What would Nor and Valen think when that helmet came off? When they saw their mother, a woman the entire galaxy had long thought dead?
They passed beneath the shadow of the massive satellite, the wind biting colder now, without the sun to warm them. Nexus rose high above them, perched on its side as if it were ready to fall and crush them. As if it were a living thing, waiting to end the ways of Mirabel for good.
“Where is Nor?” Eryn whispered from beside him as Andi and Arachnid stopped in the shadow of the satellite.
The line of enemy soldiers also came to a halt, a mere twenty paces away. Dex could feel the tension radiating from Andi as the soldiers parted, pointing their rifles to the sky in one sleek motion, like a salute.
Queen Nor walked out from behind her guards and into view, a night-black cloak of velvet billowing behind her as the wind caught it, making it look as if she were emerging from a cloud of darkness. A golden crown perched atop her ringlet curls. Valen strode beside her, wearing a cloak of bloodred. It hung from his body, which was so emaciated that he now looked even worse than he had when Dex and Andi first pulled him from the depths of Lunamere.
Dex clenched his jaw. What in the hell had gone on here, in the weeks they’d been away?
The adviser came next, an elderly man covered in thick, angry scars. He, too, wore a cloak, and as the wind died down for a moment, and it cascaded to the ground behind him, Dex saw three more figures trailing in the queen’s wake.
Gilly, Breck...and Lira, following just behind, her beautiful blue eyes proud, her chin angled high as it had ever been.
All three girls.
Andi let out an almost imperceptible gasp. Dex didn’t think she would have been able to hide it even if she’d tried. For he’d seen Lira die, too, saw the flash of the blade and heard her body thumping to the floor.
Yet here she was, alive and well, standing beside the queen with Breck and Gilly, their faces expressionless as they stared ahead.
Andi’s body was taut, her fists clenched, tension palpable in every part of her body. Dex could practically feel her fury as she looked at Nor and Valen.
“So you lied,” Klaren said. The words from her droid carried across the space between the two groups like a gunshot. She slowly shook her helmeted head from side to side. “I suppose I would have done the same. And it was what brought the Bloody Baroness to me, after all, whom I now give to you as a peace offering.”
Nor was terrifyingly beautiful as she stood before them, one gloved hand clasped over her golden prosthetic. She inclined her head slightly in a mocking salute. “Arachnid. Strange, how you spoke so boldly about stopping me, only to appear before me now, defenseless, and handing over my adversary.” She smiled, those rouged lips the very same Dex had seen in his nightmares ever since Ucatoria. “One would have to assume you’re here either to attack me or to surrender.”
Klaren’s droid clicked its claws into her armor, that robotic voice speaking loud. “I will not be surrendering today, but as I said, I am offering you Androma Racella in exchange for peace between us.”
“My entire reign is about peace,” Nor explained, holding her arms wide. “Everything I have done has been for the greater good.”
“Enslaving the minds of millions,” Klaren snapped, “is not something I would consider to be for the greater good.”
“And slaughtering hundreds in your petty attacks across Mirabel?” Nor raised a brow and tsked. “Some savior you are.”
“I did not come for an argument,” Klaren said. Dex could almost hear the woman’s frustration, even in the robotic voice of her droid. “I came to give you what you seek, and in return, my demand is that you stop any further trapping of minds. Anyone you discover to be Unaffected, you will refrain from enslaving to your cause. And you will allow any Unaffecteds currently in hiding to flee to a safe zone, where they can live out their lives freely.”
Nor threw back her head and laughed. “Is that all, Arachnid?”
“I also ask that you release the minds of these three prisoners,” Klaren said, lifting an armored hand toward Breck, Gilly and Lira, “and let them walk free. I will bring them onto my ship, and I will soar away from here. You will not stop me, and you will not send Rovers after me. Consider this a cease-fire.”
“A cease-fire,” Nor said, nodding as the wind blew and her cloak billowed out behind her again. “I do not honor cease-fires.”
Klaren froze. “You are alive because of a cease-fire, Nor Solis. There was once a Xen Pterran queen who gave herself over to the enemy in order to honor one.”
“Don’t speak of my mother,” Nor said. There was no change in her expression, but her tone was different. Tighter. “The dead are of no use to me, and neither are their failures.”
But Klaren barreled on without a hitch, without any visible reaction to hearing such words spoken about her. “Do you accept my terms?”
“On one condition,” Nor said, glancing only briefly toward her adviser, who had stepped closer to her, watching Arachnid with prying eyes. “You will personally come forward and make the exchange. And you will reveal your identity to me.”
An interesting offer.
Dex didn’t trust it one bit. There was no way Nor Solis would allow her enemy to walk free. They’d planned for this, considered that it would happen...yet his body still broke out in a cold sweat, that strange sensation of his heartbeat in his ears as Klaren took Andi by the arm.
“Free them first,” she said. “I will honor my deal with the girl.”
With a sigh, Nor lifted a hand. “Of course. Free them, Valen.”
Valen walked over to Andi’s crew, each step labored, as if he were in pain.
His cheeks were shallow, the bones protruding from his skin, his eyes sunken. Dex had seen people in such a state before, long ago when he’d visited A’Exal, a gas planet whose citizens were plagued with horrific side effects from exposure to the atmosphere. Valen looked like the very worst-afflicted of those poor people—on the verge of death.
And yet he still moved forward, his face revealing no pain, as he stopped before the girls.
Valen held up his hands. For a moment, they shook. His whole body trembled, and his eyes seemed to roll back into his head. But then the shaking ceased, his body stilled and his eyes opened once again.
For a moment, nothing seemed to happen. There was no sound but the wind, howling as it whipped through the space between the two groups.
Then, one by one, each of the girls slumped to the ground.
Andi took a step forward, but Dex placed his invisible hand on her shoulder. “Not yet,” he whispered, a mere breath in her ear.
As quickly as they’d fallen, the girls began to rouse, as if coming out of a deep sleep. It was much the same as it had been when the dead rose during the Ucatoria Ball—only this time, when the girls woke...
Dex saw it in their eyes.
They were themselves again.
CHAPTER 35
LIRA
When Lira was younger, she’d once gone to the ocean with her family.
She remembered being transfixed by the peaks of frothing waves, curling and dipping until they crested and met the angry, churning surface below. Again and again, they did this powerful dance, making her fearful to swim in their wake, afraid of being swept away.
But then Lon dipped beneath the surging water, gliding under the surface before emerging with a bright smile on his face. Seeing her twin do it with such ease gave her the confidence to follow his lead.
So she dived, breaking through the water like a bullet.
Her body had hummed at the contact.
Every inkling of doubt she’d had on land evaporated, and when she surfaced, she felt a clarity unlike anything she’d ever felt. Like a slate wiped clean.
Lira was experiencing the same feeling now.
It was as
if her mind had suddenly been swept clean after being stuffed with gauze. With each blink, her brain cleared more and more.
One moment, she was serving her queen, and the next, she wasn’t. Just like that, as if a tethered spring had been snapped, her mind was her own again.
Lira gasped, her knees buckling as her gaze collided with Andi’s just a few yards away.
“Andi?” Gilly whispered, her green eyes wide. Breck, too, looked as if she had seen a ghost, her hand plastered against her mouth.
Even from this distance, she could see tears spring into Andi’s eyes.
And though they stood surrounded by the enemy, Lira knew that they were finally home.
CHAPTER 36
ANDI
They were back.
Tears poured down Andi’s face, and she didn’t even try to stop them from flowing. So long, she’d dreamed of this moment, holding back the fear that they would never return to the world again, not as they’d once been.
And yet here the girls were, crossing the gap from Nor’s side over to hers.
She wished, desperately, that she could remove her cuffs, wrap her arms around her crew, her family, and feel at home again.
But instead she simply stood there, joy enveloping her heart as the girls reached her side.
“You came for us,” Lira whispered, practically falling against Andi as she wrapped her arms around her. Gilly came next, and then Breck, and for a moment it was just the four of them again, not standing before an enemy queen, but standing free, in the bridge of the Marauder, surrounded by the shining stars.
“I’m so sorry, Andi,” Breck said, and there were tears rolling down her cheeks, too. “For everything we did. For everything we thought.” She was sobbing, hardly able to catch her breath as she squeezed the girls tighter. “She made us believe we hated you. Made us believe that we were wrong to have ever been on your side.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Andi said, shaking her head. “None of that matters. It wasn’t you.”
Gilly pulled away from the hug first, sneaking out from beneath Breck’s embrace to turn and glance back at Nor and Valen.
“I want her dead for what she did to us,” Gilly said. She shook, whether from holding back tears or the joy of newfound freedom or the long overdue rage spreading across her face, Andi couldn’t tell. But when Gilly looked back up at her, that beautiful, tiny gunner who had always been so fearless...
She was afraid.
Afraid of the queen.
And it made Andi’s heart ache all the more for what she was about to do.
“It’s time,” Klaren said. The droid’s voice was jarring, like a jagged blade about to sever the joy that Andi felt, seeing her girls walk free. “Are you ready?”
Lira’s smile, so beautiful, so alive, crumbled. “Ready for what?” She looked past Andi then, to the empty space and the cold, waiting ship. “Where are Dex and Lon?”
Andi couldn’t tell her. She couldn’t.
Not now.
She felt that invisible hand again, squeezing her wrist from behind. Dex. Gentle, silent support in this moment.
Andi pushed her fear down, forced it to settle beside the newly blooming sorrow. For none of them knew. Not the girls, and especially not Dex. She gently pulled her cuffed wrists away from Dex, feeling the solid weight of the blade hidden beneath her sleeve, and she thanked the Godstars that he had not asked about it.
“We made a deal,” Andi said, inclining her head toward the girls, and wishing she could see Dex’s face one last time.
“No,” Lira breathed. “You can’t go, Andi.”
“No!” Breck echoed. She had her arm around Gilly’s shoulders, squeezing the child to her side. “We’re not letting you walk into Nor’s hands. She won’t ever let you go.”
“She was willing to kill us all just to get to you,” Gilly cried.
“It’s okay,” Andi said, her voice breaking. But she held back her remaining tears, refusing to let them fall. She would not let her crew see her cry in this moment, would never be able to stomach that being their final memory of her.
She looked to Klaren, who took her by the arm and began moving forward.
Gilly reached out, trying to grab her sleeve, but Andi looked to Breck.
“Trust me,” she said.
Breck held Gilly back, though there were new tears in her eyes now, too. Lira grabbed Breck’s other hand, and together, the three of them stood, watching their captain walk away.
So little time, they’d had to reunite.
They could have seen the entire galaxy together. All of it, not just the darkest parts, but the places that shone the brightest, too. Good memories, without drawing blood or running. They could have chased after something good. Something right.
It nearly broke her to turn away from her crew, but Andi allowed Klaren to guide her away from them. They’d made it only a few paces when that invisible hand gripped her elbow again, pulling them to a stop.
“What are you doing?” Dex’s voice hissed.
Klaren froze, glancing down from within her crimson helmet.
“You have to take the girls, Dex,” Andi said, angling her head toward Klaren so that, to anyone on Nor’s side, it would look like it was the two of them who were speaking. “You have to take them and fly away from here, as fast and as far as you can.”
“What?”
His voice was pure shock. She could imagine his face, those eyes narrowing as he tried to make sense of what she’d just said. But she only saw the outline of her girls in the background, the waiting ship, the edge of the floating mountain that led off into the Arcardian sky.
Another disembodied voice came from a few steps behind where Andi imagined Dex was standing. Eryn’s voice, this time. “Dex, I can’t keep you invisible much longer. You’re moving too far out of reach. You have to come back this way.”
But he wasn’t listening.
Andi could still feel his grip on her elbow, holding tight. “Andi, this isn’t what we discussed. You’re not going over there. We’re supposed to distract the soldiers. Then you’re taking the girls and shutting down the system.”
She’d told him that, yes.
But it hadn’t been the truth.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I love you, Dex. You have to trust me. Go back. Take the girls and get out of here.”
“Dex,” Eryn’s voice hissed. “Come back. Now. I can’t hold it!”
But he didn’t move, refusing to let her go.
Klaren took a step forward, pulling Andi with her.
“Dex!” Eryn hissed. Then she cursed, and Andi looked down and realized, with horror, that he was materializing before her again.
There was Dex’s tattooed hand, gripping her elbow.
And then there he was, with Eryn and Soyina behind him, becoming solid again, as if they’d just stepped forth from a separate dimension.
“What is this?” Nor’s adviser shouted. “GUARDS!”
Klaren whirled as Nor’s soldiers lifted their rifles.
Andi saw it all happen as if she were in someone else’s body. Nor lifting a hand, shouting a command at her soldiers. The rifles swinging, aiming past Andi and Arachnid, toward Dex and Eryn and Soyina, who had suddenly reappeared, as well.
And aiming at Breck, Gilly and Lira.
“No!” Andi shouted.
The first shot was fired.
Not by Nor’s soldiers, but by Soyina.
A soldier clad in black dropped to the ground.
Then Dex was shooting, too, his gun held before him with steady hands.
“SEIZE THEM!” Nor shouted. “Kill the others!”
Her soldiers rushed for them, guns at the ready. Andi heard shots fired, saw soldiers dropping. Someone cried out from behind her, and she couldn’t tell if it was her crew or Dex or Eryn or So
yina, but her mind was screaming, pleading for her to stop it.
Klaren’s armored body slammed on top of hers, blocking a shot as it nearly hit Andi from the side.
“Not the girl!” Nor was screaming. “Hit everyone but the girl! Take them down!”
Arachnid’s armor was too heavy. “Get off!” Andi shouted, but Klaren was like a boulder atop her, protecting the one person who could stop this entire war.
But Andi didn’t care about the damn war.
Mirabel be damned, her family was in danger.
She had no weapons, no swords, no gun. Fear raced through her, not for her own life, but for all the people that she loved, standing behind her in the line of fire.
“Get me a gun!” Breck’s voice shouted, and Andi couldn’t see. She couldn’t see a damned thing around Klaren. She ripped her wrists free of the cuffs, screamed as she put all her strength into pushing the massive armored form off her, the plan be damned...
“Enough!” the droid on Klaren’s shoulder shouted, so loud that it broke through the chaos.
Andi gasped as Klaren lifted her body off her own, gulping down air. She watched as Klaren turned toward the queen and reached for her helmet. Steam spilled out from the sides as she removed it, and the soldiers paused as Nor lifted a hand and told them to hold their fire.
Her eyes widened as she took in Arachnid’s true identity, her lips parting as if she wasn’t sure whether to cry or to scream. Beside her, the adviser’s eyes turned to narrow slits.
“You wanted to know who I was,” Klaren Solis said, staring her children down. Her droid’s voice carried out across the grounds as Nor stood there, frozen in disbelief at the sight of her mother. “Well, here I am, Nor. Back from the dead. And it’s time you and I had a talk.”
CHAPTER 37
NOR
It was impossible.
“But you’re dead,” Darai sputtered. His face was a mask of disbelief.
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