Free Prince of Luster by Candace Sams Page A

hope.
    The first time the fire
plasma was used, that display had taken all fight from every heart. The second and successive times were meant to make scurrying cowards of every man, woman, and child.
    Nova renewed her vows of hatred for an empire where an allied king—one who was supposed to have periodically checked on planets within the alliance—sat on a rich throne, ordering his League of Enforcers to ignore small, unimportant colonies like Delta Seven. While her world wasn’t ruled by King Starlaw, as head of The Constellation League of Enforcers it was the man’s duty to make sure that all law enforcement alliances were honored. So where was he? Surely he had to know something on her planet was very wrong. Even normal messages weren’t getting out, at least not without Forrell’s approval or censorship. And this had been the case as far as anyone had known.
    She moved forward and knelt beside the weeping, green-eyed warrior.
    “Don’t die, Green Eyes. You’re not dishonored. You stood against a malevolent beast when no one else would; even as I did nothing. But I’ll help you now. I promise I’ll always be here and I’ll help you.”
    “Y-you came back.”
    “I wouldn’t break my promise. I’ll stay with you.” She gently wrapped her gloved fingers around his wrist. “This is going to hurt worse than anything you can imagine. But you have to try and get into the hovercraft. We don’t have much time. I’ll take you someplace safe, but we have to move quickly. Understand?”
    He nodded.
    She took a deep breath and prayed he wouldn’t cry out too loudly. When her fingers tightened around his wrist, pain sent him into spasmodic convulsions. She immediately released her grip and tried to overcome the revulsion of his burned flesh. The smell of it was unholy. But she could do him no good if they couldn’t move.
    “What’s your name?” she quietly asked. She repeated herself several times while trying to keep him from injuring himself further. His body flailed against the rocks in a twisted, ghastly way. She almost had to sit on him before his thrashing subsided. Eventually, he breathed deeply and tried to answer her repeated request.
    “My n-name is M-Marcos,” he muttered.
    “All right, Marcos. I’m called Nova Drayton. So we both know each other.”
    He simply gasped.
    “We’ll try again. Can you push yourself up without my help? Even just a bit?”
    “N-No.”
    She leaned very close to him and knew the words she’d say would be cruel. But they might be what motivated him to move. “I can’t carry you; you’re too big. If you don’t get up, then you’ll be incinerated here tomorrow. There’ll be nothing of you left, and anyone who ever cared about you will never know what happened. No one will admit you were ever here. It will be as though you simply disappeared.”
    He breathed harder. The man seemed panicked by the idea that such a thing could happen. Whatever made him do so, whether it was her words or thoughts of his own making, he finally rolled onto his side and pushed himself into a sitting position.
    Nova put her hands to her face when his screams of agony echoed off the rock quarry pit around them.
    “Goddess … forgive me for what I’m about to do, but I have to get you out of here.”
    Without telling him, Nova pulled her cloak tighter around her body to protect herself against residual plasma on his. She lifted one of his charred arms around her shoulders and pushed herself straight up with all her strength.
    “Stand with me.
Now!
” she commanded.
    Clumsily, Marcos did as she ordered and moved where she led. He stifled more screams as they progressed. She didn’t know where the strength came from—hers or his. She simply moved forward, pushed his massive form into the hauler on the back of the hovercraft, then leapt into the driver’s seat. The open design of the silver, flat transport allowed the air to flow around her and the injured man as they moved. She heard