energy and send it through the damaged relays down the ridge.”
“Cloning.”Core’s hum thickened.“Decoy broadcasting.”
The ship vibrated as the fake signature spilled into the trees. Outside, acluster of motes drifted toward the broken antennae like curious fish. They touched the metal. The whole ridge sighed with light.
“Movement,” Emmy whispered. “Look.”
He followed her pointing hand. Three figures in Council armor pivoted away, weapons up, tracking the false heartbeat through the trees. Voss’s private troopers hesitated, caught between orders andfear.
The lull lasted five breaths. Then a new sound gnawed through the clearing. Adeeper hum. The annulment lattice.
Soldiers unfolded the device on a strip of luminous grass, gray coils opening like petals. The air around it buckled. The hum climbed from a drone to a scream until Apex felt it in his teeth.
Core’s tone snapped tight.“Adjudication lance at sixty percent. Ninety within thirty seconds.”
The words chilled him. The lance wasn’t just a weapon, but the Council’s instrument of judgment, an orbital strike designed to burn entire regions in the name of law. Emmy’s pulse stumbled under his hand. He turned to her and that was when the world narrowed to two points of light. Her eyes. And themark.
“Look at me,” he said, quiet and unyielding. “Agree.”
She swallowed. “Always.”
The lattice fired.
Light slammed through the ship. Apex caught her mouth with his, dragging her into the only shelter left. Heat rolled through him with that kiss—bright, clean, unstoppable. The moment their lips met, the mark ignited, answering the surge of the adjudication lance with its own pulse. Power flooded between them, wild and sentient, every beat of their hearts syncing until their bodies became conduits for the energy.
The Valenmark’s resonance collided with the lance’s beam, bending it, then reversing the charge. The weapon’s energy twisted inward on itself, imploding in a sound like thunder trapped inside glass. The ship’s metal groaned under the backlash. Wind tore through the ruptured seams, scatteringlight burst in a storm of white sparks that drifted down likesnow.
Silence held for one breath. Two. Three.
Then the listening began.
The Echo Predator slid out of the dark. It detached from shadow in a way that made the eye misjudge it. As if it had been there all along and had only decided to be noticed. Its hide looked like liquid wrapped around bone. Its paws made no sound. Its head tilted as if to taste the air. The glow of motes sank into its outline and vanished.
