Stolen - Nhys Glover Page 0,43

very thick hulls, designed to move through portals with ease. But their weight made them much slower than the larger craft. They had only rudimentary living quarters for short trips and could carry no more than eight people. They had defense capabilities but no weapons. Their main purpose was as lifeboats for the larger ships.

“If you know where they’ll be, why not get there faster in this ship?” I demanded, looking around for my brothers, knowing they should be hearing this, not just me.

“We’ll be needed to track the Keeda’s vessel. There’s a chance…it will put us in danger. You will be the back-up plan in case… In case…”

My blood ran cold. In case the encounter with the Keeda goes badly and the ship under me was destroyed?

“Mother?” I cried, my voice louder than it should be.

“If I thought she’d go with you, I’d include her. But your mother is never going to leave the rest of us.”

“Not even for her sons?”

Rhain shook his head, deeply troubled. “She’ll be torn. But her bond to us is now stronger than her bond to you, because you’re grown and must follow your own paths. On some level she knows that, although she’ll want to disagree.”

I smirked. “When doesn’t Mother want to disagree?”

We shared a moment, both loving the beautiful human woman who was the center of our familial pod. Even so, her detail-orientated mind often worked against the harmony of the pod. She was always questioning every decision, especially when Thaid made a unilateral decision.

“Finding Jenna and your brother falls to you and the rest of your pod. But you can’t afford to be reckless for even a moment. One lapse and all will be lost. Do you understand?” His unusual intensity impressed the seriousness of the situation on me.

I was not immortal. If I fucked up, not only Rian would die this time.

“I understand.”

He nodded.

And with that I was dismissed, until the time came for me to play my part. As I thought about this new plan, my heart raced with excitement. We were going after Jenna alone. We weren’t going to be Young, trailing along behind the Grown-Ups. Our decisions and actions would have consequences.

My back straightened and my strides became more confident. Whatever we faced, Rhain considered us up to the challenge. This was not simply a way to safeguard us during the coming fight. We would be instrumental in whatever was to come.

Two days later we stood next to the Bullet, awaiting orders. Rian/Charsus had been successful in rescuing Jenna from the Zuaire and were at that moment escaping through a portal that would take them back to the planet where Marissa and her pod had fought the Darkness. But that wasn’t where we could find them. Their ship would be damaged as they traversed the ‘wormhole’, as Mother called it, and they’d crash-land on a little known, but intensely dangerous, planet nearby.

The advantage of that location was that the Keeda wouldn’t look for them there. The disadvantage: surviving until we arrived might be difficult.

Huge carnivorous beasts roamed the surface during the darkness. If they caught wind of Jenna and Rian, my pod-members would be done for. Maybe their spaceship would give them some protection, but that couldn’t be assured.

The advantage in all this was that a wormhole that would take us to their dangerous planet was fast approaching. We could be at their destination not long after they arrived. Within the day, at the very most.

In the meantime, the rest would be following the Keeda mothership to the Zuaires’ hideout.

“Why do they have to follow them? If you walk the timelines, surely you can see where they’ll go,” Lain had asked in confusion when we’d been told the plan.

“The Zuaire are blocked from my sight. Even with the Darkness gone from this density, they can use Its power to block their activities from us. That is how they have stayed alive this long,” Rhain had informed him. “We will be days behind them but can follow their ion trail if they don’t mask it. And why should they, if there’s no threat? It’s our only way of finding and destroying their malignant nest forever.”

I didn’t need to ask what their chances of success were. Rhain had alluded to the danger well enough in that first discussion on the flight deck. All we could do was our own part. The most important part to us. Saving Jenna!

Marissa sauntered over to where we stood, silently awaiting word to board