The Twelfth Keeper Boxed Set: Books 1-3

by Belle Malory

  She staggered back a step.

  No. That couldn’t be true. They couldn’t be dead.

  “No time for denial, kiddo,” Matilda said.

  “Why is this happening?” she asked, her whole body trembling now. “How did the Sae-yers even know how to find us?”

  “Save the questions for later. You need to keep it together if you want to get off this ship alive.”

  Kennedy nodded, knowing Matilda was right. “What about Alanna? Colton? Their sleep chambers are in the hold. The stern is on the other side of the ship. Please tell me they’re okay…”

  Another pause—sweet stars, not another awful response. They couldn’t be dead too. No. Wait. Kennedy patted herself, breathing in and out a few times. She was fine. A little bloody. A little bruised. Could hardly walk. And her head pounded like an evil troll was in there with a sledgehammer…but internally, fine. If Alanna and Colton were dead, she would feel the break.

  “Let me worry about the other members of your circle.”

  “I’m not leaving without them, Matilda.”

  “They’re several decks below us, cupcake. You won’t have time to get them and make it to an escape pod before the ship explodes.”

  Her hands started to tremble. Panic mode was kicking in. “How are you going to get them out?”

  “I can multitask, you know. As we’re speaking, I’m simultaneously deactivating their sleep mode, which will release them from their chambers. As soon as they’re awake and stable, I’ll get them to the nearest pod. Don’t worry. It won’t be far for them. You actually have quite a bit farther to go, so will you please get moving?”

  She nodded again, taking a deep breath. “Okay.” And because she needed to reassure herself, she said it again. “Okay.”

  A hallway lit up to Kennedy’s left, startling her.

  “I’m using what’s left of the power supply to direct you toward the pod chambers. Just follow the lights.”

  Follow the lights. It couldn’t be that hard. Could it?

  Blinding pain seared through her right leg when she stepped forward. Holy hell. Yes. Apparently, it was going to be that hard. She didn’t know how she was supposed to make it all the way to the upper decks when it hurt this much to walk.

  The way she saw it, she had to make one of two choices: either grind through it, or stay here and die.

  Coppery blood filled her mouth as she bit down on her lip in an effort to propel herself forward. She hadn’t meant to bite down that hard, but at least it helped to keep her mind off her leg.

  Grind through it or die.

  The mantra stayed with her. She kept going, her head still throbbing, her leg still searing, but she put the pain out of her mind. Each step was a little miracle in itself and took everything she had. Every so often she paused to catch her breath, but she refused to stop for longer than a few seconds. She steadily continued this process, hobbling down the hall, relying on her left leg to do most of the work.

  “That’s it,” Matilda urged her. “Turn right at the door. I know you’re struggling, but you need to pick up the pace.”

  Kennedy turned right and was met with a set of stairs. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” she said, her chest heaving.

  “Elevators aren’t working. Come on, now. You can do this. I’ve witnessed you do impossible things. If you can move water with your mind, surely you have enough will to make it up one measly set of stairs.”

  She tried not to groan.

  Grind through it, remember?

  Thankfully, getting up the stairs wasn’t as bad as she first thought. Using the railing to tug herself up helped to take some of the weight off her legs. And then there was Matilda cheering her on the whole time, saying things like, “Surely the protector of a planet can find the strength to do this. I know you have it in you.”

  The encouragement helped push her harder.

  Before long, she’d made it up the stairs and found herself making her way through a maze of branching corridors along the upper deck.

  “Only a little further,” Matilda said. “Turn right at the—”

  The floor shuddered, and she stumbled back. She squeezed her eyes shut, fearing for one terrifying instant that she may have been too late.

  “What was that?” she asked, planting her feet wide apart and gripping the wall for dear life.

  “I’m not sure. It’s possible the ship is—”

  Matilda’s voice was cut off again by another surge, this one so violent, it sent Kennedy flying forward. She landed on her stomach, sliding across the floor as the ship lurched. The lights went out, making it impossible to see where she was headed. She caged her arms around her head, bracing herself for impact.

  Eventually the ship leveled, and her body slowed, the hard surface of a wall stopping her descent. She flattened her palms against it, patting and searching for something to hold onto, but couldn’t find anything. She waited to be catapulted down the hall again, but the tremors had passed.

  A wave of nausea ran through Kennedy, making her mouth and throat swell with the need to empty her stomach. She breathed in and out through her nose, fighting against the spacesickness.

  Now that the ship was still, the corridor grew unnaturally silent. “Matilda?” she called out, praying that the robot’s voice hadn’t been disabled. Her brace buzzed, and Matilda’s voice sprung through the tiny speaker a moment later. “Still here, cupcake, but I’ve been disconnected from the audio system.”

  “Can you activate the lights?”

  The hallway’s emergency strip lights flickered then dimmed. “You’ll have to make do with that. The pods are just around the corner.”

  Kennedy looked around, then stilled. Her eyes froze on the body lying only a few feet away. It looked like…oh, no. Deacon!

  Her gaze twisted around the gruesomeness of it, another bout of nausea gripping her insides. A steel pipe had run through his chest, crushing him against the wall beside her. Blood was everywhere, across his chest, along the wall, dripping on the floor…she wished she could stop herself from seeing, but she couldn’t move. Couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe. All she could do was stare at his hollow, lifeless eyes.

  “I’m sorry,” Matilda said quietly. “I had hoped you wouldn’t have to see him.”

  “You said he was killed in the stern,” Kennedy whispered accusingly.

  “And how do the gritty details help your present situation? My main objective is to ensure your survival by getting you off this ship. If you don’t stay in the right mind frame, I’m unable to do that.”

  An overtly logical answer that made sense coming from the android. But Kennedy was human, and she could not escape the engulfing sadness she felt at seeing this murder. And that’s what it was, murder. Pure and simple.

  “Did he suffer?”

  Kennedy thought of General Vickard and how proud he’d been during the departure ceremony. Genuine love filled his eyes as he hugged his son and told him goodbye. It was the most emotion she’d ever seen the general display. How would he react when he found out his son had been killed?

  “Kennedy,” Matilda said, calling her by her actual name for the first time in, well, possibly for the first time ever. “You need to stop thinking about Deacon and get up. If you don’t, then you will share the same fate.”

  Getting up sounded impossible; she felt like she weighed a thousand pounds. Staring into Deacon’s empty eyes broke what was left of the fight inside her. She emptied the contents of her stomach on the floor, unable to fight the nausea any longer.

  Once she was done and the heaving stopped, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, staring down at her brace. “Let’s just be real with each other,” she said, her voice sounding as heavy as her heart. “It’s inevitable; I’m going to die here too.”

  Matilda scoffed. “No, you’re not. As long as you do exactly what I say, you can make it off this ship.”

  “And then what? We’re a month away from our host planet. If I get out of here, I
’ll just die out there.”

  “There are life-bearing planets in the area. I’ll get you to the nearest one until DOE sends a rescue crew to collect you.”

  The floor and walls rumbled with another wave of vibrations. Kennedy inhaled sharply. “This is where it ends for me, Matilda. Program yourself to accept it. You don’t really care about my fate anyway. You’re made up of tiny microchips and wires. When this is all over, you’ll be given to another human. You will happily go on annoying your new owner endlessly without sparing a thought for me. You can even come up with a new nickname. I don’t know, something like cookie or pistachio. I’m sure the new owner will be charmed by either one.”

  Long seconds passed. For a moment, Kennedy mistook Matilda’s silence for the acceptance she requested. But the robot refused to let her go quietly. “There’s something you don’t seem to understand. I was built for you. My entire existence, including my growth and learning capabilities has been shaped by the foundation of our relationship.”

  Kennedy smiled at the sentiment. “Don’t tell me you think of me as your mother.”

  “This is no laughing matter.”

  “It’s a little funny. Besides, it’s my death. I’m allowed to find humor in it.”

  “Listen up, cupcake, and listen carefully. Your well-being directly affects my well-being, and I cannot function properly if you die. I’d be reset, which essentially means death for me as well. But since I’m nothing more than chips and wires, I’m guessing that doesn’t matter to you.”

  “That’s completely unfair—”

  “If you don’t want to live for me, consider your family. Consider your coworker. Or are you finally calling him your boyfriend now? How do you think he’s going to take the news of your death?”

  She winced. When her family discovered her ship was destroyed, they’d be devastated. Ashley would blame herself for not trying harder to convince her to stay. And then there was Phoenix. She promised him that nothing would stop her from getting back to him. Even in the spirit world, she didn’t think she could forgive herself for breaking such a heartfelt promise.

  “Ah-ha, you’re finally starting to think about someone other than yourself,” Matilda said, probably detecting the rise in her pulse.

  “It’s not like I want to die,” she snapped. “It just seems like my survival is unlikely. What’s the point of trying?”

  “Because if you don’t try, they win. The Sae-yers will have a hand in your death, and personally, I don’t think you should give it to them so easily. So get your ass up, and march yourself over to that escape pod, pronto.”

  Kennedy pushed herself up with a grunt. As much as she didn’t like it, Matilda was right. “Since when did you get to be so bossy?”

  “Since it became necessary. You need to move fast; we don’t have much time left.”

  She hobbled down the hall in something between a sprint and one-legged leaps. At one point she swore she heard something crack in her right ankle. Gritting her teeth, she mentally cut herself off from the pain. It never went away, but she kept it safely tucked away in the back of her mind where it couldn’t control her.

  A little further down the hall there was a door marked Restricted Area. Kennedy shoved it open, finding the loading dock inside, the escape pod gleaming at her as she hurried toward it. The locks released as she approached, the door sliding up on the right hand side.

  “I’ve uploaded myself to the pod’s core system. You don’t have to worry about anything other than getting in and securing your safety harness. I’ll be doing the flying.”

  “Thanks, Matilda.”

  Kennedy sat down in one of the five available seats, pulling the straps over her shoulders. The door slid shut behind her, and the small interior pressurized, oxygen releasing from the air ducts. When she finished buckling herself to the chair, she looked around, her gaze drifting over the other empty chairs. She wondered how Alanna and Colton were doing, and if they’d made it off the ship safely. She still felt fine. Other than the damage she’d done to herself, nothing unusual hurt. Wherever they were, they must be okay…

  The ship rocked backward, shaking the pod. Kennedy’s stomach flipped, but thankfully she had nothing left to throw up. “Matilda?” she called out. “Can we please get out of here now?”

  The dashboard lit up, and Matilda joined her through the pod’s speakers. “Working on it, cupcake.”

  “The sooner, the better.”

  “Believe me, I’m going as fast as I can.”

  The pod began to rotate and Kennedy felt the tracks below moving her across the exit ramp. She tightened her fingers around the straps of her safety belt, mentally preparing herself for ejection.

  “One minute to takeoff,” Matilda said.

  Another wave of vibrations shook the ship, sounding worse than any thunderstorm she’d ever been through, and she’d been through some rough ones. She closed her eyes, trying to remember to breathe. Whatever was going to happen at this point would happen. All she could do was brace herself.

  The vibrations increased, jostling the small pod. “Matilda, I just want you to know, whatever happens…”

  “Save it, cupcake. The doors are opening now. Twenty seconds to takeoff.”

  The pod lifted, hovering above the floor as the gates activated with a loud whine. The ship lurched again, and something banged against the pod’s door with a loud shriek. Whatever it was, it didn’t matter. The countdown on the dash showed she was seconds away from takeoff. Five seconds. Four seconds. Three…

  The moment the gates were open, the pod flew out. The force pushed her into the back of her seat, the metal frame buzzing with energy. Unlike the ship, in here she would be able to feel the momentum of every turn, break or jolt.

  Everything went black all at once. She was catapulted into a dark, empty nothingness, except for the dull light of the surrounding stars that were no longer stretched into straight white lines. Without gravity, her hair fanned out around her face as though she was underwater, and the necklace Phoenix gave her lifted from her chest.

  Over her shoulder she saw the outline of the Pegasus. Dear God, it was spinning. She made it out just in time.

  Still…it was difficult to watch her home for the last five months spinning out into space, into some dark abyss where no one would ever find it. Deacon’s tomb would be lost forever.

  “How are you doing, cupcake?”

  “I’m fi—”

  Something sharp pierced her throat. She drew her hands around her neck. Her skin was cool beneath her fingertips, nothing there. The piercing didn’t stop though; it only worsened, digging into the back of her throat like someone was choking her, and she struggled for air. Did the oxygen supply malfunction? Was something wrong with the pressurizers?

  “What’s wrong, kid? Your stats are going haywire.”

  “I can’t,” she gasped, “breathe.”

  Her entire body tingled, and the space around her grew thick, almost as if she were underwater. In fact, that’s exactly what it felt like. The same way it had felt when the wave had knocked her off the boat on the day her dad died.

  “Is something wrong…with the pod’s…” God, it hurt to talk! “…oxygen levels?”

  “No,” Matilda answered right away. “Everything is working in perfect order. Do you think you might be experiencing a panic attack?”

  Her stomach clenched and twisted, like her insides were being shredded apart. “No…I…” She blinked a few times, staring at the display screen in horror. “Matilda, did you,” she paused to gasp for breath, “did you get Alanna and Colton out?”

  The robot didn’t speak right away. The silence grew heavy, her horror mounting with each passing second. Matilda didn’t have to say anything; Kennedy could feel the truth hanging there in the emptiness. That emptiness consumed her, welling in her throat, and down through her chest, sucking the life out of her. The vastness of space didn’t match the isolation burning to the core of her soul.

  Hot tears
welled in her eyes, the betrayal slicing deeper than she’d ever felt. She hit the dashboard, and then the screen. It didn’t break. When she wasn’t satisfied, she began punching the screen over and over, her breath short and uneven. “You wretched…no good…I swear to God I’ll turn you into scrap metal!”

  The android made a sound similar to a sigh. “What I did…I know it hurts you. But it was necessary. You wouldn’t have made it out in time otherwise.” Matilda’s voice was too calm for comfort. There wasn’t an ounce of regret.

  “I never would’ve left them!” she cried accusingly. “How dare you make that choice for me!”

  “Like I said before, your survival is my top priority. I ran the stats. There wasn’t enough time to get the other members of your circle out of their sleep chambers. The process of rehabilitation alone takes at least an hour. You would’ve died trying to save them.”

  “You and your stupid statistics!” The screen finally cracked beneath her bloody knuckles, but she continued relentlessly throwing her fists against it.

  “Kennedy, calm down. Damaging the pod isn’t going to get you anywhere. Literally.”

  “I don’t care.”

  “Listen, I’m sorry. But you’re alive. You made it off the Pegasus, and you’re going to survive.”

  She slowed her fists, the full realization of that hitting hard. “And I’m the only one? The sole survivor?”

  “Yes.”

  She wanted to hit the screen all over again, but the pain began to control everything. Her skin, her insides, and every cell in her body felt as if it had been rubbed raw and seared. Her bones felt as if they were breaking and realigning. Every breath was a struggle, every movement strained. Oh God. This was worse than she’d ever imagined. She didn’t know how she would get through it. Or if she would get through it…yes, she survived the shipwreck. But at what cost?

  “Don’t ever speak to me again,” Kennedy said coldly, wanting to get that out in case she lost her voice.

  “Your anger is understandable considering the trauma you’re experiencing. Once you’ve had time to rationalize things—”

  “No,” she spat out. “Find your off switch, Matilda. I mean it. From this moment on, you’re dead to me.”