Free Born of Betrayal by Sherrilyn Kenyon Page B

talking about?”
    â€œNothing,” Talyn said firmly.
    Galene wasn’t quite ready to let it go. “Answer me, Commander. Have you ever fought him in battle?”
    Talyn cut a gimlet stare to Kareem and Chayden before he returned it to his mother. “Do I need to get Vari up here to verify my account, since my word obviously isn’t good enough for Her High Holiness? Believe me, he knows who fought us that day. And who shot me down. It wasn’t Hauk.” Talyn raked him with a sneer. “Trust me, he’s not that good a pilot.”
    Offended to the core of his being, Fain swallowed hard as he met Galene’s hate-filled grimace. “I would never have fired on my son … had I known.”
    Chayden sucked his breath in sharply. “Whoa … whoa … wait a minute. The Iron Hammer’s your kid? No shit?” He turned in his seat to look at Talyn. “You’re Hauk’s son? Seriously?”
    Talyn gave Fain a harsh stare. “Through basic biology only.”
    Chayden let out a low whistle as he took over navigation. “Can someone say awkward ? We could cut this tension with a knife, but the hostility’s so thick here, I think it’s a bad idea to introduce sharp objects into it.”
    Wisely remaining silent, Kareem nodded his agreement.
    Fain didn’t speak while guilt gnawed at him. Like Galene, he had a bad feeling that Talyn was withholding vital information. Though why the boy would protect him when he hated him so much was beyond his best comprehension.
    Trying not to think about something he couldn’t change, he settled the mic in his ear and launched.
    Once they were leaving the Andarion atmosphere, he made the mistake of glancing toward Galene. The hatred in her white eyes shrank both his testicles and made him physically ill. Shit, at this rate, they were practically crawling back into his stomach—and if she didn’t stop that glaring hatred soon, he’d be female by lunch.
    Never once had he considered the fact that while he’d made Tavali runs for Venik against his former homeworld that he might be fighting his own kid.
    Or Galene. She was supposed to have gone to med school, like her parents. He had no idea what had sent her into the military instead. Especially given her family history with the Andarion armada and the Purging that the former tadara had done against the entire Batur lineage to brutally wipe them out. Why would Galene risk military service given that the former queen had wanted her entire bloodline exterminated?
    Something must have gone seriously wrong to put her on that course. Something he couldn’t begin to fathom.
    Kareem inclined his head to Talyn. “How long you been in uniform, Batur?”
    â€œFourteen years.”
    Fain cringed at a number that definitely would have put them head-to-head under Tadara Eriadne’s reign.
    â€œHow many as a pilot?”
    He held his breath, terrified of hearing his son’s answer.
    â€œAlmost seven, total.”
    Kareem scowled. “First or last?”
    â€œFirst.”
    Double shit.
    Yeah, that was right in the thick of when Fain would have been making his heaviest attacks in Andarion territory. There was no telling how many times he’d engaged Talyn in battle.
    Probably Galene, too.
    â€œWhat made you stop?”
    Before Talyn could answer, his nose and ear began pouring blood. Cursing, he leaned forward and pulled a cloth from his pocket to hold against them.
    Galene gasped. “Talyn?”
    He sighed at his mother’s worried tone. “I’m fine, Commander. It’s nothing.” He glanced toward Kareem. “To answer your question, I was medically grounded after my last near-death experience. While I can still fly, the doctors don’t like what the sudden changes in pressure and escape velocity do to my body. In space, I’m fine. It’s the reaching space part that gets bloody for me.” He