“Lucky shot,” Sledge answered, voice even.

“Not so lucky for you,” the Ballistic’s voice carried a breezy warning that sounded slightly suspicious to Caledonia’s ears.

But Sledge seemed unconcerned. “Nothing wasted but time.”

The Ballistic studied Sledge for a full minute. Each second was more painful than the last. Then he turned to his crew, released a piercing whistle, and shouted an order. “Bring us around and ready the rigging.”

In the next minute, the tow had its rear deck aligned with Beacon’s nose, and the clip was readying the lines and lashing the two ships together. Their ruse had worked. Barely, it seemed. Now they were cruising steadily toward Slipmark, and it was far too late to change course. Caledonia couldn’t bring herself to leave the deck, convinced something was about to go wrong. She wanted her eyes on the tug at all times, so she planted herself in the bridge and stayed there, even as the sun slipped beneath the horizon and the tug dropped its anchor for the night.

At some point, Pine joined her, settling into the comm station with his legs propped up by the radio and arms crossed over his chest. Together, they passed the night in silence, tracking the occasional movements of sentries on the Bullet ship. They were both waiting for the moment their cover cracked and the Bullet clip turned on them, but it never came.

The tug’s engines spun up with the sun, and they resumed their slow trek toward Slipmark. And as the miles slipped past their hull Caledonia realized that this was only the first hurdle, and everything was about to get a lot worse.

Chapter Sixteen

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The sun dipped toward the western seas, unsheathing Slipmark like a knife.

Caledonia’s eyes fixed on the glittering walls before it. Aric had established Slipmark harbor inside a natural cove with peninsulas that curved toward each other like long arms. That might have been protection enough, but not for Aric, and not for the site that housed his precious recruits. From the end of each peninsula, massive walls extended into the water. They rose forty feet above the sea, locking together in the center to form an impenetrable barrier designed to keep unfriendly ships out and everything else in.

She had done everything she could to imagine this wall, and it hadn’t been nearly enough. Staring at it now, she couldn’t shake the feeling that Slipmark was a trap and as of this moment, she had no idea how she planned to escape it.

“Not exactly a welcoming sight,” Pine said from his position at her side. Though he was slouched against a nearby cleat, ostensibly focused on mending the shirt in his hands, she knew he’d only picked that cleat because it was close to her. He hadn’t left her side since last night.