by Maura Milan
She looked at Kami. “That’s why we need you. We need a leader.”
“I told you. This isn’t my fight,” Kami said, then sighed, seeing the look on Ia’s face. “But maybe I can at least help even the odds.”
Ia looked up from her bowl.
“I can try and open up your abilities, if you’d like.”
Ia stiffened, understanding the power of such an opportunity. If she were able to do all of these things, then she would be equally matched with her brother. She could be as quick as him, as nimble. She could jump from point to point, keep on his heels. And if he tried to drop her again, she would not fall to her death. Not this time.
But something about all that seemed wrong.
“No,” she said finally. “I don’t need it.”
“You’ll lose,” Kami said.
Ia pointed to the hole in the middle of Kami’s chest. “Whoever did that to you was just an ordinary person.” A very ordinary person who took down Deus herself.
Kami angled her head in thought. “Very well.”
If this was Ia’s fight, then she was going to do it her way.
The Blood Wolf of the Skies, the Hunter of the Wastelands, the Sovereign of Dead Space. All legends originated from seeds of truth. And this was her truth. In the beginning, she was just one name. She was Ia Cōcha. She had gotten this far because of her skill, her guts, her self.
Her brother had tried to kill her twice and failed. Failed, she had to remind herself. Now it was her turn, and she wasn’t going to make the same mistake.
Ia took a big heaping spoonful of ramen and slurped it down, every noodle and ounce of broth giving her the strength she needed to face the fight.
“This is delicious,” Ia said.
Kami winked at her. “Best ramen in the universe.”
CHAPTER 48
KNIVES
“STILL NOTHING?” Knives asked.
“Nope,” Eve said. “Not a peep.”
They were all in the workers’ lounge. Knives and Vetty sat at a rusty table. Security displays hovered over its center. Eve had taken up one of the shabby couches, her back leaning against one arm and both legs draped over the other. A small holoscreen hovered before her. Her finger flicked up and up, scrolling through a long list. She had spent the past week reaching out to her old Dead Space network. In order to have a shot against Einn’s growing fleet, they needed to have allies. But no one was answering the call. After Lind’s death, fewer and fewer patrons were visiting Myth. Knives didn’t know if it was because people were scared or if they were flocking over to join Einn’s cause. If it was the latter, then they definitely needed whatever help they could get.
“So far, all we’ve got is us. Two pilots—one above average, one decent—a knowledgeable bartender, and a dead scientist that Knives found in a pen,” Vetty said.
Knives wanted to throttle Vetty until the smug look fell off his face. Decent pilot…
“Don’t forget Ia,” Knives said.
“If the Blood Wolf actually comes back,” Eve said under her breath.
Knives glared at her.
“Hey,” she said with a shrug. “I’m just being realistic. The All Black is a merciless beast if you can’t hold your own against it.”
They hadn’t heard from Ia in a week. Knives had told her to contact them if there was an emergency, so he could only hope her lack of communication meant that even if she was getting in fights out there, she was still breathing, winning, and alive.
Suddenly, a short but sharp tone beeped from the mass of displays by the table. Eve rushed to the perimeter monitors. “We got incoming.”
Knives leaned over her shoulder to take a look. He expected to see one ship on the approach, but instead, he saw much more than that.
“What the mif is all that?” Vetty asked.
Knives recognized the models of the ships just by their silhouettes.
“That’s the entire Star Force fleet,” Knives said. “Or what’s left of it.”
Knives was the first to run to the landing dock. A small shadow of caution crept into his head. He was a deserter. They could be there to arrest him, to throw him in prison.
Both Vetty and Eve had the same look of alarm stitched across their faces. A runaway heir and a Dead Space bootlegger. He was sure they didn’t want the attention either.
Knives spun on his heels, taking tabs on the approaching ships. They were surrounded, with barely any gaps in the line for them to barrel through, even if they jumped into their jets to escape.
“So, Adams, tell me all about Commonwealth prisons,” Vetty said. “Do they have good food?”
“Yeah, maybe for you, Sinoblancas. At least your family has the money to barter for a luxury suite.”
“Really, you two?” Eve interrupted. “You’re arguing now?”
They fell quiet when a lone ship broke away from the convoy. Knives looked over the details of the ship. It wasn’t a Star Force jet. The golden crest was painted elegantly across the front hull.
It was royal.
“I don’t think they’re here to fight,” Knives said.
The royal jet, a white ship with a rounded massive girth to luxuriously accommodate the passenger or passengers within, pierced swiftly through Myth’s atmos field. Its silver landing gear lowered, and it settled down gracefully before them.
The shimmering gold on the royal crest slowly disappeared as the entry ramp lowered, and soon they were faced with a line of royal guards in beautifully embroidered jackets. They streamed out, making a living wall between them and the woman who would soon follow.
Once they were in place, they started to shift with her footsteps. Closer and closer, until the guards in the front stepped to the side to allow her through.
They were in the presence of the former Queen Juo. Although not the same glamorous, sophisticated Juo he had seen on the screens. The Juo he saw now was still elegant, but her dark eyes were lined with red from the trials of war and the loss of loved ones. The love of her entire life. She stood before him today, her hair shaved off entirely in mourning. She was slender and tall, but her shoulders were broad and squared, accentuated by the golden armor that ran across her collarbone and down her chest to protect her heart and other vital organs in case of attack. Her arms were bare, revealing a length of toned, athletic muscle, and her dark skin was luminous even in the harsh light of the surrounding atmos field.
Her gaze focused on each of them, a face of calm as if she already knew who she was meeting with. Finally, her eyes centered on Knives. “Officer Adams.”
He bowed slightly out of habit, even though she had already forsaken her title. “I am so sorry to hear of your loss,” he said.
“And yours,” he heard her say, even as his head was turned to the ground. “Your father always spoke highly of you.”
At this, he raised his eyes. He was startled by her words. His father never spoke highly of him.
She saw the look of confusion on his face and then smiled gently. “He said that out of all his children, he saw himself in you the most.”
What? No. It was always Marnie. Marnie was the star student. Marnie got things done.
His eyes studied the steel expression on Juo’s face. It was hard to decipher. She was a royal. She was trained to curry favor with her words. But what could she ever want from him?
“Why are you here? I know it’s not to exchange pleasantries on lost loved ones,” he said.
“I’m sure you’re aware. There is a line of order within ranks. And with your father gone…”
“If I’m not mistaken Commander Nole is his second-in-command,” Knives said.
Her answer was quick. “He’s dead.”
Knives thought back to his father’s yes men, trying to pinpoint the next in line, when Juo spoke again. “They’re all gone,” she said. “Both the Civil War and the battles against Einn have taken a toll. We’ve suffered so many losses. So many good women and men.”
“Then who’s in all those s
hips?” Knives asked.
“Cadets,” she said. “From all the surviving academies. Those who choose to remain for the final fight.”
Knives stilled. He knew where this was going.
Juo’s eyes remained on his. “I want you to lead them.”
So that was why she was here—the Civil War. He had no desire to get tangled up in that mess. “Find someone else. The Civil War is yours. Win it. Lose it. I don’t care.”
She held up a hand. “Please. Let me finish.”
A momentary flash of desperation and uncertainty in her eyes was enough to make Knives pause.
“It’s true the Civil War still rages. It will be a long time before the United Cause and the Commonwealth come to an agreement,” Juo explained. “But none of that will matter if there’s nothing left for us to return to. There’s a larger enemy afoot. Someone who must be stopped at all costs.”
Realization dawned on him. Juo was here because of Einn.
Knives turned, studying the fleet surrounding them. “How many are there?”
“Two hundred.”
“Well, it looks like we’ve got our army,” Vetty said.
Barely, Knives thought. That wasn’t even close to half of Einn’s forces. He had seen more than that when he crossed the wormhole that tore apart the skies of Rigel Kentaurus. Back then, there were a thousand of them, easily. And he had a feeling there were more now.
Eve’s eyes zipped back and forth as if she were running through all the logistics. “That’s a lot of people to house. Myth doesn’t have the infrastructure to support all of them.” Then she turned to Knives. “But before we even get into all that…Knives, is this something you want to do?”
Knives bit his lip, his head sinking in thought.
He looked back at Juo, the fleet shadowed in the background. All of those people would need him. All of those people could die because of him.
But then his eyes settled on the spaces between. On the shimmering stars still sparkling in the distance, planets filled with people who were still fighting to survive. This wasn’t about the Star Force. It wasn’t about the Academy. This wasn’t about him anymore.
He turned to Juo. “I’m in.”
And he knew the perfect place to set up base.
CHAPTER 49
IA
THAT NIGHT, Ia worked behind the counter of Nowhere Ramen, serving bowls to the rowdy crowd of regulars who’d traveled far and wide just for a spoonful.
“You look familiar,” a few of them said, but all she did was shrug.
To one she had replied, “Perhaps I remind you of your first love,” and watched as the man’s cheeks flushed ruby red.
“Don’t tease them,” Kami hissed at her as she stirred the broth.
Ia flashed her a broad grin and continued with her chores.
When the last customers left for the night, Ia helped Kami with the cleanup. She had collected all the empty bowls on the counter when her head snapped to an empty seat. She stared at the chair, her eyes darting not at the outline of the chair itself, but the space before it. She shifted her balance from one foot to the other, trying to get a slightly different view. There was something about it she couldn’t quite explain.
Kami passed by, a potful of unused broth in her hands. “Yeah, I know,” she said. “He’s been sitting there for a while.”
He?
Ia immediately grabbed the pot from Kami’s hands and flung it across the counter. The broth flew out, splashing every which way, and for a moment she saw a very familiar outline. Ia’s arm snapped forward, reaching over the counter until her fingers clutched around thick muscle. A neck.
Hands grabbed her shoulders, flipping her across the room. Her back hit the wall with a sharp crack, and she crashed to the ground.
Blinking, she saw a mirage, a blur of an image growing sharp. A figure stood in front of her, wiping the broth from his cape. There was that skull. The skull she couldn’t wait to crack.
“I gotta say,” Goner said as he stared down at her. “I didn’t think I would find you here.”
Ia scrambled to her feet, staring daggers in his direction, and instantly she was brought back to the night they met at Aphelion. They had made a deal, one he had completely broken.
“Traitor,” she yelled with an ear-piercing cry.
She launched herself at him, fists clenched and knuckles out. But before her hit could land, she felt someone hold her back. Her eyes snapped over to Kami, who was between them, grabbing them both by the collar.
“Stop wrecking my restaurant.” Kami dragged both of them out the door. “If you have stuff to take care of, do it outside.”
With more force than Ia could ever imagine, Kami hurled them out into the parking lot. It was a few seconds before Ia tumbled to a stop.
She pulled herself up to her knees and rubbed her temples, then glanced over at Goner, who had landed a couple meters farther than she had. He shook the dust out of his hair and stared at her. “Who was that woman?”
Ia narrowed her eyes at him. He was even denser than she remembered.
As she stared at him, she tensed. They could have been at each other’s throats once again, but that second had already passed. She couldn’t shake a notion that had been bothering her since she woke up after the accident. The last thing she remembered that day on the roof was Goner pointing a pistol right at her heart. It was a miracle that she had survived that fall, but it was even more of a miracle that she lived through that bullet.
Ia pushed herself to her feet and wiped the sand off her pants. She walked over to Goner and offered him her hand.
He stared at her, confused.
“I think we need to talk,” she said.
Ia set a bowl of ramen in front of him.
He eyed her cautiously, even as he reached for his chopsticks.
“I thought we had an agreement.” Ia crumpled her napkin in her fist. “You were supposed to track down Einn. Not join him, and then try to kill me.”
“But I found him, didn’t I?”
He was right. He did uphold his part of the deal. She stared at him, watching the white cut of cheekbone move up and down as he took his first sips of broth. If this was part of his plan all along, then perhaps he wasn’t as oblique as she originally thought.
“So, my brother—” Ia started.
“Is going to destroy the universe,” Goner said as he slurped up a swirl of noodles, lips pursed with the heat of the broth. “This is really good, by the way.”
Goner stared off at the curtain separating the main space from the back room, where a series of wet slaps echoed out.
“What is she doing back there?” Goner asked.
“You don’t want to know,” Ia said.
“Shame on me for assuming she would be a man,” he said, then rubbed at a bump on his head. “‘Take you and break you.’ At least the nursery rhyme got that part right.” And Ia knew that Goner had already pieced everything together—that Kami was actually the Half-Man. But there was no way he would know how much greater than that she was. “I’m surprised you’re even letting me this close to her.”
Ia leaned forward on her elbows. “That’s because you don’t have a chance.”
Goner snorted before tilting his head to look at her. “So, what’s new? You’re alive. I can tell that.” He pointed a chopstick at her. “You did a good job hiding it, by the way. Your brother is going to be miffed when he finds out.” He laughed, then choked as the food in his mouth went down the wrong windpipe.
She knew her brother would be surprised when he saw her. At the thought of him, an image seared into her and made her pause. The twisted joy on his face when he tried to kill her all those times. She grabbed a glass of archnol and took a sip, trying to wash away the phantoms.
“How’s that Bug that I met? The guy with the hair.”
She straightened up from her slouch, surprised to hear Goner bringing him into the conversation. “You mean Knives?”
Goner slapped his k
nee. “That’s his name?” His voice went up a pitch.
Ia rolled her eyes. “You should talk. You have a terrible name.”
He leaned in. “But I like it when you say it.”
Her eyes whipped to his. A moment of surprise before she shook it off. She could never tell when he was joking.
“When did you two even meet?” Ia asked.
“I entrusted your dying body to him.” He pushed an empty glass for her to fill.
Ia grabbed the bottle of archnol and poured. “And why is this the first time I’m hearing this?”
“Because I guess your Bug is good at keeping promises,” Goner said before slamming back the entire drink.
She raised an eyebrow. Goner had asked Knives to lie for him? “What was the point in that?”
“I couldn’t have you waking up and thinking we’re friends.”
Oh Deus. “Because we’re rivals…”
His eyes brightened a light shade of lavender. “Well, Ia. I’m touched. That’s the first time you’ve ever said it.”
Ia leaned in. “Why didn’t you kill me back then?”
He turned to her, and the roguish smirk dropped from his face in earnest. The outline of his skull darkened just a bit so she could only see a hint of his true face underneath. “Because life would be boring without you.”
If they hadn’t spent almost five years hating each other, she’d actually think that he cared for her. She looked away, staring at her fingers, waiting for this new but strange moment between them to pass.
“If you were on Nirvana, then you saw Brinn,” she said. “How is she?”
“Other than killing the Queen?”
Ia shook her head. “The Brinn I knew would have never decided to do that on her own.”
“Then you don’t know your friend very well. Maybe some of it was part of your brother’s machinations, but the kill—that was all her.”
Brinn wasn’t always like that, Ia thought sadly. But she was a fool to think things would stay the same. If it had, then she would still be the Blood Wolf of the Skies, reigning over Dead Space. Unchallenged. Unbeatable.
