Her father, later that night, praising Andi as she blocked his attack. “You’ve been practicing without me,” he said, hands flexing as he lunged forward and she slipped easily past him.
Arcardius, full of warmth and laughter and beauty.
Arcardius, full of Kalee’s screams and blood on Andi’s hands, hot and wrong and...
Andi blocked the memory like a hit, before it could fully form.
For years, she had been a soldier without a home, always on the run, too afraid to slow down for fear that the past would catch up to her. She’d turned herself into a criminal to survive. Set aside her honor in exchange for her life. Now she had a chance to eliminate the past. To find some honest work and stability for her crew.
“That’s it?” she asked. She crossed her arms over her chest.
The general nodded. “That’s it.”
Andi narrowed her eyes. There had to be a catch, some hidden detail that General Cortas wasn’t revealing. But she was out of choices. Her crew was somewhere in this very ship, surrounded by armed guards. One wrong move, and she’d have their blood on her hands, too.
She wouldn’t be able to come back from that.
“Swear it,” Andi said.
The general raised a brow. His lips tightened together.
“Swear it as you once made me swear,” Andi continued. “The Arcardian Vow.”
For a time, General Cortas simply stared at her. She imagined he was living through the same memory she was. A different time, a very different place, the two of them standing face-to-face inside the Shard—a sharp, crystalline tower that captured the sun and cast it across the room like living fire.
“I vow my life and my blood to protect Kalee Cortas,” Andi said.
General Cortas turned to face her, pride blazing in his eyes. She would not let him down.
The memory faded, and Andi met the general’s eyes as he recited the Vow. “I vow my life and my blood to honor the terms of our deal.”
Andi crossed her arms, cuffs clinking together.
“When do we leave?”
The general signaled for the cyborg woman again, who glided back to his side and straightened his sleek jacket as he stood. “I want my son back as soon as possible.”
“My ship needs repairs,” Andi said. “And we’ll need supplies. Enough for twice the haul to the Olen System and back, just in case we run into problems.” The job wasn’t going to take that long, but she might as well get supplies while she could.
“You’ll have what you need,” General Cortas said with a curt nod.
“I’ll also need more ammunition,” Andi said, remembering her promise to Lira before this all began. They would need it if they encountered the Olen System’s Rover ships. “There’s no telling what Queen Nor will throw at us once we gain entry to her system, let alone when we reach Lunamere.”
At that, the general smiled and looked not at Andi, but at Dex.
“The bounty hunter will take care of that for you,” General Cortas said, his voice dripping with sick satisfaction, “since he’ll be joining you on your mission.”
Chapter Eight
* * *
KLAREN
Year Sixteen
THE GIRL STOOD in her tower, bathed in darkness.
So many years she’d waited. So many dreams she’d endured.
The girl had grown, eighteen years strong. Tonight, she was a willing, worthy sacrifice, with blood the color of the silver weapon hidden in the folds of her cloak.
She could feel, more than see, the other Yielded around her. A trio of bodies each to her left and to her right as they all watched the Conduit swirl far below.
The girl lifted her chin a little higher. She would not tremble, like the Yielded to her left. She would not boast, like the Yielded to her right.
Tonight, she would conquer the Yielding.
And then she would conquer the world beyond this tower, the wind at her back, the fire of hope igniting inside her veins. From the moment of her birth, the girl had known it would be her path to pave.
Her journey to take, through the Conduit.
“When will it begin?” one of the others asked. “When will we be chosen?”
The girl waited, watching the swirling sea below. It spread as far as she could see, a blanket of black, made thicker by the absence of the moon.
She sensed it a moment before it began.
“There,” one of the Yielded whispered. “It begins.”
A single blue flame flickered to life in the center of the sea. The color spread, churning, until the Conduit looked like a raging whirlpool of hues. A sea of darkness transformed into sweeping, glittering light.
Around her, the Yielded shifted. Breaths released. Hands began to shake. But the girl’s heart simply fluttered, as if sensing what was soon to come. She’d already seen it in her dreams.
She watched, eyes unblinking, as the Conduit began to stretch, sending floating orbs of its light into the sky.
They trailed higher, catching the wind. Dancing like souls released to the stars.
Soon, the orbs would shift. Soon, they would choose the one worthy of the journey.
The girl was ready, reaching into the folds of her cloak as the orbs began to form a trail in the sky. They rose, higher, higher, like the tail of a blazing star. When they got high enough, they would reach the top of the tower. And then they would choose.
The girl’s dreams told her it would be her. But she had to be certain. She would not leave the hope of her people up to fate.
As the first orbs began to reach the top of the tower, she slid the blade from her cloak. It was silent, not even a hiss as it grazed across the sleek fabric.
“The dreams are true,” she whispered.
Then she went about the room, sliding her blade across Yielded throats.
Taking precious lives.
It was too easy, just as her dreams had promised. Each year, there would be more Yieldings, more chosen. But she would now be the first.
When the girl was done, crumpled bodies silent at her feet, she stepped over them. As she pressed her bloody palms to the glass of the tower, steam swam across it like a cloud.
Outside, the orbs from the Conduit had gathered in the sky to form an arrow, lighting her up like a beacon. Revealing her to the thousands of beings gathered far below. She could feel them roar, so loudly the glass trembled, as she was chosen.
The Yielding was over.
The Conduit had chosen.
And only the girl remained.
Chapter Nine
* * *
DEX
“THE HELL I AM!” Dex leaped to his feet.
That old, sagging, sneaking bastard.
“Will that be an issue, Dextro?” The general smiled like a Soleran ice wolf, pale blue eyes crinkling at the corners as he looked to Dex. “You will be joining Androma on her mission to make sure she stays in line and doesn’t escape. I’ve already lost one child to her foolishness. I won’t lose another.”
Dex cursed inwardly.
He should have known better than to scheme with the general of Arcardius after all that he’d heard about the man—the decorated soldier with the ability to weasel his way into getting what he wanted by twisting words and blackmailing anyone who stood in his way. An ability few witnessed, but many whispered about. General Cyprian Cortas was a walking, talking hypocrite of the Arcardian way of honor.
“We had a deal,” Dex said through gritted teeth.
“And the deal will still be honored. The terms have simply been...” the general waved a hand, as if dismissing their old agreement “...extended.”
“I could kill her,” Dex snarled. “And then what would you do to get back your precious son?” He glanced sideways at Andi, who was now on her feet, too, hands balling into fists as if p
reparing for a fight that Dex wasn’t sure he would actually win.
“Ah,” Andi said, “but we both know how that would go.” She smiled at him mockingly.
Dex felt his own hands curling up, the blades in his gloves begging to slip free and find their mark across her throat.
Instead, Dex turned back to the general.
“She’s plenty capable of doing this job on her own. I am not a babysitter.” He’d played his part; the job was supposed to be done.
General Cortas raised a graying brow. “Do you want your money or not, bounty hunter?”
So he was going to play it that way. Dex sighed. “You have thousands of men and women at your command. Why not pick one of them to escort her? She’ll probably eject me from the ship the moment we get out of range. You know that.” It would be an incredibly Androma thing to do.
“Then you’d better stay alert,” the general suggested.
“Do I get any say in who is coming onto my ship?” Andi said, arms held up in exasperation, cuffs glowing bright.
Dex whirled on her. “It’s not your ship.”
“Finders, keepers, Dextro.”
“Enough!” General Cortas barked out. He approached the camera on his side, his face growing large enough on the screen that Dex could see his eyes give a sudden twitch.
“You can go with her, Mr. Arez, and get your money and stay in the government’s good graces when the job is done, or you can leave here with nothing. Keep in mind that I am your greatest hope of being reinstated as a Guardian. The choice is yours.”
Dex was truly and thoroughly screwed if he rejected this job. Not only would he lose a cargoload of Krevs, but everything he had gone through to get to this moment, when he was so close to regaining his Guardian title that he could almost taste it, would all have been for nothing. Not unless he played the general’s awful little game and teamed up with the very person who’d gotten his Guardianship stripped from him in the first place.
His guts roiled just thinking of soaring away from here with Androma Racella at his side, on board his ship. The very same one that she’d stolen from him three years ago, when she left him bleeding on that moon.
He’d survived. But she’d taken everything he loved.
This time, he was looking forward to taking back his ship and blasting off into space, leaving her behind to watch it go, to feel what he had felt.
He turned, slowly, to look at Andi now.
She seemed frozen. Trapped. And yet he knew, deep in that mind of hers, she was coming up with some sort of plan for revenge against him.
Dex sighed.
This was a battle he’d lost against the general. But there was payment and his reputation on the line, two things he valued more than anything else in this life.
He wouldn’t go down without a fight.
He’d caught her, just as he’d set out to do. Now he just had to keep her in his grasp a little longer, until the job was done.
And ensure that she didn’t try to kill him. Again.
So Dex Arez, the greatest bounty hunter in the Mirabel Galaxy, stared deep into Andi’s moonlit eyes and winked at her as he said, “It’ll be just like old times, love.”
Chapter Ten
* * *
LIRA
THERE WEREN’T MANY things in this galaxy that Lira Mette hated.
A slow ship, though annoying at first, could always be altered to run faster, if she had the right parts and the right crew.
A wad of expired Moon Chew, though bitter as a cold Soleran night, could still give her just enough of a buzz to lift her spirits during a dull flight.
Even her captain’s temper, which was as vicious as an electric whip, could be channeled into something that made the crew of the Marauder great. Terrifying enough, even, to make people quake at the mention of their names.
But when it came to Dextro Arez?
Hate wasn’t a strong enough word to describe Lira’s feelings.
He was a merciless bounty hunter with no honor. A man who had shredded her best friend’s heart and left her bound in chains, leading her to escape and take up a life on the run. A bastard who could barely call himself a Tenebran Guardian after everything he’d done. She was glad he’d lost his title and his ship that night.
“That fool will never be a worthy Guardian,” Lira muttered under her breath, hatred swimming through her veins.
The sensation threw her off balance.
Hatred was a newer feeling to Lira, something she’d always been taught to extinguish the moment it tried to flicker to life. But now, in this moment, she latched on to it.
There were a lot of things she’d latched on to since leaving her home planet of Adhira.
“I hate him,” Lira said, testing the words on her tongue. “I find that I hate him very, very much.”
“Newsflash, Lir. We all do,” Breck said from her left. And though it was too dark for Lira to see her crewmate, she could imagine the snarl on Breck’s face. “We need to escape. We should be down there with Andi, setting her free.”
“And how do you propose we do that?” Lira asked.
The words weren’t harsh, but rather, inquisitive.
Knowledge, along with peace, was another trait Adhiran citizens were encouraged to pursue above all else. The desire to learn and grow, questioning the world around them at every given moment.
“I think,” Gilly said across from them, somewhere in the darkness, “that we should shove Breck down the ladder and let her crush those Patrolmen until all that’s left is their awful souls.”
“There’s a minor problem to that solution, Gil,” Breck said. “The cuffs.”
The little girl huffed in response. “We’ve gotten out of cuffs like these before.”
“Not with our captain imprisoned below,” Lira said.
All three of them were bound in electric cuffs, seated with their backs pressed up against the cold steel walls of the hallway that led to the ship’s bridge. Bodies still littered the floor around them from the fight, the smell of death starting to flood the narrow space.
Lira’s stomach quivered with equal parts disgust and frustration.
She didn’t believe in killing, didn’t believe in taking lives senselessly and sending the souls on to their next lives. That was for the Godstars to decide. Killing just wasn’t the way of Adhirans—many times growing up, Lira had heard her aunt recite the words that bound her people to a life of love and harmony. Peace, stretching as deep as the roots of the trees of Aramaeia. As tall as the Mountain of Rhymore.
But that was then, back on her home planet. This was now.
And life on the Marauder was a very, very different sort of thing. It had changed Lira little by little, marking her the way Andi marked death tallies on her swords. Lira doubted her family would even recognize the girl she had become in recent years.
And besides, these fallen Patrolmen around Lira hadn’t been killed by her hands. Andi, Breck and Gilly, sure. Lira aided them in bringing down their opponents. What happened after that was for the other girls to decide.
This was their ship. Their home. The Patrolmen had invaded it, threatening their hard-won freedom.
And as much as Lira’s old self frowned upon her to think it...those Patrolmen had deserved what they got.
“Well?” Breck asked. “What’s the plan, Lira?”
“We wait,” Lira said. Because for once, her mind had drawn a blank. She’d never been separate from her captain on a mission. Never had to actually take up the title of Second-in-Command. Especially not with invaders on their ship. And especially not while in restraints.
“Like hell we wait!” Breck rasped.
Down below, the sound of laughing guards trickled up through the hole in the floor where the ladder stood.
Mountain of Rhymore, Lira thought. How can they actua
lly be laughing at a time like this?
There was no humor in Andi being captured, a prisoner to Dextro Arez somewhere on one of the lower decks, separated from her crew and facing the stars knew what. Even now, Lira could feel the hole in her chest where Andi was missing. Like a stitch had come loose in her heart, and soon she might unravel. The other girls, too.
Blood relation or not, Andi was part of their family. And families were never meant to be torn apart.
Lon would agree with that statement, Lira’s old self whispered from the back of her mind.
She shook that whisper away. This wasn’t about Lon. This wasn’t about the past. This was about here and now.
About getting free.
They would get out of this. Wouldn’t they? Lira racked her brain, searching for a solution, a way out. But she came up empty each time.
Gilly sighed. “I’m losing feeling in my ass, you guys. I need to move.”
“Don’t say ass, Gil,” Breck chided.
“But you called Dex one!”
“That’s because it’s his name. Along with brainless bastard and soulless shite and...”
The girls’ words trailed off as Lira retreated back into her mind. It was a silent place, calm and controlled. Just like her hands guiding a ship’s throttle, nothing but space and stars spread out before her.
With her eyes closed, her head leaning back against the cool metal, Lira cycled through the timeline of today’s events, wondering where she’d gone wrong. Wondering how she could have saved the crew from this fate. If only she’d flown the ship with more finesse. If only she’d figured out a way to enhance the rear thrusters or shed more weight from the cargo bay or...
She clenched her fists. The blue scales scattered across the surface of her arms and neck began to glow a deep purple, shedding light into the cramped space. Steam rose from her skin as the heat intensified.
Anger.
An emotion that sidled up against the hatred like an old, cherished friend. Lira hadn’t felt anger in months. She’d always worked to control it, because deep emotions like anger led to a reaction in her blood, and that reaction led to Lira burning holes in her clothing as the scaled patches on her skin got hotter.
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