Between Burning Worlds (System Divine #2) - Jessica Brody Page 0,169

the throng of children. “Her name is Chatine!” Astra went on elatedly, “And she’s from Vallonay too!”

“Chatine?” replied a voice with a curious ring. “Well, isn’t that a lovely name. Don’t you think that’s a lovely name, my dear Gen?”

In that instant, at the sound of that voice, Chatine’s entire body froze. She was as cold as the coldest, loneliest night in the Terrain Perdu. She was made of nothing but ice and bones and fear.

Then the other voice spoke. “A very lovely name, Fabian. She must be a very lovely girl.”

“Oh, she is!” Astra replied giddily, oblivious to the frost in the air. The tense, pulsing energy that seemed to spread through the entire camp, rendering Chatine immobile. Speechless. Useless.

The crowd finally parted, and Chatine stared numbly at the two people who had managed to seduce this entire camp. The two people whose reputations among the Défecteurs had reached the status of legendary. The two people she prayed she’d never have to see again.

Their appearances were modified slightly. They’d changed their hair and clothes. She looked slimmer and he looked slightly heavier. And they were both considerably cleaner. But it was the eyes that gave them away. They still twinkled with that same wickedness—that same wretchedness—that Chatine had known her entire life.

These were the people Chatine had spent the past ten years trying to escape. The people who had beaten her and stolen from her and used her over and over again.

These were the people who had sold off her little brother to pay a debt.

These were her parents.

The connecteur slipped from her grasp and clattered to the ground.

- CHAPTER 48 - ALOUETTE

OUTSIDE THE PORTHOLE WINDOW, THE moon of Adalisa glowed, vast and bright and blue. Its giant craters were obscured by a constant cycle of lunar dust storms, making its surface look strangely distorted and out of focus. And right now, that’s pretty much how everything felt to Alouette. The whole universe was out of alignment. Nothing felt right anymore. Everything felt off-kilter, off balance, like one stiff breeze could knock it all down. The Sols, the stars, every planet and every moon.

Cerise had maneuvered the voyageur into Adalisa’s orbit, and they were now cowering behind the gigantic blue moon like the fugitives they were. She’d also sent out a series of microprobes as scouts, and the latest update reported that three more warships from the Albion Royal Space Fleet had joined the hunt. There were now half a dozen deadly crafts scouring the skies, searching for them. While back on Laterre, the general—who had undoubtedly learned of their escape by now—was certainly preparing his own ships to intercept them if they dared try to reenter Laterrian airspace.

In short, they were trapped.

And every minute that passed, every minute spent hiding behind this moon, brought Gabriel closer to death and the weapon closer to the general’s hands.

Alouette tore her gaze from the window and focused on Gabriel. He’d been asleep for a few hours now. His chest was rising and falling so peacefully, if it weren’t for the swatch of bandages on his stomach, it would be impossible to tell he was even injured. His face was calm, his expression serene.

Once Alouette had gotten the bleeding under control, they’d managed to move him here, to the infirmerie, where Alouette had found an assortment of rudimentary supplies. Nothing even close to what was required to perform any complex medical procedures. Apparently, whoever equipped this ship never anticipated its passengers getting shot by Albion guards. But Alouette had quickly managed to locate biosutures, bandages, and some médicaments which were, at least, helping Gabriel rest and keeping the infection at bay. But she knew they wouldn’t heal him. Everything she’d done to help him was just a temporary solution. If they couldn’t get him back to the Refuge …

No. She wouldn’t even let her thoughts go there.

Frustrated and fidgety, Alouette stood up and walked over to the monitor on the wall. She activated the microcams in the infirmerie, so she could see and hear Gabriel in case he woke up. Then she slipped through the door of the small cabin and navigated her way up to the flight bridge. It was dark apart from the flickering lights of the flight console, the blue glow of Adalisa through the curved windows, and the hologram flight map that still hovered above its pedestal in the center of the room. Her eyes skimmed across the twelve planets of the System Divine before finally settling on