Dark Flight is releasing on July 11th (it is available for pre-order today). I’m sharing the first chapter.
Read the first scene here: http://tasteofcyn.com/2017/06/19/first-scene-from-dark-flight/
This is the second scene.
The merchant ship broke into the planet’s troposphere. The warship fired on them. Rhea swerved the vessel to the right. The missiles hit the side of a mountain.
Their merchant ship skimmed over a chunk of rock, scratching the metal underbelly of their vessel. The warship followed them.
Paloma continued to mutter about making peace and explanations, threatening to hail their Humanoid Alliance attackers. Rhea said nothing, her focus on their survival, on extracting themselves from their current precarious situation.
Sweat trickled down her spine underneath her gray flight suit. She lowered their ship, flying it close to the surface, hoping the size differential between their vessel and the warship would give them an advantage. The white sand underneath them parted, waves on an ocean of land.
More missiles arced toward them. She steered their ship, dodging one, two. The third one clipped the left side of their vessel, taking out one of their thrusters, jolting them.
Paloma screamed. Their ship’s wing dragged against the ground, sparks flying from the points of contact. Rhea pressed her lips together and compensated for the reduced power, leveling the vessel.
“We’re going to die.” Her sister gripped her chair’s armrests, her knuckles whitening.
“Not if I can help it.” Rhea would take care of Paloma, keep the only being in the universe she cared about safe, transporting them both to the Refuge.
“How can you be so calm?” Her highly emotional sister verged on the edge of hysterics. “They’re shooting at us.”
Rhea had spent all of her twenty-two solar cycles knowing that one wrong word could result in death, that the smallest physical reaction—an intake of breath, a trembling finger, a higher pitch in her voice—could give her parents’ activities away, dooming them all. She had learned long ago to conceal her emotions, hide her thoughts.
It irked her that her sister, the being who should know her the best, didn’t realize Rhea’s calm façade was exactly that—a façade.
The warship was gaining on them. The missiles were becoming more difficult to avoid. Rhea glanced at the viewscreen embedded in her console. The Refuge remained far away. “We won’t make it.” Her voice was flat.
Paloma whimpered. “Don’t say that.”
“There’s an escape pod.” There was only one. It was small, could hold a single being. “Get into it. Press Eject.”
“Noooo.” Her sister wailed. “I’m staying with you.”
“We’ll only be parted for mere moments.” Rhea hoped that was the truth. There was a possibility she wouldn’t survive. “There are containers of beverage, nourishment bars in the pod. Remain inside it. I’ll find you.”
“I didn’t mean what I said last planet rotation, about wanting my own life, about—”
“I know you didn’t.” They didn’t have time for that conversation. “Get in the escape pod, Paloma. Now.”
Her sister gulped, unfastened the straps around her body. “You’ll find me?”
“I promise.” Rhea didn’t have to say more. She had never broken a promise to her sister. Paloma knew that.
Her sister stood, took three steps toward the door. Then she paused, as though changing her mind.
That was typical Paloma, always fighting her on every decision. Rhea’s patience was at the breaking point. She opened her mouth to snap at her sister.
Paloma flung herself against her, hugging her tight. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” Rhea fought to get those few strangled words out, emotion swelling inside her.
Paloma squeezed her once more and hurried out the door without saying another word. That was how scared her normally talkative sister was.
Rhea would keep her safe. She flew the ship with grim determination, veering it to the left, to the right, between boulders larger than multi-level domiciles. Missiles exploded around them, flumes of fire spiraling upward, sand spraying like shrapnel against their vessel’s panels.
The bridge without her sister was quiet, eerie, lonely. Paloma wasn’t the easiest company. She was in that awkward stage between being a child and a fully grown female. But they were sisters and Rhea loved her with everything she had.
Without her sister, Rhea had nothing and no one.
The system indicated Paloma had entered the escape pod. Rhea lowered the landing gear, increasing the cloud of sand behind her ship, hoping that would conceal her sister’s exit.
The escape pod detached.
The warship behind her didn’t slow.
Rhea exhaled, relief washing over her. The Humanoid Alliance hadn’t detected the escape pod. Her sister should be safe.
Missiles arced from the ground, the assault from a direction she hadn’t expected. Shit. Rhea steered to the right. She was fighting multiple enemies. The locals were shooting at her also. The few inhabitants of this planet were hostile.
Most of the beings were Rebels. Their hatred was especially strong for the Humanoid Alliance and that was whom they focused on.
The locals pummeled the warship pursuing her vessel with missiles, hammering them from all sides. The warship shot at her ship, intent on downing it, on killing anyone on board.
Rhea jutted her jaw and did her best to avoid being hit. Sweat beaded on her forehead. Tension pulled tight across her shoulders. If she could outlast the warship—
A missile blasted the remaining thruster on the left side. Fuck. The ship spun. Its nose and tail ground against the rock around her. Fighting for control, she knew her efforts would be futile.
An explosion rocked her ship from the rear. That must have been the warship. It had been the only object behind her. But its destruction had come too late.
Her ship was going down.
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Dark Flight
His mission. His challenge. His forever.
Orol, the Refuge’s second-in-command, has been given what he believes is a simple mission—escort two human females to the settlement. The winged warrior arrives at the meeting site to find one of the females missing and the other aiming a gun at his head. To rescue the first, he must capture the second. Once he has Rhea in his talons, however, he realizes he never wants to let her go.
Her enemy. Her captor. Her everything.
Rhea doesn’t trust anyone. She certainly doesn’t follow commands issued by a gorgeous flying male with glittering eyes, a beautiful face, and a seductive touch. Orol is dominant, edged with darkness, and determined to find her sister. Rhea will do anything to prevent that, even if it means playing sensual games of submission with her powerful enemy, seducing him into forgetting everything except her.
Dark Flight is a STAND-ALONE SciFi Romance set in a gritty, dark world.
You Can Pre-order Now:
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Flight-Refuge-Book-2-ebook/dp/B07124941B/
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dark-Flight-Refuge-Book-2-ebook/dp/B07124941B/
Apple/iBooks/iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/dark-flight/id1242494643
B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dark-flight-cynthia-sax/1126484675
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/dark-flight-3
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/727350
