Page 107 of Fractured Souls

This endless trail of interrogation was starting to get on Nythian’s nerves. Scumbags were popping up everywhere.

First they’d captured Relahek Alerak, then Daegan and the Kaiin-cursed Ristval V, and now they were hunting these idiots who had tried to colonize Tharos and use the ithari for their own purposes.

There was a pattern here. Someone or something was coalescing in the shadows of the Universe.

The Empire wasn’t just going to fade away quietly.

He knew it.

The General knew it.

But every time they tried to chase a lead, the trail disappeared like vapor. The prisoners they’d interrogated didn’t know much either, even when Zharek gave them truth drugs. It was like… what was that human expression Abbey had used?

A trail of breadcrumbs.

He didn’t even know what that meant, but it sounded about right.

Then there were the Kordolians who had come to Earth and harmed his mate. His claws reflexively flicked out as he imagined what he would do to them once he found them.

But they were already dead.

Alexis had killed them. Pride surged through his chest, mingling with his anger.

She’d defied the odds, but now there were others that wanted her dead. He knew his people; how they thought, how single-minded Kordolians could become in pursuit of revenge.

But this was about more than just revenge.

It was about Kordolians thinking they were superior to all other living things in the Universe, which was a complete load of crap.

As he drew one of his long swords from the sheath at his back, Nythian silently vowed to hunt them down and destroy every last one of them. He paused beside the closed Qualum door, listening for sounds of life beyond.

There. Voices. Two of them. Faint at first, but growing louder as they approached.

“I thought I saw a blip on the sylth’s detection field. Definitely wasn’t space-junk or astro-debris. The pattern was different.”

“You sure, Murkot? You’ve been acting paranoid as fuck ever since we left Tharos.”

“You think I’m paranoid or just being realistic? Look how many dead we just had to jettison. They sent a fucking Silent One after us.”

Nythian detected real fear in this Murkot’s voice. He suppressed a dark chuckle. It was good to have Ashrael as an ally and not an enemy.

“Yeah, but the General got him good. Did you see that? Just stuck his big old blue hand out and paralyzed him from the neck down. That’s when I got him. Stabbed him right in the heart.”

“Yeah, but you missed, Murkot. You didn’t kill him.”

“I got him in right in the heart! I don’t know why he didn’t die. Then he fucking disappeared right in front of us. What in Kaiin’s Hells was that?”

“He’s a Silent One. What did you expect?”

The two went quiet, but Nythian could hear their footsteps. They were heading for his compartment; he was certain of it. His trigger finger twitched, but his mind burned with questions.

Who the fuck was styling himself as a General now? There were only two Generals in the entire Kordolian Imperial military, and one of them was dead.

How dare some pretentious little upstart call himself a General? That title was sacred. It could only be earned after many revolutions of bloodshed and suffering.

His blood started to boil. How dare they disrespect his boss’s name?

“I don’t like it. That Tharian bonding business… It’s unnatural. Creeps me out.”

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