Page 6 of The Brightest Night

Maybe a scarf to cover my now numb face.

I couldn’t feel my fingers.

Drax rode parallel to us. His hood had come down, and his red hair was blowing back in the wind. Why did Divinos want him so badly when he had a brood of spawn? There must be something he wasn’t sharing.

“Nova, they’re gaining on us,” Kai said.

Fuck.

I glanced back, heart sinking at how bright and close the lights from the magimech vehicles were.

“Fuel is low,” Gabe said.

Double fuck.

Drax veered closer, yelling over the roar of the engine and the wind. “They’re not gonna stop chasing until they have me!”

Rex leapt out of the cab attached to his mobile and clambered onto mine.

A vise gripped my chest. No…

He veered closer for a beat, his bright eyes filled with despair. “Good luck, Nova!”

He dropped back, turning his mobile around to head toward the threat.

The man who’d left this planet to get away from his father was going back to save me? I wasn’t sure how to process that. He owed me nothing, and yet⁠—

“Keep going,” Gabe said. “Don’t let his sacrifice be in vain. We can’t let Divinos get his hands on you, and Drax knows that.”

Rex clambered into the cab with Kai and Velos, curling himself into a ball to make himself small. I had to keep them safe. They were my responsibility. My family.

I leaned forward, chest tight, eyes on the snowy terrain as the distance between us and Drax grew.

“They’ve stopped,” Kai said. “They have him.”

I swallowed past the lump in my throat. He’d be fine. He was a prince, and his path wasn’t mine. I had to find the rebel camp. They might have the answers to who or what I was. To why Divinos was hunting for people with my power. The camp would be a refuge until Naxon found us. Because he would.

He’d promised to come, and he would⁠—

“I sense an energy field ahead, Nova,” Kai called out. “Slow do⁠—”

I saw it a moment before we hit it. The air whooshed out of my lungs, my skin tightening and pinching as we passed through.

My ears popped, the world muting for a moment before coming back online louder than before, the wind howling as if lamenting the chore of having to blow at all.

I exhaled, a grin tugging at my lips. “It’s fine, we made it.”

The engine died, and we came to a grinding halt.

What the…

Kai was slumped forward over Rex, his eyes closed. “What the fuck? Gabe?” The space behind me was empty.

Chapter Three

The engine was dead. The energy field must have fried it and knocked Kai, Rex, and Gabe out. A defense against the augmented? Maybe an electromagnetic pulse?

This had to be why Divinos kept his minions away from this zone. Shit. If only Drax had held on a little longer, we could all have gotten away. Or would we have? The magimech had been closing in fast. They’d have caught up to us way before the energy field. Drax made the right call to save us, and like Gabe said, I wouldn’t let his selfless act be in vain.