Page 107 of The Edge of Dawn

“The entire contents of the hidden library beneath the destroyed Palace of Arches… it now belongs to me. Some of the things I’ve found in those tomes cause me not to be able to sleep.”

“You?”

“Even me.”

The one called Kalan let out a soft snort. In the corner, Kail was minding his own business, stone-faced and seemingly unaffected by their conversation. Rykal was frowning.

Tarak was as unreadable as ever, but his scrutiny was on all of them, all at once. Nothing escaped him, did it?

Dragek clung fiercely to the remnant of Jade’s sweet, delicate presence. Neither she nor any of the humans were capable of imagining the horrors that existed in the deeper Universe.

Now, he fully understood why they had to be protected at all costs.

He turned to Tarak. “That’s why you’re going personally, isn’t it? Why we’re all here. What exactly do you know?”

“Only that things aren’t always as they appear. But you, of all people, should know that very well by now. Follow my orders, katach. As long as you do that, everything will fall into place.”

Dragek nodded. He desperately wanted to believe that Tarak had it all under control—some grand plan that would account for all variables.

If anyone in the Universe was capable of that, it was Tarak al Akkadian.

But life had cruelly taught Dragek that things rarely ever went to plan.

Nothing was ever simple.

And this time, he didn’t have the option of killing.

Instead of taking them, he had to save lives, and that would be infinitely harder.

“This planet the enemy ship is heading toward… what is it called?”

“Duxuth,” Ashrael answered. “It means desolate heaven.”

“Fitting.” To Dragek’s surprise, it was Kail who spoke, his voice flat and cold like the ice sheets of the Vaal. “Since that’s where we all came from in the first place. A desolate heaven.”

THIRTY-SIX

Tarak had summoned them to the cockpit, where the pilot, Lodan, was deeply integrated with the flight controls—the Sylth—of the ship. A visor concealed his eyes. Strange gloves covered his hands. A cocoon of stillness surrounded him, the air taut with his glass-like aura.

It reminded Dragek of glass because it was cool, clear, and precise.

It wasn’t a normal aura by any means.

The First Division warriors all had this, to some extent. A certain type of energy about them. They all projected ka’qui in their own unique way, and they instinctively knew how to hide it, too.

Lodan’s energy was brighter than some of the others. Dragek suspected it was the reason he meshed so well with the Sylth.

He didn’t like the Sylth. He never had. Once, he’d touched her presence accidentally—it was definitely female. It made him feel strange, as if some oppressive, invisible pressure was pushing in on him from all sides.

Gave him the creeps.

Clearly, it didn’t have the same effect on Lodan.

Actually, he was from the First Division, too. That meant Tarak had assembled half of the most elite division in the Universe for this mission.

To Dragek, it felt like overkill. Surely, only he and Ashrael would have been sufficient to handle it.

Why was Tarak being so cautious? What was it about that particular ship and those humans that the general believed was so important? So much so that he would send a team worth a dozen ordinary divisions to deal with it?

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