The ship was in their sights.

Ragnar was standing on the bridge of the Olerea, staring at the message Kathleen had sent from the fleeing ship. It had come in two minutes ago.

"Let us go, Harbinger. Let us go or your fated will die long before my ship."

Ragnar was keenly aware of Mjorn standing right behind him, waiting for his orders. For the last half a minute that he'd looked at the screen, every warrior around him had stopped breathing. Everyone knew that something was about to happen.

If he could have done it, Ragnar would have given the order to destroy the ship already.

They knew he wasn't going to, but none of them wanted to be the first to draw their swords against him. Everyone was waiting for someone else to make the first move.

Ragnar was thinking about his brother.

No matter what he'd tried to tell himself, the image refused to leave. Doroc's eyes haunted him, something he'd never confessed to anyone, not even Selena.

They hadn't been the eyes of a Nayanor harbinger. The eternal sadness in them... it didn't fit the ideals of strength and power.

The reason why Ragnar had kept it to himself for so long wasn't because he wanted to protect what was left of his brother's legacy. It was because it had been the first thing in his life to terrify him. He hadn't been able to stop imagining himself in Doroc's place, cut down by the only person he would entrust his life to.

The vulnerability that demanded had always seemed like an uncrossable chasm to Ragnar. He'd believed that love, like battle, was born of strength of will and character.

The harbinger thought of Selena, too. The female who had kept the walls his brother had built, who had pressed herself against him when the nights were cold. He couldn't imagine a weapon in her soft, small hands. Or malice in her beautiful eyes.

He could see her smiling very well and nothing else in the galaxy had made him as glad as seeing Selena happy.

So why was he pushing her away? Why, when Ragnar knew he wasn't his brother and Selena was the light that had banished the darkness in his soul?

"Well?" Mjorn demanded.

There was no respect and no patience left in his voice. The captain was pushed too far.

"We take the ship and the females alive," Ragnar said. "Pilot, take us closer!"

"No," Mjorn cut in roughly. "Pilot, shoot that ship out of the sky! We can't risk them jumping. As for you, Harbinger, I think it's time you are replaced."

Ragnar laughed. The sound echoed oddly in the cramped room.

He counted eight warriors, the pilot included.

"And you think you're the man to do it?" Ragnar asked. "Pilot, obey, or my first move will be to make you a head shorter."

This time, the pilot jumped to do his command and the harbinger turned slowly to face the warriors in the room.

"I will not destroy that ship," Ragnar said. "That is the last of what I have to say about this."

"You are just like your brother –" Mjorn began, but he didn't finish the thought.

Ragnar pulled his sword and moved, faster than any of them could follow. The harbinger could see the pilot pulling out of the way of the tall swords flashing in the small room.

The fighting was brutal. The ceiling was too low for battling, there were consoles everywhere and every last one of his opponents was a trained killer. Ragnar dodged and parried between the eight blades, knowing that Mjorn had predicted the event and come with his strongest and most loyal soldiers.

He killed the first one with a strike, sending the man stumbling back with a massive hole in his chest. The warrior dropped to the ground, trying to hold his insides together, but even the diadon couldn't heal that.

Ragnar had already moved on. He grunted when one of the remaining seven blades cut through his chest plate to draw blood. The harbinger barely missed having his lungs pierced. He moved back, shouldering the blade out of the way and cleaving the warrior in half with a heavy blow. It made the equipment on the bridge shake with the impact.

With a roar, the harbinger jumped at the rest of his enemies. Every second brought more clarity into his mind when it should have been the moment when he lost himself in the battle.

Selena was keeping him firmly in control and moving.

He needed to get to her, save her. It didn't matter what she had done. They had both made mistakes, but if he lost her now, there would never be a chance to see what else they could do. If there was a fix, if there was still hope.

For that chance alone, Ragnar was willing to sacrifice everything. He only regretted that it had taken him so long to realize that.

The six remaining warriors caught him in the most brutal attack of his life. From every side, Mjorn and his warriors charged heedlessly, trying to bleed him like a beast.

At one point in the midst of blood and screams and metal, Ragnar realized they'd practiced that.

He lost himself in the combat. Every heartbeat brought another blade, coming toward him at an inconvenient angle, forcing him to twist and turn between the swords, missing good opportunities to strike back.

One of the soldiers fell when Ragnar ducked and kicked his legs out from under him. His blade followed that move quickly, stabbing the warrior through the throat so viciously it nearly took his head off.

Ragnar didn't waste a second checking that. His next target was already coming, only to find out the price of overconfidence. He landed two good blows and came in for the third, but Ragnar had prepared for that.

The warrior dropped like a rock, a crimson line going from his torso to his chin.

It became a blur after that, of heads hitting the ground and slipping on blood and hearing death groans from warriors Ragnar hadn't wanted to kill properly.

Until it was only him and Mjorn left.

The captain was staring at him with loathing from the other side of the broken command throne. Around them, everyone but the pilot was dead. The consoles and the equipment were in ruins and the ship was hovering right above Kathleen's, fixed to it now.

Ragnar needed to move. If Kathleen was half-serious about her threat, he needed to get to Selena.

"Stand out of my way," he told Mjorn.

"I am Nayanor," the captain replied cruelly. "Unlike you. I'm not going anywhere."

"So be it," Ragnar said, raising his sword.

"I can't believe you would do this for a female," Mjorn said, taking a step his way. "A weak harbinger like that will end up like your brother did, mark my words."

"Selena is my fated," Ragnar replied. "And I will not make the mistake of trusting her less than you ever again."

They met with a clash of swords over the command throne, both struggling to throw the other off their footing.

"Harbinger," the pilot called. "The other ship! Its warp engine is coming live!"

Ragnar roared.

It was no longer a battle for Mjorn's life. The captain had already lost that, he just didn't know it yet. Now it was a battle to save Selena's life and it wasn't one he was prepared to lose.

Ragnar's first strike cut the throne in two. He pushed the pieces out of his way, coming toward Mjorn. The captain charged him with a roar and their swords cut chunks out of everything in their way as they dueled, merciless and without a shred of regret.

With every step, Ragnar advanced. He kept coming closer to Mjorn until the captain was almost in a corner.

Seeing that, Mjorn raised his hateful eyes to him.

"That little cunt will cut your throat the first night," he promised. "You just –"

Ragnar's sword sliced through the air, cutting his words short. Mjorn's eyes went wide as he tried to speak with a mouthful of blood and his lower jaw hanging oddly from his face. The captain dropped to his knees, the sword falling from his hand.

The harbinger didn't stay to watch him die. He was already running. He didn't stop for any of the other warriors who went to observe the bridge, nor for any of the usual safety protocols that came with boarding a ship.

Ragnar didn't stop until he was in Kathleen's ship that was roaring with alarms that signaled a warp jump.

"Selena!" he yelled.

Warriors followed him through the hatch he'd come through. They didn't say a thing to him, looking a bit ashen after seeing the massacre Ragnar had left behind on the bridge.

"Search the ship!" Ragnar ordered. "Kill anyone who attacks you, take the others alive! Do you understand me? Alive!"

The warriors rushed headlong into the corridors and soon Ragnar could hear the barking of guns and the screams that followed. He was already running toward the engine room. He needed to stop the ship before he could find Selena, because if he did not... they were all going to die.

Then he heard the voice of his fated, right in front of him. She was screaming.

Ragnar ran into the engine room just in time to see Kathleen towering above the controls with a gun in her hand, pointed at Selena. Piper was standing a little away from them.

All three of them had their eyes on the lever that disengaged the warp engine.

"Selena!" Ragnar called.

His fated didn't turn her eyes from the gun, but Kathleen looked at him, an insane smile on her lips.

"Ragnar," she said. "I'm incredibly glad you'll be joining us for this little journey. I can deliver you personally to the Union."

"Don't listen to her!" Selena said. "She's lost her mind! This ship is filled with women she's been hauling here! Ragnar, you have to help! Mjorn will kill them all! If Kathleen doesn't get to us first, I mean."

"Mjorn's dead," Ragnar replied, drawing his sword and walking slowly forward. "Piper, get the lever."

The young woman gave him a frightful look, but started edging toward the lever. Kathleen's gun pointed at her stopped Piper in her tracks.

"Dead?" Kathleen asked. "What a pity. I had such dreams of seeing him in my trophy room. Who said that women can't have trophies? Can you get me a piece of him?"

She cast her eyes to him.

"Is that his blood on your sword?" Kathleen continued, laughing. "I guess it's just fair that Nayanors will keep killing other Nayanors. I wonder if the Union will have anything left to do once they get here. Stay back, Piper!"

The young woman stopped again.

"Why are you doing this?" Selena asked as Ragnar kept edging closer, the sword in his hands.

"I would stop there if I was you, Harbinger," Kathleen called cheerfully. "I can shoot faster than you can throw and I know you don't want to see this one dead.

"As for you, Selena. How can you still not see? I'm doing what I have to. You are the living proof! You came to me today, voluntarily. I knew you would. It took him less than a month to show his true colors and I swear, Ragnar is one of the more civilized beasts on that damn planet."

Selena's eyes flickered to him for a second. That was enough for Ragnar to know he'd made the right choice.

"I made a mistake," Selena told Kathleen. "I've made a lot of mistakes, but I won't make another. I'm not going anywhere with you and I'm not letting you kill everyone just because you think death is better than Nayanors!"

"It is!" Kathleen roared at her. "No, Piper!"

The young female had taken another step forward. Ragnar could see Kathleen starting to pull the trigger when Selena jumped on her arm and the shot went wide. He was already moving, but then the ship began shaking.

"Harbinger!" Piper screamed. "I can't pull it!"

The lever was massive and the female didn't have enough strength to pull it back when it was already in motion. That was usually a job for a Nayanor. Ragnar was there in a heartbeat, pushing the female out of the way and knocking the lever back into position.

Now he could only hope that no part of the ship managed to jump yet.

Selena was still wrestling with Kathleen. Before Ragnar's horrified eyes, the mouth of the gun turned toward his fated more than once before Selena ripped it out of Kathleen's grip. His fated backed away, but the wild light in Kathleen's eyes when she stood to her feet didn't promise anything good.

"No!" the female screamed. "I will not let you do this to me! Not after all this time! I'm not going back!"

The warp core was right behind her. As Ragnar approached, Kathleen backed away toward the dark light. Her hand slipped on the railing.

Selena grabbed after her with a horrified yelp, but it was too late. For a second, Kathleen hung in the air oddly, her eyes wide. Then the forces of the unspace tore her out of the physical world, to where no human could survive.

Ragnar waited until Selena turned to look at him. His fated's eyes were sad, but there was another emotion there that he thought he recognized.

"Will you come to my arms?" he asked.

Selena's lips twitched in a slight smile.

"Is it safe for me there?" she asked him back.

The harbinger thought he could feel the slap he'd given her still stinging his arm. It would take some time to make up for that, but he was hopeful, for the first time in ages.

"On my life, you never have to fear me ever again," he said, hoping that it was enough.

Selena ran to him.