Chapters (48)
- Cover
- Dedication
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- FORTY-THREE
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- Copyright
“Don’t answer. It could be a trap to get us to pick up. I’m sure they can track their own devices.”
Alexei shrugged. “I live dangerously,” he said, and before I could stop him, he activated the link. “Allo?” he said.
“Alexei!” Rune shouted. “Finally!”
“Rune, you’re broadcasting to the entire—”
“I know!” Her voice became shrill, tinged with hysteria. “It was tell everyone or tell no one. They have comms locked down, and I couldn’t access anything but whole-station comms. Come quick! We’re in—”
Her voice cut off with a burst of static.
TWENTY-THREE
ALEXEI WAS ALREADY ON HIS feet. “Find Mia,” he snapped.
Mia popped into view a few feet away. “Right here. What’s going on?”
“Rune just contacted me. She didn’t say much before the signal cut out.”
Mia swore creatively and at some length. “I knew it! What did I tell you?”
“Yes, that’s very helpful.” Alexei stormed into the crowd, catching our elbows to pull us along with him, apparently not at all concerned about the bounty hunters as he dragged us into the marketplace. I stumbled after him, my gaze fixed on the crowd, watching for a flash of silver.
Mia glared at him and shook loose. “Did Rune give you any idea where she was?”
“The comms cut out too quickly. Probably good, because wherever she is, the whole station heard her.”
I tugged free of Alexei and found myself running to keep up. “I guess we start in the docking ring, assuming you know where that is.”
“I do.”
“How many bounty hunters are there?” I asked as the three of us pushed our way through the crowds. I caught a glimpse of the men I’d elbowed earlier, thankfully on the other side of the market, and pulled my hood more closely around my face. Still no sign of the Silver Oni, or of his two partners.
“Five I’ve seen,” said Mia.
“Teams of four or five are standard,” I confirmed.
“But I didn’t see any of them in the market while I searched for Cage, who I didn’t find, obviously. I think they’ve withdrawn.”
Great. We were probably going to walk into a situation where as many as five trained bounty hunters, armed bounty hunters, held Rune captive. I didn’t think it was pushing things to guess they had Imani, Reed, and Jasper as well. And we had what to fight them? Fire, which would hurt our friends as badly as anyone else. I could speak to them in different languages, which was awesomely useless. Mia, though . . . could she slip in, vanquish them, and sneak out again? “No one knows you can share your invisibility. It’s not listed in your file,” I thought out loud as we emerged from the marketplace, unmolested. “That might work to our advantage.”