Battle Fringe by Kate Sheeran Swed

Author:Kate Sheeran Swed
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kate Sheeran Swed

CHAPTER 15

Space battles were the worst when you didn’t have anything to do but cling to your seat and feel sick. Not that Sloane wanted something on the ship to break—not least because tumbling around in engineering could lead to near-death experiences, as she well knew—just that something to do would’ve been nice. A role. A task. Hell, even a crossword puzzle.

“Maybe,” Hilda said through gritted teeth, “the Commander can ask those Fleet ships that’re guarding Myer for an assist.”

“I’m trying,” Gareth said through the comms. Sloane could see zips of light peeling away from Moneymaker as he and Brighton attempted to return fire, but the shots looked so small compared to the barrage coming from the dragon ship. Fireflies in a sea of lava. “They’re not responding.”

Damian tsked, lips quirking. The infernal man was enjoying this, wasn’t he? “Gotta hate the silent treatment.”

“Ivy,” Sloane said, “can you lock onto the ships with your inlays?”

“There are a lot of ships.” When Ivy’s voice came through, it was at a higher in pitch than usual. Which Sloane had learned to read as tension, if not outright fear. They asked a lot of Ivy and her inlays, and Sloane knew it. She didn’t even fully understand how they worked. Where were Ivy and Alex holed up? In the lab, or a cabin? Somewhere safe, Sloane hoped.

As safe as anyone else, at least.

“I only see one ship,” Hilda said.

“It’s a very big ship, though,” Damian supplied. “That has to count for something.”

There was only the one ship, at least as far as Sloane could see. But if there was one thing she did know about Ivy and her inlays, it was that they were never wrong. Not when it came to nearby tech.

Sloane squinted out of the viewport as the battle stalled, the dragon ship pausing its fire. Why was it pausing its fire?

Hilda took the opportunity to push Moneymaker faster, expanding the distance between them and the dragon. It was a good thought, but it wouldn’t be enough. There was no way that thing was just going to let them go on their merry way.

Sloane didn’t know why the dragon would’ve stopped firing, but she couldn’t imagine a scenario where she liked the answer.

As the thought crossed her mind, the dragon’s wings broke apart—and not in a good way, as dozens and dozens of golden ships burst away from the main vessel, leaving only a skeleton full of cannons. Fat on one end and tapering to cruel points, the ships looked like feathers exploding out of a bird’s wing.

Dozens. Maybe hundreds.

“Now I see lots of ships,” Damian said.

Hilda shot him a glare, punching a bunch more buttons that Sloane hoped meant she was pushing the ship to escape even faster. Though she wasn’t sure what good that would do. Those ships were everywhere. Feathers? Not likely. The damn things were hornets.

“Maybe you can control one of them, Ivy?” Sloane asked, feeling weak. One ship? That’d be like collecting a single piece of confetti after a party and announcing you’d cleaned up.

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