Shattered Stars

by Theresa Kay

  ANOTHER NIGHT BRINGS MORE DREAMS. Of Jace. Of Jastren. Of darkness. And then a breeze pushes it all away, replacing it with a gentle, flowing sensation of weightlessness. Only in the later part of the night, when I’m drifting on that wind of light, do I manage to get any real sleep. Not enough of it, but some.

  We have… permission to go to the city to speak with the E’rikon, and the morning brings a whirlwind of activity as we prepare to leave. The transportation problem hasn’t been addressed, but the warehouse Gavin is leading us to now is supposed to solve that problem.

  I’m expecting a truck, but as the large bay door slides upward, my jaw drops. They have a ship—an E’rikon ship. Not as pretty and shiny as the others I’ve seen, but definitely E’rikon.

  “What. The. Hell.” I turn to Gavin. So do Lir and Rym, shock and apprehension written on their faces.

  Gavin shrugs. “I didn’t know about it either. Not until yesterday. Apparently it’s an older model or something.”

  Lir steps into the hangar and circles around the ship. “It is. Maybe even pre-Collapse. Where did it come from?” His tone and expression are mild, but a frigid suspicion rolls through the bond.

  “Dr. Mitchell,” says Gavin. “It was some sort of agreement between him and General Carter. I think it might be the ship Jax’s grandmother arrived in.”

  “That is entirely possible.” Rym circles the ship behind Lir and runs his hand along the metal. He pauses at the front of the ship and leans forward to look down the length of it. “I would have to check out the inside to be sure, but it definitely appears to be one of the old interstellar jumpers.”

  Lir nods and clasps his hands behind his back. He shares a pointed look with his cousin before turning back to Gavin. “Am I to assume this is the transportation we are expected to use?”

  Gavin opens his mouth to respond, but before he can say anything, Harrison and two armed men I don’t recognize walk to Gavin’s side, salute him, and then fall in behind him. What the…?

  Lir tenses and huffs out a breath next to me. “This is going to be a disaster.”

  I can’t help but agree. This is supposed to be a peaceful mission, and guns don’t exactly say “peaceful.” I expected Gavin and Harrison to come along; General Carter implied that was a requirement. But what are these other guys doing here, and why doesn’t Gavin appear the least bit surprised to see them?

  No matter where Trel’s sympathies may lie, we’ll need Vitrad to be on our side too, and meeting with armed humans he doesn’t know isn’t going to help with that. Especially considering the last humans in the city he knows about kidnapped his daughter and his niece. I trust Gavin and Harrison to understand the delicacy of the situation we’re facing with Vitrad, but these other guys… not so much.

  Gavin meets my eyes and jerks his chin to the side. I follow him a few feet away. “I’m sorry,” he says in a low voice. “I did what I could. I would have preferred to have men from my unit, but the general insisted I bring along a couple from Captain Bell’s unit instead.”

  “And the guns?” I ask.

  He shrugs. “They insisted they had orders, and I wasn’t in a position to countermand them.”

  When we move back to the ship, Lir’s rubbing the bridge of his nose with two fingers. He sighs. Loudly.

  At the sound, Rym finally pulls his attention away from the ship. “Are we ready to go…” He trails off as he sees the group of armed men, then continues in a wry tone, “… make the best peace deal ever?”

  “Treaty,” says Lir. “It is called a treaty, and,” he lowers his voice, “that depends on your father at this point.”

  Something pokes at the link—or rather, someone. Rym’s looking at me expectantly, eyebrows raised and jerking his chin toward Lir. I shrug, and he rolls his eyes. “Damn inconvenient not being able to discuss things privately with my cousin.”

  I shoot him a glare. “Using me as an intermediary isn’t exactly private.”

  “Well, that is true.” His shoulders slump, and he gives another exaggerated roll of his eyes. “I guess we’ll have to do it the old-fashioned way.”

  Lir chuckles, and I shake my head.

  “Seriously, Lir… can I speak with you somewhere we can avoid listening ears?”

  Lir glances at me.

  Go. You can fill me in later if you need to.

  He nods and gestures for Rym to follow him back toward the street we came from.

  “That’s still strange to watch,” says Gavin. At my confused look, he clarifies, “That whole mental speaking thing. That’s what you were doing, right?”

  “Yeah.” I shrug. “I guess I’m used to it now.”

  “Why can’t they talk to each other that way?”

  I shuffle my feet and glance at the two strangers from the corner of my eye. “The telepathy is tied to the kitus. Lir’s is… broken.”

  “Got it.” His voice drops. “I have some information you and your friends should know about.”

  “There are things you should probably know too. About this mission and about the city. But I don’t want to say anything here.” I shift my eyes toward the two men again. “Is there any way to get rid of them?”

  Gavin releases a breath through his teeth. “Unfortunately not. The general claimed they were ‘guards’ for everyone’s safety, but I think they’re more like insurance to make sure this thing goes through.”

  I eye the men again. “And how exactly would they make it happen?”

  He jerks his head to the side and motions for Harrison to follow. The three of us walk to the opposite corner of the building. “I’m not sure, but whatever they’ve been tasked with probably isn’t going to be particularly diplomatic,” he says.

  “Has anything Lir said gotten through?” I ask. “I mean, the E’rikon could wipe this base off the map and not even break a sweat. Vitrad will already…” I trail off.

  “Will already what?” Harrison asks.

  I hold up a finger and glance at Lir across the way. Harrison needs to know what we’re up against in the city. How much is okay to tell him?

  In the distance, Lir runs a hand over his face. Tell him as much as you think necessary. I doubt he will do anything to make things worse.

  I nod and turn back to Harrison. “Vitrad isn’t going to be thrilled about seeing his nephew, especially not in the company of humans, much less armed ones.”

  Gavin nods. He already knows most of this. But Harrison’s brow furrows. “I thought he was an emissary?”

  “Yeah,” I say in a flat voice. “That was a bit of a stretch on Gavin’s part. It was great for not getting us locked up or shot, but not so great for Lir in the long run. He’s revealed as much as he dares without getting into things that could reflect badly on the E’rikon. To say that Lir and his uncle don’t get along is an understatement. Vitrad had him locked up for weeks after Lir got me into the city, and most of the E’rikon believe him to be a traitor for siding with the humans after the whole blowing things up part.”

  “Blowing things up?” Harrison asks.

  “We’re still not sure who did what, but there was an attack in the city. Vitrad blamed the humans. It wasn’t Dane, and I doubt it was your people either. Lir and Rym believe it was Vitrad trying to gain control, which, if true, doesn’t bode well for any peace treaty being negotiated by Lir.”

  Gavin’s gaze goes to the men standing by the ship. “Now I understand your concern.” He glances at Harrison. “Any ideas on how we can ‘accidentally’ leave them behind?”

  Harrison rubs his chin. “We can’t leave them here—too obvious. What if we had a stop along the way?”

  They glance at me. “That’s actually a great idea,” I say. “I wanted to make a stop at Peter’s cabin anyway, to check on him and maybe pick something up. I’ve been worried about him, so it’ll be a good excuse. We’ll make sure they end up staying there somehow.”

  “I suppose you can relay that plan to our pilot?”

  I tap one finger against
my temple. “Maybe not silently, but I know how to be discreet.”

  Lir and Rym are walking back toward the ship, so Gavin, Harrison, and I return as well. Lir still looks worried, but not as desperate as before. I guess having Rym there to act as a kind of buffer between him and Vitrad might be helpful—though I’m not sure how helpful.

  The other men offer up terse smiles as we all climb on board, but they don’t bother to introduce themselves. They shuffle to the rear of the ship and take seats in the back row.

  This ship isn’t as big as the one Jace stole, but it still has four rows of seats in addition to the cockpit area. Gavin and Harrision sit in the second row, and Lir in the first row. I begin to follow Lir, but Rym nudges me with his shoulder and jerks his chin toward the front.

  “You’re joining me up there,” he says. His expression says not to argue, so I simply follow him into the cockpit area and take one of the two seats.

  Rym waves his kitu over the instrument panel, and a thin, semi-transparent barrier comes down from the ceiling, separating the cockpit from the rest of the cabin.

  Rym smiles. “Thought a little privacy might be in order.”

  “I assume they can’t hear us back there?”

  “Nope.”

  I eye the barrier. “We’re making a stop on the way. Do you remember how to get to Peter’s cabin?”

  He grins. “Ditching the dead weight?”

  “Exactly.”

  “No worries. I know where to go.” Rym makes another motion, and the barrier goes from transparent to cloudy. He wiggles his eyebrows. “Lir thought it might be a good idea if you attempted some flying lessons.”

  “Flying lessons?”

  He shrugs. “You’re apparently a walking kitu, so presumably you should be able to fly this thing, or any other ships we might happen upon.” He throws his hands out and winks. “After all, I can do it, so it can’t be that difficult.”

  Wait a second… he wants me to fly this thing? That’s the stupidest—and most terrifying—idea I’ve heard all day. I wipe my sweaty palms on my pants and take a small step backward. “No. That won’t work. I’m still dysfunctional,” I stammer. “You know that. I mean, I couldn’t even link with you out there in the courtyard. How exactly do you expect me to learn to fly this thing when I haven’t even mastered the basics?”

  Rym laughs. “The basics? Mind-to-mind communication isn’t exactly basic.”

  “Still, you want to risk everyone’s lives by letting me try to lift us up into the air and transport us hundreds of miles?”

  “Why not? What better motivator is there than a life-or-death situation?” His expression is perfectly serious for a moment, then a snorting laugh escapes his mouth.

  My first instinct is to punch his shoulder and laugh with him, but that’s what I would have done with Flint. Rym isn’t Flint.

  My face must show the dark direction my thoughts have taken, because Rym’s smile morphs from joking to… pity? Empathy? And it’s not just his face. I can feel the brush of… something at the back of my mind.

  And I catch the tail end of some stray thought or reassurance.

  … sorry.

  My eyes widen. Did I just? Did he just? I concentrate and try to find the connection again. Nothing. It’s gone. Dammit.

  “What was that?” he asks.

  I shake my head. “I’m not sure.”

  He stares at me in contemplation, but doesn’t say anything more. Turning back to the instrument panel, he places his kitu against a metal pad, and the ship powers up. As he takes off and starts the ship in the direction of Peter’s cabin, I just sit there in stunned silence.

  I definitely felt someone, and it wasn’t Lir. It had to have been Rym. But how? I’ve tried numerous times to link to other E’rikon, and failed every time. Except for Lir, I’ve only managed to link to hybrids, like Ethan and Jace. Why would this happen now? Has something changed? Or maybe Jastren placed some sort of block when he was fiddling around in my head before? Except, no—he desperately wanted to link with me himself, and wasn’t able to. I can’t imagine he would have placed a block that even he couldn’t get through.

  Whatever my dysfunction was, or is, it saved me from more in-depth manipulation by Jastren. My brother was not so lucky. In fact, maybe it was precisely my dysfunction that doomed my brother into becoming what he is now. If I’d been more normal, perhaps Jace would have… what? Been okay? Not gotten the full brunt of Jastren’s manipulation?

  And what about now? If I get the link the work, learn to access my abilities like I so desperately need to, will that leave me vulnerable to Jastren’s intrusions? If so, I could become a danger to everyone around me. I could become like Jace.

  THE FLIGHT TO PETER’S CABIN is longer than the one we took to get to the base, and the time drags by. Rym tries to pull me into conversation, but finally gives up after several attempts, and we sit in silence most of the way. After his unexpected intrusion into my mind—on top of everything else—my head is too jumbled for me to be much company. I’m certainly in no state to attempt to fly the ship. My eyes remain focused on my lap, and I can’t even find it in myself to enjoy the sensation of flying.

  This will be the first time I’ve been to Peter’s since Flint, Stu, and I left for Bridgelake. It feels like it was months ago; the bleak, empty hole that has replaced Flint’s presence stretches the time out. But it’s actually been less than two weeks. Flint has been dead barely three days. It seems both much longer and much shorter than that. Less than a week since I lost my brother. Less than a week since I lost a friend. A lifetime since my world felt normal.

  It’s astonishing how quickly things can change. Only a couple months ago my only concerns were hanging out with my brother, avoiding Emily, and escaping from Bridgelake before I got married off. Not that it ended up mattering. Dane paired me with Flint anyway, he was so desperate to… what? Have a hybrid grandchild? What was the point? He knew Flint was gay. He knew I was… not interested. What kind of deal had he struck with Jastren, and why was breeding hybrids so important to him?

  For that matter, why was it so important to Jastren? He personally manipulated my mother’s genetics to create an E’rikon with more than one enhancement, a trait that was passed down to Jace and I. Other hybrids wouldn’t have that trait, and so wouldn’t be nearly as powerful—so what use would he have for them?

  Unless he’s found another way to make super-powered hybrids…

  I bite down on my lip, thinking. “What do you know about Jastren’s experiments?”

  Rym glances at me from the corner of his eye and shrugs. “Not much. Only that his goal was to create more hybrids.”

  “Why would he want to do that? I get what my dad said about revenge, but how does creating more hybrids fit into that? Does it fit into that? There has to be something I haven’t thought of. Besides me and Jace, what’s so different about hybrids that he’d put so much time and effort into creating more?”

  He shrugs. “I really don’t know. You should, uh, ask your dad. He could—”

  “No.” I lean back and cross my arms over my chest.

  Rym turns his head, his eyebrows up. “You will have to talk to him sometime. He might not be your favorite person right now, but he’s in this as much as we are, and he probably knows more about the science end of things than anyone else at this point—human or E’rikon.” When I don’t respond, he continues. “Look, I get it, probably way more than anyone else. Your dad deserted you. Whether he meant to or not doesn’t matter. When… my mother died, my father checked out. He may as well have deserted me too. We were never close, even before that, but without her around he treated me like a stranger.”

  “I’m sorry.” I place a hand on his shoulder.

  “Your dad did an awful thing, but I think it’s time you forgive him.” His voice drops. “Give him a chance. You never know when it will be too late.”

  I sit silently and stare at his profile.

  He keeps his eyes forward, hi
s jaw tense, and takes a deep breath. “He wasn’t always like this. My dad, not yours. He was always distant with me, but never… crazy? Vengeful? A murderous lunatic?” A dry chuckle escapes his lips, and he glances at me. “I get the thing with your brother too. That hope you try to bury as far down as possible so it can’t be crushed anymore? I saw the look on your face as you watched the ship fly away. I know how it feels. My father tortured you. He tortured your brother. He tortured Lir. He more than likely murdered thousands in that explosion in the city, including his own sister. But damned if I don’t wish…”

  I gently squeeze his shoulder, recognizing the wistfulness in his tone. I have those wishes too.

  Rym gives me a pained smile. “Okay, things are getting a little heavy up here. Why don’t you go back and check on our passengers?”

  “Sounds good. How do I get the barrier to go away?” I wave my hands over the instrument panel, trying to mimic Rym’s actions from earlier.

  He chuckles. “Not like that. You have to—”

  The barrier slides up.

  “You were saying?” I shoot him a small smile.

  He shakes his head. “I forgot. Some of our rules don’t apply to you. I have no idea how you did that, but it was a neat trick.”

  I walk back to the passenger area of the ship. I don’t know how I did it either, so it’s not like I can explain it to him.

  Lir watches me with a single eyebrow arched upward as I sit down next to him and curl into his side. He slides an arm across my shoulders and rests his chin on top of my head.

  I’ve never given much thought to Rym’s feelings toward his father and how similar they are to my feelings about Jace. Some of my brother’s actions have been no less horrible than Vitrad’s, yet I still love him. I still have, as Rym said, a deep buried hope that maybe, just maybe, he’ll come back to me.

  They say you’re supposed to get a wish for your birthday. Well, even though it was yesterday, I’m making my birthday wish today. I want my brother back. Whole. Happy. How he used to be.

  Loneliness and longing rush through me. I’ve processed Flint’s death, accepted that he’s gone, even if it still guts me every time I think about it. But I haven’t allowed myself any time to… grieve for Jace. To accept the likelihood that I’ll spend not only this birthday without him, but the rest of my life as well.