Amid Stars and Darkness

by Chani Lynn Feener

  Brightan rolled closer to her, and with a yelp she leaped over him and toward Ruckus, practically toppling into his arms.

  He pulled her close, backing them even farther away from the still-dying Sworn. Amazingly enough, the rest of the Tellers who’d been attacking them only moments before moved out of their way, their eyes glued to the same horrendous scene.

  Delaney’s gaze was suddenly drawn up, away from Brightan, and her breath caught in her throat.

  Trystan was staring back at her from the doorway, an odd weapon she’d never seen before in his right hand. It was long, almost like a rifle, and made of a dark black metal. He was holding it down at his side now, but a smoky trail floated upward from the bottom of it. There were over a dozen Kints at his back, yet none of them had their weapons at the ready.

  He’d shot Brightan. His right-hand man. He’d barbecued him.

  She’d be frowning in confusion if she weren’t still so shocked.

  “Come on!” Pettus’s voice pulled them all out of their daze. He was in front of the ship now, frantically waving them through. “Fawna’s all set!”

  Ruckus turned and began dragging her away, shoving the Kints who were still too shocked by Brightan’s death to move. He had them halfway to the ship with little to no resistance.

  And then all hell broke loose.

  “Lissa!” Trystan’s voice cut across the expanse, a loud furious roar that instantly had her heart stopping.

  She turned to look at him over her shoulder, but she couldn’t get a great visual because Ruckus didn’t miss a beat. He kept pulling her along, moving faster now that the Zane had spoken.

  Trystan called her again, moving across the room, his men doing the same. The ones who were closest to them who had stopped shot back into action, spinning on their heels and dashing after them.

  The towering ceiling of the hangar was already in the process of opening up. The metal panes twisted in a circular motion, caving inward toward the wall until the gap there was large enough to fit the massive spacecraft through. The side compartment of the black craft was also lowering, sending down a set of steep stairs for them.

  Pettus was already scrambling up them, turning to take aim at the approaching Tellers once he had. He didn’t, however, fire, gritting his teeth in annoyance at having to hold back.

  If Trystan was with them and they weren’t Tars, they couldn’t very well go around shooting them. Especially when no one was firing at them, either. The order clearly hadn’t been given, and though they quickened their pace, trying to stop them from boarding, the command never came.

  They reached the stairs, and Pettus helped tug her up and through the doorway. The second Ruckus was in as well, he twisted around and slammed a palm against the side panel of the inner ship. The staircase disappeared, and the doors began sliding shut.

  Trystan was close now, only ten or so feet away. He shoved his own men aside, calling her title as he went. There was the same anger in his icy blue eyes that she’d seen after Lura’s murder attempt, and she shivered.

  Try as she might, she couldn’t tear her gaze off him, though. It was as if he held her trapped, a deer in headlights with no way to break the spell. Part of her wanted to thank him for saving her life yet again, but she couldn’t get any sounds past her lips, and they were out of time.

  He must have realized he wouldn’t make it, for he stopped less than three feet away. Staring up at her, unblinkingly, she got the distinct impression he was trying to tell her something.

  And whatever it was, it wasn’t good.

  Even after the doors had fully shut, blocking him and the rest of the hangar out, she could still feel his gaze piercing her soul.

  CHAPTER 25

  “What are you going to say?” Delaney trailed Ruckus down the familiar white halls of the spaceship. Ironic that she was back where she started. At least this time she’d boarded of her own free will.

  “I’ll tell them we assumed it was another Tar attack,” he answered. “Considering they did, in fact, come after us, there’s enough proof for it to be believable. And when Olena returns later today, there’ll be nothing that Trystan can say. She wouldn’t run just to come back within twenty-four hours.”

  “What if she gives us up, though?” Delaney was shocked that she hadn’t thought of that sooner. “She’s got to be seriously pissed off at being caught and dragged here. What makes you think she’ll suddenly fall in line and play along?”

  He sighed but didn’t stop his descent through the ship. “She’s immature and self-centered, but she’s not a murderer. She knows what will happen to Vakar if she tells the truth.”

  “She knows what will happen to her, you mean.”

  He pursed his lips. “That, too.”

  “Well,” she said, shrugging a shoulder, “if there’s anything I know to be true about her, it’s her knack for self-preservation.” That took care of one problem then. What about the rest?

  “Oh, there you guys are!” Gibus turned a corner suddenly, almost slamming into them in the process. Which seemed to be his MO. His lab coat billowed behind him, and his hair was in major disarray. “I’ve been searching the entire ship!”

  “I highly doubt that,” Ruckus claimed, moving past him and picking up speed once more, forcing the Sutter to fall into step at Delaney’s side, a pace behind.

  “Most of it, anyway,” he admitted, unconcerned at being caught in an overexaggeration. “I managed to grab the device before being rushed off by Pettus, along with a few other things you might end up needing while you’re—”

  “We can talk about this later.”

  Delaney frowned between the two of them. Why did she get the distinct feeling something was going on here that Ruckus didn’t want her to know about?

  “I suppose you’re right,” Gibus agreed absently. “We do have three whole days to go over everything before reaching Earth. Our layover time with the Lissa will only put us behind schedule by twenty minutes, an hour at most.”

  “Isn’t an hour a long time? We aren’t switching ships with her, are we?” she asked.

  “And trust someone else with mine?” Ruckus said, and grunted. “Not likely. We do have to talk to her, though, see her firsthand and make sure that they got the right girl this time.”

  “The device was broken,” Gibus said. “She wouldn’t have been able to reset it. I programmed the prototype to work only the once. If they say they have Olena, it’s really her.”

  “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Turning down one last corridor, they finally came to the front of the ship, and Ruckus slammed his palm against a pad positioned at the side of the two metal doors. They whooshed open, and he walked through quickly.

  “What’s the rush?” Delaney still wasn’t sure why he was in such a hurry. It wasn’t like they could reach Olena any faster.

  “Just have a lot to do,” he told her over his shoulder, heading straight for a chair at the front left of the room.

  It was the cockpit, with a curved ceiling and walls lined with different computer stations. The center of the room was empty, and so were the extra three seats in front of the weird setups, with buttons and technology she didn’t understand to the left and right. At the head, there was a large glass window that exposed what she’d expected to be a vast black, but was actually a swirl of rushing deep blues and purples.

  “We’re already in fouge,” Gibus informed her. “That’s faster than the speed of light.”

  Two leather chairs were positioned in front of a console that took up that entire space, one of which was occupied by a woman with sandy-blond hair. She wore it up in a tight bun at the back of her head, and when she glanced Delaney’s way, she gave a friendly smile and even lifted a hand to wave. Her eyes were a vibrant fuchsia with a deep blue rim, a bit eerie at first but then beautiful.

  “Hi,” the woman said after a moment had passed in silence. “I’m Fawna. It’s nice to finally meet you, Delaney.”

  It was strange that they’d ne
ver met before. Where had she been the whole time they’d been at the castle?

  “I don’t work for Vakar royalty,” Fawna answered, as if having read her mind. “I’m a private blaster hired by Ruckus. Which means while you all had to play nice, I got to head into town and get drunk.”

  Her odd mixture of both Vakar terminology and American momentarily had Delaney confused. She didn’t think she’d ever get used to the weird assortment of words. Then she pieced together that blaster was probably their title for pilot. Guess that meant Ruckus seriously trusted her, if she wasn’t even part of Vakar military. He’d allowed her out of his sight with the massive secret of who Delaney really was, after all.

  “Well then, when this is all done, I’ll buy you a beer,” Delaney joked.

  Fawna smiled, but it was obvious from the look in her eyes that they were both really thinking the same thing. That neither of them expected to see the other ever again once this was over with.

  “Have you signaled Olena’s ship yet?” Ruckus asked. His hands deftly moved over the panel in front of him, flipping black switches and pressing different-shaped buttons. “They know we’re coming?”

  “They were surprised to find we’re ahead of schedule,” she answered, “but yeah, they know. Sounds like Mazus can’t wait to get rid of her.”

  “That’s the Lissa,” he stated, “always causing trouble.”

  Turning toward Delaney, he smiled, though it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I’ve got a lot to take care of here. Can Gibus show you to your room? You should get some rest; you barely got three hours.”

  Not really having anything to do there, she nodded and motioned toward the Sutter to lead the way.

  “So,” Gibus said the second they were back in the halls, “I was thinking, instead of showing you to your rooms, we could head to my lab. Some of that stuff I managed to sequester away?” He leaned in close conspiratorially. “Yeah, you might be interested in seeing it.”

  * * *

  THEY SPENT THEIR time going over some of the gadgets he’d been able to grab, and the ones that he had permanently stowed on board. There were some pretty interesting things, including a jet pack, boots that adjusted to different gravitational pulls, and a plant that shrank instead of grew as it aged. Why he thought they’d ever need the latter was beyond her, but she had to admit it was cool.

  There were other things, smaller things that reminded her of spy gear from the movies, and others that were so scientific in explanation, with big words like norepinephrine and whatnot, that she gave up trying to comprehend them half a sentence in.

  She was nervous about being back in space, about having to see Olena … about how she’d left things with Trystan. The way he’d looked at her in the end, she was certain he was trying to tell her something, trying to promise something. She knew him well enough now to know that any promises he made were really threats in disguise.

  The only reprieve from her fears was the fact that he couldn’t follow her, and once she was on Earth, she’d never have to worry about seeing him again. He’d go back to being Olena’s problem, and Delaney could go back to living her life, without looking over her shoulder every two seconds.

  At some point the exhaustion must have gotten the best of her and she’d fallen asleep, for one minute she was sitting down in the corner of Gibus’s lab on one of his soft chairs, and the next she was waking up in an entirely different room.

  With a frown, she blinked, slowly slipping out of her sleep state. The room was white, and similar to the one she’d woken in upon being kidnapped, though it was almost three times the size. Instead of a cot there was a bed, a king-sized bed if she had to guess, and so comfortable, it was almost like she was lying on a cotton ball.

  “You’re awake,” Ruckus’s gruff voice came from the other side of the room, and when she sat up, she saw he was sitting at a desk built into the wall. He turned in the chair to better face her, resting his arms on his knees.

  “How long was I out?” She glanced around. “And how did I get here?”

  “Less than an hour,” he told her, standing, “and I carried you.”

  When he didn’t approach, merely stood there with his hands clenched at his sides, her chest tightened in worry. Brushing the blankets off her, she got to her feet, remaining on the side of the bed and awkwardly crossing her arms.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  “Nothing.” He shook his head, but it was hard to believe him when he dropped his gaze in the process.

  “Ruck,” she said, waiting until he met her eyes once more. “Tell me.”

  He seemed to think it over for a moment before finally coming to a decision. He was just about to open his mouth when the door across from him slid open and Pettus popped his head inside.

  “They’re boarding now, sir.” He nodded her way with a small smile. “Morning, Delaney.”

  She wasn’t so sure it was actually morning, but she greeted him back.

  “Let’s go.” Ruckus moved over to the door, holding his hand out to her once he got there. Whatever weirdness he’d been experiencing a second ago was gone, shelved more than likely because of Olena’s arrival.

  She hesitated, and he turned toward Pettus.

  “We’ll be there in a moment,” he told him, waiting until they were alone before stepping close enough to her that she felt his body heat. Taking both of her hands, he rubbed his thumbs over her knuckles comfortingly. “Are you ready for this?”

  “To see the person who did this to me?” She sighed, embarrassed that she was torn between wanting to cry and scream. The emotions had hit her so suddenly, she was a bit blindsided by them. “I can’t tell. On the one hand, I hate her. Yet, on the other … I wouldn’t have met you if she hadn’t done what she did.”

  She’d voiced that opinion to him before, but now that they were actually so close to meeting with the Lissa, she felt herself flip-flopping between understanding where Olena’s actions had stemmed from and wanting to rip her face off.

  “Her face, huh?” Ruckus grinned even while she groaned. “You haven’t made a slip like that in a while.”

  That was true; she’d gotten a hang of the whole telepathic thing rather quickly. “I’m going to miss being able to do that,” she admitted, meeting his gaze. “Having secret conversations with someone is kind of awesome.”

  His mirth dropped away. “Delaney—” Swearing, he stopped abruptly and cocked his head. He’d steeled himself all over again when the conversation in his head ended. “They’re here. It’s now or never. If you don’t want to do this, you can always stay here. There’s no real reason for you to have to see her.”

  As tempting as that option was …

  “I’m not going to hide out like I’m afraid of her,” she told him firmly. “She did this to me; now she has to deal with me.”

  The corner of his mouth turned up slightly, bringing back a little snippet of his good mood. “That’s my girl.”

  Her heart panged in her chest at the comment, but he was already turning away, so she brushed it aside. In little more than two days, he’d be dropping her off in Maine, and they’d go their separate ways. Her fingers tightened around his instinctually.

  When he frowned over at her, she pretended not to notice.

  She half expected to find Olena in the four-way stop, the same place Trystan had ambushed them with his guards on their first trip, but when they reached it, it was empty. They continued on and came to a stop in front of a wall that was mostly made up of a large metal door. She assumed that was where the other spaceship attached, allowing passengers to safely pass through both structures.

  Ruckus opened the door, a loud grinding sound filling the room and adding to her discomfort. Not soon after, five figures appeared around the bend, heading toward them.

  Delaney wasn’t ready for what she felt when her eyes finally locked on to the Lissa. She’d been expecting anger, disgust, even pity, but she hadn’t been prepared for the regret.

  Pett
us was standing tall next to four other Vakar Tellers, all men.

  One of them had his hand wrapped tightly around Olena’s right arm. His chin was up, shoulders back, and there was a tight expression on his face that instantly told everyone around him that he was done playing games.

  Olena herself was in a pair of blue jeans and a loose-fitting white T-shirt. The logo for some band was written across it in green and black, the material too faded to make it out. Her nails were painted in dark pink polish that was chipped; gray sneakers covered her feet. Her black hair was longer than it had been when they’d bumped into each other, just a ways past her thin shoulders now.

  “You look like you just came from club Star Light.” Delaney wasn’t sure why she said it; the words just sort of slipped out. Really, though, what was one supposed to say to the girl who’d stolen her life?

  “And you look like me.” Olena seemed like she was thinking about leaping out of the Teller’s hold to attack Delaney but was holding back. Even through the fury, it was hard to miss the lingering fear in her eyes.

  It was a bit strange that Delaney still appeared like Olena, but they couldn’t risk using the device to reverse the process until they were 100 percent certain they’d gotten the real Olena Ond this time.

  “Do you know how many lives you put in danger?” Ruckus demanded. “Including the ones you wanted so desperately to live among back on Earth. If Delaney hadn’t agreed to play along with your ruse, we’d probably all be dead now.”

  The Lissa looked at him, and a range of emotions played across her pale face. It was so obvious that she’d missed him, and that she was hurt knowing he was partially to blame for her being dragged back here. Yet the anger was there as well, the arrogance. When she spoke, her voice dripped with venom.

  “I saw an opportunity to be free, so I took it,” Olena stated. “And I don’t regret a single day I spent there instead of here. I tried to tell you what I wanted, but you wouldn’t listen to me. You remember, don’t you? I asked for your help, and you refused to give it.”