Page 14 of Taming Chaos

Then it would blast off, and the woman, Winters—she who was clever, stoic, and all alone, would go with them.

Even if he returned to Silence and pleaded with the General to track them down, his chances of finding her again were slim. Ephrenians knew how to disappear without a trace, and space was vast. And in the unlikely event that they managed to find her, it might be too late.

She could be irreversibly… damaged.

He had to make a choice now. Go with the ship, or risk losing her forever.

“Argh!” A hoarse cry burst from his throat as he launched himself at the freighter, his Callidum blades extended.

Thunk. Thunk. Twin lengths of ultraforged Callidum plunged deep into Ephrenian metal and stuck fast. Torin gripped the hilts with all his strength as the ship began to lift. Dangling in thin air, he hauled himself up until his feet were pressed against the ship’s metal wall.

The roar of the thrusters intensified. The ship gained speed, moving in the direction of the airlock.

They were heading out into the vast expanse of space.

He activated his comm, trying to alert Enki to his predicament.

“Hey, Enki?”

Zzzzzt. All he heard was a faint static hum. The line was dead.

What in Kaiin’s Hells is going on? Perhaps the pressure blast had damaged his comm, or maybe the Ephrenians’ energy dampening field was jamming the signal.

Shit. He was about to blast out into the cold vacuum of space, and his partner had no idea. Torin briefly contemplated yanking out his blades and dropping back down to the lower deck, but he quickly dismissed the thought.

This is your only chance!

Enki would just have to forgive him later.

He had to go with this ship, because he knew it would lead him to the Callidum seller. He had to follow the Ephrenians, because he couldn’t let Markov get away what he’d done, for the simple reason that he didn’t like the guy. But most importantly, he couldn’t leave Winters to the mercy of her would-be Kordolian master—whom he absolutely intended to have a a little chat with.

And when he was done with the traitor, he would hand him over to the General, and Tarak al Akkadian would figure out a way to scrape all the information he needed from the insides of the bastard’s skull.

Goddess help the wretched soul.

As the ship drifted toward the airlock, Torin wondered how the fuck he’d gotten himself into this mess. Really, it was all because of his damn curiosity and his secret affinity for humans.

And beneath it all was this strange sense of yearning, of protectiveness. Torin couldn’t deny it. Winters—Persephone—was female. Human. Smart. Gorgeous. Betrayed. Alone.

Something about that particular combination stirred a fierce, dark emotion within him. A certain mood overtook him, making him want to tear apart the very fabric of the Universe itself.

He had to get her back. For all intents and purposes, she was his, and when something caught Torin’s interest, he never lost focus.

Obsession. It was starting to take hold. Torin knew the signs. The fact that he was actually clinging to the side of a moving Ephrenian trader ship like some sort of Earth insect while it was preparing to depart into space… well, that was abnormal.

A shrill alarm sounded, and the massive airlock doors of the trading station began to slide open. As the ship drifted into the airlock, the pressure dropped.

They were only a few layers of metal away from blasting into deep space, and Torin was about to enter the deep, dark void with only his exo-armor for protection.

No big deal. He could survive without oxygen for long enough.

Gripping his hilts tightly, Torin began to saw away at the ship’s thick outer walls. One way or another, he was going to get inside. There was a reason so many alien races wanted to get their hands on Callidum blades.

The cursed obsidian metal could cut through anything.

Chapter Four

Seph shifted in her seat, trying to get comfortable. The thing binding her wrists wasn’t that uncomfortable—it was made from some sort of warm polymer that molded against her skin—but her arms and upper back ached, thanks to the awkward position she was forced to assume.

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