Page 74 of Fate of Draga

“We fight for the queen,” he said, eyes going to the other Neprijat who silently approached them. “We will take you to the king while the others help your warriors take back the palace.”

Valdis studied the male. “I’ve never heard of a rebel faction.”

That warrior turned that look of disgust to Valdis. “For good reason otherwise you wouldn’t be alive right now. If you want to risk going to the throne room alone, go.”

Kaita looked at her warriors, and then Delphine and Roxy. “Do you think he really fights for her?”

Roxy snorted. “Of course he does. Adelina attracts the strange and loyal. No doubt this is a new development. She’s nothing if not effective, the crazy—”

Delphine cleared her throat before Roxy could finish that sentence.

Kaita just shook her head. She didn’t have any better options and it would be easy enough to kill these warriors if they needed to. In the meantime they’d give them the time needed to get into their armor.

“Take me to the king then,” Kaita told the Neprijat male. “Betray us and I’ll gut you.”

His smile wasn’t reassuring. “I’d expect no less from a warrior.”

Kaita had always known Fate had a messed up sense of humor.

Chapter Eighteen

Battle for Khara

ADELINA

TheJasmineshuddered as it took another blast. Adelina watched as they tore through space at speeds she hadn’t thought possible until a Corinthian prince had given her his secret tech and she’d found a genius mechanic who’d managed to improve upon it.

Now her starship led the fray into Khara. Adelina tried not to think of her brother William on the front lines – leading the criminals alongside her cousin Prince Ajax. He’d begged to take Giselle’s place, and Adelina didn’t have the heart to deny them after they’d all witnessed her sacrifice.

Adelina had sent that to the livestream as well – she sent everything she could to keep them up to date and hopefully give them enough warning to flee if she failed. Where they would go, she had no idea, but her mother was smart. As were the lords and ladies like Joslynn and Masha who’d remained with their people.

Now a tiny recorder was on her chest as well as a few key others. Her tech would splice the images into a cohesive vid as he received the recordings and send it to the livestream.

Adelina would rule with honesty.

“Faster,” she ordered, feeling the weight of Kaita’s plea heavy on her chest. They needed to get to the capitol as soon as possible or she’d lose someone else who didn’t need to die.

Another blast nearly sent them off course, but the shields held thanks to the scientists’ tireless work and the Neprijat tech they’d used to make their own. The first product of the teamwork of five peoples.

She wished she could bask in that success longer.

“We have to engage,” her captain said as the battlefield before them became clear.

Neprijat warships fought other Neprijat warships. The only way to tell friend from foe was the red and gold splashed across their bows. Adelina had begged the rebels to mark themselves somehow. She’d given them a phrase to use, ‘we fight for the queen’ along with her crest and prayed her allies in the Khara system would listen.

Anyone from her fleet who knowingly fired on an ally Neprijat would be committing treason. She’d made that very clear.

“How much farther to Khara Prime?” Nash demanded. “We don’t have much time.”

“We’ll never get there if we burst through this war zone and end up in a million pieces,” the captain snapped.

His steel was why she’d hired him.

“Engage only to get through and be quick about it,” she ordered. “I want our troops on the ground as quickly as possible.”

The captain grumbled but didn’t argue. He barked his own orders, getting the crew to man the engines, the weapons, and the fighters to scramble to their ships and burst forth from theJasminelike honeybees from their hive.

The ship shuddered again, but it held. “Shields?” she asked, checking her console to see where the others were.

---