Just one step.

One shot.

“I’m too young for this shit.” And she was tired beyond belief.

“Damn it, Jaynie!”

She barely heard those words before she felt the pain of a body slamming into hers and driving her into the ground. Shrapnel exploded all around as a shield covered her body. And a pair of eerie light eyes glared into hers. Eyes she knew as well as her own.

Eve of Destruction.

Evie of Salvation.

The one and only person in her life who’d never failed her.

Her precious big sister and the last member of her family who wasn’t dead. Rising to her feet, Eve dragged Jayne with her and shook her.

“What the hell, Jayne?” Those clipped words were even more rattling than the near miss.

Even so, Jayne couldn’t speak. Not at the moment. She was too glad to see Eve alive and whole.

She’d been so sure that her sister had died a few moments ago when the structure shielding her had been blown apart.

But she should have known better.

No one was a better survivor than Eve.

Shadows played in her sister’s eyes that mirrored her own horror and misery. “Get your skinny ass behind me. Now! Fall in line!”

Jayne obeyed out of habit. It was why her sister was a commander at the tender age of twenty-one. She’d risen up through their military ranks faster than anyone in Hyshian history. Her military prowess was without equal. Eve’s intellect was off the charts and her skills far beyond her years.

But then they’d been forced to survive and thrive in conditions no one should endure.

Eve grabbed her. “Are your wings injured?”

Jayne’s eyes bugged at a shouted question they were never supposed to speak about. “No.”

“Then you need to unfurl them and get out of here.”

Was Eve out of her mind? “Not without you!” Unlike her, Eve hadn’t inherited the recessive gene of their family that gave Jayne a set of wings she could hide beneath her skin.

And Jayne wasn’t strong enough yet to carry both of them out of this hell.

Eve shot and killed an enemy over Jayne’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about me. I can take care of myself, but not if I’m worried about you. Get to safety. Now!”

While Jayne believed that, she wasn’t willing to abandon the last member of her family. That wasn’t what Erixours did. It wasn’t what they’d been taught.

“No!”

Eve growled at her. “You stubborn little bitch!” She fired more rounds. Clicking the mic in her ear on, she glared at Jayne. “Tweedle? I need you to turn around and—”

“Ah, hell no, Evie. I just got clear of that shithole. And not by a lot. By the yactos. And I mean the yacto of the yacto . . . of the molecule of a yacto. Are you out of your luna mind, woman?”

“Jed, turn it around or so help me I will skin every piece of you raw the next time I see you. Now!”