Saven Defiance (The Saven Series Book 4)

You should only read
Saven Defiance
if you have already read
Saven Denial
, the novella which was intended to be read after
Saven Disclosure
.
Saven Denial
is not an optional novella but an essential novella if you intend to continue this series. If you haven’t read the novella and you continue to read this book, you will most likely be confused over certain aspects of Sadie’s past and certain characters. Thank you and enjoy.

The sun shines high from an elevated position in the sky, beating a burning path straight for us. My feet sink into the thick, dense sand of the desert, to the point where my legs throb with the effort involved in walking. Sweat coats my skin like a new outer layer, and my clothes are practically welded to my body at this stage.

The frosty reception—from Haydn—is in direct contrast to the hot, humid climate. He continues to ignore my questions as he guides me toward the ship that has just shimmered into existence in front of us.

It’s as if we share a cloak of invisibility—this ship and I.

“Where’s Logan?” I ask for the umpteenth time, channeling more patience than I ordinarily possess.

Haydn’s response is to tighten his grasp on my arm and clamp his lips shut. I inwardly sigh as I glance around me. Neve is escorting Izzy on my left, and Rylan is guiding a cuffed Axton in front of us. Every so often, Ax peeks over his shoulder at me, a stern frown creasing his forehead.

I’m as confused as he is. I don’t understand why I’m being treated like a common criminal, because the three Saven—whom I thought were my friends—are refusing to talk. “Please, Haydn. Where is he? Is he okay?” My breath huffs out in exasperated spurts at the unrelenting chilly silence.

“Walk ahead of me,” he instructs as we approach the open mouth of the craft. It’s the first time he has spoken since the ominous “
Make one false move and I’ll shoot”
comment he threw at me when the three Saven first appeared here. Wherever
here
is, because I’ve no clue how I managed to teleport us safely from Torc or where we landed.

Ax and Izzy are ascending the walkway into the belly of the ship, and I trail behind them. A welcome, familiar face is waiting to greet me at the top of the steps. Fern leans against the railing, her usual sunny features obscured behind a mantle of worry. Spotting me, she brightens for a split second until she takes in my transparent prisoner status.

She skips toward us with purpose. “What the hell?” Piercing Haydn with a murderous glare, she deposits her hands on her slim hips.

“Don’t. Interfere.” He growls out a warning as he pushes past her, hauling me along for the ride.

I shrug my shoulders as I eyeball my friend. “Don’t ask me for an explanation. No one is even speaking to me.”

“This is completely ridiculous, and totally unnecessary,” Fern yells as she stalks behind us like a miniature tornado.

“Babe,” Rylan says, stalling on the steps above us. “Let’s get to the cabin and we’ll clear everything up.”

Haydn snorts and shakes his head. I deliberately impale him with my penetrating gaze, willing him to look at me so he can absorb the full glare of my frustration. But he’s as stubborn as ever, and he pretends not to feel my eyes burning a hole through the side of his skull. As I continue to stare at him—noting the ashen pallor of his skin and how his once shorn hair has grown out, now curling and twisting around his ears and over his neck—I wonder if I’ve ever really known him at all. Or if he has ever truly known me.

Because if he did, he would know not to fear me. That there’s no need to treat me like this.

I step into the small cabin area as Ax and Izzy are locked securely into seats. A thick steel bar cages them in at the waist. “I can vouch for them,” I tell Neve. “They don’t pose a threat to any of you. I’d be dead right now if it wasn’t for Ax and Izzy.”

“Shut. Up.” Haydn’s contemptuous tone is at odds with his soft hands as he nudges me into a seat.

I sigh dramatically as the lock secures across my midriff. I guess they don’t trust
me
either.

My patience is starting to wane.

Leaning forward in my seat, I peer into the cockpit, clinging to my last shred of hope. Alex’s conflicted blue eyes are the only ones to greet me. Neve’s human boyfriend is clearly torn between sides, and I can empathize. I have a foot in three different camps, and when the chips are down, I’m not sure which side I’ll be on.

Logan’s absence strikes terror deep into my heart. “Where is Logan? Please! Is he … alive?” I don’t direct the question at anyone specifically. I just send it out there into the open, hoping
someone
will take pity on me. Squeezing my eyes shut, I swallow the anxious lump in my throat.

It must be bad if no one wants to tell me.

“Sadie.” The air swirls softly as Fern sits down beside me. She clasps my clammy hands in her cool ones. “We don’t know.”

My eyes jerk open. Blood rushes to my head, and black spots distort my vision. My heart hammers against my ribcage. “What?”

“Dante has him.”

Panic claws at my chest, constricting and tightening and choking. My breath snakes out in anxiety-laced spurts. “Oh, no! This is all my fault.”

“Damn right it is,” Haydn confirms in a scornful voice.

“Stop it. Right now.” Fern jumps up and prods a finger in Haydn’s chest. “Sadie loves Logan. She didn’t want this. We know you’re angry and worried—we all are—but taking it out on Sadie isn’t fair, and it isn’t helping. Besides, this is the last thing Logan would want.”

Irritation is visible in the taut curve of Haydn’s jaw as he glares at Fern. “This is official Saven business and nothing to do with you or any human. Butt out.” He inches toward her, aggression clearly etched across his face.

What the hell has gotten into him? Why is he acting like this?

“Back off, dude,” Rylan says, fisting a hand in Haydn’s shirt. “I can’t allow you to speak to Fern like that.”

Neve steps forward, separating both guys before things escalate. “I’m in charge in Logan’s absence, so I’ll be the one to make a call in this situation.” She turns to face Haydn, pointing at a seat off to the side. “You need to calm the hell down. Sit over there.” She instructs him as if he’s an untrained stray dog in need of a firm hand.

He doesn’t budge position.

“I’m not asking.” She levels an uncompromising look at him.

Watching me the entire time, he backs up and plops down into the seat. Hostility radiates off him in waves.

He hates me.

He blames me.

And I’m not sure that I altogether disagree with him.

“What’s the current fuel situation, Rylan?” Neve asks in a cool, controlled voice as she takes the seat Fern just vacated.

“Not good. We’re running low.”

“Let’s stay put here for a while until we decide what to do next. Activate the invisibility shield and keep watch outside.” She takes charge like a natural leader.

Rylan nods before joining Alex in the cockpit.

Silence descends the cabin. Neve stares wordlessly at me, and I can’t gauge her mood. Ax and Izzy—seated in the row in front—are watching the interactions with the intensity of a regular moviegoer at the legendary Oscar Ceremony.

Ax’s gaze is focused solely on me, and the burden of responsibility presses firmly on my shoulders. I owe him so much, but he is going to hate me, too, when he realizes I’ve been pretending and that my actions these last few days have all been part of a necessary performance.

But I can’t think about that now.

All I can think about is Logan.

My heart throbs painfully at the thought of him snared in Dante’s lair. “You can still talk to him though, right?” My eyes silently plead with Neve as I pose the question. “Is he okay?” My voice trembles, and it’s a wonder I can actually get the words out of my mouth.

She shakes her head, and my heart stutters. “I can’t get through to him,” she clarifies the second she spots my horrified expression. I’m tempted to smack her for almost giving me a coronary. “My guess is Dante has applied a blocking band to stop him from communicating telepathically. All we’ve been able to determine, with any degree of certainty, is that Dante took him back to Saven.”

My stomach drops. “Oh, God.” Panic and fear threaten to smother me. “Where are we? And what’s the plan? We’re going to rescue him, right?” My wild gaze darts around the cabin.

Neve’s brows pucker. “You didn’t know you teleported to the Gobi Desert?” She gives me a funny look.

“No one ever explained how to teleport, and we were kind of in a hurry. There wasn’t time to think about what I was doing.” My chin jolts up, and my eyes meet Ax’s. That’s a bit of an understatement, but I don’t want to get into all that yet, not until I find out exactly what happened to Logan and how he ended up in Dante’s clutches. A thought occurs to me. “How did you know where to find me?”

“We were tracking your comport.”

“Oh, of course. Thanks for coming to get me.”

Neve nods. “What happened after you went into the wormhole?” Her probing gaze is kind but determined.

“That’s not important right now. Getting Logan out is. How did he end up captured anyway?”

Haydn snarls, and I flinch. Neve narrows her eyes at him. Her ferocious glare screams, “Shut. Up!” Haydn holds her gaze like an insolent child until she breaks the spell, rolling her eyes. “First things first, Sadie,” she says, switching her attention back to me. “We need to know where you’ve been and whether we can still trust you.”

Okay, that stings.

My cheeks flush pinky-red. “You don’t trust me?” I squeak.

At least she has the decency to look ashamed. “I want to trust you, honestly, I do. But we still don’t know what happened to Logan on the ship. We only know what we saw, and that has given all of us considerable reason to be on edge around you. And now you reappear, with them”—she slants a suspicious look at Ax and Izzy—“and that’s not in any way reassuring. So, you need to start talking. Right now.”

When it’s put like that? Fair enough.

So, I fill them in, explaining how Griselda mind-jacked me on the ship and took control until I was strong enough to evict her from my head. I can’t look anyone in the eye as I give them a brief account of my assault on Logan. Although I wasn’t in control of my actions, I’m still disgusted at myself for being too weak in the first place. Incredulous, distrustful expressions meet mine as I explain about my incendio gift. Neve visibly bristles beside me.

“It’s okay,” I assure her, holding my wrists out in front of me. “Griselda put these deflective cuffs on me so I can’t access my gift. And, though it would’ve come in handy when we were trying to escape, I’m glad she did it. It …” I swallow nervously, afraid to admit this out loud. “It terrified the hell out of me,” I whisper. “I don’t know how to control it, and I don’t want to hurt anyone else I love.”

Neve’s eyes soften at the edges. “I know you wouldn’t deliberately hurt anyone, Sadie, but you’ve got to understand it from our perspective. None of us have ever seen anyone do that, and it was as if we didn’t know you at all. You transformed into someone else, and it scared the crap out of us.”

I bob my head. “I get that. It scared me too. But you
do
know me, and I’m telling you the truth. I didn’t know about any of this stuff. It’s come as much of a surprise to me as it’s going to be to you.”

“Okay, well, let’s hear it then.” Neve touches my elbow, imploring me to continue.

Drawing a big lungful of air, I start into the rest of my explanation. I tell them how Griselda kidnapped me as a kid and took me to Torc to experiment on me. How she subjected me to invasive DNA mutilation until my genetic makeup was permanently altered. That not only am I part Tor and part human, but I am also part Saven.