Ship Called Malice: A Wings of Artemis novella by Rebecca Royce

Author:Rebecca Royce [Royce, Rebecca]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781948121095
Publisher: After Glows Publishing

A knock sounded on my door, rousing me from sleep. What now? After I’d left the shuttle, I had walked straight to my room and lay down in my bed. It was early and I’d skipped dinner. Only sleep was going to restore my equilibrium at this point.

I rubbed at my eyes on my way to the door. Coldness shot up from my bare feet all the way up my spine. I needed to make a mental note that the floors on Malice were chilly.

I opened the door. Shock, followed immediately by dread, settled in my stomach. River waited. Was this where he told me I was gone?

A million thoughts raced through my mind, the things I’d been wondering until I’d fallen asleep. Had he just brought up the consent thing as a means to get rid of me when his friends had wanted to try? Were they all playing with me? What did a person with nowhere to go and nothing to do end up having in their life? Would I ever have a family that actually loved me?

“Hi.” River ran a hand through his brownish-blondish hair.

I nodded. “Hello.”

He shifted his weight slightly. “Are you okay?”

“Sure, I was sleeping. Did you need something?”

He lifted his eyebrows. “Oh, I’m sorry to wake you. I, um, I owe you a really big apology.”

Well, I hadn’t expected that. “River, look…”

He shook his head. “Please let me give it. I’m so used to being at war with everyone. I have been since I was born. There were eight of us, all boys. My brother Garrison, he’s a maniac, trying to conquer the universe. After our brother Quinn died, he started throwing us out. I knew I’d have to make my way on my own. I always understood that. My brothers told me I was a burden and treated me as such. My mom and dad couldn’t have cared less. He kicked me out when I was eighteen. Took me two years to get here, and I only thought about the Dark Planets because all my other brothers had found their way to this sector. I’ve still never run into any of them.”

“That’s an interesting story, I’m not sure why it made you test me like that or be so rude.” I was interested in his background, but if he expected me to use it as some sort of explanation for what had happened. He was going to have to be more explicitly clear.

He was silent for several moments. “Good things don’t happen to me. They just don’t. I have to push and push. Even getting Jordan and Bo together with me to live this very unusual life took maneuvering. I’m having a hard time not believing you’re going to murder us in our beds.”

He couldn’t have surprised me more if he’d sprouted wings and taken to the sky. “River, I’m just a girl with the good luck to have been rescued by you. I’m not going to murder you in your sleep. If anything, I was concerned today you were going to put me out the airlock.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.