I watch as the intruder rises from the bed, his outline barely seen. I can tell he is a man by his height and the breadth of his shoulders. He raises a hand to stop me and I leap, throwing out my leg. He dives to the side, narrowly missing my attack. The instant he is on the floor, he turns and strikes out at me, knocking me off balance. An arm winds around my waist and I grunt as the full weight of my attacker settles onto me.
“Nice to see you too, Illyria.
My mouth gapes open and I stop fighting. I hardly recognize the sound of a door opening before the man above me is tackled and two shadows roll end over end, grunting. “Bastien, no!”
I hear the sound of punches being landed and rush forward, yanking on whoever is on top. “Stop,” I cry. “It’s Eamon!”
Bastien falls slack beneath my hand. “You’re sure?”
“Of course she’s sure, you idiot. Get off me!” Eamon grunts from below. “Wait a second… You know me? Why do you remember who I am, and what the heck is he doing in your bedroom at this time of the night?”
“Yep, that’s Eamon all right.” I watch as Bastien rolls off and rises swiftly to his feet. Eamon doesn’t move quite as fast. The instant he’s on his feet, I race into his arms, nearly knocking him over.
“Easy.” He laughs, wrapping his arms around me. I bury my face into his chest and breathe in deep. He smells like home.
“What are you doing here?” Bastien asks. Realizing how awkward this must be for him, I step back a few paces and move to turn on the light. “No! Someone will see.”
Of course they will. Get it together, Illyria.
Bastien hurries toward the window and locks it, pushing a button beside it. A privacy screen lowers into place, casting the room into complete darkness.
“How did you get here?” Bastien asks, moving back toward his room. He switches on the light in the bathroom and closes the door partway.
Eamon shifts, crossing his arms over his chest. I call tell he is still ticked at finding Bastien here with me, but he leaps into his tale. “After Illyria went off with you, we received word that Drakon was on the move. Kyan knew we were in the area, so instead of heading straight back, we took a detour to a base about ten miles north. When we arrived, we found nothing. Even the buildings had been demolished. There was only one thing found in the rubble… a note.”
“What did it say?” I ask.
Eamon wipes a hand across his face. “I win.”
A shiver races down my spine as he continues. “I radioed back to Kyan and we headed home, only to arrive back to find a message from some girl named Niyah.”
Bastien stiffens. I shoot him a warning glance and he remains silent. “Kyan was agitated. He paced for nearly an hour straight. I’d never seen him so intense before. When he finally spoke, he ordered all of the Sky Ships to head to that base.”
“All of them?” I can’t believe he would risk our entire fleet for me.
“Yeah. It caused quite an uproar, but Kyan was adamant that we had to get there as fast as we could.” He pauses, scratching the back of his neck. “We arrived to find the base burning to the ground. The weird thing was that we couldn’t find many bodies. It was almost as if they set the fires themselves.”
“They did,” Bastien says, sinking down onto the edge of my bed. “It was an ambush and we walked right into it.”
“Yeah, we figured that out when we picked up that Niyah girl. Kyan was furious. He screamed at her for over an hour before he finally calmed down. She took it, though. No tears. Just nodded in agreement.”
“‘Course she did,” I mutter bitterly. Eamon casts a glance in my direction, but I wave him off.
“She smuggled one of the space transports before the whole place went up in flames. We all hopped aboard and came after you. Turns out Kyan knows this planet really well. He had some connections that helped us fly in under the radar. We’ve only just arrived a short while ago.”
“And you came straight here, of course,” Bastien mutters.
“Of course.” His response feels like a challenge, and I have no doubt it will be perceived as such by Bastien.
“What about Niyah?” I ask to divert their attention. Bastien stiffens, his hands clenching into fists upon his thighs.
“She came with us. Said she needed to make amends, whatever that means. She was pretty tightlipped on the way here. Refused to talk to anyone besides Kyan, and he wasn’t too forthcoming with information either.”
I look to Bastien, knowing I should get his permission before revealing anything to Eamon. He shrugs indifferently, but I’m not fooled. He is seething inside. Niyah had better stay far out of his way.