Read Fade for Free Online

had me arrested on false charges.”
    “And then my great-niece stepped in and dropped you in my nephew’s home. Excellent.” She smiled. Her bronze eyes were filled with amusement. “He needs distracting now and then, and I believe that you fit the bill.”
    “Aunt, please. She is easily embarrassed and not simply a distraction.” He moved between them.
    “Then, I will continue getting to know her another day. For now, I will deposit these idiots in a holding area. Will you move their shuttle?”
    “Of course. I wish I could destroy it, but it would leave a mess.”
    Amy cleared her throat. “I could break it down. I am a mechanic, after all. At the very least, after you move it, I can disable it, so they will be unable to use it if the Guardians do not arrive as swiftly as you need them to.”
    Akutan blinked. “You can take it apart?”
    “I am a mechanic. It is what I love to do. I can pull the power supply initially and work from there.”
    A muffled noise came from the noble, but Sacred Flame’s power was still wreathing around him. His eyes glared at her, and she kept her expression bland.
    Akutan looked at the man, and his left hand shot out. A blast of power struck the earl, and he collapsed in the grip of the vortex.
    Sacred Flame winked one bronze eye and lifted off, her funnel cloud of fire and wind clinging to her faithfully. One by one, the intruders were picked up and hauled away in that spinning creation.
    Facing her host, she said, “I can take the ship if you would care to give me a landing site. I can walk back after I disable it or…”
    “I will retrieve you. Can you drop it in the canyon behind my home? There is a path up the side, but the mineral content should keep the shuttle from being seen by sensors if the noble did not come alone.”
    She nodded and headed for the shuttle. Finally, something she knew how to do. First, she verified that she was alone in the shuttle, and then, she sealed it, did a pre-flight check and lifted off as smoothly as she could. The shuttle was elegant, but Akutan was right, there was little likelihood that the earl had come alone. The ship she was in was not designed for long flights nor did it have a jump engine. Something bigger had brought it here.
    The crevice behind the palace was deep and quite wide. She descended slowly, carefully and with an eye toward parking the shuttle where it could not be detected.
    She moved half a kilometre down from the palace and found the perfect spot. She held the ship six feet above the ground and moved sideways, tucking it under a rock shelf that would conceal it entirely.
    Once the landing gear was down, she shoved her hand into the com and disabled it, ripping out the wiring. All beacons, tracers and homing signals were pulled one by one before she left the shuttle and headed for the power cell.
    This part was straight mechanics. She uncoupled the cell and jerked it out of the shuttle. With a three-foot canister in her arms, she looked for a place to hide it. An evil grin crept across her features. She faded it and shoved it into the rock face. She left just the hint of the exterior curve showing so she would know where to grip if she ever needed it again.
    With the shuttle disabled, she started to walk back toward the palace. Now, the problem was climbing the hundreds of feet to the palace and she would be able to take a nap.
    She had better get started.
    It took some looking to find the path that would lead her up, but by the time she found it, Akutan was waiting for her on Vedu. He didn’t say a word. He lifted her to the back of the beast and turned Vedu toward the path.
    She sat corralled by his arms and the rocking motion of the animal relaxed her. She leaned back against him and let herself doze on the long, swaying climb.
    Despite her fatigue, she felt the light kiss on the side of her neck and a shiver worked its way through her system. “Is this really an appropriate time for that, my lord?”
    He chuckled