He rounded the corner and found himself face to face with his mother and her new lover, Thon. For once, he felt nothing at being in his mother’s presence. Maybe it was Leti’s talk about flow, or maybe it was because his mother hardly seemed significant when he stood to lose his female forever.
“Have you seen Leticia? My female?” he blurted.
His mother stopped and looked around. “Well, no dear. Is something wrong?”
“Yes,” he muttered jogging past her.
“What is it, Paal?” his mother called to his back.
“I was an idiot and I may have lost her,” he said. He’d never been so honest with his mother about anything. One simply wasn’t with a parent who found so many things to nitpick. But he didn’t care what she thought. He didn’t care if she approved of his relationship or not. He wanted Leti—needed her—and nothing was going to get in his way of winning her back.
“Commander Paal, we need to get this pod to Zandia straight away,” Lily said, appearing breathless at the end of the hallway.
Except maybe this.
“What’s going on?”
“Lamira has seen that all the troops are in trouble. Our only hope of winning Zandia is to fly in and take out Fluut in his secret location, but the battleships aren’t made for long distances. We’ll need the pod to get us close enough.”
Vecking excrement.
He drew in a slow, measured breath. “Lady Lamira has seen this?”
“Yes.”
“And you know where this secret location for Fluut is?”
“Yes.”
Veck, veck, veck.
He’d made a promise to Zander to keep this pod safe. Flying it into the war zone was a direct violation of that order.
Yet not aiding the cause went against every cell in his warrior’s body.
Lily must have guessed his dilemma. “Just get us close enough. Cambry and I will fly in and take out Fluut and you can get the pod back to safety.”
Veck that. If he flew in that close, he’d be taking a battleship and going into Zandian airspace with them. Ronan could get the pod back to safety.
“All right,” he clipped. “Get onto the dock and board your ships. We’ll be warp speed in less than ten.”
Lily gave a decisive nod and took off running in the opposite direction as him.
On the flight deck, he voice commanded the pod engines on. “Set the course for Zandia.”
Instruments whirred to life, maps shifted and spun into place. “Warp speed to outer atmosphere.”
He gripped the counter for the lurch as the pod shot out of Aurelian airspace.
He was going home.
They may not make it out alive, but at least they would die trying.
9
Paal fastened his helmet. “As soon as we take off, you get the pod as far from that fighting as you can,” he instructed Ronan.
Once they’d arrived at the edge of Zandian airspace, the battle area became clear.