Marauder Aegus Read Online Free Page A

continue to grip his hand and stare up at him. A movement in the corner of my eyes breaks my gaze, and I look over to see my father approaching, flanked by four more guards.
    I’m still holding Aegus’s hand, and to my surprise, he doesn’t let go even when he sees my furious father–the Tsar of Venus–storming toward him.
    “Two guards for me and four for you?” I ask.
    My father stops a full five paces away from us and he looks down at me with crushing disappointment. “Anya, I’m glad you’re safe.”
    Then he looks up at Aegus. “Mister...Aegus, do you have a surname?”
    “No, your Excellency,” Aegus says, bowing down.
    “So I shall just call you ‘Aegus,’ I take it?”
    “Yes,” Aegus says, nodding.
    “General Bahamut wanted me to execute you,” my father says to Aegus.
    “Is that a question?” I snap. “Or an order?”
    “Anya,” Aegus says, giving me a chiding look. He looks back up to my father. “I realize I’ve put your Excellency in a difficult position.”
    “Difficult?” my father says, his high brows rising up toward orbit. “Yes, it’s been quite a fucking shit storm the past few hours. So let me see if I have this story right. Anya runs away like a child, goes into the spaceport, sees this...strong...man–alien–and somehow convinces him to marry her? Did you get cold feet, Anya, or–”
    “Excellency,” Aegus cuts in. “She is my fiancée!”
    My father stares him down. Aegus puffs out his chest, not giving an inch.
    Father sighs, and looks at us both. “Well, come to dinner this evening. I’ve made it explicitly clear that General Bahamut is here as a guest, and he has no authority here...for now. This means you are safe as the General respects Venusian sovereignty. Interpret that as you will.”
    “I understand,” Aegus says. “I’m used to protecting myself,” he looks down at me. “And those close to me.”
    Close to him. Does he mean that I’m just centimeters away from him and holding his hand, or does he mean actually close , as in we’ve known each other–though it’s only been for a few hours–and he really feels something for me?
    I check myself, remembering that I should be hating this guy for throwing a wrench into all my plans. If not for him, I’d be on my way to Mars now, and my father throwing away our legacy to the Empire would not be my problem anymore.
    Aegus grips my hand and walks chest first down the platform and into Sankt Petersburg.
    It would be a lot easier to hate him if he weren’t so damn hot.

6 Aegus
    T he docking platform is located outside of the city proper, and we enter through a large marble archway into Sankt Petersburg itself.
    We exit the docking platform on a raised stairway that drops down into the city. From this height, I can see a full view of the city. I see its one hundred stories tall gleaming white towers with its one hundred-story waterfalls. Green parkways are lined with towering redwood trees, and in the center of the city stands a colossal statue of Tsar Nikolai IV, the founder of the city, towering above everything else. In his hands, he’s holding a sphere that represents Venus, but it’s a terraformed version with water oceans and continents. A vision of the future, but still under the rule of the Tsars.
    The Empire will surely tear it down.
    The great hanging forests of Sankt Petersburg make the sky appear green. They function on sunlight magnified by the dome above them and hydroponic feeding systems. The hanging forests feed the oxygen tanks, so very little oxygen has to be synthesized from the Venusian atmosphere itself.
    I have read all about the workings of Sankt Petersburg, but I read it with an invader’s eye. I had wondered how I could infiltrate the city with a squad of tribal soldiers and move through the city undetected long enough to make contact with the Tsar.
    But now I walk behind the Tsar, having officially and formally met him the moment I stepped foot in the city.
    I expected him