Page 49 of Phoenix's Last Heist
As soon as they’re in range again, I fire four successive blasts, none of which connect. I curse and wipe my clammy hands on my pants.
“Don’t sweat it,” Lyra encourages. “I’m coming around again and you’ll be able to get them from a better angle. You’re not half bad in a fight, you know.”
“Anything else you want to tell me now?” I snap, stress making my temper brittle. “Like,who am I shooting at?”
For a moment, Lyra’s bravado drops and her gaze meets mine in the pulsing blue and red light of the cockpit.
“If he catches us,” she begins in a low voice. “He’ll take me back…and I can’t go. Not yet. I’m not ready yet, and I don’t know what he’ll do to you.”
“Ifwhocatches us?” I ask. The ship lurches to the side as Lyra dodges another blast.
She purses her lips and sighs.
“Kraxis.”
The pale panic on Lyra’s normally golden skin makes the protective instincts in me roar to the surface.Kraxis.The bastard who held a gun to my head. The walking threat to Lyra. Rage bubbles in me like I swallowed battery acid. I can’t let him take her back to Brill.I won’t.Not trusting myself to speak, I simply nod and return my focus to the holo screen in front of me.
I have to do this. I can’t fail her. I can’t fail Lyra like I’ve failed everyone else—my parents, Sylph, my people.
Light speed engine is primed,Ada chirps.
“Okay, Ranger, you’ve got one more shot at this before we run. Cripple their ship and then we’ll blast off and go hide out for a little while. I know you can do this,” Lyra says, gripping the ship’s controls with white knuckles.
Her words weigh me down with desperate purpose. The jump might save us if I hit their ship—but miss, and the damaged hull, the incoming fire, the jump initiated with a crippled target could tear us apart. I imagine the worst: a ragged pry of metal, the holo shattering, the last breath of a life that ends with our frozen bodies floating through space.
Taking one last deep breath, I line up the shot with theEdax Deorum’s left engine and fire. Six bursts of plasma jettison forward and time seems to slow—Lyra’s hand poised above the button that will engage the light speed drive.
Two shots miss. A third bounces off a shield at the fore, but the fourth shot connects with the engine in a ball of orange flame and blue plasma. For an instant a hot, sick hope claws up my spine—then the fifth and sixth shots follow the same path, utterly vaporizing the ship’s left flank. Lyra smashes her hand down and we lurch forward into light speed—streaks of white blurring against the abyssal black of space.
I jump up from my seat, pumping my fist in the air in triumph, but when I turn to Lyra, she’s staring back at where theEdax Deorumhad been before our jump. Eyes welling with tears, she chokes out a sob and throws her arms around my neck.
With her face buried in my chest, I almost don’t hear her whispered words.
“Thank you.”
13
lyra
Just to Be Safe
I pull away from Orion,only slightly embarrassed by my emotional display after he managed to cripple Kraxis’s ship and give us the time to jump to safety. Well,relativesafety. Kraxis will have a hard time following us, but there’s some ominous damage to my hull and I pushed the engines too hard. We desperately need a place to lay low and make repairs. And figure out what the hell is going on with me and the most incredible lay of my life.
The asteroidInferislooms before us. At first glance, it reminds me of a desiccated potato, rotating lazily around a red dwarf star that glows crimson like the weary embers of a dying fire. As we near, theHephaestusorbits into view—a swirling mass of space junk that threatens to wrench itself apart with the slightest touch. In short, our hope of salvation rests on somewhat underwhelming shoulders. We approach slowly just as two small recovery ships launch from one of the salvage rig’s outer bays and descend to the pockmarked surface of the asteroid.
“Well,” I say, clearing my throat. “We know they’re home. Now we just need to knock real polite-like.”
“Are you okay?” Orion asks, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.
“Oh, sure! Yep. Absolutely,” I force out. “You just managed to save our bacon, is all. I’m grateful.”
He studies me—glowing green eyes roving over my face and the damp tracks of tears I furiously wipe away. Sensing my discomfort, he arches a brow and flashes one devastating dimple.
“Howgrateful?” he teases.
I breathe a sigh of relief.Thisis familiar ground. Teasing, flirting, fighting. Not the naked vulnerability I felt moments ago.
“Hm…” I tap my chin, considering. “Grateful enough to give you a blow job so fierce, you’ll think I’m trying to suck your soul out through your?—”
