Chapter 94—Nera

Hours later after my wedding, Pete went into Earth Space Fleet’s bunker to plant the bugged Xenoxx scale and insert the decrypted into one of their computers.

He wasn’t back yet. He was fifteen minutes late.

And I was not okay.

I paced around the bungalow where we’d set up camp for the night while gnawing off my fingernails. Maxx towered by the door, his thick arms crossed. We’d both changed out of our wedding attire and into our usual garb for the show—pants and no shirt for him and a fancy dress for me.

Miekil sat on the bed, drumming his hands and feet in a nervous rhythm while Mosely and Darc sat on the floor and stared at their holographic computers.

The air was thick with tension, my senses heightened by the soft hum of tech and the roaring static coming from Pete’s mic.

About fourteen and a half minutes ago, his last words over his mic were, “If life gives you lemons, make sure they’re hand grenades.”

After that, nothing. I wasn’t even certain who he’d been talking to, if anyone.

I glanced over at Maxx again while I twirled my gorgeous wedding ring around my finger. We should’ve been continuing our wedding-day celebration. Instead, we were both wound up like corkscrews. Every second we left Pete alone in that bunker cemented the very air in my lungs.

We should’ve never, ever let him go in there alone. We knew how dangerous Earth Space Fleet was. We fucking knew it, and we’d sent him in there anyway.

Maxx caught me staring, and the worry lines fanning around his eyes softened infinitesimally.

“Right. We’re going after him.” My voice snapped through the entire room louder than I intended, making Darc jump a little.

“Not you, Nera,” Maxx said gently.

“Yes, me, Maxx. Who else will? Not Mosely and Darc. They’re just as much enemies as me since they took my side. Not you since you don’t blend in, and—“

“Not me,” Miekil growled and stomped his green foot against the floor so hard that the bungalow trembled.

“And not you either,” I agreed with a heavy sigh. “I’m sorry, Miekil, but—“

“But no.” Maxx crossed toward me and touched my belly gently. “I helped make this baby inside of you, so like it not, my opinion matters about where its mother does and does not go.”

Over Mosely’s computer, a delicate voice cleared her throat. “If I may make a suggestion?”

“What, Rain?” I’d invited her to listen in from my ship’s brig. Much as I hated to admit it, we needed her help since we basically had one shot at this.

And look at how well it was going?

“What if I turn out the lights in the bunker?” she asked.

Darc’s eyes widened. “You can do that?”

“I can try. That way, they won’t see any of you.”

“But we won’t see any of them either,” I countered.

“It’s almost eleven o’clock. They’ll be heading to sleep anyway. Plus…” She stayed quiet for a long moment, but I could hear her hesitancy loud and clear.

“What, Rain?”

“Well, Maxx, as I’m sure you’re aware, Nera won’t rest until Pete is safe. Her selflessness has always been a beacon of light in an often dark and lonely world. She’s so selfless that she’ll willingly sacrifice herself for anyone in that room you’re in. And Pete. If she makes a promise, she keeps it, and she made one to Pete. If anyone can get him out safely, she can. I know this for certain. Sending her in there increases the chances of getting Pete out alive by sixty-seven percent. It would be a smart thing to do to trust her with your life.”

Without a word, Darc lifted her hand toward me for a high five.

I obliged with a snort. “I don’t know about all that. Sixty-seven percent is still an F, but…”

I looked to Maxx, who closed his eyes briefly and shook his head.

“If we do this,” he began, his gaze imploring, “you stay close. No exceptions.”

I took his hand and squeezed. “I can handle that.”

Mosely and Darc were already arming themselves over their black Space Fleet uniforms, so I guessed that answered if they were going or not, but Miekil just sat there on the bed, looking tortured and forlorn.

“Even in shadow, you can still see my horns.” He pointed to the top of his head as though we’d never noticed the spiraled appendages before. “Plus, someone should stay here in case Pete comes back, but if you’re not back in fifteen minutes, I’m coming in for you. Horns and all, and the lights stay on. Let them see me come for my friends with all this planet’s machetes in my hands.”

Mosely gave him an approving nod as he strapped knives across his barrel chest and then pocketed a second decrypter. “Miekil don’t play.”

Standing to his full height, Miekil nodded back. “Not with the lives of those I care about, no.”

“A second wave is a good idea,” Maxx said to him and slapped him on the shoulder. “But we won’t need you. Sixty-seven percent improved odds with Nera is good enough for me.”

“Rain, cut the lights as close to eleven as you can.” I looked to everyone in the room. “We’re going in.”

“You got it, Captain,” Rain said. “Please bring the mics, earpieces, and flashlights with you for extra precaution. I’ll be rooting for you.”

I exchanged a quick look with Maxx as I headed for the bathroom to change, and I read the same question in his eyes as I likely had in mine. Would I even be going if it weren’t for Rain’s involvement in our conversation? Was that sixty-seven percent complete bullshit so she could try to win me over again by getting in my good graces? And most importantly—was she really going to help us or walk us straight into a trap?

My trust issues had trust issues, in case that wasn’t obvious.

When we were armed with guns and a shit ton of machetes and knives, most of us waved to Miekil—I hugged him, and my husband was completely okay with it—and set off for the bunker down the beach.

“Stay close,” Maxx whispered in my ear, sliding his arm around my waist. “The both of you.”

His warm breath danced tingles over my skin. I wished yet again we could have a normal wedding night, but for us, I supposed this was normal.

“Right by you always,” I replied, my pulse thrumming.

He smiled at that, and I scooted in closer to him, my clothes already chafing. I’d become too used to wearing silks and satins. It felt strange wearing the uniform of those we were trying to bring down, but it was necessary to blend in, especially in the dark.

We moved like shadows through the night until we came to the bunker in the sand.

“Ready, Rain?” I whispered into my mic.

“The power’s out,” she said into my earpiece. “Good luck.”

Well, I guessed we’d soon find out if we could trust her or not.

I hefted open the bunker door, and sure enough, nothing but a black pit waited below. No sound floated from inside.

With a nod, Darc and Mosely made their way down the ladder first, only the top of it lit by moonlight.

“After you, Queen Nera,” Maxx whispered with a wave of his hand.

I snorted softly. “Yeah, that’s going to take some getting used to.”

Mostly by feel, I carefully stepped down the ladder toward Darc and Mosely, who reached up helping hands to guide me down. Maxx closed the hatch door, and once the four of us were inside, Darc and I turned on our flashlights, careful to aim them away from Maxx and his glimmering scales.

The bunker appeared empty so far, and quiet. Hopefully, everyone was sound asleep.

When we came to the first bend in the long hallway, a strong gust of air blasted from the right.

“Secondary airflow for when the power’s out,” I explained. “We wouldn’t want everyone to suffocate, would we?”

Mosely and Darc shrugged.

We turned left, downwind from the strong breeze.

“Where is the nearest computer for decrypting?” Maxx whispered.

I was about to answer when something rattled behind us. A door, like someone was trying to force it open against the surging wind. Then it burst open with a loud slam.

“Scatter!” I hissed.

I dodged for the nearest door, yanked it open. The wind ripped the knob from my hands, but before it shut, I leaped inside.

By myself. The other three weren’t with me.

“Shit,” I mouthed.

I twisted the knob and fiddled with the lock, but both were worthless. I didn’t dare start pounding on the door and announce that I was trapped in here.

Trapped and alone in the wolf’s den, separated from the only allies I had here.

To make matters worse, my flashlight dimmed and blinked, dimmed and blinked. I smacked it against my thigh, willing it back to life.

Panic rose like bile in my throat.

I leaned against the cold metal wall, fighting for a breath from my cemented lungs.

Focus, Nera. You have to find Pete.

My heart hummed in my ears. I had to trust Maxx and the others would find their way back to me before anyone knew we were here. There was no other choice.

Forcing a shallow breath, I pushed myself off the wall and shined my blinking flashlight around the room I was in. An empty office, it looked like, different than the one where I’d fought with Lieutenant Avery and my ex the last time I’d visited the bunker. The air felt heavy and stale, but I breathed it all in to ease my roaring panic.

“Please,” I whispered into the darkness, “let us make it out of this alive.”

“Nera, what’s happened?” Rain asked urgently in my earpiece.

“We got separated. I’m on my own, and my flashlight’s decided to be a little bitch.”

“Understood,” Rain replied. “Give me a moment to track your mic’s location and scan the area with heat-sensing tech.”

I waited, fingers fidgeting nervously with the hem of my uniform, as Rain did her thing. Outside the door, I thought I heard footsteps, slow and even as they made their way down the hall.

“Got it,” Rain said finally. “I see a clear path for you to follow to the bunker’s brig. If Pete’s been caught, he’ll be in there, most likely. Do you see another door in the room you’re in?”

“No.” I shined my weakening light around, moving toward the center of the room. “Wait, yes. In the far corner.”

“Okay, that’s the barracks. There’s another hallway on the other side. According to the heat signatures inside, everyone’s asleep, or at least, not moving.”

“Or lying wide awake with insomnia propping open their eyeballs. Ask me how I know this.”

“I know,” she said, almost too softly that I couldn’t hear her. “If your light hasn’t already gone out, I would consider shutting it off before you go in.”

“Fuck me, Rain,” I hissed through gritted teeth.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Nera.”

“You know how I feel about the dark,” I said, tears springing to my eyes. “You know it.”

“I know. I’m sorry.” After a weighted pause, she said, “Would it help to know that the chances of Pete getting out of there safely have gone up to seventy-five percent?”

I narrowed my eyes at the door as I forced my feet toward it. “Are you bullshitting me right now?”

“It depends on if it’s helping you or not.”

“I haven’t decided. I’m putting an awful lot of faith in you right now that what you say is behind that door is the truth when I—”

“When you have no reason to. I know. I can only hope that someday you might trust me again.”

“Yeah, well…let’s just focus on one door at a time.”

Like a lunatic, I powered my flashlight off. The darkness pressed in, coiling down my throat and thickening my airway with its slimy, menacing presence.

Now it was only me and a cold-blooded killer in my ear.

I felt for the doorknob and pulled it open.