Page 86 of Chained

“Don’t ever put yourself in danger for me,” I rasp, the dust making my voice raw.

“Only if you promise the same,” she responds, her eyes bright and defiant.

I know she means it, as do I. My fierce, sweet, perfect mate will never be stopped. Just how I want her to be.

“Shall we finish this dance and get the hell out of here?” Cleo asks.

“Sounds like a plan.”

“Never plan,” Klynn growls as he stands up beside me and shakes the dust from his feathers.

Cleo pushes past me, shaking her head and muttering something about Gryn. I punch Klynn in the side of his head, and he snarls at me before I follow my sweet mate farther into the vault.

The place is carved out of the crystal, rather than being part of some natural cave like the passage which led us here. Laser marks show how the place was created. Cleo has reached the far wall and is studying the tech which is installed there.

She runs her hand over the wall, and lights appear, causing Klynn to flare his wings and me to growl at him.

“What is she doing?” he grumbles. “If there’s no explosions.”

“Not everything has to end with an explosion,” I remind him.

“It should do,” Klynn says with a shake of his feathers. “All good things end with an explosion.”

“We’re here to steal this vrexing thing, not blow it up.”

“Shame.”

“I’m in!” Cleo exclaims. “Over there.” She points to the wall on our right, and a set of info cubes peel out from it.

“Is this it? All the Galactic Council’s secrets?” I gather them up and shove them into the pouch at my waist.

“Each one can contain a trillion terabytes of information, but I guess they can add to it when they need to.”

“Not anymore.” Klynn grins at me.

In one hand, he holds a set of pulsar grenades he has clearly stolen from me.

“We don’t want them to use this place again, do we?” I ask my Cleo.

“No.” She shakes her head. “But then they’ll use somewhere else.”

“Then let them. Potentially, it won’t be an inhabited planet where creatures like the Bogarok can do damage. If they decide to do it at all.”

I consider her answer then give Klynn the nod.

“Looks like things are ending with an explosion today after all.”

CLEO

Maxym can’t fool me, not before the thoughtbond and not after. He wants the grenades as much as Klynn. But given the entire crystal structure is likely to fall on us, we make a sharp exit, leaving the dark one to do what he wants to do.

Even if Maxym would have preferred to stay.

“What about Retah?” I ask as we reach the strutted void. “He wasn’t at the vault which means he has to still be somewhere in the dome.”

“We need to cut comms between the Bogarok and the Varangy too.” Maxym says. “If Retah’s force is coming, they need as much of an advantage as they can get.”

“How about…”

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