She means to kill us? Why would she do that? She needs Emery.
A chill runs down my spine. Or does she? I shake off the thought. It doesn’t matter. I’m getting him out of here. I quicken our pace, pulling Emery along until we hit a large area of marshy underbrush. Perfect. I duck into the bushes and drag him with me. He’s breathing heavily from both exertion and adrenaline. I motion for him to be as quiet as possible. The guards are all over the place, patrolling.
Now we wait, hope we’re in the right spot, and see what Cole has planned.
Ten minutes pass, but it feels like hours. The guards are moving in closer to our location. The success of our freedom is dwindling fast. My mind races. Has Cole double-crossed me again? At this point, I can’t put it past him. I have a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. What if he’s been captured—or worse?
The thought is fleeting though, as the tell-tale loud roar of a Cadmarian ship sounds overhead. A battleship hovers just above the trees, scanning the area.
“Is that for us?” Emery asks, ready to reveal ourselves.
“Wait.”
A metal ladder lowers from the ship.
Emery tries to get to his feet, and I hold him still. “Wait.”
The lights on the underside of the ship flash on and off three times. A memory surfaces. Uncle Teagan always said that light signaling could be a handy form of communication when you’re in a jam and normal comm is down.
It’s Cole.
“Let’s go.” I grab Emery’s hand. If we get to the ladder, Cole can take off. Twenty paces at most.
My chest heaves as we sprint for our lives toward the ladder, our only chance at salvation.
“Come on, Emery. Haul ass!” I pull his arm harder.
I slam into the metal ladder and shove Emery up about five rungs as I follow suit. The ship lifts off, and we are in the air, climbing. Emery is booking it and is almost at the open hatch. Cole is kneeling next to the opening, and briefly, I wonder—who the hell is flying the ship?
Cole looks beyond us at the ground. “The guards are getting into range.”
I glance back toward the ground. He’s right. A plasma shot whizzes by my head. They are firing on us now. I climb faster, but it doesn’t look likely I’m going to make it. But Emery has. “Emery, get inside the ship!”
He stops a few rungs from the hatch and glances at the guards assembling on the ground below us then back up at Cole. “Give me the sphere!”
Cole lowers a satchel down to Emery, who steadies himself on the ladder, and grabs the bag.
Cole retrieved the sphere!
Before Emery can open the bag, his eyes widen in fear as a sniper arrow sails into his chest and the satchel drops from his grasp.
“Emery!” My body reacts instinctively as he teeters just above me, blood forming around the arrow sticking from his chest.
I launch myself up the ladder, to grab hold of him and hoist him between my body and the ladder. I climb the last few rungs, and Cole grabs Emery and pulls him inside. After I climb into the ship, I turn to look back at the ground. The guards surround the satchel.
Then I spot her.
Garren walks purposefully toward the guards surrounding the sphere, a sniper bow tilted against her shoulder.
I stare at her long and hard, my mind whirling with innumerable ways to kill her. Sensing me, she pauses to return my glare. As the ship pulls up and into the atmosphere, she fades into the distance, and I turn my attention to Emery.
19
Despair Meets Hope
Emery slips in and out of consciousness. There’s blood soaking his shirt and dripping from his mouth. “Raven—”
I grasp his hand in mine. “I’m here.”
Cole grabs a towel from a compartment and presses it against Emery’s chest, causing him to cough and sputter more blood from his mouth.
“Raven, get the medical scanner,” Cole says, his eyes serious, lifting Emery gently in his arms, his head lolling across his arm. “I got you, kid.” He moves into the sleeping quarters of the Cadmarian personal transportation ship and taps open a bed from the wall.
My mind won’t work, but the adrenaline rushing through my body forces me to my feet. I run to the touch panel at the back of the ship and access the medical scanner. I have no formal medical training. I pull out the handheld device, having no idea what I’m looking at. We’re going to have to get that arrow out.
“Raven, the scanner!” Cole yells.
Regaining my senses, I rush to Emery’s side. There’s so much blood, and he’s so pale. “I don’t know how—”
Cole takes the scanner out of my hand. He taps some things on the small touch screen on top, and a green laser light emits from the bottom of the scanner. He moves it up and down Emery’s chest, watching the readout.
I watch in agony. Please, please, let him be okay.
He turns off the scanner. “He has a punctured lung. Pulling out the arrow will likely cause more damage, not to mention be extremely painful. He needs a formal medical bay and surgical droids.” He stands, not meeting my eyes. “We can’t turn back, obviously. Once we are out of Cadmarian airspace, I’ll hail any larger ships or freighters that are equipped.” He touches my shoulder. I see his hand more than feel it because I’m so disoriented and frightened. “Keep pressure on the wound. Your job is to keep him alive until we get there.”
Somehow I find my voice again. “Okay.”
I pull up a metal stool next to the bed and press my hands to his wound. The movement rustles Emery awake.
“Raven?” he says weakly.
“I’m here, Emery. We’re getting you help. Hang in there. Just a little while longer.” I try to smile and hide my fear.
He turns his head from side to side, his eyes closed. “The sphere—”
“It’s okay. I’ll get it back for you. Don’t worry about that.” I brush some of his silver hair off his forehead where sweat beads are forming like condensation on a glass.
“No…if I die… No, it can’t be…she’s evil… There’s so much death. Father…” He’s rambling, on the verge of delirium.
I grasp the side of his face and turn him toward me while I keep pressure on the wound with my artificial hand. “Emery, look at me. Listen to me. You aren’t going anywhere. You hear me? I won’t allow you to die. You’re staying right here with me.”
He opens his silver eyes and stares into mine as if looking straight into my soul if such a thing existed. “You’re so beautiful, Raven.”
Emery touches my cheek and closes his eyes. An amazing lightness fills my heart, as memories of my time with him flood my mind like images in a book of us. He opens his eyes and smiles. “There, that’s better, isn’t it?”
Tears fill my eyes as I stroke his hair. I nod, unable to find words.
“Remember when we first met? I was so nervous sitting in that metal chair onboard our ship. I saw a beautiful woman naked for the first time, and I couldn’t move, or my balls would be shocked. You have no idea how hard that was,” he says, half smiling.
I smile too and moisten my dry lips. “I’m sorry I was such a bitch to you.”
“It’s okay. I love you, despite it.”
The tears I’d been holding at bay come tumbling down my cheeks in streams. My heart heaves, and I gasp to catch my breath. “I love you too. Please don’t leave me. I can’t bear it if you do too. Please, Emery, I’m begging you.”
His eyes lose focus but then come back to mine. He’s fading. I lean over to the wall and press the comm panel. “Cole! Hurry up!”
Emery draws my attention back to him. “Raven, listen to me. The sphere…when its wielder passes on, its ownership goes to the next person it encounters. Not just Mythosian.” More tears stream from his eyes. “It sparks with green light. Don’t touch it until you see the green sparks. Garren…” He sighs, his eyes fighting to remain open.
“Don’t tire yourself. Save your energy. Garren won’t get the sphere because you aren’t going to di
e. We’ll get it back. She won’t be able to touch it.”
Emery takes a labored breath, his eye spilling tears down his cheeks and onto the pillow. “The key. Take the key.” He grasps my hand and places it over the strange-looking key hanging from his neck. “You will know what to do when the time comes, but I need you to promise me something.”
Gently, I lift it over his head, trying to control my shaking hands. I set it on the table and climb into the bed next to him, cradling his body to mine. His head rests on my chest as I stroke his hair. “Anything.”
“Stop hating yourself.”
I sob quietly, as our roles reverse in his comforting words. “I need you to stay with me to do that.”
“Death does not define you. Life does. You’re stronger than you realize. I only wish you had let me take away your bad dreams.”
I kiss his temple, my tears trailing in his sliver hair. “No, Emery. Those dreams are all I have left of my family. I want to remember them.”
His breathing gets shallower. “Will you dream of me?”
Huffing, I reply, “Of course I will.”
“Remember me when the time comes.”
“What time?”
He chokes and gasps for breath, no air coming into his lungs. I lie him back down and press my lips to his to breathe air into him. But his chest won’t rise.
“Come on, Emery.”
I breathe some more, but nothing happens. His eyes still, and I see life escape from his slender body. I shake him by the shoulders as my heart splinters and shatters into a million pieces.
“No, no, no, no, no… stay with me. Please!” I breathe into him again.
The tears streaming down my cheeks have turned into sobs. I brush back his hair and close his eyelids, his silver irises haunting me. Using my artificial hand, I pull the arrow from his chest, and it clatters on the floor. I cover his body with a blanket and tuck it under his chin.
I tap the comm panel. Distantly, I say, “He’s dead.”
Cole replies, “I’m sorry, Raven.”
I don’t want his sympathy. I don’t want any of this. They all die. All of them. The pain in my chest changes to something different, something heated. A burning rips through my body and spills over. I stand and scream. I need to hit something. Punch something. I glance around the room, not sure if I have any shred of sanity left. Then I’m moving. Everything that isn’t attached is free game to my insatiable wrath, as I toss tables and chairs. Nothing in my path is safe.
It should have been me. Not Emery. Me!
I throw a stool in the direction of the passageway. Cole appears and ducks to the side against the wall as the mangled piece of metal misses his head. I stare at him, my rage incited at his presence.
“Raven—”
I barrel into him, shoving him as hard as I can until his back is against the wall with my bionic forearm pressing on his throat. “This is because of you. Emery is dead, and it’s your fault! You should have pulled him inside. Instead, you gave him the sphere because of me. I’d have gladly died for him. I hate you!”
“I’m sorry.” He stands still, ready to take whatever I have to dish out and then some.
“You’re sorry? What are you sorry for? That you betrayed me? Or that you got Emery killed? Which one?”
He stares at me, his expression stoic. He’s not going to fight me back. I release him and turn away as the sobs continue.
Cole puts his hands on my shoulders. I try to fight him off, but the massive ache in my chest is weakening my resolve. He turns me and draws me into his arms, holding me tightly, pressing my head to his chest, his hand in my hair stroking lightly.
In between sobs, I whisper, “He loved me. Did you know that? I don’t know why. I was awful to him.”
“You were good to him.”
“Everyone who loves me dies, Cole. Everyone.”
His lips press into my hair. “Not everyone.”
With Emery’s key in my pocket and his memory in my mind, I sit in a chair and feel nothing. I’m shut down, turned off. Not like when my family died. After that, I felt disgust and hostility. Now I feel nothing. I’m not sad. I’m not angry. I’m just…here.
I glance down at the suicide pill Uncle Teagan gave me. Just one quick movement and it could all be over. I’d cease to exist. No more dreams, no more thoughts of Emery, no more running. I’d be free. Besides, all hope in the galaxy was lost when Emery took his last breath. Garren will use the sphere to take over everything, including Zeta.
I close my eyes.
Do it. He’s gone. You have nothing left. I raise the pill to my mouth.
Then, as if divine intervention were possible, my artificial hand malfunctions, shaking uncontrollably, knocking the pill onto the floor where it rolls in between two metal joints and is gone. I stare at the spot the pill disappeared and then at my hand. I test my grip, twisting back and forth, up and down, flexing all the fingers. It’s working fine.
“Are you okay?” Cole asks from the passageway.
Fighting to come back to reality, I look toward the door, my eyes trying to focus on the man standing there.
You must retrieve the sphere.
Emery? I turn to the bed. His sweet face is turned toward me, his body peacefully still. I look back down at my hand. I don’t know how or why, but Emery saved me. I hear you. But how?
You’ll find a way. You have to get the sphere back. I believe in you.
I don’t know why or how it’s possible, but I hear him like he’s right in front of me. Okay, Emery. If there’s a way, I’ll get it back. I swear.
I take a deep breath and focus on Cole. “I don’t suppose I have much choice.”
“Good.”
With Emery’s voice still hanging in the air, I ask, “I don’t suppose you have a plan that will get the sphere back before Garren uses it to take over Zeta?”
“I don’t. But he might,” Cole says, moving further into the room to allow a silver-haired man inside. He can’t be more than ten years older than Cole and me.
My keen senses return, and I’m on my feet. “You’re a survivor of Mythos? What can you tell us? Did you know Emery D’Grath?”
Cole responds, “His name is Tobias, and he isn’t a survivor of Mythos. He was the one who was excommunicated. I broke him out of the royal detention center before I came for you. He’s the one who first told me about the sphere.”
My hands are around his neck before he can even blink. “You! You’re the reason Emery is dead. You stupid fool! Now the whole galaxy is going to be enslaved by Cadmar. I should just put you out of your misery right now.”
I squeeze tighter, cutting his airway off. In truth, I could snap his neck in a nanosecond. But somewhere inside my mind, a place the memory of Emery has now taken up residence, tells me not to. Another part, the part that is still very much me, thinks he should hurt just a little for betraying his people.
Cole grabs my arm and wrestles me away from him. “Raven, I think you want to hear what he has to say.”
I stop fighting. “Okay, spill.”
I size him up. He’s been through some trauma—his left cheek is bruised, his silver hair looks like it hasn’t been brushed in days, and his clothes, if I can call them clothes, look shredded.
“There may be a way to beat Garren,” Tobias says weakly, trying to catch his breath.
“Go on,” I say.
“We have to go to Mythos.”
“Mythos? There are no survivors. Besides, the Cadmarian military no doubt ransacked everything.”
He rights himself. “Perhaps, but there are secrets on Mythos that not even the most cunning military in the galaxy could know about or understand.”
I cross my arms and narrow my eyes. “You’re being awfully vague. How about you start with why you were excommunicated.” I’m certainly not going to trust this guy without a good reason.
Tobias glances at Cole and Cole nods. Ah, so Cole already knows. One more thing he didn’t tell me.
�
��I was banished from my people for breaking a basic tenet—I fell in love with my brother’s wife.”
“And that’s banish-able behavior? For real?”
“It is when your brother is the leader of your people.”
Oh, well, that would change things. “Go on.”
“I tried to ignore my feelings for Lyra, but she felt the same way about me. It wasn’t long before we committed the ultimate act of betrayal and were caught. Then, months later, Lyra was pregnant, which in and of itself was of no consequence since we raise our young communally. But my brother couldn’t bear the possibility that Lyra carried my child. He banished me from Mythos. I began drinking—”
“—and that’s when you ran into Cole on Cadmar.”
“Yes, that’s about the right of it. I didn’t even realize I had told Cole about the sphere until it was too late.”
I eye him closely. “Was your brother the previous guardian of the sphere?”
“No, my brother was the leader of our people, not a cleric. It was the clerics who guarded the sphere. They understood how powerful it was and were best equipped to handle the weapon. It was safe in their hands.”
I glance over at the bed, my heart aching. Like Emery—safe in his hands. “So let me get this straight. You think that there’s something on Mythos that can help us get the sphere back?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Then why are we going there?” This is exasperating.
“How attached to your blue eyes and hair are you, Zetian?”
“Excuse me?”
“Are you willing to be the first immigrant on Mythos? If you are, it might be possible for you to gain something to beat Garren Geldian.”
I laugh and slowly walk back toward him. “Okay, I’ll play your game. What exactly do you think can be gained to beat Garren, who is, by the way, the most elite fighter I’ve ever encountered. Also, she’s an incredible strategist and the ruler of the most powerful planet in the galaxy alongside her psychotic brother.” I tap on my chin with my index finger, for dramatic effect, my patience waning. “There’s something else too. Oh, wait, that’s right, she also has a badass sphere that turns everyone it encounters into dust. So, sure, I’m game. What could possibly be gained from going to your planet?” I glare into his eyes, daring him to screw around because I’m about to fly off the handle.
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