by Aileen Erin
“Your majesties.” Ashino gave a short bow as he walked. “We’ve searched the whole house. No one is here. The house had already been cleaned by our team and all surveillance equipment taken down. There’s nothing left here.”
Okay. That was terrible news, but also exactly what I expected.
I looked over at the ship next to ours. The one that she’d been taken in. “They left in someone else’s ship.” It wasn’t a question. If they weren’t here and the ship they arrived in was here, then someone picked them up.
“Or in a ground vehicle,” Ashino confirmed. “I checked in with Captain ni Eiloa, and there haven’t been any transfer ships from the alliance convoys to the ground or vice versa, aside from ours in the last five hours.”
“Then they stayed on the ground.” I looked at Lorne. “What now?”
“The Yhona track every vehicle on this planet,” Lorne said. “They might not seem like they’re watching everything that happens in their city, but they are.”
“I don’t doubt it. They put signs blocking spots for us to park in at the Garden Shops without us even telling them where we were going.” They’d done the same for Vyic, too.
“Exactly,” Lorne said. “That wasn’t an anomaly. They’ll be able to tell us who picked her up and where they went and where they are right now. We need their cooperation.”
I had to laugh at that. “You want us to go to the people that want me thrown into jail to ask for help? I’m sure that’s going to go well.” It was an awful plan, but no one said anything.
Fine. I would. “As plans go, that one sucks.”
“I don’t know.” Ashino grinned. “I’d be happy for them to try to take our newly appointed High Queen from us.”
Lorne shrugged. “I tend to agree with Ashino. If they refuse to help us, they’ll make an enemy they cannot fight. They have no choice but to help us.”
Everyone always had a choice. Sometimes they were between a dumpster fire and dog shit, but there were always options.
I wanted a better plan—one that didn’t involve going to these people for help—but I couldn’t come up with anything better. Seconds were ticking by. Seconds we couldn’t afford to lose.
She’d been gone over four hours.
Ice it. “We’re already at war,” I said. “What’s one more people added to it?”
“Exactly, your majesty. I’m so pleased we see things the same way.” Ashino gave a little bow, but it was full of sass.
I was enjoying Lorne’s head guard, but I still thought Eshrin was better.
I glanced over at Eshrin, but he was staring off into the distance. From the look on his face, I thought he might’ve been killing people in his head. I’d seen that look on his face before. It was the one he wore when he was getting ready for a fight.
The rest of our guards left the house and started to get back into the vehicles.
“What’s our next destination, your majesties?” Ashino looked back and forth between us. “To the capital building? Or…”
I nudged Lorne. “I think your head guard is a little thirsty for battle. And so is mine. It’s a little scary.”
“And what about you?” Lorne asked. “Another fight for you is dangerous. You’re still recovering.”
“Fair, but this is Audrey. I’ll risk it.” I knew I should’ve been worried about the poison that was still in my blood, but I wasn’t. I couldn’t play it safe when someone I loved had been kidnapped.
“I brought the device Audrey used to help Amihanna,” Eshrin said. “If we encounter another device and don’t get it in time, I should be able to help stabilize her. But we know what the detonation devices look like and we’ll be prepared.”
Lorne brushed a kiss against my head, and then he straightened. “All right. To the capital, then.”
“What if they won’t help us?” Tyler asked, and the panic was there, bubbling from the surface. “What do we do then?”
“I’m not above using my power to find Audrey.” Lorne’s voice stayed calm and kingly, forcing Tyler to settle down a few degrees. “We will find her if we have to search every ship on this planet and in orbit.”
I was with Lorne completely. We would find her and everyone else that was unaccounted for. We weren’t going to give up until we had them back—traitors included.
“Okay.” Tyler’s hand shook as he brushed his hair away from his face. “Okay. Yes. Thank you.” He hadn’t said one weird saying through all of this, and I knew that meant that he was really struggling.
I should’ve been panicking, too, but she was a halfer like me. She’d been through so much—survived so much—and there was no way she wasn’t doing everything to stay alive right now. She would fight hard enough to give us a chance to find her.
That’s what halfers did. We fought and we survived.
I was counting on her to keep surviving long enough for us to get her back.
“Come on.” I pushed Tyler into the ship and slid in behind him. “We’ll be there in—” I turned to look at Eshrin, who’d gotten into the front of the vehicle.
“Eight minutes.”
“Eight minutes,” I echoed.
Eight minutes more.
Lorne, Fynea, and Roan got into the vehicle and the door slid shut. The locks clicked and as we started moving down the hill, I realized I’d been thinking all about Audrey and finding her and not at all anticipating why they’d taken her.
Three plans. That was SpaceTech’s MO. Three attacks, plans, whatever. It’s how they worked. They wouldn’t just stop at the attack on the house and the attack at the black market.
Nope. They needed a third.
Audrey was the third. The start of the third because this was only the beginning. They always went big on the third because if the first two failed, this was their last shot to accomplish their mission.
I was pretty sure their mission was to kill me, and hopefully kill Lorne in the process.
I glanced at Lorne and motioned him closer.
“We’re being lured,” I said.
“Yes. I believe so.” He let out a breath. “I also wonder why Melina hasn’t shown herself yet. And I have a feeling she’s dead.” He glanced over at Fynea. “Message her again. Tell her I need to talk to her immediately or our alliance will be ended.”
“I’ve messaged her multiple times, but I’ll send one more.” Fynea tapped on tablet. “She would’ve answered by now—or one of her assistants should have. You’re right. I think she’s dead.”
I hadn’t even been thinking of her or why she wasn’t around, but if both Fynea and Lorne agreed, then they were probably right.
If the Supreme Leader of the Yhona was dead, then who was in charge?
“Something happened on this planet, and it feels like total disaster for the Yhona is looming,” Lorne muttered softly to himself. “I want to be far, far away from here.”
I was having the same feeling—the urge to run was getting stronger and stronger—but I couldn’t run without Audrey.
That didn’t mean that Lorne had to stay. “You’re the High King. Maybe I should follow this lead and you should head back—”
“You’re the High Queen.” He gave me a cocky grin that told me I’d be in trouble if I kept going down that line of argument. “Maybe I should follow this lead—”
I shoved him. “Well, if you’re going to be a jerk about it.”
Lorne raised a brow. “Good. We both go and we take our teams. As planned. I’m not afraid of the Yhona or any of our soon-to-be former allies, but I am concerned about the fact that we know SpaceTech’s weapons are on this planet and that we’re walking into a very dangerous situation for you.”
“I’ll be okay.” I wasn’t actually sure if that was true, but it felt truish. Or at least, true-adjacent. Because no matter what happened next, I’d fight to be okay. That was part of being a di Aetes.
We had only a few more minutes before we landed at the capital building in Yhonie-atala. Like SpaceTech, I needed a p
lan plus a couple of backups. Running into a situation without any preparation because I was scared for my friend was dumb. Really dumb.
There was a meeting of the alliance happening inside the building. Our people had found bombs planted in the building. We had no firm lead on Audrey. None of this felt right and—
“No, you don’t.” Lorne ran his finger down my cheek.
“No, I don’t what?”
“I can feel your worry, and it won’t help us.”
I blew out a breath. “I need a plan. A backup in case it goes wrong in there.”
Lorne stared at me for a moment, and for a second, I didn’t think he was going to say anything. But then he did. “Life will break and destroy every plan you try to make. Today we’re walking into a universe of unknowns and there aren’t any plans we can make. The only thing we can do is keep going, stay alert, and blow up anything that looks remotely like a SpaceTech weapon. We will figure out whatever happens next as it happens. Together.”
As our small convoy of on-planet vehicles landed on the roof of the capital building, I truly hoped Lorne was right that we could figure it out as we went.
Because I was walking into this fight with no plan and Audrey’s life was at stake.
I looked out the window as the vehicle powered down and watched as Yhona’s version of police flowed out of the rooftop door, surrounding the ship, weapons drawn.
For all the Yhona preached about peace, their police looked scared yet well armed. Scared people were the most dangerous. They were unpredictable.
“I’ve called and messaged every Yhona leader that I have information for,” Fynea said. “They’re either ignoring us or dead. Judging from the welcome we’re getting, I’d bet on the latter.”
That’s not a bet I would take. I’d never dealt with the Yhona before, but there was no way any leader would ignore everything that had happened since our arrival, even if they were the biggest pacifists. Melina should’ve at least shown up to calm the situation. She hadn’t, and apparently, no other leaders were stepping up. Dead or not, that really left only one option in my mind—SpaceTech was definitely running this place.
The question was—how many other allies had they taken control of? Because from what I’d seen so far, it seemed like all of the other Aunare allies were either too weak to stand up to SpaceTech or had already chosen against us.
“We should talk to them,” I said, pointing out of the window. “We should show them who they’re dealing with and that they either help us or fight us. I’m honestly okay either way.” But they were going to tell me who had picked Audrey up from the house and where they’d gone.
“Agree.” Lorne placed his hand on the panel by the door and it slid open. “Let’s go.”
Roan reached across the vehicle and held out his hand to me. “Here. You’re going to need this.” In his palm was my translator.
“Thank you.” I popped it into my ear, and noticed everyone else was doing the same.
Good. No miscommunications here.
Our guards filed out of the vehicles, forming a ring around us with only a slight opening in the front so that Lorne and I could talk to the Yhona police officers on the roof.
I wasn’t sure which one was the leader, but I kept my gaze forward. “We need to speak with Supreme Leader Melina Ze Eta Yhona. Immediately.” I knew we thought she was probably dead, but we didn’t know that for sure. She was still the official leader of the Yhona.
The man in front of me stared for a moment and then looked to my right. “I’m sorry, sir,” he said to Lorne. “Amihanna di Aetes is in violation of the contract for mutual protection. We have orders to arrest her on sight.”
The translator worked seamlessly. I could hear the Yhona’s more brash and vowel-heavy language underneath the Earther English. It took a second for me to adjust to the translation, then one more to process what they’d said, then I laughed.
They weren’t seriously going to try to arrest me. There’s no way they were that stupid.
“Please send her this way.”
I stopped laughing.
Yes. Yes, they were that stupid.
“You mean my wife, the High Queen of the Aunare?” Lorne’s tone was filled with frost. “You’re asking me to hand her over because of a violation of the contract for mutual protection, which we never agreed to? In case you’re not following, that means she’s not liable under the contract for mutual protection.” Lorne gave him a single moment to process that. “I suggest you rethink your orders.”
The man swallowed, and I felt sorry for him. He was not prepared for this, and he probably didn’t get paid enough to deal with it either.
SpaceTech had many victims, and I wasn’t about to let this man—or myself—become another.
I would’ve said the one who spoke to us was the highest ranking of the police since he was speaking, but he kept looking to the man three over from him. The Yhona did things differently than anyone else I’d dealt with, and normally, that was fine. To each their own. But when leaders hide behind their people that pissed me off.
So, I turned to the man three officers over. “You’re the real leader here? You’re in charge?”
This man looked nervous but wasn’t a sweaty mess kind of nervous. “Yes.”
“Perfect.” I started toward him, but Lorne gripped my arm.
I patted it. This was going to be fine. I kept walking, but Lorne stayed glued to my side, and I could feel Ashino and Eshrin and the rest of our guards moving with us.
“Since we arrived, we’ve been attacked in the house we were renting. That didn’t go well for SpaceTech. We found out that you have a black market and went to it. While there, we found SpaceTech’s lucole-based bioweapons, and then were attacked again. And now, one of my dearest friends and a number of our staff have been kidnapped.” I looked him in the eyes and hoped he saw how serious I was right now. “I’ve got enough anger and adrenaline brewing inside me to keep fighting for days. We’re coming here for information. We need to know every ship, car, or vehicle that went to the house we rented in the last four and a half hours. If I were you, I’d make a smart choice and tell us willingly. Otherwise, I have no problem taking the information I need by force.”
The police leader paled as he took a small step back. “You have proof of all of this?”
“Of course. Recordings. Physical evidence.” I glanced back at Roan. “Can you pull up a sample?”
Roan huffed. “It’s like you don’t know me anymore.” He stepped in front of me, tablet out. “This is a short clip from both attacks.”
I didn’t know what he was playing exactly, but I heard the sounds of a fight coming from the tablet.
The man was staring at the ground by the time the vid was over. I wasn’t sure if he was sad, scared, or angry, but I could feel him caving to what we needed.
“We came at the request of your Supreme Leader Melina Ze Eta Yhona, and yet, we haven’t seen her once. We came in peace, and yet all we’ve gotten are attacks. We never agreed to your contract for mutual protection, and yet here you are, insisting that I go to jail for violating it. Which I haven’t because I’ve always been attacked first.” I took a breath. “I’m ready to leave your planet and never see you again, but I won’t stand by and let one of ours be taken. Audrey Paris isn’t just another lab tech. She’s one of my dearest friends. We need her and her colleagues back. Now. And if you stand in my way for much longer and something happens to her, I will blame you.”
There was quiet on the roof for a while. I slid my hands into my pockets, ready to pull my faksano out.
But then the police leader nodded at me and waved a hand at his officers. “If you’ll follow me, I’ll take you to our headquarters where your security staff is currently meeting with the Yhonaian head of the military. It seems there’ve been a number of bombs located with the bioweapon you just mentioned, in our meeting room and a number of the adjoining rooms. They’ve kept us busy all night and day, and it seems that while I
was busy with that, there’s been more going on that I wasn’t aware of.”
I glanced back at Lorne. “Imagine that.” I turned back to the man. “And I’m the one to be blamed for that? For placing bioweapons that would hurt the Aunare most of all?”
He shook his head. “No. Clearly they were placed by SpaceTech. It was their tech, but I’ve been trying to get Beta Omo to ask SpaceTech to leave. They did agree to the contract for mutual protection, and they’re in direct violation of it.” He pressed his lips together before speaking again. “Beta Omo is refusing to even bring up the violations to SpaceTech.”
“Imagine that. So, are we allies?”
The police officer met my gaze. “I hope so because if you’re not, then I don’t know how to save my people from SpaceTech. Our leaders…” He pressed his mouth shut again. “I hope we can be allies again.”
“Good.” I took my hands from my pockets without pulling out my faksano, and I knew it was a risk—this could still be a trap—but I didn’t think so. The man I was staring at was one destroyed by SpaceTech. I could see it in him, but there was time for him and his people.
And still, just in case, I gave him one of my not-so-friendly smiles. “I don’t need a weapon to turn you to a pile of bloody mush at my feet, but I like showing a little restraint sometimes. We’ll go with you now, but you’re not going to want to upset me when I’m already on edge.”
The leader looked around us, and then did something I wasn’t expecting. He pressed his fist to his heart and bowed. “I regret the attacks that have happened against you on our planet. If Melina was around, none of this would’ve happened, but I cannot find her.” He let out a breath. “I would be indebted if you would help us, but first, I’ll help you find your friend. You might need your weapons beyond here, but not because of us.” He motioned to the officers forming a line on either side of him.
I took a moment to study their faces, hoping I could remember who not to kill if things got bad.
The police leader turned back to the roof entrance of the capital building and opened the door.
I signaled to our guards. Caution. Extreme danger. I knew I didn’t need to, but they were following me into someplace dangerous, and I didn’t want to lose anyone today.
