I had blood running out my ears and nose, my muscles would barely hold me, and my vision was cutting in and out. “I’m fine.” Liar. I was such a liar.

“There’s blood running out of your ears.” I didn’t have to know him very well to hear the cold fury in his voice.

I wiped it away. “I’m fine,” I gritted out the words, knowing I was anything but. “Be ready to pick me up. I might pass out again.”

“You better not pass out on this godforsaken moon! Get your ass back to this ship.”

“Sorry. I might’ve lied to you and Declan about how I was feeling.” My words were slurring. “And I’m way worse now than I was the last time you picked me up.”

Lorne let out a stream of curses in two languages, but I didn’t regret it. No matter what anyone said, I would never regret going back to help the people that kept me alive on Abaddon.

“Wait,” Lorne said. And then started yelling in Aunare.

“What?” I blinked, trying to clear my vision, but it was like I was drunk. I gripped the crystals as the moon spun.

“Declan doesn’t have a ship. He says that it was already loaded up and SpaceTech took off with it.”

I knew there was going to be something that messed this up, but I didn’t think of that. It was too fast. How did SpaceTech get his ship refueled already? It hadn’t been that long.

I needed to think of something. There had to be a way. There had to— “Santiago’s ships. There were two other fast ones he was working on. Use one. It won’t get them far, but it’s better than nothing. Then we’ll pick them up. Either tow the ship or transfer them to ours.”

“Towing is out. My ship can’t tow while running from SpaceTech’s fleet and not being able to jump because your brain is bleeding, again.”

“I’m not arguing with you. Tell Declan what I said! And then tell Rysden to pick up the pace. I’m hitting this crystal the third time. Be ready!”

I took a steadying breath and slammed the hammer down for the last time.

I was blind again. My ears were ringing. I wasn’t sure what had happened, but I was pretty sure that was the ground digging into my back. I’d fallen. I wasn’t sure how long I’d been lying there, and I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to be able to get back up.

“Move! Now! Now!” I could hear Lorne faintly yelling through my battered ears, but I couldn’t move.

Everything was black.

I couldn’t see.

I couldn’t move.

We were so fucked.

“Get up or I’m coming down! Right now!”