Jàden searched the sky for any of Frank’s ships. They’d disappeared hours ago, but a very bad feeling settled in her gut. “He must be furious.”

  The only thing likely saving her ass right now was his leg injury. But with every day that passed, he’d heal, just as her shoulder had healed to no more than a deep ache in the joint.

  As she finished brushing Agnar, Thomas shoved a staff in her hand. “Time for some fun.”

  Sparring with Thomas was never fun.

  Jàden leaned her head against the stallion’s shoulder, her thoughts in turmoil. The ache to be in Jon’s arms was so strong, even sensing his gaze on her back caused her stomach to twist into knots.

  Exhaustion tugging at her senses, Jàden moved onto the sand opposite Thomas.

  Always wound tight with anger, Thomas’s movements were fast and precise, and the bastard never broke a sweat. It was only after their sparring she ever saw him rubbing his arms as if he’d been hiding some injury.

  She missed a hit, and he smacked her brand again, a fiery sting shooting into her hip.

  Jàden clenched her jaw to bite back the pain. Sweat dripped along her face and neck as she finally had enough and shouted at him. “I’m never going to heal if you keep hitting my injury.”

  “So, stop me.” Thomas circled her with the staff tucked behind his forearm. The longer she sparred with him, the bigger an asshole he became. His light taps in the beginning had turned to solid hits. “Again.”

  She circled once more, her palms slick with sweat. Her body resisted each movement, as if she couldn’t get the right leverage. She aimed for Thomas and swung.

  He dodged her blow then swept her feet.

  Jàden hit the ground hard. She grabbed her hip, barely biting back another cry.

  “You’re distracted tonight.” Thomas pressed the staff against her neck and lifted her chin. “Is this about Kale?”

  “None of your business.” She shoved it away and rolled to her feet. The last thing Thomas needed to know was how much she wanted to kiss Jon and the guilt that came with it.

  Thomas laid the staff across his shoulders, draping his arms over as if he didn’t have a care in the world. “Everything’s my business.”

  She swung the staff across his gut, relishing a small victory when he stumbled back out of breath. Stupid bastard.

  But an amused light touched his eyes as he stood up straight again. “Or maybe this isn’t about Kale at all.”

  “Shut up, Thomas,” she muttered.

  Whatever this new dirty tactic was, she didn’t like it. The last thing she wanted to talk about tonight was Kale or how much he was fading to a distant memory.

  “You’re keeping secrets from us.” His staff slammed into her burn, causing her to cry out in pain before she could block the hit. “Where’s the other Flame?”

  “I don’t know!” She stumbled out of his reach and kept her weapon up. “Frank never found the other one.”

  Fire burned in her hip as she took a step back, the twins circling behind her. Ashe held up two smaller bamboo staffs tied together and tossed them toward her. “These might be more your size.”

  One wary eye on Thomas, she untied the sparring sticks and held one in each hand. Smaller and lighter. She stretched out her arms, noting a broader range of movement without her grip tied to a single weapon.

  “You spar with two sticks,” Ashe said. “You spar with two fighters.”

  Thomas grabbed her staff and stepped aside, while Ashe and Andrew circled around her. Yet something in the set of Thomas’s jaw told Jàden he hadn’t finished with her.

  “What will Frank do when he puts the Flames together?” he asked.

  Jàden protected her hip as the twins circled. Identical faces, one on each side. She had to keep moving. Keep turning.

  But Jon was always there in the back, watching like a hawk.

  Thomas crossed his arms. “Get the truth out of her.”

  “Dammit—”

  Before she could say more, Andrew attacked, Ashe sneaking a hit across her shoulder. In and out, when one lunged, the other swooped in for a hit.

  She raised her arm to block, a stick hit her thigh. Jàden attempted to keep pace with the twins but soon doubled over, fighting for breath. Her heart pounded so hard her chest spasmed with a deep ache.

  Thomas lifted her chin, forcing her to look at him. “What will Frank do?”

  Tears burned in her eyes as she tried to look away. She wanted to keep the knowledge clamped down tight, but the ice in Thomas’s tone pulled her words out. “He’ll open the other gate.”

  “What gate?” He tightened his fingers, but like Jon, his grip was both gentle and strong, commanding her attention. “You’re playing with our lives, Jàden. We need the whole truth.”

  Something that nearly got her and Kale killed, so they opted to keep their silence. To run far away from both Sandaris and Hàlon where they’d be safe and no one could ever exploit her powers. A space where she could live her life until the Flame consumed her, without risking death to all the Hàlon citizens who had no clue what really lurked beneath the moon’s surface.

  “The one below,” she whispered, “in the moon’s core.”

  Thomas frowned and glanced at Jon as if waiting for his next order.

  “Enough.” Jon’s single word held the command of a Guild general, and both Thomas and the twins backed away. His shoulders still held the tension of a coiled viper as he walked toward her. “You’re on watch tonight, with me.”

  Her chest tightened. Of course she wouldn’t get to sleep. He’d want to know more, and Jàden couldn’t tell him everything, though she’d already said too much. “Yes, Captain.”

  His gaze lingered on her for a long moment, his jaw growing tighter by the second. Jon finally grabbed his bow and quiver, retreating to the trees along the shore.

  Thomas waved the twins off. “You’re still hunching your shoulders. Focus on the fight, not the fear.”

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Jàden clenched the sticks, tempted to throw them at Thomas’s head. She’d rather be focused on sleep, but she retreated to her saddle bags and wiped the grime from her face.

  “Aren’t you the favorite.” Theryn grinned as he ran a blade over a piece of wood, carving it to look like a handgun. Likely to help them all train for different types of weapons.

  “Oh, shut up.” The muscles in her arms burned as she pulled on her thicker hooded shirt.

  She was honestly a bit jealous he could laugh so easily in the face of danger when her only coping tactics were to run and hide like a child. The last thing she needed was to sit in uncomfortable silence when she could barely keep her eyes open.

  “The captain’s in a foul mood tonight. Whatever you do, don’t lie to him. That’ll piss him off faster than a knife to the gut.”

  “It’s just the rain making him grouchy,” she muttered. Jàden wanted to tell Jon the whole truth about everything, but as his strength flowed into her veins, so did her guilt.

  Every day, she dragged Jon deeper into her mess.

  “Hear that, Dusty? Genius here thinks the weather’s souring the captain’s mood.” Both men chuckled. Then Theryn leaned close and lowered his voice. “Just bed the man and save us all a headache.”

  She punched him hard in the arm and stormed off, cursing under her breath while his laughter followed. Of all Jon’s men, he was the most opinionated and loud-mouthed.

  And the last thing she needed was anyone to see how hard his words hit her gut.

  The idea of intimacy with Jon heated up every inch of her body. She craved the gentleness of his strong arms holding her tight. But tonight she’d have to deal with the angry captain, and she doubted anything she said could flip his switch back to the softer man who’d comforted her tears.

  Jon’s a good man with a kind heart, and he’ll always have your back in a fight. Mather’s voice slipped into her thoughts. When I’m gone, it’ll be up to you to take care of him.

  She wished she’d known what the future held and could have forced Mather to go home before they ever found Kale’s graveyard ship. But Mather was wrong—Jon didn’t need anyone to care for him. Despite his mood swings, Jon was strong, smart and sure of himself, and she envied him for it.

  He leaned against a tall palm near the edge of the surf. Smoke rose from the ember on his cigarette as he drove three arrows into the sand and crouched next to them, a bow across his knees. “You never answered my question.”

  “Dammit, Captain, I have answered every single one, and yet you keep digging. Leave it alone.” She moved to a palm a few feet away and sulked against it.

  “Cut the shit. I ain’t your captain.” He drove the end of his bow into the sand, his jaw so tight it was practically forged in steel. “You had a choice on that deck, Jàden. Kill me, or kill him.”

  The venom in Jon’s tone stabbed her heart.

  Him. As if Kale was the problem.

  She hated how much it stung to have his anger turned on her. “Leave Kale out of this. Frank would have killed him no matter what I did.”

  That was the horrible truth. Even if she’d gone with Frank, the bastard would have shown her Kale in his new life then gunned him down before she could turn away. Frank would do it to break her spirit and any hope she had left.

  “Why would Frank care about some old lover of yours?” Jon wouldn’t even look at her. “He had you, Jàden, your little bird-in-a-cage theory. But a man like Frank wouldn’t give two shits about some ex-lover. There are other ways to break a mind.”

  She kicked at the sand, trying to ignore Jon’s penetrating anger. “His real name is Command General Frank Kale, one of the highest Guild Council members and a tracker from the Alliance rim worlds. Jason Kale, the man I’ve been searching for, is his son.”

  If Jon’s silence before had been a minor irritation, this time it was a punch to the throat. She could almost sense his fury through their tied energy, and the longer he said nothing, the more her body tightened.

  Jàden couldn’t bear the quiet any longer. “Frank doesn’t give two shits about his son. He only wants the Flame. I spent years in a cage while he killed my dog, my grandparents and eventually the man I love, just to watch me break under the grief.”

  Tears burned in her eyes as she dropped to the ground, digging her fingers into the sand to fight off the urge to run.

  Jon lit his third—or twelfth—cigarette. She’d lost count, but every time she glanced at him, another one was already in his hand.

  “Then why the fuck are you searching for him if he’s gonna end up dead again?” he asked. “Kale failed you once, Jàden, and there’s no guarantee he’ll protect you now.”

  Anger ripped through her chest as she stumbled to her feet, fury boiling her blood. She threw a handful of sand at him. “Fuck you.”

  His accusation cut straight to the heart of her deepest shame. She’d waited two years, and the moment she understood he’d only broken through the lab’s defenses to say goodbye, bitterness had seeped into her psyche. Why come at all if he couldn’t save her?

  “Kale didn’t fail anybody.” She hated herself for needing a rescuer, that she couldn’t save her own ass against a bastard like Frank.

  But she couldn’t let Jon see this side of her, the lonely coward who was desperate to put the fight in someone else’s hands.

  Fuck Jon and fuck being on watch.

  “I’m still alive because of Kale,” she said. “But you can’t say the same for your sisters.”

  She stormed down the beach, not caring who saw her right now.

  “Get the fuck back here. We’re not finished.” Jon chased after her, fury deepening his voice.

  “Yes we are!” The Flame crashed into her veins, crackling white light across her fingers. “You can’t keep pushing—”

  “The fuck I can’t.” Jon grabbed her arm and pulled her back until she stood face to face with him. “I did everything to save my sisters. Everything!”

  “Then stop blaming Kale. He died trying to save me.” Still, she painted him the hero, the lie in her own words like a bitter plague. And now she so desperately needed Jon to fill the same role and hated herself for it.

  “Kale’s dead. I don’t care how many lives the bastard lived. He ain’t the same man, Jàden.”

  “He is the same! He’ll always be Kale.” Wrenching herself free, she tried to shove him away, but Mr. Muscular didn’t budge.

  “Then why did you save my life?” Jon tossed his half-spent cigarette away and grabbed her shoulders. “He’s gone. My sisters are gone. You can’t bring him back, no matter how much it hurts. So why, Jàden?”

  “Because I failed him!” She shoved Jon’s hands away, her heart hurting so much she would have given anything to rip it out of her chest. “I needed him to save me, and it broke him.”

  “You can’t blame yourself for what happened—”

  “Yes I can! Every day of my life until I can make it right. But if I climb aboard Frank’s ship, he’ll kill Kale, whether he’s a child or an old man. I can’t put him through it again—I can’t. And I can’t fail you again.” Tears streamed down her cheeks as she pressed her hands against her forehead, pain throbbing across her skull.

  “What the fuck are you talking about?” Jon paced in front of her like a caged bear.

  “This power I carry is like a parasite that will never go away.”

  Jon held up his hand, two threads of light twisting away from his palm. “You mean what we carry.”

  “That’s where I’ve failed you, Captain.”

  “Dammit, Jàden, I ain’t your captain.” He practically growled at her as he grabbed her cheeks. “You’ve never failed me, not once, but this power you carry isn’t just about you anymore. I carry it too, and you need to get that straight in your head.”

  “Don’t you tell me what I need.” Tying Jon’s energy had been a terrible mistake. “If I don’t leave Sandaris, this power will become so strong I won’t be able to control it.”

  “How strong?” He caressed his thumb along her jaw.

  The heat from his touch sent an ache to her heart. White light burned in her veins as she leaned her forehead against his chin. “Strong enough to kill everything on this moon.”

  As the Flame whispered out of her, every fish and crab under the water lit up for a single beat of Sandaris’s heart then faded to darkness. A single flash of millions of creatures beneath the waves and gone the next second as if she’d never touched their hearts.

  “Guardians be damned.” Jon stared at the sea in shock as she turned over his hand and traced her thumb across his palm.

  “And I won’t let anyone hurt you, not even me.” He deserved better, someone who wouldn’t get him killed. She had to protect him from her, from the Flame. As the tears slid down her cheeks, Jàden pulled the Flame back into her, slowly untying the threads of energy binding her to Jon.

  “Hey, what are you doing?” Jon yanked his hand away and stumbled backwards. “Jàden.”

  A cold, lonely ache soured her heart as the whispers of strength disappeared. Guilt spread through her chest that she’d put all of them in so much danger. That her tie with Jon led Mather to his death. “I shouldn’t have gotten you involved. I’m sorry, Captain.”

  “Jon.” He stepped close and held her cheeks, leaning his forehead against hers. “My name is Jon. Please don’t do this.”

  “You’re free now. One day you’ll thank me—”

  “Not for this.” He pressed his thumb against her mouth to stop the flow of words. “Jàden, please.”

  She couldn’t bear the pain in his eyes or the hollow ache gutting her soul. Everything in her screamed to pull him back into her, to hold him close and never let go.

  Jàden kissed his palm, breathing in his masculine scent of mountain pine, and pulled away. It was the right thing to do, giving Jon back his life and freedom, but she hadn’t expected the regret that burned in her senses. She still wanted him, needed him, ached to curl up in his arms and cry out all her pain.

  He wrapped an arm around her, leaning his head against hers. “Bonded or not, you will always have me at your side. But please, don’t leave me so empty.”