Bonds of Brass (The Bloodright Trilogy #1) - Emily Skrutskie Page 0,130
rendezvous. Go where you’re expected and let the rest fall into place. Pretend like everything is going your way and don’t stop until the second someone tells you otherwise.
I pull my stolen cap low on my head, gritting my teeth. It’s easy to blend into the chaos of the base evacuation, but easier still to get lost in it. Somehow I need to pull a ticket off the base out of this mess. As a group of soldiers runs past me, I catch a familiar silhouette. It’s Rhodes—I’m sure of it, but he disappears around the corner before I can catch his eye.
My panic fizzles. Maybe there’s nothing that can help me in my pockets, but I’m back on my home turf. My resources are all around me. I have a gun on my belt and strength in my legs. I’m going to make it to the city. I’m going to find Gal. And gods of all systems, I’ll fly him out of this mess like I always do.
I straighten my spine and plunge headfirst into the academy’s turmoil.
* * *
—
Hanji cackles when she sees me lurking in the shadow of a skipship’s wing. “Nassun, you slippery son of a bitch,” she hisses, ducking under the ship’s hull as she drops the munitions crate she was supposed to be loading. “What the rut’re you doing back here? You picked a hell of a time. Haven’t you heard?”
“World’s ending,” I agree. “Listen, I need a favor.”
“And I need a hot bath and an explanation, but neither of us is getting what we want today, are we?”
I grimace, then jump when a hand slaps me squarely between the shoulder blades. “Ettian Nassun, you slippery—”
“Already said that, Rin,” Hanji snaps, cocking an eyebrow at the smaller cadet.
Rin glares up at me like I owe her an apology. I probably do. “Officers are going to notice we’ve skipped off,” she mutters, glancing around the skipship’s hull. “Kinda an all-hands-on-deck moment here. No thanks to you, I’m assuming?”
I shrug. “Been a busy couple of weeks. Look, about that favor—”
“Favor?” Rin asks, eyes narrowing. “What makes you think you get to waltz back in here and ask for favors?”
Unwittingly, my hand slips around the hilt of my stolen blaster. “I’m on a mission, okay? Things have gone sideways faster than Ollins on two shots of polish, and I need all the help I can get.”
Hanji smirks. “You float, Ettian. What’s your leverage?”
“Gal is my leverage,” I snap. “Me, I’m worthless. Nobody. Nothing. But the Umber heir needs our help, and that means I need a way to Trost. Please, Hanji…You work the tower. You know the schedule. What’s leaving?”
Rin and Hanji glance at each other. The calculation plays out on their faces. The amount of their loyalty that’s based on survival factored against their true loyalty to the Umber Crown. The years we’ve trained together divided by the way I disappeared in the middle of the night. And all of it pressured by the way time ticks steadily onward, waiting for one of the other soldiers to notice us.
“Lot B, down by the east gates,” Hanji says, just as I’m about to get desperate. She pushes up her glasses and slips her datapad out of her pocket. “There’s a convoy of buses scheduled to leave for the city in twenty minutes, out to collect officials with no off-world transport of their own and bring them back here for evac. If you can get on board, that’s your ticket.”
I nod, picturing the layout of the lot and the buildings around it. “Gonna need a distraction to make sure that happens.”
“Oh no, no, no—I don’t have the time—”
“Ollins owes you money.”
That shuts her up fast. Ollins has the luck of a devil where wagers are concerned, and Hanji’s cantina debts are the stuff of legend.
“That bet you made on Trisu—the one about me and Gal.”
Her jaw drops. “You did not.”
“It happened. About two weeks ago.”
“Holy ruttin’ shit. He’s the prince. Ettian Nassun, you maniac. Who