Shattered Destiny: A Galactic Adventure, Episode One by Odette C. Bell Page A

thrust me to the side and let me go. I
rolled and punched to my feet.
    “You can’t touch that,” he snapped. “It
shouldn’t even exist…” He trailed off. His voice got a distracted
quality as he pushed down to his knees and hovered over the object.
It was almost as if he blocked me out completely as he spread his
hands wide over that metal disk and obviously scanned it with his
armor.
    I resisted the urge to leap forward, wrap an
arm around his middle, and throw him to the side. Not because I
wanted to protect him, but because I wanted to show he couldn’t
control me, couldn’t push me around so easily.
    But there was a force that could push me
around, literally.
    I brought a hand up and pressed my fingers
into my shoulder, the exact point where that ghostly force always
connected with me.
    I shuddered and stepped back, never
shifting my gaze off the prince.
    After a few minutes of scanning whatever
that strange object was, he pushed to his feet and jerked away from
it. I’d never seen him move in a more uncoordinated, hasty way. For
a man who seemed to embody the statuesque strength of a god, he now
looked like nothing more than a boy in armor.
    “What is it?” I found myself
asking.
    At first I didn’t think he’d answer. Then
he turned his helmet towards me. “Something that shouldn’t be here.
Something that should have been destroyed in the Great War.” He
pushed past me and continued back up the precipice along the way
we’d come.
    For a second I didn’t follow. Because for
a second I wanted to jerk down and pick that object up. For some
strange reason I wanted to draw it in close to my face and stare at
it, take it all in at once.
    Before I could go through with
t hat desire,
the prince appeared at my side once more, and he grabbed my
wrist.
    He pulled me forward. Like I was nothing
more than a doll or a dog on a leash.
    Though I desperately wanted to pull my
hand back, kick him on the back of the knees, then follow up with a
vicious blow to his head, I didn’t.
    I wasn’t that stupid. I was already
skating on thin ice. Any more acts of insubordination, and the
prince would get rid of me.
    He drew to a stop along the precipice I’d
found when I’d burst from the jungle. Though he could have let go
of my wrist, he didn’t. He kept hold of it as he tipped his head
back and stared at the ruins beyond. “We have to get over
there.”
    “I probably can’t make that jump,” I said
honestly, double checking the specs of my armor on my internal
visor.
    “I can.” Without any warning, the prince
looped behind me, and picked me up.
    I spluttered, surprise tearing from my
throat, about to be joined by some well-placed insults.
    B efore I had a chance to scream them, the
prince walked back several steps, then leapt. I felt for certain we
wouldn’t make it. But halfway through, just when I was sure
we’d drop like a rock, the prince’s armor suddenly
employed thrusters.
    It could fly.
    And fly it did. We travelled across the
last 10 meters easily, and the prince dropped down gracefully on
the other side.
    He held on to me needlessly for several
seconds as he tipped his head back and clearly assessed the
ruins.
    Then he dropped me.
    Like a sack of rocks.
    I thumped at the ground by his feet, my
weight combined with my heavy armor cracking the ancient stones
beneath me.
    I glared at him, then briefly turned off
the audio feed and swore at him with every goddamn colorful
expression I could think of.
    Then I pushed carefully to my
feet.
    I turned.
    The prince frowned. “With me. One step
behind. Don’t get ahead, and for God’s sake, never fall
behind.”
    Again I heard that odd desperate tone.
    Before I had a chance to assess it and what
it could mean, he motioned me forward, and I felt compelled to
follow.
    There was an opening to the
ruins before us, and the prince took it cautiously, holding up a closed
fist. He waited a full minute, perhaps using his tactical scanners
to assess the area