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reasonable choice of diversion. A fellow warrior who appreciated what she could do. The journey to find Princess Laurette would be several days. Surely the heir would not begrudge Ever fulfilling her needs during the quiet hours on board the Dark Hawk .

    On the bridge, Mahala stopped trying to evade the gliders and just flew as Spencer controlled the giant wings and kept an eye on the pressure gauges. If they took many more hits, he’d have to send Noah out to do repairs during the battle. The boy would go if ordered, but it would be a suicide mission and Spencer knew it. So he held his lips in a tight line and prayed their altitude held.
    Eye pressed tight to the viewer, Noah let out a whoop of joy. “They did it, Captain. The gliders are gone.”
    Spencer exhaled slowly. It didn’t mean the other ship wouldn’t send more, but it gave them a window of opportunity. “Glad to hear it, Noah, but I need you to get set on those repairs. Just be careful, it’s still wet out there.” As the gangly man with the easy smile and messy hair ran from the room, Spencer took the seat he’d abandoned with a sigh.
    “How close were we, Cap?” Mahala asked, her eyes never straying from the horizon. The storm must have dissipated as quickly as it had rolled in. The last of the sun’s rays just lit the eastern clouds as the desert reached up, its rock strata like a false sunset.
    “If they’re done, we’ll be okay.”
    “If they ain’?”
    “We’ll worry about it if we have to.”
    “That close then.” She nodded slowly, the low gas lighting casting her face in shadows. “You reckon she’s really worth this kind of trouble?”
    Spencer looked through the viewer, afraid of what Mahala would see in his eyes if he glanced her way. Would she notice the way his pulse sped just thinking about Ever? Or worse, the way he hardened slightly remembering the almost-kiss in the corridor? He squeezed his eyes shut. They hadn’t almost kissed; she’d fallen and landed on him. He had to stop reading more into it.
    And confound it, why was he so enthralled with her anyway? She’d made it clear she didn’t think all that much of him. Better to just consider her a job, another run to be finished and forgotten. Too bad she didn’t look like one that would pay. Which meant helping her wouldn’t only anger the senator but also leave Spencer dangling in his grip.
    He didn’t have an answer to give Mahala that made sense, even to him.
    His eyes drifted open and he squinted through the viewer. What the hell? The other airship was falling back and losing altitude, even with her wings set to maintain.
    Booted footsteps tromped toward the bridge, and Spencer raised his head to find Zeke standing before him, face reddened by adrenaline and wind. “Did you see it? Did you see what she done? That woman is something.”
    The woman in question strode up behind Zeke, her pace neither hurried nor slow, merely confident. She met Spencer’s gaze for a brief second then glanced away, her eyes looking anywhere but at him, finally finding something interesting to study on the floor.
    He’d never imagined she would be able to put on an air of coquettishness. That was a move more suited to Henrietta. The longer he studied her, though, the more something inside him insisted it wasn’t an act. She really couldn’t look his way.
    His heart sped again and he fought to tamp it down. She was a job, damn it. If he kept letting himself think otherwise, he’d do something foolish. “She is quite remarkable, but I’m not entirely sure what she did.” Like that. As soon as the words left his mouth, he wished he could take them back. Ever’s cheeks flushed, and Spencer wondered how the rest of her reacted to his words, hidden behind Zeke as she was.
    Zeke saved both of them from the uncomfortable moment by describing Ever’s attack on the airship in elaborate, and judging by the way she gaped at him, exaggerated detail. “Truth to tell, Cap’n, they’d be