Read Rayven's Keep for Free Online

he found himself in and his intuition was usually right on the money. Damn it.
    Grimly, he opened a channel and let Seth know when to expect them. He kept the conversation brief, shut down the com, and returned to the crew quarters to dress for arrival. He wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings as he grabbed his clothes and started to undo his sleeping pants. A small, sharp inhalation recalled Tru’s presence. Swearing, he slammed into the cleanser room and banged elbows and knees trying to dress in the cramped space. His mood didn’t improve when he emerged to see Tru once again wedged in a corner of her bunk.
    “This conversation isn’t finished, Tru. Not by a long shot. Lucky for you, I don’t have time to continue verbally sparring with you.” He searched her face, noting her mutinous expression. He took a slow, deep breath and let it out before he sat on the edge of his bunk to pull on his knee-high boots. “You will tell me what I want to know, make no mistake. Next time there won’t be anything interrupting. In the meantime, you will be my guest while I figure out what I’m going to do with you.”
    Some of the tension left her shoulders, although her expression didn’t change. He stood up and faced her, holding out a hand to help her move from her corner. She hesitated before she placed her hand in his, and he deliberately kept his clasp loose. Her cold fingers trembled against his palm. As soon as she gained her feet, he released her hand and stepped away.
    “We’ll land soon. I want you strapped in immediately.”
     

 
    Chapter 4
     
    Tru leaned as far forward as the seat harness allowed, gaze glued to the ship’s viewscreen showing Alludra’s surface as they entered the atmosphere. She kept a wary eye on the man beside her as well.
    They broke through the cloud cover, and Tru got her first glimpse of the white-capped mountains and deep forests spread panoramically below her. She tracked the winding path of an immense, slow moving river. Against one of its wide, gentle curves, a large city sprawled outward, its tall buildings gleaming in the morning light. The ship switched from the artificial grav needed in space to the gravitational pull of the planet below them.
    “The city to our right is Glendoran.” Nick adjusted their trajectory. “It’s the biggest city on Alludra. The main spaceport has a great deal of traffic, but we won’t land there. We’re heading a bit farther west, toward a private landing pad.”
    “Yours, I suppose?”
    He shrugged, leaving the interpretation to her. Nick slowed Messenger’s descent, and the bottom of Tru’s stomach dropped out with the sudden change in speed. The ship gave a great shudder in the clutch of Alludra’s gravity and the reduction in engine power. Gripping the arms of her chair, she glanced at her companion. She’d never travelled on a ship as small as this one, where she felt everything. Unnerved, needing the distraction, she focused on the scene outside.
    Sprawling cities populated her own world, Bretonne, a dense, multi-cultural planet with little green space. Her family’s wealth guaranteed her home to be surrounded by beautifully landscaped gardens. Artificial and elaborate, they were designed to impress. She enjoyed the bubbling fountains, flowering plants and manicured pathways, but the verdant land below made her realize how pale those gardens appeared in comparison.
    A staggering variety of giant trees grew on this world, gilded in colors she’d never seen before and hardly had names for. Even the color of the sky seemed brighter, with shades drifting from the palest of blues to deep indigo. Clouds buffeted by an unseen wind skittered across the clear sky, wispy trails of white blurring into the blue.
    Nick banked sharply to the left, slowing their descent further and leveling off. Tru jerked and clutched the armrests of her chair tighter.
    “Relax. I haven’t crashed one of these babies yet, so stop worrying,” he said