His Human Rebel (Zandian Masters 4)

“Cambry!” Lundric’s cry rang in her helmet’s comm unit.

“I’ve got it!” The craft wobbled harder, then banked hard to the left, out of the spin. Thank sweet Mother Earth.

A second fleet of police ships appeared in the atmosphere, dozens of them.

“Retreat, retreat!” The command blared in her ears but three ships were chasing Lundric, at least she thought it was Lundric.

She joined the chase, Tal firing on the police ships from behind. He hit one, two. The third spun around them and fired directly on them. The windshield exploded in a ball of fire. Not willing to go down easily, she gunned the ship forward and rammed it into the police ship. Both ships hurtled toward the ground.

“Cambry, Cambry, no!”

Their descent slowed. The magnaray. Lundric must be above them. But her ship was on fire, which meant a fireball could travel through the magnaray and blow up Lundric’s ship.

“Leave us,” she screamed. “Release the ship!”

“Never.” His growl conveyed 100 percent determination.

Their ship lifted away from the ground. Five police ships surrounded them.

Tal unbuckled, racing to the rear of the craft. “Is there more firepower back here?” he shouted.

“I don’t know!” She hadn’t been trained in the weaponry part yet, just flying, but since the craft was unflyable and the forward part of the ship was on fire, she followed Tal.

“Here they are.” Tal climbed a ladder toward an upper deck.

She ascended behind him, only able to squeeze her torso into the small area made for one being. They both took controls, firing as rapidly as they could, causing the police ships to dodge and fall away, out of their range.

“Nice work, Cambry and Tal.” Lundric’s deep voice rang in her ear. “Hang on, I’m going to get you out of there.”

A lurch indicated Lundric had entered hyperdrive. She squeezed her eyes closed and held her breath, waiting for the explosion that ended them all.

A second passed. Then another.

Still alive.

She opened her lids. They were in space, hovering near the pod. Other Zandian battleships circled it. And the giant hangar-ship, an open craft that had housed all the smaller battleships, hung beside it.

“You are not cleared for landing in the hangar, Captain Lundric. Your cargo is on fire. Repeat, your cargo is on fire.” The lack of oxygen in space should have extinguished all the flames, but the cabin pressure kept the fires burning inside.

“Then get the fire spray ready, because I’m landing,” her warrior growled.

“No, Lundric, don’t,” she cried. She didn’t want to be responsible for setting the entire hangar on fire and wiping out all of Zandia’s battleships in one fell swoop.

Her mind racing, she ran for the container of fire spray located below on her craft. “Tal, help me with this,” she shouted.

Her brother scrambled down and the two of them attacked the fire on their ship. She needed to get it out before Lundric dropped them onto the hangar.

~.~

The only thing keeping Lundric from a total implosion was the fact that Cambry’s voice still registered on his comms unit. She was alive. Stars, she was still alive.

Twice back there, he’d been sure he’d lost her. What in the name of Zandia’s true star had she been thinking? At first, he’d feared she planned to run away again—to take her brother and leave. But she hadn’t. She’d stayed to fight, and he was so vecking proud of her courage and prowess as a pilot.

His little rebel—so brave. Such a fighter.

The moment he docked her ship and then his own, he leaped out. A crew already had the fire under control and had helped Cambry and Tal to evacuate the destroyed craft.