Page 84 of Stars in Halo

Xion didn’t tear his gaze away from the controls as he replied, ‘Anywhere but here. I have a hankering to get the fokk out of Iccythria.’

His tone was dry, betraying his simmering rage at recent events, sending a shiver down Katya’s spine.

She leaned back in her seat, the gravity of their situation sinking in.

The ship cut through the darkness, leaving behind the turmoil of the planet below. Katya stole glances at Xion, studying his profile in the soft glow of the control panel. There was a hardness to his features, a steely coldness that worried her.

Still, she ventured to ask the one question she needed answered with urgency. ‘Xion, would you please consider fetching my mother and babies? They’re at an ALMQ holding, and Mirage has the address. I have no other way to free them.’

He huffed, turned his beautiful head and nailed her with a cutting look. ‘Why would I do that? For you?’

Her heart sank, but she lifted her chin and met his icy gaze. ‘It’s not for me. I know I’ve diluted your trust beyond measure. But all my actions and choices so far, what I was forced to do, was for the children I’ve spent years protecting. They’re innocent and don’t deserve to be caught up in any more bull shit.’

He raised a brow, his eyes still aloof.

‘Please.’

He folded with a loud suck of his teeth, slicing his eyes towards her. ‘Location?’ he barked.

Mirage piped up through the speakers with the coordinates of the secret destination they’d shared earlier with Katya.

‘How many?’ he growled, cutting his gaze to the Iccythrian woman.

‘15, including my mother.’

He scoffed. ‘We can’t fit all of them in this corvette.’

He sat back in his chair, deep in thought.

‘I think I might know someone who can help,’ he rasped after a few moments. ‘Mirage, would you please initiate a comm link?’

‘To whom?’

‘Fokkin Duke. He needs to weigh in on this.’

With a furrowed brow, Katya observed as a commlink was initiated, and soon, a handsome Iccythrian man’s face shimmered to life on the massive holo screen.

‘Twice in less than a week,’ Duke groused with no preamble, his holo form appearing larger than life on Xion’s bridge. ‘I must be the luckiest man in all Pegasi.’

‘You are,’ Xion shot back. ‘Not just anyone gets the privilege of my attention.’

‘What do you need, Rider?’

‘We’ve got an urgent situation, and it has to do with your King.’

Duke cursed with a bitter laugh. ‘K’Sumi? What’s the loser gone and done now?’

Xion gave the Eden II-based Ccyth fixer a breakdown of events to date.

‘He’s fokkin’ gone and lit his rear end on fire, has he?’ Duke growled.

‘He’s used a proxy to gain my father’s services to kidnap my mother, children and Xion,’ Katya expounded, stepping into the camera frame.

‘Katya D’Hanna, in the flesh,’ the Ccyth man drawled, his eyes raking over the beautiful woman beside Xion. ‘Last we spoke, Xion, your ass asking for intel on her, and now you’re rolling together. You clued on who you are in cahoots with, Sable?’

‘You know nothing, whoever the fokk Ccyth you are,’ Katya challenged.

‘Oh, she’s feisty,’ Duke whistled, his brow shooting up with comical effect.

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