Blood of the Broken by Lindsey Sparks

Author:Lindsey Sparks [Lindsey Sparks]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rubus Press
Published: 2022-08-10T00:00:00+00:00

I woke screaming and sat bolt upright in bed. My heart hammered in my chest, and my throat felt raw. I touched my fingertips to my cheeks, and they came away wet with tears.

I had fallen asleep in my quarters only to “wake” in a dream that I was back in the transport hanger as Raiden boarded the pirate shuttle. Except, this time, he was grinning. Laughing. Gloating. Like he had won. Like he had beaten me.

“Ugh,” I groaned, flopping onto my back on the mattress. I jerkily kicked the blankets off my legs so they bunched at the foot of the bed and stared up at the ceiling, replaying the dream—the nightmare—in my mind.

Irrational rage heated my blood. Raiden hadn’t done that. He hadn’t been the least bit happy about flying the decoy ship away. In my mind, I knew the truth, but the warped dream had fooled my heart.

With a frustrated growl, I sat up, then stood and stomped into the bathroom, hoping a frigid shower would cool my temper. It did not.

But it did clear my head enough that I could wade through the anger to the root source. I had been feeling flickers of outrage since Raiden left, but I only now understood why.

Raiden had betrayed me. At least, that’s what it felt like.

He had ambushed me and stolen my choice to fight at his side. The odds of survival aboard the decoy ship may have been shitty, but they would have been a thousand times better with us working together than they had been for Raiden flying off on his own. He gave up—on life. On us. On me.

I quickly dried off and dressed, opting for my hoplon suit over the more comfortable and casual loose-fitting tunic and pants. I needed the physical armor to reinforce my emotional walls.

Determined to see Raiden, I emerged from my quarters. The bars of light running along either side of the ceiling glowed with bright, artificial daylight. I peered up the corridor, my focus locking on the red-framed control pad beside Raiden’s door.

I deactivated my regulator as I stalked up the corridor and stopped in front of the door panel, extending my psychic awareness into the space beyond. Once again, I only sensed Raiden within, but his mind was dormant, like he was sleeping. Still.

The residual anger from the dream dissipated until all that remained was worry.

Brow furrowing, I activated my regulator, muting my psychic gifts, then touched my comms patch. “Emi,” I said, forming a private link with her. “I’m outside Raiden’s room, and I need to see him. Can you come down here and unlock the door?”

“I’ll be right there,” Emi said through the comms patch, her words rushed. “Wait for me, Cora. I’m on my way now.”

I moved across the corridor and leaned back against the wall opposite Raiden’s door, crossing my arms over my chest. A few minutes later, Emi rounded the corner at the end of the corridor, once again contained within the shimmering silver barrier of a personal quarantine bubble.

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