Forged (Star Breed #10) - Elin Wyn Page 0,55

eyes, then was gone, so quickly I might’ve imagined it.

“Life is full of pain and betrayal,” Jenke said. “I would’ve thought you would have learned that by now. But if you haven’t, learn it quickly. It’s all that will save you in the end.”

Hakon

“What’s the plan?” Thalcorr asked, warily eyeing the door, obviously preparing himself for whatever the next unpleasant surprise was going to be.

“It’s not really much of a plan,” I admitted. “We wait until I heal up a little more, bust out of here, trash everything we come across until we find Yasmin, and get out.”

“You’re not going to do anything about your… friend who was so kind to come visiting?”

I shot him a dirty look. “I can’t make him listen to the truth. If he thinks he was abandoned.” I shrugged, glad that this time didn’t hurt as much as the last. “His team was sent to the Areitis Sector on a mission. I don’t have the details. I was in the field myself when they went. But then everything went pear-shaped on our end. They weren’t abandoned, but it probably feels like that to them.”

It wasn’t that I didn’t sympathize with Jenke.

Even at the worst of it, when we’d been captured and tortured by the Hunters, when we’d known our home was gone and Doc had been killed, when I was damn sure there was no way out, I’d known my brothers had my back.

There weren’t a whole lot of things in the universe that I believed in, but I’d never had to question that faith.

And in the end, that faith had been validated. We’d been rescued. We’d won our battle, back in the Empire.

But that didn’t mean anything to Jenke.

“When we get back to Orem, I’ll have one of his old teammates get a message to him. Maybe he’ll listen to Torik.”

Unless Torik felt the same, and was just better at hiding it.

Stupid people with their stupid, complicated emotions.

Give me a machine I could tear apart any day.

“Either way, that’s not the mission right now. Getting all of us out of this trap is going to be enough of a challenge for one day.”

Yasmin’s scream still echoed in my ears. She was still out there, the man she’d trusted more than anything, a killer.

She was the only mission now.

Examining the ceiling for weaknesses while still leaning heavily on the wall for support, only the slightest whisper from the back of the room gave me an indication that we weren’t alone.

“I’m sorry to hear you’re planning on leaving so soon,” Alcyon said as a panel slid away to reveal a darkened passage. “I’d hoped I could convince you to give us a hand here, in exchange for getting you out in a less dramatic fashion.”

His gaze took in the bandages wrapped around my chest, the blood half dried. “You’re in better shape than I expected. That’s probably for the best.” He beckoned for Thalcorr and me to follow him. “But no matter what shape you’re in, we should hurry before you get another visitor.”

After my first two halting steps, I only half-grumbled when Thalcorr moved under my arm to bear some of my weight.

“You’re heavier than you should be,” he grunted as we crossed the room to join Alcyon at the hidden door.

“Reinforced skeletal structure,” I answered. “If you want to know any more, you’ll have to ask Doc. I don’t know most of the details about how we were built, just how it lets me survive.”

“And a good thing, too,” Thalcorr replied.

Three steps into the darkened corridor, automatic lights flickered on knee-high, lighting the way.

“While I’m glad to be out of there,” I said, “want to tell me where we’re going? And why are you not under guard with Commander Serrup?”

“Let’s get going,” Alcyon answered as he headed deeper into the passage. “I’ll fill you in on the way. It’s a bit of a trip, and there are no lifts in here.”

It was hard to get a mental map running of where we were going, since I hadn’t exactly been conscious when we were dumped in the storage room.

But the increased humming of machinery and the slight changes in gravitational pull gave me a hint. We were heading closer to the central axis of the station.

And with every minute, I could feel the strength returning to my body. Not as fast as it would have if I’d had the sense to lay down and sleep, but that wasn’t exactly an option.

“I guess we’re about to