The Stolen Sky (Split City Book 2)

by Heather Hansen

  Arden looked to Mina as she stepped into the room. “If I knew you had a sweet setup like this, I would have joined you a long time ago.”

  “No, you wouldn’t have,” Mina said. “I didn’t think anything would get you out of Lasair. Turns out I was wrong.”

  Arden swallowed back the pain those words brought her. Mina was right. She’d never thought of leaving Lasair until Dade came into her life. She tried for a light reply to cut the tension. “I would have robbed you at least.”

  “That I could believe.”

  Coco folded her hands across her chest. “You could have tried.”

  Arden glared at her. She wanted to point out that she would have succeeded. This place might be secured to the devil and back, but Arden was nothing if not determined when she wanted to be. This girl did not intimidate her, and she needed to know it.

  Annem laughed before Arden could say anything, and gave Coco a slight push. “Stop it. Be nice.”

  Nice? No one in Lasair would have said such a thing to Arden. It was kill or be killed. Cut the throat of the person who wanted you dead first. What was with Mina’s group? They acted like they were friends. It was so strange. She didn’t quite know how to assimilate this new information.

  Moving up beside her, Dade bumped his arm against hers. When Arden looked at him, he raised his eyebrows in silent communication. Don’t start a war with them on the first day, please.

  Arden rolled her eyes and looked away. She wouldn’t start a fight. Not until she felt better, at least. Then she’d worry about the battle over dominance that would inevitably happen between her and Mina. She didn’t take orders well. It had only worked with Lasair because Niall was her brother. Here, she knew she’d chafe against it.

  Another girl they hadn’t met stood just inside the room, waiting for them, datapad in hand. She was as tall as Arden, which was unusual and which Arden appreciated. Her hair had been braided and wrapped, the severe style making her cheekbones appear sharp on her delicate face.

  “This is Nastasia,” Mina said, introducing her. “She runs things here and is my right hand.”

  Nastasia dipped her head briefly as if confirming the position. Then she pointed to a tunnel on the far side. “The residences and restrooms are that way.”

  “The facilities are a little crude here, but we make do.” Roan stretched, then scratched at his stomach. He’d taken off his cloak and most of his gear.

  Annem rolled her eyes. “Don’t let him scare you. It’s a composting toilet. And we do have running water.”

  Arden’s attention had already moved on to Roan, who began checking the rounds in his phasers before putting them in the locked position. He then hooked them to the weapons wall. The only weapons he kept on his person were the knives strapped in a harness that crossed his back.

  None of them seemed to be concerned that she had easy access to their weapons. Fools. It was as if they weren’t afraid of her. Or, she supposed, more likely it was Mina making clear that she wanted to partner with Arden.

  The only thing she’d agreed to do was to watch Dade’s back. She needed to remember that. Because as much as this show of trust could lull her into complacency, if it came down to it, only Dade had her loyalty. The rest of them could rot.

  Arden looked away from Roan and realized that Mina had been watching her eye the weapons wall.

  Giving Arden a tiny smile, Mina said, “You’re welcome to use anything there. Once you’ve recovered, of course.”

  Coco watched the entire interaction with crossed arms. Her gaze darted between Mina and Arden, and when it looked like nothing more was going to be said, she dropped her arms. “Okay, gotta run.”

  Annem gave a little wave as she followed Coco out of the room.

  Arden watched them go. And then realized Dade was in the middle of a staring contest with Roan. This was all too much. A headache pounded the back of her skull. To Mina she said, “You all are nuts.”

  Laughing, Mina said, “You think this is crazy? Wait till you meet Venz.”

  “Enough for now. You can meet him later. Let’s get everyone settled first,” Nastasia said. She studied Arden. “You’re a lot worse off than we thought you’d be.”

  Arden narrowed her eyes and grunted.

  “Come,” Nastasia said, “I’ll take you to the med bay.”

  Arden’s body screamed her discomfort. She was exhausted and barely functioning. Her shoulders were tight and aching from when she’d forced them to move in spite of the pain. Still, the thought of separating from Dade made her anxiety flare. “I don’t want to leave Dade.”

  It cost her to admit that vulnerability. It wasn’t that Dade couldn’t take care of himself. It was more that she was afraid that if she backed down for even a second, she might not be able to muster the strength to start again.

  Mina’s expression softened. “We’re not locking you in. He can visit you as often as you both like. You have to allow yourself time to recover.”

  Nastasia studied Dade’s hands. “He’ll be in the med bay too, at least for today. He needs a nanotech booster to repair those fingers.”

  Arden nodded, relieved. She ached to kiss him, to reassure herself that this had been the right thing to do. Not that there had been another choice.

  To come out on top, they needed a better plan, needed friends who could help. She sighed. Maybe she could give it a chance. She’d wait and see before making any decisions.

  CHAPTER NINE

  After her third session in the med pod, consciousness did not come back fast to Arden. She swam in the in-between for a length of time. It felt warm and weighted, but she forced herself to let go of the comfort it offered. At first she wondered where she was. Her eyes ached when they opened, though the light in the room wasn’t bright.

  Low-level ambient sounds were the first things she recognized. She fell into their steady beep and hum. Then noticed the temperature. It was a little cool, numbing her toes. There was also an antiseptic smell that singed her nostrils as she breathed. Between the sounds and the smell, and the fact that she needed a pair of socks, she finally remembered where she was.

  She realized she lay on a bed with wires stretching from her. There wasn’t exactly relief at knowing that she was safe. Her brain wasn’t working on that high of a function level. Instead, she felt a muted calm, just enough to allow her brain to begin to assess other things.

  Pain was next. She ached from lack of movement and exhaustion. Her limbs felt heavy, as if she’d been drugged. The prickles under her skin stung, as if her body wanted her to remember that it was there and she needed to pay attention to it.

  Then she realized that someone else was in the room. Her eyesight hadn’t fully focused yet. And there wasn’t any noise that would indicate the visitor. So she couldn’t say what had tipped her off. Perhaps it had been a shift in the room. Or maybe it was pure intuition. Either way, her body tensed, escalating her discomfort.

  That at least helped her to finally manage to fully open her eyes and focus her attention. The light made her nauseated, and she squinted and swallowed against the curling in her stomach, breathing in deeply. Twisting her head toward where she sensed the person was in the room caused another roll to her stomach. When she saw who sat in a dark corner, she wondered why she bothered to put herself through the torture.

  Roan aggressively leaned forward in his chair. He watched her intensely with a glassy gleam to his eyes. In his hand he held a large knife. When their gazes met, he leaned back and began to clean his nails with it.

  Was that supposed to frighten her? Arden couldn’t figure out why this farce was necessary. More dangerous people than Roan had tried to scare her, and they’d been unsuccessful.

  He looked fresh, not like he’d sat there for hours or for however long she’d been out. Had he expected her to wake up, or did he just get lucky?

  One thing was for certain: she wasn’t lucky. Her first impression of him hadn’t been good. And this move didn’t improve on it.


  They were the only two in the room. She confirmed the door was shut before she looked back at him.

  Arden wanted to sleep. But she kept her eyes open and her stare level. Though it was hard to appear tough when she was draped across a bed and covered in med wire. Even as beat up as she was, she knew she could take Roan. The thought reassured her. So she didn’t filter herself in any way. And if she provoked him, so what? She was pretty sure Mina had instructed her crew not to touch her.

  Silence stretched to an uncomfortable level, but she remained steadfastly mute. She wouldn’t be the first to break the stalemate. He came here for something—to grill her or to just be a pest—but whatever the reason he’d concocted, he wouldn’t get the upper hand.

  “I know what you’re doing here,” Roan said, breaking first. He’d stopped fiddling with the knife to give her his full attention. Though he kept it gripped in his hand, the wicked blade pointing in her direction.

  Arden couldn’t decide whether he was serious. “You should. You were there when Mina manipulated me into this farce. As a matter of fact, you probably know more about my situation than I do. So why don’t you tell me what I’m doing here.”

  Roan snorted, looking unimpressed. “I mean, I know you’re here to infiltrate us.”

  “I am?” Arden sighed. She didn’t have the patience to deal with his entitled conspiracy theories. “Trust me, if I had planned this, I wouldn’t be lying here right now. I’d be getting into your business.”

  Roan did have one point to his credit. She wouldn’t have weakened her own hideout by bringing in strangers with whom she shared no loyalty. The fact that Mina had done exactly that confounded her. Roan should be questioning Mina, not her.

  “You are not going to get away with tearing us apart. Mina’s not like your last gang. You can’t make us distrustful of one another.”

  “You think I did that?” Arden couldn’t decide if it was a compliment. The fact that he thought she had so much power was flattering.

  “Mina watched you.” He paused. “I watched you. You weren’t faithful to them. At the first opportunity, you bailed.”

  She thought of Dade. That she’d chosen him wasn’t a stab in the back to Lasair. It was an effort to control her own destiny for once in her life. “They forced me to move on. I didn’t leave.”

  “Just know that I’m watching you,” he said, stabbing his knife forward as if to make a point.

  “Okay, if that makes you feel better.”

  He scrunched his face, perplexed by her answer. “It doesn’t.”

  Arden forced herself not to smirk at how easily he became confused. She glanced at the knife still leveled in her direction, though his hand was now lax. “Is that supposed to intimidate me?”

  “What?”

  “The knife.” She pointed around her, sweeping the room. “This whole thing. Did you think you’d wait for me to wake up, and then I’d see you and suddenly be so overcome with fear that I’d tell you all my secrets?” Arden laughed, and moons, it hurt. She sucked in a breath, forcing her body to be still.

  His lips thinned, and his eyes narrowed. She realized that he really had thought that. The boy was not a mastermind.

  “Does Mina know you’re here?” she asked. When he didn’t answer, she added, “How about Nastasia?”

  In the silence that followed, she pointed to the camera mounted in the corner of the ceiling. “Don’t you think they’ll find out?”

  His eyebrows went up. “How did you know that was there?”

  “I know where cameras are at all times. It’s kind of in my job description.”

  Though he was clearly surprised that she’d properly read the room, Roan didn’t seem concerned that anyone would find out about his information expedition. It was curious. Almost as if Mina was okay with her crew members doing anything they wanted. What kind of gang was this?

  If he was just going to glare and threaten, she might as well ask the important questions. “Am I locked in?”

  “No.” The implied You should be was left unsaid.

  “How much longer are they going to keep me hooked up in med bay?” And why wasn’t Dade here instead of Roan? That had been the real question she wanted to ask.

  Roan’s lips pressed together. “For as long as Nastasia says.”

  Interesting. “So she’s in charge?”

  “Mina is. But Nastasia runs the compound.”

  As far as her experience went, she’d never met a head of anything who could properly delegate. Arden had a healthy skepticism that Roan was telling the truth. “Then get Nastasia so I can ask her.”

  “You’re a pain in the ass, you know that, Sunshine?”

  “I’ve been told that a time or two.”

  Roan snorted.

  She bit back the other questions she wanted to ask him. They were all about Dade and would give too much away. Why wasn’t he here? Had something happened to him? Pragmatism settled in. If he was hurt, Mina would have told her.

  If anything, Dade’s absence underscored their pulling apart. Instead of forcing him to open up sooner, she’d let this weird silence build between them. When she thought about it, it left a burning in her chest.

  Unbidden, she reached up and rubbed it, the heel of her hand pressing against her sternum.

  Why had he not told her about Mina? Dade had said he’d been rescued, and she’d all but pushed that aside. She was confident that they could worry about it later. Yet he had to have known how much trouble he was in. Did he not trust her?

  She felt a little peeved too, truth be told. Dade should be here. She’d be waiting for him to wake up if the situation was reversed.

  But she kept her thoughts to herself. She wouldn’t display her weakness as far as Dade was concerned. It could be used against her. The last thing she wanted was to become his liability.

  Realizing she’d slipped into a frown, Arden smoothed out her expression. She knew better than to let any of her internal turmoil slip. Now Roan probably thought he’d gotten into her head. That was a bit insufferable.

  Roan’s eyes narrowed. “Are you okay?”

  She nodded. What could she say? That she was heartsick? Who’d believe that?

  CHAPTER TEN

  Dade followed Saben through the city. They both wore slimline packs stuffed with explosive toys and other gadgets from Mina’s stash. They didn’t speak, preferring to move the way they always did on jobs, with a natural rhythm that came from practice. Their mood was somber. Neither knew what they’d find when they reached their destination.

  They’d slipped out in the middle of the night. It was the best time to travel unnoticed through the streets. The govies monitored curfew, but their presence in the Levels had thinned due to the daily rioting.

  No one in the compound had stopped them. Mina seemed to ignore any activity not pertaining to her directives. It didn’t mean she was unaware, though. They were most likely being tracked. Dade was okay with that as long as Mina allowed him to take care of his business.

  He felt better. It was a wonder what a little sleep and some nanotech could do. In addition to not having to worry about how to survive his day-to-day existence. He owed Mina for that, for this chance to figure out how to start the rest of his life.

  While he’d been in the med bay, Saben had been out every night searching for his family. It had taken a while. With the city in chaos and having to remain covert, it meant that finding missing people took time.

  Dade had just been released, his hands finally usable again, when Saben had informed Dade that he had a lead. There had been a moment of indecision: should he stay and watch over Arden’s recovery, or should he find some answers? He knew there was nothing he could personally do for Arden. She was still being mended and would be down for another week. Her injuries had been worse than they’d feared.

  Upon first taking her to the med bay, Nastasia had clicked her tongue and shaken her head. She’d said, “It’s a wonder you’re still alive.”

  Ard
en had given her a fierce glare. “This isn’t going to kill me.”

  “Stubborn,” Nastasia murmured. But she said it fondly.

  Today, knowing that Arden would insist on coming even though she’d spent the last week unconscious in the med bay, Dade hadn’t told her about their mission. He’d visited Arden a few times but had mostly avoided her for a reason. He couldn’t keep his secrets to himself. Every time he saw her, he wanted to tell her everything. If she knew, she wouldn’t allow him to do this without her even if she wasn’t fully healed. Hiding information from her didn’t feel right, and yet he didn’t want to set back her health. If he could bring back answers, then it would be worth it.

  Leaving provided him the first opportunity to see the city alone. Dade had been stuck in survival mode for weeks, his only news coming through the visicasts. Not only did he need facts, but he also needed that deeper, gut-level connection. Going into the streets would give him a good idea of what people were feeling. In order to make decisions moving forward, he needed to grasp what was happening now.

  The stagnancy he’d experienced in the last few weeks had left him numb. Moreover, he missed his weekly runs. Missed having adventures.

  “Have you seen them yet?” Dade worried that perhaps they were walking into a trap. The cityscape had changed greatly in the month since he’d roamed the streets. New gangs had popped up, and there was a general distrust among everyone.

  “No,” Saben answered tightly. Maybe he thought the same thing.

  A gust of wind pulled at Dade’s cloak. His hood did little to stop his hair from coming loose and trailing into his face. He wore a synth-mask as he was too recognizable. If anyone realized he was alive, then a price would be placed on his head. For now it was best to keep up the farce of his death.