Born of Betrayal (39 page)

“I'm not leaving you to face this alone.”

“You're less than useless with explosives, and you know it.”

“You have the same trauma I do … for the same reasons.”

Fain winced as he tried not to think about either of their childhoods. “Yeah, but I'm not the one who fell off the side of a mountain after a charge detonated in my face.” He jerked his chin toward the end of the hallway. “Go on, Dance. You've already watched one brother die in front of you. I don't want to be your next nightmare. You have a baby on the way. Children to protect. I need you to keep
them
and my family safe. For me, little brother.”

Instead of leaving, Dancer moved forward and jerked him into a tight hug. “You die on me and I'm following you into hell to beat your ass. You hear me?”

“I hear you.”

Dancer yanked his hair before he let go and stepped back. “I mean it, Fain. Don't make me have to commit a mortal sin to damn myself to come after you.”

“Go on.” Fain playfully pushed him away. “You're annoying me. Get to the others.”

Dancer took three steps before he turned to look back. Tears glistened in his eyes.

I love you, too, brother.
Neither of them had to say it out loud.

Syn clapped him on the arm. “All right. You're in.” He handed Fain the helmet. “Mic check.”

Fain put it on and sealed himself in, then checked to make sure the audio and visuals were transmitting. “Check?”

“You there, Kere?”

“I'm here. We're ready as soon as you're in the commcen.”

Syn inclined his head to Fain. “Good luck. I'm dragging Ryn with me so that he can have his nervous breakdown in a less distracting area.”

As Fain reached for the box and kit, he realized that Galene had vanished while he'd been suiting up. That she hadn't even bothered to say good-bye to him.

Or good luck.

It stung a lot deeper than it should have that she'd abandoned him so quickly. For all he knew, he could be dead in the next few minutes. It was actually a good bet. And she hadn't even cared enough to wish him luck.

Don't think about it.

That was easier said than done.

“Fain? You with me?”

“Yeah, sorry. I was distracted.”

“Um, okay, buddy. A bit of advice? Let's not get distracted while handling something designed to explode. Wanna stay focused. Trust me, your odds of survival go up exponentially that way.”

“Titana tu, giakon.”

“Yeah, keep it in your pants, Andarion. You're not pretty enough for my tastes. Now make your way to the device and try not to bump it or the table. I want you to slide up under it, slow and easy, with as little motion as possible.”

Fain was barely under the table when Syn's voice returned to his ear.

“I'm tapped into the system, Kere. I've given you full access.”

“Beautiful. Fain, freeze.”

He heard Darling tapping frantically.

“Syn, power up their cross shields with their interior routers for me.”

“Done.”

“Lights will dim on my mark. No one panic, but Fain, tell Mama Dane and Venik to run for the door when they do.”

“Lady Tavali. Ven. The lights are about to go dim. When they do, you need to rush from the room.” Then, he counted down with Darling. “Three. Two. One. Go!”

The lights dimmed.

Both ran past him, into the hallway.

“Are they clear?” Darling asked.

“Think so.”

“All right, you ready for this?”

“Yeah, lead me through it.”

Darling brought the lights back up. “Gently pull the cover off and expose the belly of the beast.”

Fain did as he said and grimaced at the mass of gnarled wires that were wrapped around explosive mineral clay. Though the clay was no bigger than his fist, it was enough to take out this entire wing of the station. “Hey, Syn? You need to tell Venik to evacuate the entire southern quadrant.”

“On it.”

Darling calmly continued talking Fain through the disarming sequence. “All right, Fain. What I need you to do now is count the third brighter orange wire from the left and isolate it.”

Fain hesitated. “Brighter?”

“Yeah. See it?”

He blinked as he stared at all the wires in his hand. Orange …

“It's this one,
keramon
.”

Fain went cold at the sound of the sweetest voice in the Nine Worlds as a warm body slid up next to him. “What are you doing here?”

“I had a feeling you didn't tell them that the reason you never passed those diffusing classes was because you were partially color-blind.”

Darling cursed in his ear. “Is she serious? Are you serious? You can't see a full color spectrum and you're handling a minsid wired explosive? Hauk? Are you out of your Andarion mind?”

“Yes. When he was a boy, he got into a fight with Keris and his brother injured his retina and did a significant amount of damage that left Fain with dichromatism.” She covered his hand with hers and moved it to one of the wires. “This is the third brighter orange one.”

Grateful for her help, Fain cut it while he ignored Darling's insults for him and his parentage that continued without interruption through his link. “You need to go to my ship with Dancer where it's safe.”

“I'm right where I belong. You need someone here with smaller hands, who is used to handling delicate instruments. I'm a trained surgeon, with a full range of color vision. I've got this.”

“Stormy—”

“Strong alone. Stronger together.” She took his hand in hers and removed his glove. Her gaze paralyzed him as she took the ring from his finger. Then she pulled off her glove and placed the ring where it had once rested on her hand. “I have loved you since the moment I met you as a child. You are my life, Fain Batur. If you die here today, then you're taking me with you. I don't want to live another moment of this life without you in it.”

Love for her choked him as Darling finally shut up. By naming him like that, Galene was claiming him as her husband, before witnesses. According to Andarion law, that would legally bind them as effectively as a unification ceremony.

He touched his bare hand to hers. “And you are the air I breathe, Galene Hauk. I shall never allow harm to come to you.”

Darling let out an irritated sigh. “Aw, that's all sweet and moving, but could we please focus on the bomb that's about to detonate in your faces?”

“Yeah, waiting on you to tell us what to do, Kere. What's taking you so long?”

He broke off into a round of Caronese Fain was glad he couldn't understand, otherwise he might have ended the emperor's lineage. “Galene, shine the light and follow this sequence. Dark blue, light blue, green, yellow, light orange, red, red, purple.”

She quickly snipped them in the designated order while Fain held the light for her. “Done.”

“Did anything happen?”

Fain arched a brow at Darling's anxious question. “Was anything
supposed
to happen?”

“No. Not necessarily, but…”

“But what?”

“You might want to jerk the device off that table and seal it in the box real fast.… Just in case the designer planted a fail-safe in it.”

Fain obeyed, and locked the seals tight. “Yeah, okay. Now what?”

“That should be it. We should—”

The bomb detonated at their feet. Fain grabbed Galene and covered her with his body. He held her against the wall so tightly that she couldn't breathe. “Precious? I think we're safe. Is that not the purpose of the blast box?”

“She's right, big guy. You're crushing her for no reason.”

But instead of letting go, Fain pulled his helmet off and let it fall to the ground. Then he did the same with hers.

Galene was completely unprepared for the ferocity of his kiss. It was demanding and hot, and left her breathless.

“All righty, Andarions. I'm going to … uh…” Darling cleared his throat. “Give you the room and leave you to that. Little uncomfortable for the rest of us.”

Fain pulled back with an adorable, unabashed grin. “You ever risk your life like that again and so help me…”

“All you have to do is not risk yours.” She pointed to the rank patch on her hardsuit. “Remember, I outrank you, soldier.”

Smiling, he nuzzled his face against her braids. “Why did you come back?”

“Because I love you. I've always loved you.”

Those words made his heart sing. Did he dare hope that she meant what he thought she did? “Am I finally forgiven?”

Cupping his head to her shoulder, she wanted to both beat and hold him for eternity. Why couldn't he make loving him easy?

But then that was part of his charm. “Yes. You're forgiven.”

Fain closed his eyes as he savored the words he'd waited a lifetime to hear. If he died right then, he'd be content.

And all he wanted was to carry her back to his ship and make love to her for the rest of the month.

If only he could.

Sighing heavily, he hated responsibility. Damn adulthood. He wanted to send it back for a full refund. “We still have one more device to locate.”

She nodded. “I know.”

Fain tapped his link to unmute it. “Hey, Kere. Any luck on finding the third charge?”

“Working on it.”

Fain picked up the box and carried it while Galene led the way to the hall. Hermione and Ven waited at the end of it. As he neared them, Fain handed the box and exploded device off to a Hadean Corps officer.

Hermione stood up on her tiptoes to kiss Fain on the cheek. “I owe you. Thank you for what you did.”

“No problem. I'm just glad I overheard the slag bragging about setting it, and got here before it went off. What happened, anyway? How'd you find it?”

Hermione sighed. “We were talking. I got up to get a drink and I heard the release spring. Since we didn't know what tripped it, we didn't dare move for fear of setting it off.”

Hermione had barely finished speaking before Ryn showed up and grabbed her into a fierce hug.

“I'm all right, Ryn.”

“I know. I'm just not ready to be an orphan yet.”

Fain scoffed. “Aren't you a little old to be an orphan?”

He glared at Fain over his mother's shoulder before he set her back on her feet. “Considering the fact that my mother bottle-fed me until I was thirty? No.”

Fain laughed at something that was practically true. Hermione did tend to dote on and overprotect her only child like he was the most sacred creature in the known universe.

Hermione rolled her eyes at Galene. “The lies our children tell about us.”

“Don't I know. My son horrifies me daily.”

Ryn sobered as he faced Venik. “We lucked out with Fain discovering this one. But we're not going to get that lucky with the next one. You've got to figure they're either going after defense or family. Where are your kids located?”

“Most of them are on their own ships. Only Kareem is currently in port. Even my wife is out on my daughters' ship.”

“That's not true,” Fain said. “I saw Stain come in earlier.”

Venik scowled at him. “No. He's out with his crew.”

“No, he came in. Check the logs. He told me he was on his way to see you and Kareem when I met him.”

Ven pulled out his link to look.

While he did that, Galene fingered Fain's eye. “Does that hurt?”

“What?”

She sighed heavily. “You've got a nasty black eye.”

He touched it, then hissed as he realized it
was
tender. “Ow, damn. I didn't feel it until now. Guess the prick got a shot in, after all. Must have been when he broke the chair over me.”

“Oh my God, Fain! He hit you with a chair?”

“Yeah. A few other things, too. He even lobbed one of the smaller humans at me.”

Galene covered her face and groaned. “I wish I thought you were joking and making that up. Unfortunately, I know better. Gods, you are your son's father. What did I do to deserve
two
of you?” Shaking her head, she met Hermione's gaze. “Is it easier with human sons or males?”

“Not really. I never know what horrifies me more—the stories Ryn tells me, or the ones I know he withholds out of respect for my maternal sensibilities, or fear of what I'll do to him should I ever learn the true nature of his innate recklessness and brazen stupidity.”

“For the record, it's definitely the latter.” Ryn stepped back to tap his ear. “Yeah, this is Dane. Go.”

About a minute later, while Galene and Hermione were still comparing war stories about raising stubborn sons as single mothers, Fain frowned as he watched Ryn stumble and go down to one knee. Unsure of what had happened, he moved to kneel by Ryn's side to see if he could help.

“Were there any survivors?” Ryn's voice was barely a whisper. His breathing turned ragged and pain-filled.

Scowling, Hermione joined them. She rubbed at her son's back.

Ryn held his hand to the link as he nodded. “Keep me posted.” He hung up.

Hermione's frown mimicked Fain's and Galene's. “Baby? What is it?”

Ryn stared straight ahead as if he were in a trance. “The League hit Hinto's west fleet while they were en route to rendezvous with us.”

Hermione cursed under her breath. “How many did they lose?”

“They're still trying to determine the numbers.” His lips trembled. “The
Merry Crimson
went down in the fighting.”

She winced. “How awful … Did Commander Hinto get out?”

A tear slid down his cheek. “I told her not to come. I told her to stay at her father's base.” He balled his fists together and pressed them against his forehead as he broke off into a sob. “Dammit, Mack! Dammit! Why couldn't you listen to me for once in your life!”