panels, fingers whipping over the screens with messages to the other Spec Ops units. It was the agreed-upon hour. We had just made it. Everyone would be so happy to hear of their leader's safety. I looked at him and couldn't help but smile. I tried to hide it, but it tugged at my lips, in the same way, tiny tendrils of desire wrapped around my heart and butterflies swept up through my stomach and flurried in my throat. My left hand buzzed, and those tingles shivered through my blood. Am I always going to want him this much…? How long is “always” going to be for us? Maybe just for “now.” I could die today. We still have a battle to get through.

That made me smile even a little bit more, but for different reasons. I touched the hilt of my dagger and its grip was soothing in my hand; I was ready. I wasn’t nervous or scared. I was eager. I had been training for this.

Granted, I looked at Cassala and LeiLei where they spoke at another panel and typed commands to Emerona troops, I had only been training for six months and these ladies had been training most of their lives, but I felt strong, sure, and ready.

“The troops are here.” Jase was suddenly beside me. “We are going to attack Tarsine’s tents. We will be waiting here for fifteen minutes and then heading that way in this transport, matching the pace with everyone else.”

“What will we do for those thirty minutes?”

“Well, for the first couple of those minutes, you will be fighting Cassala.”

Jase gestured toward his Trio Commander. She had whipped off her cloak and was standing at the ready. She unsheathed her blades and tossed them down, telekinetically, so they all landed in a straight pile on her cloak. She kept only her dagger.

“Not to the death, please, Cassala,” Jase said, winking at me. I gulped but managed to wink back, asserting a cocky grin as I took off my cloak and tossed my throwing knives down with the same telekinetic precision as Cassala had displayed.

The rest of the Seawards moved to the sides of the main cabin, to give us plenty of room for our sparring match. We stepped into each other and tapped daggers ceremoniously. Cassala's face was blank, bored, even. Her free hand hung loose at her side. I mimicked her but kept my palm toward her.

She stepped into me, harsh and fast, her dagger a burst of speed whipped in toward my chest and then upward toward my face, then slashing down again. I deflected it easily, crossing it with my own, pushing it away, sidestepping out of her reach, and before she could press again, I spun away and with my open palm blasted her with the telekinetic wind I had been using from Jase's ring.

Cassala went flying backward, catching herself before she fell only by leveling out her own telekinetic power and catching herself before she hit the floors. She bounced back toward me and flew through the air, dagger outstretched. I thrust the wind at her again and slammed her sideways into the wall.

She crashed from the wall to the ground, sprawling out but scrambling to her feet quickly. She dodged in toward me, slashing her dagger at me. I thrust it aside with a quick whip of my hand, the gale-force wind knocking her three feet backward again.

“Fight me!” Her bored look was gone, her eyes wide with anger.

“Don’t you see? I don’t need to.”

Her shoulders fell in, deflated, but then she whipped up all of her throwing knives from where they lay on her cloak and lasered them toward me. They sped in a burst of hornet blades toward me, and I deflected them one at a time, tick, tack, tick, tack, away from me, dropping them like pins to the floor of the aircraft.

She glared at me, chest heaving, dagger tip pointed down, she took one more step to me, and I held my palm up, steady, ready to draw air about me and blow it toward her again.

Then, she laughed.

I looked from her sharply to Jase. He looked just as bewildered but slowly smiled. Cassala sheathed her dagger. She beckoned all her throwing knives back to her palm and slipped them back into their sheaths. She walked up to me and stood in front of me. She punched me in the shoulder where JASE was still written in the blood of the spy, and she smiled.

“Aimer told me to be open to trusting you, so I shall. Welcome to the team, Earthling. Welcome to our Crew, Vania.”

Then she turned away, threw her cloak back on, and went back to speaking to LeiLei and Axis. The Seawards nodded my way and began to check their gear as the transport started to rev up. Lift off in twenty minutes.

I took a deep breath and rubbed my face. Jase was watching me, smiling. He signaled me with a slight jerk of his head to follow me up a narrow hallway. Many eyes followed us as we left the main cabin, but, I didn’t care. My chest was swelling with pride, my head reeling with the battle that I deemed a win or at least an acceptance to the crew, but I was also overwhelmed with anger at myself; why had I fallen back on relying on the telekinetic powers instead of fighting hand-to-hand; had I been afraid? Had I not wanted to battle her fully?

Jase disappeared into a small room, and I slipped in behind him. As I entered, my breath was knocked out of me, I was lifted so quickly up into the air by his telekinetic's, and a moment later, I was in his arms, floating up at the top of the cabin's ceiling.

It was dizzying. I looked below us, eight feet down, swam at the air a moment, floating in a Zero-G sensation. Jase grabbed me and pulled me into his chest.

“Well, played, Vania.

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