Read Blackjack Wayward (The Blackjack Series) for Free Online Page B

could have overcome me, the shadowy path that I was barreling down until I met Apogee, until she had saved me.
    But I didn’t want to be reminded of her, either.
    I loved her, that much was true, and I was sure she had feelings for me, feelings tainted by the fact that I had killed her former lover and friend. Accidental or not, it didn’t matter. How could she see beyond that to the man I was becoming, rather the man I was? I had no way of knowing what she felt now, after all we had gone through, after we stood by each other when the world was coming to an end, after I had saved her, and she had saved me.
    I had to find out, to talk to her, to hold her hand and see my reflection in her endless green eyes, see her smile at one of my clumsy jokes, feel her warmth once again.
    I had to.
    It all seemed so far away, and not just literally, since I was many lightyears from Earth. That part of my life seemed like a lifetime ago, and this was a new chapter, a new start for me. The clean start I could never get back home. On earth I was the villain, the cover boy for the ills of the world. I turned it around at the right moment and saved the world, almost in spite of myself, but that didn’t earn me anything except the blame. Who would give me another chance?
    The fact was, I probably didn’t even deserve it.

Chapter Three

    I searched the ship for the little imp I had spent the night with but found her missing, and in fact, no one even knew who I was talking about. And that wasn’t the strangest thing that happened to me after drinking over a gallon of the crew’s awful concoction. My head was spinning, not just from the vertigo of three-dimensional sailed flight but also from the powerful grog, so I’m not sure if I managed to convey my meaning to the crewmembers I met. Besides, most of them were also under the fiery liquid’s spell. But it didn’t matter; the imp was gone, as if deleted by a magical eraser, and I was renounced to a night lacking company. I went amidships and leaned against the gunwale, looking off into the swirling mists.
    We were sailing near a large shard, populated by a dense jungle whiting pulsing with thousands of tiny lights, denoting some sort of settlement deep within the tree cover. It was a deluged swampland, like a dense mangrove forest, and above flew one of the largest creatures I have ever seen. It was thin and translucent, with only a hint of azure along its long tail. It reminded me of the famed and rare oarfish from Earth, except reptilian, and with a five-mile-long head that was more Komodo dragon than fish. The thing moved by streaming its pelvic and dorsal fins and curving against itself. The Lady’s Nightmare was too small to even be a morsel to the beast, who seemed content to strain against the same head current we were tacking into. It was fighting the headwind just enough to stay almost motionless above the shard, as if waiting for prey to pop up from the underbrush.
    A figure approached, interrupting my thoughts. I turned, hoping to find my impish companion once again but seeing instead Drovani. He approached bearing a glass decanter of reddish-clear fluid, like diluted wine, and a pair of crystal goblets that were trimmed with gold. He nodded, taking his place beside me and handing me a glass.
    “This is Artenanka, Blackjack,” he said, all tone of hostility gone from his voice. “It is a delicacy in my home world, one of the few we were able to replicate in this place despite our present condition.”
    He filled my glass first, then his own, and placed the decanter on the bulwark, raising his glass up for a toast. It was a fluid much like spent motor oil, but it had the sweet smell of jasmine.
    “We’re playing nice now?” I asked.
    Drovani smiled, displaying his sharp canines.
    “Yes,” he began. “A measure of apology for my earlier behavior.”
    Our glasses met and let out a high-pitched harmony that lingered in the air, then was lost in the breeze. He drained his