Grant rose, wiping sweat from his face. Blood trickled from a cut near his eye and his graying hair curled where perspiration had gathered. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Macav, Darius will contact you to gather more details on this device you’re looking for,” Holly said.
“Good.”
Holly followed up. “And we’ll be asking for more information about whatever you know regarding Itzcap.”
“Shiro,” Voss said, greeting him.
“Ms. Voss, lovely to run into you,” Shiro said. The tone in his voice reminded Holly why she’d been smart to stop that kiss in its tracks.
“Odeon,” Holly said, ignoring their conversation. “Lead the way out. We’ll follow you and trust your ears to alert us of anything we can’t see.” Though the hangar was lit, there were many dark areas where someone could hide.
The group followed him, some of them conversing in hushed tones. They made it out to the tarmac without incident. The auto that had dropped them at the withering shipyard waited just beyond the perimeter. Before they got there, Macav and Aimee both disappeared to whatever transportation they’d used to get there.
23
Though Holly had feigned a casual air about seeing her attacker again, it had unsettled her. Back on Kota, she hit the Lion of the Spires Training Center even harder than before, aware of her many weaknesses when it came to battle. Aeolionaias didn’t know that she’d gotten her own whip, but little good it did her. She’d balked somewhat back on Paradise and she’d resorted to the comfort of the familiar aether gun.
No more. She entered the training sessions with Aeolionaias focused and determined to develop her sparring, knife-throwing, and aether whip skills into something reliable and trusted.
Odeon came to the sessions with her and sparred with her in the ring as well. Both Yasoan were graceful fighters, and Holly eventually learned their moves. Sometimes she could anticipate them. Shiro came into the ring as well. His fighting was different, and there was something suppressed in him that he let fly in the ring. She suspected it was frustration or resentment for having turned him away.
She countered it with her own calculated emotions, using them like spurs to fuel her jabs and kicks.
She was in the ring with Shiro when Gabe showed up, three days after their return to the City of Jade Spires. She’d just recovered from a blow from Shiro that put her on the ground, when she heard a voice at the edge of the ring.
“Well, look what the scree-cat dragged in.”
Holly jumped to her feet. “Gabe?”
“Hey kiddo,” Gabe said, laughing.
“What are you doing here?”
“I’m more curious about what you’re doing here,” Gabe said.
“I don’t have a gym all to myself like the police force does,” Holly said, realizing that Shiro was waiting for her. “Oh, this is Shiro, a friend. Shiro, this is my niece Lucy’s dad and my sister’s ex-husband, Gabe Bach. He’s a detective on the police force. You may have heard of him.”
“A pleasure to meet you,” Shiro said, throwing Gabe a small wave.
“And what do you do, Shiro?” Gabe asked, his eyes glittering, as though he knew. “You know what I do. Detective, remember? You’re an, uh, what, a teacher?”
“Man about town. I was born into money, so I do nothing but enjoy luxuries and sometimes spar with Ms. Drake,” Shiro said, catching on to Gabe’s attempt.
“And how does the sparring go?” Gabe asked.
“You caught me at a bad moment,” Holly said. “I’ve been here three hours already.”
“Wow, you’re really hitting the mats hard, kiddo.”
“Yes, but why are you here, Gabe? Following me? Checking on me? If you want to ask me to do something, you can just call me on my communicator.”
“Scotch trains here sometimes. He asked me to meet him to spar. He said he got into a scrape recently and regretted how rusty he was. Embarrassed himself in front of some woman he’s hoping to impress, I guess. Honestly, when is a woman ever impressed with fighting?” Gabe laughed.
Holly froze, feeling Shiro’s eyes on her. She flicked a glance in his direction and saw that he’d heard the implication in what Gabe said.
“Perhaps he’d like to spar with Ms. Drake? Or you would?” Shiro said. “I’ve suddenly realized the hour. I have a previous obligation that can’t wait.”
“What? No, no, I can leave you to your match,” Gabe said, beginning to back away.
“Sincerely, lad. Ms. Drake is too good a fighter for me. I’m afraid she’s won too many times. My ego has been crushed and a chap like me knows when to leave the ring.” Before Holly could say anything, Shiro had stepped through the ropes and was heading for the locker room. “Ta ta,” he called over his shoulder.
“Ta ta?” Gabe echoed. “He always talk like that? That was odd.”
“Yes, it was. He’s wounded.”
“I’ve told you forever, kiddo, not all men like to have the floor wiped with their bare ass. When you beat them at their own games, you embarrass the hell out of them—it’s like you’ve pantsed them and wiped the floor literally with their bare butt. If you want to impress them, you’ve got to let them win sometimes. They need to be your hero.”
“Spare me,” Holly said, feeling bitter. “I’m never going to do that. A man with those requirements is weak. Grafton was like that. He conveniently forgot that I saved myself in that zeppelin accident. Now get in here and let me beat you at your own game.”
Gabe laughed and climbed into the ring.
Before they could begin a match, Iain showed up at the edge of the ring. “Gabe, you’re here to spar with me. Not Holly.”
“Hey Scotch,” Gabe said. “You’re late. I found a new partner.”
Holly smiled and nodded at Iain.
The ride back to Kota had been blessedly without incident. Most of the trip Holly had spent sleeping in her cabin. The short time outside it, she’d spent in avoiding panic in the dining area, nursing an imperial Kotan style ale. Much of the headway she’d made getting past her fears had vanished due to the near disaster on the way to Paradise.
“Actually, I’m done here, Gabe. You and Iain should definitely do what you came here for,” Holly said, heading to the ropes.
“Hey kiddo, you can’t just walk away from me like that. I’m your brother-in-law. You should respect my authority,” Gabe said, suppressing a laugh.
Holly glanced back at him and rolled her eyes. “You’re almost convincing me to stay here just to kick your ass.”
“Is that what you call it when you fall on your rear because you’re getting your trash kicked? I saw your sparring match before I said hello. That’s right, I’m sneaky,” Gabe joked.
“I didn’t know you trained here,” Iain said to Holly. He cleared his throat. “Uh, so after that incident on Paradise, I realized how out of practice I am.”
Gabe had been paying attention. He caught Holly’s gaze for a moment, then understanding seemed to cross his face. Suddenly, the fraying ropes on the far end of the ring were extremely interesting to him.
“I thought you held up pretty well,” Holly said.
Iain’s color deepened. “I’ve been better.”
Holly raised her voice. “Well, get in there and fight with Gabe. I’m sure you can kick his ass. He’s gotten flabby since he became a detective. He doesn’t have to try as hard, according to Meg.”
“I heard that,” Gabe said.
“You were meant to.”
Iain laughed. “Are you taking off?”
“I’d stay to watch, but I’ve been here for a few hours already. I have to meet my sister.”
He said goodbye and climbed into the ring, while Holly waved to Gabe and went to the locker room. She showered off and dressed quickly. As she left through the front entrance, her gaze strayed to the ring where Iain and Gabe were in the middle of their practice. She stopped for a moment to appreciate the view of Iain, shirtless, before heading out.
*
* *
“What are you drinking?” Meg looked expectantly at Holly, pausing with her hand on the fridge door.
“Whatever’s in there,” Holly said.
Meg pulled a beer out and handed it across the counter to Holly.
“How was Paradise?” Meg asked, leaning onto her countertop.
Holly shook her head. “If I don’t take care of this problem with the Shadow Coalition soon, I’m going to end up dead, real soon.” She related the story about the sabotage on the zeppelin, followed up by the rescue, and then the discovery of the dead body of the man who had attacked her. Meg drank her beer as she listened, her eyes widening at appropriately corresponding moments.
When Holly finished, Meg sighed. “Yes, you’re right. You’re lucky to be alive.”
“I know.”
“When are you going to Itzcap?” Meg asked.
“Who’s going to Itzcap?” Sophia said from the doorway into her bedroom. Their mother sauntered out, her arms wrapped around her. “Meg, it’s so cold in here.”
“Put on a sweater, Mom,” Meg said.
“Can’t we turn the heat up?”
“I’m going to Itzcap,” Holly said, answering Sophia’s question. She rose and gave her mother several besos, then sat back down.
“Oh, it’s a terrible place. Beastly. I’ve never liked it, not since George ran away to live there, and I followed him, and then left him,” Sophia said, going to the brewer and beginning to make kasé. “I guess a hot brew will warm up these old bones.”
Meg blinked. “I thought Dad lived on Joppa. I thought you lived on Joppa.”
“I don’t know where he lives now. But it was Itzcap he wanted, so we were there for a while. We were ‘trying to make it work.’ George claimed it was a perfect climate,” Sophia explained, absently.
“Come to think of it, I’ve never gone to see him on Joppa. Well, then what were you doing on Joppa?” Holly said, realizing she’d never been the one to instigate contact with either parent. Their calls could have been coming from anywhere in the system.
Sophia huffed. “Nothing. I went there when I got tired of George’s nonsense.”
“What nonsense? And who did you live with? Just traipsing across the moons all by yourself?”
“I don’t see how any of this is your business,” Sophia said, pouring water into the brewer.
Meg exchanged a look with Holly. “You’re our mother, I think we just kind of care about you.”
“If you’d cared, why didn’t you ever come see me on Joppa or Itzcap?” Sophia began the brew cycle and turned to look at Meg and Holly. She blew on her hands and gave the two women a long-suffering smile.
“Maybe I would have if I’d known that’s where you were. Now it appears that if I’d booked a trip to where I thought you were, I would have ended up on the wrong moon,” Meg laughed. Her brow suddenly furrowed. “Wait a minute, Mom, you’re being so evasive. You still haven’t answered who it was you were living with. Oh. Wait a minute. Mom, did you have a lover?”
For a moment, a flush crossed Sophia’s light complexion. Then she lifted her chin to a haughty angle and smiled. “What do you take me for? Of course I had a lover.”
Holly laughed. She’d been expecting a denial.
“George no longer deserved me. And other men were interested. I’m not going to spend the twilight of my life waiting for a man to come to his senses. My daughters are grown women. I did my duty.”
“I guess we’d know all this if we’d taken the initiative and had gone to see you, Mom,” Holly said. She stood and sidestepped around the counter to get to the fridge. After all the training she’d done earlier and the beer, she needed solid food in her stomach.
Sophia lowered her gaze. “Well, I don’t need an apology.” The brew finished. Sophia poured kasé into a mug and added condiments. “Besides, we all know that it was me who failed you.”
“What?” Holly asked, though she suspected she understood what her mother was insinuating. She found the ingredients to make a sandwich and took them back to the counter. “You’re a great mom. You never failed me.” It wasn’t one hundred percent true. Holly had been crushed that her parents had completely ignored the trial over Graf. Though she resented that they hadn’t come, it was an understandable avoidance. They were both former police. Their daughter was standing trial against the institution that they respected, essentially. Logically, Holly understood it. But it stung in her heart. She felt betrayed and abandoned by her parents. There was no sense in making accusations.
“Nonsense. I wanted to come,” Sophia said, firmly. She sipped her drink, cupping the mug in both hands to absorb the warmth. “George wouldn’t let me.”
“Alright, Mom, I get it that you’re mad at Dad,” Meg said, “But you can’t expect me to believe that he held you hostage and prevented you from being here to support Holly.”
“But he did,” Sophia said, plainly. “You’re free to not believe me. I can’t control that.”
Holly frowned. “Why wouldn’t Dad let you?”
Sophia waved a hand dismissively. “It doesn’t matter. But I am sorry. I’m so sorry. I should have been here for you. I’m grateful that Meg and Gabe were here to support you.”
The front door to Meg’s condo opened and Lucy and Charm strolled in. Holly said hello, gave a beso to her niece and one to Charm as well, leaning over to inspect the Yasoan girl, touching Charm on the chin and nudging her head from side to side in an exaggerated fashion to raise a laugh in her.
“How are you, Charm?”
Charm held Holly’s gaze confidently. “Wonderful.”
“Ah. You remain my hero, as ever,” Holly said.
“Are we going soon?” Lucy asked her mom. “Grandma’s coming too, right? And Charm? And Holly?”
“Everyone is invited. The more the merrier,” Meg said.
Holly smiled, biting back her disappointment that the girls had interrupted the discussion, but at least she’d gotten an acknowledgement that her mother should have been there for her at the trial. “Where are you guys heading?”
“You’re coming with, Holly. Mom said,” Lucy responded. “To get our toenails painted and jeweled up.”
“Sounds like a party,” Holly said.
“Yes, please come.”
Holly had been about to turn down the invitation, but the simple ask from her niece stifled the refusal. “What the hell, why not?”
24
“I have something for you, Drake,” Darius said the next morning at the Bird’s Nest.
“That doesn’t sound good,” Holly laughed.
“Or maybe too good,” Charly added, from her desk chair. “I’m getting details ironed out for the soiree. Three days OK?”
“Not the kind of good I want from you, Darius.”
“Tough, you’re getting it. Come over here,” he said, beckoning her from his little corner in the Nest. She complied, stifling a grin. She was tired and worn from all the training she’d been doing. But it was a good worn. She felt like she could take on the world with all her might.
“Tell me what I’m agreeing to before you do anything weird,” she said.
Shiro had risen from his seat in the armchair, looking through a v-screen. He claimed he’d been going over the numbers of his personal finances. Apparently there was a new suit he wanted that cost more than he dared to tell them. He strolled over to see what Darius was doing.
“Darius is boring, Holly. He’d never do anything too questionable.” Odeon laughed and resumed tinkering on a keytar. He was composing a new song.
“I considered planting this secretly on you. But then I realized how creepy that was, to do it without your permission.” Darius held up a tiny dot with tweezers. Holly could barely see it.
“A freckle? That is kind of questionable. I usually wait for them to show up on their own. And then I zap them.”
“Very funny, Drake. This is more than a freckle. It’s new tech. Doubles as a mic, vid, and geo-locator. Also works fo
r locating in space, as long as there’s something to receive a signal.”
She frowned. “Why were you going to put it on me without me knowing?”
“Can I see it?” Shiro asked. Darius let him take the tweezers to inspect it closer.
“Don’t drop it,” Darius said to Shiro. “I just have one for now. But eventually I’d like to get one for the whole team. You’ve done the most disappearing, and not always because you want to disappear. The SC seems to have it in for you. It’s just a fail safe and won’t broadcast anything until it receives a command to.”
She narrowed her eyes at Darius. “Why should I trust you?”
“Because I deserve it,” he shrugged.
“Fine. Hook me up,” she said. “Or stick it to me. However it works.”
“Guys, no one answered me,” Charly cut in. “Three days? Is that soon enough?”
“For the soiree?” Shiro asked, handing the tweezers back to Darius.
“Yes,” Charly answered. “The party during which someone steals the statue. Er, takes it back. To give to a one time owner. Who will then pay us money for retrieving what was stolen from him.”
Holly eyed Charly, wondering how honest her friend had been about the statue.
“Hold out your hand, Drake. The freckle goes on your hand, just above your wristbone.”
She did so, still watching Charly and trusting that whatever Darius was doing would be relatively painless. “Ouch, what the hell?” She tried to pull her arm back but Darius held tight.
“Did I not mention that it would hurt?”
“No, you did not. You totally failed to tell me that.” It stung like she’d been bitten by an insect and the pain radiated out like it was burrowing.
“It pulls energy from your body. Sorry. The freckle stays on top of your skin, but it’s got tentacles that burrow in.”
“Hmm, I don’t think I’ll ever want one of those, Darius,” Shiro observed, watching Holly squirm.
“Real brave, Shiro,” Holly said. She held still and smiled at him. “It doesn’t hurt. Did I say it hurt? Feels fine.”
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