by S. E. Weir
Barnabas tilted his head in curiosity. “You three believe you know what the Empress has planned for Phina?”
Shaw nodded. “We’ve discussed it. We believe the course ahead is what makes the most sense. We think she will need all the help we can give her, even if it’s from the background or the sidelines.”
He glanced at Phina and found her staring at him. He smiled reassuringly. It didn’t matter if she returned his feelings. It didn’t matter if he remained in the background while she pursued the truth. It didn’t even matter if he would ever see her again.
She was a dark angel.
Shaw believed she was as worthy of following and supporting as the Empress. Phina was a protector of others and a seeker of the truth. She would find that Kurtherian eventually. He knew she wouldn’t stop until she did.
“Very well,” Barnabas responded, pulling Shaw’s attention back to him. “The Empress agrees. But if you ever leave Spy Corps, we will revisit this conversation.”
Shaw nodded in satisfaction as he stood. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Barnabas assessed Shaw critically and nodded. “I don’t believe you will let us down.”
High praise from someone in the Empress’ circle of trust. He gave them both a nod, then turned to exit the room with a lingering glance at Phina, feeling a remarkable sense of clarity.
He no longer felt conflicted. His feelings for Phina and his duty to the Empire were perfectly aligned.
Etheric Empire, QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Phina’s Apartment (One Week Later)
When Phina had finished explaining the events of everything that had happened, Todd remained quiet as they sat cuddled on the couch for several moments in contemplation.
He ran his fingers up and down Phina’s arm soothingly while he thought. After a time, Phina lifted her head off of his chest and turned in the circle of his arm.
“Tell me what you are thinking?” she asked softly.
He shot her an amused glance. “You could just read my thoughts.”
“I could.” She rested her chin on his chest, her eyes focused on him. “We are still mentally connected, so it would be easy. I’ve recently come to understand that I shouldn’t take this ability for granted or use it lightly. I also don’t want there to be misunderstandings between us. If you want me to read your mind I will, but right now, I would rather have the conversation.”
“All right. I’m still mulling everything over, but the first question that comes to mind is, are you certain this Kurtherian killed your parents?”
Phina frowned. “I was certain at the time. The glimpses I caught were difficult to understand. She had seen them at some point. They were in her mind.”
She paused and rose from the couch to pace as she put her thoughts together. “When I said she took my parents from me, she didn’t deny it. When I said she was a murderer, she told me they were tools to be discarded.”
“But you aren’t sure she killed them?” he pressed.
Phina shot him a pained grimace and threw her hands up. “She was involved at the very least. If nothing else, she may have answers as to what happened to them.”
“That’s fair to say.”
She shifted uncertainly. “Why is it so important to you to make sure of the answer?”
Todd held out his hand, and Phina sat down next to him again. “There are a couple of reasons. The first is that I wanted you to be sure of what you saw. If she did kill them, you needed to know it and not be plagued with uncertainty. However, since you aren’t sure, you will need to find out the answer.”
“True. All right. And the other?”
He squeezed her hand gently. “I wanted to be certain that you aren’t going to drive yourself to madness with an obsession about catching her. Find the answers, yes, but obsessions are dangerous for the person who has them.”
Phina nodded thoughtfully. “Fair enough. I’ll keep those thoughts in mind.”
“Thank you. Now my next question has to do with Shaw.”
She turned to him warily. “What about him?”
“You talked around it, but I got the sense that something more personal happened between you.” He regarded her steadily.
Phina scowled. “I didn’t cheat on you. That’s not the kind of person I am.”
Todd smiled in amusement. “I am relieved to hear it, although that wasn’t what I was implying.”
Phina poked his chest, a silent acknowledgment that he had succeeded in poking one of her buttons. She sighed.
“It was difficult and awkward. I had to read his mind thoroughly to make certain that he was not the traitor. While I had caught signs indicating that he had a fondness for me, it was inescapably clear that the feelings were deeper once I had read his mind. He knew that I saw it in his thoughts but brushed it aside at the time since things were happening so quickly. I went along with that since I didn’t know what to say.”
“I can see that.” He worked to control his heart rate. “And later?”
Phina grimaced and flapped a hand. “There was no time to talk about anything but resolving the chaos and making sure everyone was healed. The agents all had understandable confusion as to what had happened and didn’t know how to treat me before we adjusted their memories. Shaw was busy becoming the only beta agent and keeping things organized. The first time we had a chance to talk was several days later when he came in for the memory suppression.”
Todd frowned in speculation. “So, he’s forgotten everything?”
“No.” Phina peered at him and shook her head, her eyes sad. Todd gently squeezed her hand in comfort. “Shaw said I wasn’t responsible for his feelings, but they were his, and he wanted to keep them. He told Barnabas he could do more to help and support me and his alpha agents by remembering what happened.”
“He was always a man of convictions and had a strong sense of duty and responsibility,” Todd reasoned.
Phina nodded.
“Do you have feelings for him?”
Her head shot up. She opened and shut her mouth, her face morphing from bewilderment to certainty.
Todd decided he must be completely infatuated because he found it adorable, which was not something he would ever admit to anyone but Phina.
Phina shrugged. “I think I could have in another lifetime, and I can’t deny there was a tug there. My heart is too filled with you to give it any weight, though, so it was easy to ignore.”
The tension in Todd’s body dissipated, and he gently squeezed her hand again. “I am, of course, relieved to hear that.”
She raised an eyebrow quizzically. “Did you have any doubt?”
“No, but I could tell something had happened based on how you talked about him, so I wanted to clear the air instead of allowing the subject to become a cause for insecurity.”
Comprehension dawned on her face, and she winced. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up painful memories for you.”
Todd grinned. “Trust me, Phina, you are not at all like my ex. In hindsight, she was too focused on the superficial. You are the complete opposite.”
Phina smiled with appreciation. “Thank you. I’ve never really cared about my appearance, but I always wanted to be someone who does things that matter.”
He tightened his arms around her. “You are that person.”
Her smile grew into a huge grin. “You are overflowing with compliments tonight. Thank you.” She slipped her arms around his waist and leaned her head against his chest.
Todd reflected on the direction his thoughts had taken while Phina had been away and again as soon as she had returned. It had been as if she hadn’t even left, aside from having new stories to tell him. Being with her was right in a way it had never been with his ex-wife.
He leaned back and gazed into her eyes. He saw that same certainty in her.
“Phina, I wasn’t going to do this just yet, but now seems like the perfect time.”
“Time for what?” She frowned but waited as patiently as she eve
r did when she wasn’t focused on maintaining her mask.
Todd let go of her, pulled a small box out of his pocket, and opened it for her. “Will you marry me?”
Her eyes rounded with shock and surprise, but she threw her arms around him. “Yes! Of course.”
He pulled her close and glanced ruefully at the ring, which Phina hadn’t even looked at. The black tungsten band was inset with four black diamonds and a deep-green square-cut diamond the color of Phina’s eyes graced the middle, twice the size of the rest.
Todd had gotten the gems in the first shipment from Lyriasha and had worked with the jeweler for weeks to make sure the ring was beautiful, felt right, and wouldn’t get in her way during her spy work. He shook his head with an inward chuckle and held her closer.
No. His Phina was not a superficial woman.
Etheric Empire, QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Bethany Anne’s Office
“So, we have resolved our questions about your aunt and all those intersections you noticed during the events of the past few years. Now it’s time to consider the future.” The Empress had a gleam in her eye as she munched on a brownie and sipped a Coke.
“Yes.” Phina sat straight in her seat, feeling unsettled. She smelled the chocolate from the brownies and wished she could eat one, but her nerves wouldn’t let her.
Bethany Anne gestured at the ring on Phina’s hand. “Speaking of the future, best wishes!”
“Thank you.” Phina glanced at her beautiful ring and smiled, remembering how Todd had beamed with happiness after he’d proposed. Since her birthday had passed during the mission, her friends had celebrated their engagement and her twenty-first birthday the day before.
“Did you decide when to have the wedding?” Bethany Anne asked.
“Soon. Neither of us has any living relatives, only our chosen family and friends.” Phina grinned. “Since the only request I had aside from who we invited was to not wear high heels, it isn’t going to be a very formal wedding.”
Bethany Anne laughed as she waved her last bite in the air. “Well, I was going to give you a pair of Louboutins as a gift, but I’ll save them for someone more appreciative.”
Phina chuckled in surprise. “Well, thank you for the thought. You’re right; someone else would appreciate them more.”
The Empress popped the last bite of brownie in her mouth and dusted the crumbs off onto her plate.
Bethany Anne fixed Phina with a contemplative look. “So, the future. Specifically, your future.”
Phina couldn’t help noticing parallels between now and when she had been called in front of Anna Elizabeth years before to discuss what would happen to her. Phina still felt nervous anticipation as to what the future might hold, but so much else had changed.
“I am forming a unique team, and I would like you to lead it.”
Phina blinked. Talk about déjà vu, though this was a twist.
“I wouldn’t have thought I would be experienced enough yet to lead a team.” Phina frowned. “Anna Elizabeth told me I would be a part of a diplomatic team that would also be a part of spy missions, but this doesn’t sound like the same thing.”
“I know. I decided to commandeer that team and change the objective.” Bethany Anne glanced at the empty brownie plate as if hoping another one would magically appear.
“All right.” Phina spoke cautiously. “What would be its purpose?”
Bethany Anne straightened in her chair and resumed her persona as the Empress, not just the friend she was becoming. “To track that scheming Kurtherian down.”
“Ah, I see.” Phina did. Kurtherians were historically very difficult to find, and this one liked to use proxies, which made tracking her even harder.
“Yes!” Bethany Anne got to her feet and began pacing, her eyes glowing red. “I want Justice for your parents, your aunt, Jack Kaiser, the Balderians, the Aurians, the Qendrok, Spy Corps, and everyone else that malignant fucking crotch-goblin has screwed over.”
“I do too,” Phina agreed. “However, I don’t think this will be a quick and easy mission.”
The Empress nodded as she turned to look out of the large window that gave an unobstructed view of the stars. “You are right. This will probably take years, perhaps decades. She hides too easily, she has had who knows how long to hide and gather resources, and we only have what breadcrumbs she gave you.” She turned to look at Phina. “However, we have a place to start.”
“Yes.” Phina spoke firmly as she stood. “We do have to do something about her, but don’t you have someone more qualified to lead this team for you?”
Not that she didn’t desperately want to be on that team.
Bethany Anne shook her head gravely. “No, I don’t. Everyone else who has the experience to lead this team already has their tasks in our fight against the Kurtherian clan supporting the Leath. They have been at those tasks for years, some for decades, and most of those I trust have been at their jobs ever since we arrived here in this part of space.” She paused before continuing, “When we left Earth, I asked everyone if they would come and fight to end the Kurtherians, Ad Aeternitatem. You remember what that phrase means?”
“To eternity.”
The Empress nodded, her gaze filled with determination and strength. “That’s right. And it will be our fight until the end, however far in the future that end may be. I don’t have anyone else available who also has the knowledge, skills, abilities, connections, and compassion that you do.”
Phina glanced at her, startled.
The Empress smiled at her. “You could have killed Jack when you fought him. It was within your orders to do so since he was the traitor. Why didn’t you?”
“Because he thought she was you. She manipulated him. He showed a lack of judgment, but not a lack of loyalty.”
“Yes, and he will work even harder now to redeem himself once he has worked through his guilt.” Bethany Anne studied her expectantly. “That’s why I know you are the right person for the job. I know I can trust you without having to look over your shoulder.”
Phina felt a warmth inside that gave her an urge to rub her chest above her heart. She managed a smile, but she knew the Empress could read her mind if she chose to. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Bethany Anne returned her smile and turned back to the window. “I once told you that I needed to know if you would jump off a cliff if I asked you to jump.” She clasped her hands behind her back as she spoke. “This is that cliff, Phina. I need you to lead this team and find her for me. Will you jump?”
Phina took a deep breath and walked over to gaze out the window into the dark of space. She recalled a conversation to mind that had a similar view. She’d half-recalled a phrase she and Link had heard on an old television show, and Link had repeated it.
“‘I serve at the pleasure of the President.’”
“That’s the one. They say it proudly, they say it with love, and they say it with determination. But you know what they don’t say enough?”
“What?”
“How freaking hard it is.”
“Do you regret it? Do you wish she hadn’t told you to take care of it?”
“That’s the thing, Link. Swap a word, and it’s the Empress that phrase could be speaking about. It’s not a light matter to be tasked with an objective by the Empress, especially someone’s death, or enacting her Justice for those who have been wronged. It’s a heavy weight. It’s not just someone’s death then; it’s giving that death the meaning it deserves, the Justice that’s demanded.”
She’d paused.
“If given another task by the Empress, would I proudly serve with love and determination? Would I carry that heavy weight again?”
After considering, she’d answered her own question.
“I would, Link. I would do it again without a drop of regret.”
And I will, Phina thought fiercely. I will choose it every time. Her resolve crystallized as she gave her Empress and friend a sharp nod.
“Ad
Aeternitatum.”
The End
Etheric Adventures: Anne and Jinx
Have you read the Etheric Adventures of Anne and Jinx, from S.R. Russell and Michael Anderle? Book one is Etheric Recruit and it’s available at Amazon and through Kindle Unlimited.
Begin the adventure today!
Author Notes - S.E. Weir
August 16, 2021
Hello again! :) Thank you so much for reading not only this book and these author notes, but these four books of The Empress’ Spy. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all your support because it would take far more space than I think I’m allowed.
