The Bond suddenly thrums in my mind. My hands twitch on the control, but I fight them off. I can fight the Bond urging me to go back. I’ll get used to dealing with the wave of urges that it brings up in me.
Sawoot whoops as we punch out. I fly away from the moon, putting as much distance between us and the Aurelians as the impulse engines will give me.
“I can’t believe it! You got us out!”
I can barely believe it myself. The three of us snuck out of an Aurelian warship and got away clean.
“Well,” I scoff. “I think Theme gets the credit for this mission.”
“I just did what I could.” His voice is more confident. This experience has changed him for the better. He’ll be a loyal and trusted member of my crew now – as long as I keep my faith in him.
Being captured by Aurelians changed Theme for the better. Did it change me for the better, too? Or did it make me worse?
That, I can’t answer. I shed Chris and his cronies like dead weight – only I don’t feel lighter for it. I’m definitely leaving The Instigator with a greater burden than when I arrived. Did I truly know what I was getting into when I allowed myself to be Bonded to those three Aurelians?
The problem is – I want them.
It’s not just the Bond urging me back. I want to help them. I want to cure the pain that wracks Aelon, Vinicus and Iunia. Instead, all I’ve done is open their old wounds, and carved new ones. As much as I try to push their auras down inside my mind, traces of their pain and grief keep slipping through.
They’re going to hunt me down to the ends of the universe, I know it.
Well, fine. I’m used to being hunted. But you put me at the helm of a Reaver? No one in this universe can catch me now.
That being said – my life is going to require one hell of a lot of running now. When The Instigator is back to full functionality, we’ll have to deal with it powering up and lumbering after us. Until then, who knows how many Reavers Aelon will spare to pursue us.
I hope it’s not too many. I hope he doesn’t jeopardize his fight against the Toads just to pursue me.
As for my fate – well, it’s no problem. The Reaver outpaces The Instigator easily, as long as it doesn’t Orb-Shift. Other than that, there’s no way for Aelon to catch us. I’ll change course once I’m out of his scanner range, and once I’ve done that he won’t even be able to Orb-Shift after me.
“How long do you think we have, Theme?”
“I was a little antsy when I gave my estimates back onboard,” my engineer admits. “We should have at least half an hour before Aelon regains control of The Instigator. Even if they Orb-Shift after us, by then they won’t know which direction we went in. Aelon runs a tight command on his ship, but even he couldn’t convince his men to Orb-Shift in random directions just in hopes of catching us. Aurelians are brave, but they don’t have a death wish.”
He snorts.
“Well, most of them don’t.”
I know he’s making an underhand comment about Captain Aelon – but I let it slide.
Theme’s right. No matter how much he rages and yells, Aelon won’t be able to convince his men to chase after us by Orb-Shift. There are chilling rumors of ships being lost in the void, and they won’t gamble on shift after shift just on the slim chance of finding us.
This means our escape is clean.
I can hardly believe it.
This means they’re not going to be able to find us.
That’s what I wanted, isn’t it? I try to smile, but I can’t. I press hard on the accelerator and we blast forward, far exceeding the speeds I could reach with the Wayward Scythe.
Despite the speed, there are no g-forces to make my head lurch back against the seat. The Reaver is a marvel of alien technology, with inertial dampers that can turn dizzying speed into smooth sailing.
When we get wherever we’re going, I’ll be able to sell this stolen vessel and I’ll make enough to start a legitimate business that will sustain me for centuries to come.
The only drawback? I can’t plant roots anywhere. If I do, the Aurelians will find me. I know Aelon, Vinicus, and Iunia are going to search for me endlessly – for the rest of their thousands of years of life, if needs be. Even when I blot them out of my mind, I’ll always have a general sense that they’re in one specific direction – as they will with me. All they’ll need to do is keep moving towards my location. The closer they get, the clearer it will be to them where I am.
Even if it takes thousands of years, they’ll continue to hunt me.
But that’s okay. Better to be hunted than dead, which is what I’d have been in a hundred years if I hadn’t allowed myself to be Bonded to the Aurelians. No matter what downsides there are to the Bond, it will be worth it. I just have to learn how to deal with the wave of urges magnified and amplified by the Bond – including the one to turn this ship around and return to the arms of those three magnificent warriors.
I didn’t expect to want them as badly as I do. It isn’t just the Bond that draws me back towards them. In fact, the Bond almost feels… dormant – like it’s lying in wait, letting my own urges do its work for it.
And that’s most certainly happening. Every cell in my body is screaming to turn around – to return to The Instigator – and I know it’s me making that call. I can tell the difference between my own independent desires and
