Together, the three girls were finally fighting for a cause that mattered.
Hoots and hollers sounded down the firing line as their commander signaled the end of their training session.
It’s about time, Lira thought. They’d been at it for hours. She slung her weapon over her shoulder and stepped away from the larger group, joining Breck and Gilly at the edge of the warehouse. The girls took seats together by the watercooler, where the next formation of soldiers waited for their turn at target practice.
Gilly’s red braids bounced as she slumped into the bleachers, craning her neck to look the other two girls in the eye. “Go ahead and try to tell me that shot wasn’t sexy as hell.”
Lira gave her an indulgent smile. “You’re talented, Gilly. A true asset to our queen.”
Breck nodded in agreement, taking off her cap, the golden Solis sigil on it sparkling as she set it down beside her. “Sexy. As. Hell.”
They were like sisters, the three of them, their bond forged through a past they all wished to forget.
“But seriously. You’re doing good, Gil,” Breck added. “Keep it up, and you’ll be out there in the galaxy soon, shooting Unaffecteds, clearing out the nonbelievers.”
“Do you think Queen Nor will ever come down and visit us?” Gilly asked.
Everyone wanted a chance to see the queen, to kiss her hand or simply gaze upon her. She’d turned Mirabel from a place of hatred and darkness to one of glorious, peaceful light. Under her reign, everyone was united behind one cause.
Lira shrugged. “She’s so busy, ensuring Nexus is built and the plans for Phase Two are set in place.”
“Let’s not forget her efforts to take down Arachnid and his so-called resistance,” Breck added, her face set in a grim expression.
Lira’s blood went hot at the thought of those betrayers. Ever since they’d seen Arachnid’s threat playing across the feeds, Lira had felt even more committed to protecting Queen Nor’s rule. Arachnid and his rebels had no place in this galaxy, and Lira would make sure they bowed down to their rightful queen, even if she had to hunt them down one by one herself.
“They won’t be a problem for much longer,” Lira said. The Unaffected numbers were few, and Nor’s army was many, spanning all the planets across the galaxy.
“I wonder how the queen is feeling about all this. What is she going to do?” Gilly asked. Although Gilly was brave, she was still very young, and she tended to worry about things Lira generally didn’t even think about. Their queen was strong, of course, but with so many factors demanding her attention, Lira hoped she was aided by loyal aides and advisers. All-powerful or not, Queen Nor was still just one person.
“I’m sure she’s doing fine,” Lira told Gilly reassuringly. “Especially knowing how capable her army is. We lessen her burden, and we’ll do whatever it takes to stop the rebels.”
“Right now, there are more important things for the queen to handle, like Phase Two. A few rebel sympathizers are nothing but pesky insects,” Breck added, giving Gilly’s shoulder a squeeze. The small girl smiled.
“What is Phase Two?” Gilly wondered.
Phase Two hadn’t been shared with the grunt soldiers like them yet—the queen needed to keep many of her plans under wraps for now, until the Unaffected threat was eliminated. But Lira knew it would be glorious, and she’d do whatever was asked of her when the time arrived.
“It doesn’t matter what it is,” Lira said. “We’re blessed to be able to serve her together. That’s enough for me.”
Breck lifted her cup of water in agreement.
“I served beside you both for two years on Andi’s ship,” Gilly said, draining her water and tossing her metal cup into the bin beside the bleachers. “That traitor.”
The sound echoed like a tiny gunshot that Lira felt in her chest. Sometimes, she still thought about Androma and wondered where she was. But then guilt riddled her insides for spending even a moment thinking of the traitorous young captain of the Marauder. If Andi was on Nor’s side, she would have been here now, with the three of them. She would have put her skills to use serving the rightful queen.
Instead, she’d taken the Marauder and soared away, with Dex and Lira’s twin brother, Lon, in tow. A coward’s move, if ever there was one.
Lira could still see Lon’s face, so much like her own—the same smile, the same ocean-blue skin. But he’d chosen the wrong side. Andi, too. Lira had once considered Andi to be her family, every bit as much as Lon.
Now she felt ashamed to have ever been so closely connected to two Unaffecteds.
A bang came from Lira’s right, drawing her gaze as the double doors of the warehouse suddenly hissed open.
“Looks like it’s showtime,” Gilly said, eyeing the new arrival. She began to bob on her toes expectantly. “Aclisia’s here!”
As Queen Nor’s head scientist entered the range, every soldier snapped to attention.
And how could they not? Lira thought, watching Aclisia march across the oil-stained concrete floor. It was like being in the presence of a legend, albeit a strange one. Aclisia possessed two heads—one of the few left of her race in Mirabel. They both worked in tandem, yet had personalities of their own.
Lira gazed upon her in awe. This was the woman who’d taken a single drop of blood and transformed it into the cure for ignorance. A single shot from one of the silver bullets Aclisia had created, and the victim’s eyes would be opened. They’d see Queen Nor for who she truly was: a goddess, worthy of their worship.
Aclisia ordered the soldiers to gather in the bleachers. The sea of black uniforms obeyed, moving as one to find seats. Two soldiers in the bloodred uniforms of Queen Nor’s personal guard hauled in a pair of struggling, hooded prisoners, glowing magnacuffs binding their wrists, the molten metal swirling around them like a trapped snake.
“This is going to be wicked,” Gilly whispered. Breck shushed her with a wave of her hand. The other soldiers were a thick wall behind Lira, every one of them watching with bated breath.
“Today, we prove to you the power that Her Majesty’s weapon has over her enemies!” Aclisia’s right head addressed the soldiers, her voice ringing out across the warehouse. “The galaxy belongs to Queen Nor. And yet some still fight against her reign. Her Majesty thanks you for your service, and wishes to inspire you.”
The soldiers roared in response. Lira joined them, Breck and Gilly shouting, too.
When they’d quieted down, Aclisia removed the hoods from the captives. The first was a young woman, red-faced from screaming, sweat plastering her white hair to her forehead. For a moment, the woman’s pale locks reminded Lira of Androma Racella, seated behind the dash of the Marauder, scratching tallies into a sword.
If only she’d been here. If only she’d been brave enough to serve Nor, too.
The second captive was a man, round and well-fed, with powder-blue skin. An Adhiran, like Lira.
“We must ask each person we encounter a vital question, in order to determine who they truly serve,” Aclisia said. She nodded to the guards, and they removed the gags from each captive’s mouth. “Who is your queen?”
The prisoners gasped for air, gulping in weighty breaths. The woman sat still, her eyes wide and roving over the group, but the man began to curse in Adhiran.
“Nor’s a demon!” His voice was ragged, as if his vocal cords were tearing in two. “She’s turned you all against what’s right! That monster is not your queen, damn it! Why can’t you see that? Why can’t you see what she’s done to you?”
Beside him, the woman simply shook as silent tears streamed down her cheeks.
The word from soldiers already out on the front was that all the Unaffecteds said similar things, but Lira had not yet seen it with her own eyes. The audacity of the man’s words made Lira’s blood boil with rage.
“Who is your queen?” Aclisia asked again.<
br />
“She’s brainwashed you all!” the man howled, veins popping out from his neck. “SHE’S TURNED YOU INTO—”
A guard stuffed the gag back into the man’s mouth, and his cries were cut off short.
“Pathetic,” Aclisia’s left head said.
Her right head nodded. “This is what our enemies believe. That we are all beneath a spell, following a queen who has wrongfully stolen her throne.”
Behind Lira, the soldiers cursed and spit at the captives. She joined in with eager haste.
“We have peace in Mirabel for the first time in decades. We have a queen who wishes to treat us all equally, and all she asks in return is that we serve her. That we continue to spread her vision across the galaxy, so that everyone will believe. Time is of the essence now, in the building of Nexus. And when it is completed, Phase Two will begin.”
Murmurs of agreement sounded down the line. Lira felt the truth of it in her heart, felt it beside that ever-constant whisper that seemed to ring out in her soul, keeping her eyes open and her loyalty true.
Nor is your queen, your goddess, your savior.
“A gift from your queen,” Aclisia said, lifting the rifle handed to her by one of the guards in red. The crowd roared in anticipation, eager to see another join their ranks. “Let’s show him the true power of the woman he claims is not his queen.”
When Aclisia squeezed the trigger, the round was silent. It slammed against the man’s forehead, knocking him back with the intensity of it. His eyes closed, as if he were dead. But in the center of his forehead, instead of a hole, instead of blood and brains...
Silver liquid swam against the man’s pastel skin, like a gentle caress of liquid moonlight. Then it began to fade, sinking beneath the surface until the liquid disappeared entirely. Lira waited for the change to take effect. For the man to finally see and believe the truth, to fully understand what light Nor could bring to his life.
His eyes fluttered open, his head bobbing slightly on his shoulders, chin dipping before a guard helped to lift his gaze to Aclisia.
“Who is your queen?” Aclisia’s two heads asked softly, the words as delicate as a kiss.
The man’s blue eyes lost their fog.
“Queen...” He seemed to fumble for the words, as if he were listening to the voice in his head. As if he were a child, learning the truth at last. “Queen Nor.”
Then he wept tears of joy, whispering Nor’s name over and over like a song, the words pouring from his very soul. Lira leaped to her feet, cheering alongside the other soldiers.
But beside him, the female captive began to scream. It broke through the power of the moment, through the joy of the man’s transition into the light.
“Enough!” Aclisia shouted. She lifted her rifle, set the woman in her sights and fired.
The scene was the same as before...and yet the effect was not.
For the woman did not lose consciousness. The liquid spread against her skin, but her eyes never closed. She kept screaming. “Let me go! Please, Godstars, let me go!”
The room should have felt frozen, a horror scene unfolding in rapid time. But Lira only felt calm as the woman began to howl and writhe against her bindings. Blood dripped from her wrists as she fought, shaking like a demon was clawing at her from the inside out. “LET ME GO!”
“Unaffected!” one soldier shouted. The others joined in, beating their fists and stomping their boots against the bleachers.
But Aclisia held up a hand. “Inject her.”
At once, the guards sank a tranq needle into the woman’s neck. Immediately, she fell silent.
“Do you see?” Aclisia asked, turning to the crowd of soldiers, now quiet, as well. Lira chanced a look at Breck and Gilly, their expressions stony as they looked forward. “This is what happens to those who do not believe.”
The guards cut the woman’s bindings loose, and Lira watched as they hauled her away, the woman’s pale hair dragging against the ground as they disappeared through the double doors. Lira continued to stare after the woman, even as the crowd came to life again.
She never wanted to return to that state of desperation. Never wanted to return to that place of feeling, of running and wishing to hide from the truth.
When she left the warehouse with the rest of her unit, Lira’s heart beat steadily in her chest as she stared out across the silver city all around her, as she saw the glorious banners, the Solis crest displayed for all to see.
I will always serve Nor Solis, Lira thought, saluting the symbol of her queen.
She turned her eyes to the sky, the ghost of a smile kissing her lips as she stared up at the distant floating mountain that housed her one true queen.
Beside it, the Nexus satellite winked beneath the starlight.
And all was well in Lira’s soul.
CHAPTER 7
NOR
Her hands wouldn’t stop shaking.
That armor. That voice. Nor’s heels clacked on the polished marble floors as she paced, her mind racing in circles. Who was behind that crimson helmet? She wished, desperately, that her gift went beyond compulsion, that she possessed some greater power that would allow her to see through the shield to the enemy beyond.
“Nor?”
Darai’s voice yanked her back into the present. He pressed his cold hand to her wrist, the feeling like an electric shock. She backed away, her heart racing. Beside him stood the producer, his four arms crossed as he waited for her orders. Despite the sudden shock of the moment, he still looked at her as all the others did—like she was a goddess come down from the stars.
“We’ve managed to trace the origin of Arachnid’s message, Majesty,” the producer told her. “It seems he was filming in a cave on Sora.”
Sora. A moon in the nearby Prime System, virtually uninhabitable due to the poisonous gases in its atmosphere. The perfect place to hide, shivering in the shadows like a spider.
Nor would see the fool squashed beneath her heel.
Zahn’s eyes met hers from across the room. She gave him a quick nod, and though they didn’t share a mental link like she and Valen did, a silent message seemed to pass between them all the same. I’m okay. We’re okay.
Nor lifted her chin and turned to Darai. “His armor is likely the only reason he was able to survive long enough to send us a message from Sora. A clever place to hide, where I cannot easily reach him.”
“Could we send drones in to find him?” Zahn asked as he began to pace, already trying to solve the problem for her. She loved him for his effort, but it would take more than what Zahn could come up with on his own to silence this threat.
For Arachnid knew. Somehow...the man behind that red helmet knew about Nor’s and Valen’s compulsion. But how? It was impossible, and yet Arachnid’s final words were all Nor could hear. You cannot compel me.
“Clear the room,” Nor said. She reached for her crown, straightening it against her curls.
Darai’s jaw looked to be hanging on broken hinges. “My dear...”
She held up her hand, and her adviser fell silent. “I said, clear the room.”
Darai snapped his fingers, ushering the others out. They raced from the room as if it were on fire. As the doors closed behind them, Zahn rushed to her side. Years before, when Xen Ptera was attacked and everything was stolen from her, it was Nor who had picked herself back up. She’d had Darai and Zahn at her side then, as support. But ultimately, the decision had been hers to stand up. To carry on with her life, and make something more of it.
She’d never believed she needed to depend on others until Valen came along—and until Zahn’s heart had merged with hers. She let her lover press his hand against the small of her back as he gazed at her with worried eyes, his soldier’s mask gone now that the room was empty of watching eyes.
“He knows,” Nor said shakily. “If he knows about the co
mpulsion, then there’s a chance he knows about Exonia. And he will try to stop us from reaching the other side.”
“Then we will destroy him before he takes another breath,” Zahn answered. “We’ll tighten the security measures around Nexus, too.”
Nor fell silent as she considered what to do next. She was the queen of Mirabel. The savior of this planet and the many beyond it. She would not bow to any man, especially one too cowardly to show his face.
“Please, Nor, you must tell us what it is you wish to do,” Darai begged. “Do you want to send a team after him? Give another speech? Do you want to have Valen—”
“Valen is not to be disturbed in this chaos,” Nor said. “He needs peace. Time to focus only on his compulsion. If anything, we need to move more quickly now. For if this Arachnid poses a true threat, if he manages to share his knowledge of our compulsion with the other Unaffecteds... Exonia could be at risk.”
“I’ll do whatever it takes to stop this man,” Zahn said. “You give the command, Nor, and I will send every soldier we have.” His dark eyes could have burned a hole in Nor’s soul, for all the fire in them. He’d always been a fighter, leaping to her defense the moment anyone dared speak ill of her name.
“I know what needs to be done,” Nor said, moving toward the window to look out upon her estate. Her kingdom. Zahn shifted to stand behind her, his warm hands closing around her shoulders. She sank back against him—not because she needed his strength, but because she wanted it. Because when he was at her side, she knew she had all the loyalty in the world.
“Phase Two will come soon,” Nor said, pulling away from his touch, turning to face him instead. Darai hovered in the background, a bitter expression on his lips. “But we may as well conduct a test fire, in light of Arachnid’s message.”
She typed a code into the holoscreen on her desk. The lights overhead responded at once, fading to near-darkness. A few more codes, and a map of the galaxy materialized in the office, beautifully rendered orbs of light representing each planet. They danced across the ceiling, and the stars flickered across Zahn’s face, showing his determination.
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