by Abby J. Reed
We lay wide awake as the fire from the tube still crackled beyond. “Hopefully, the fire will charge the light even faster. And your wing will heal real soon,” I said, my throat tight as a too-wound screw.
“Hopefully.” Her voice was just as tight.
Was she feeling what flooded my body? Was she feeling this live wire, too?
She wiggled against me, and I almost short-circuited.
I spent a long moment trying to wrangle in my hormones. “Whose room was that?”
Malani stiffened.
I sat up and grabbed her hand so she knew she wouldn’t be alone. “You don’t have to tell me. In fact, I’ve got something to tell you.”
“That you’re Malvyn’s son?”
I started. “You know?”
“After Malvyn and I crashed the ship, sure. It wasn’t hard to figure out. It makes sense.” She gave me a sheepish look. “And I overheard you with your parents.”
“At least that saves me a conversation.”
She smiled, then took a deep breath, fighting memories. “Dr. Niele’s. That’s who the room belonged to.” His name was acid in her mouth. “This is the doctors’ and guards’ quarters. He was the last doctor who tried to, uh . . .”
“Experiment?”
She nodded. Her fingers wove through mine. Ingrith, how a subtle movement could still feel so momentous. “He said I was worthless. That my only purpose was to be used.”
“No. Do you hear me, no.” My cap stretched and wove between our united fingers, like a ribbon knotting us together.
“I know it’s not true. I’ve worked through it again and again. See, spiral? And here I am back again.” She sighed. “It’s hard, though, being back. And hearing those voices, always whispering and echoing, telling me I’m not valuable.”
I willed every ounce of warmth and sincerity into my words. “Anytime you need a reminder, lemme remind you: You are and will always be valuable to me. With you here, I can bear being on this stupid bloody planet. With you out there, I can bear drifting through the stars with a stupid dead dream.” I clutched her hands to my chest. “You’re my home, Malani. You always will be.”
Her mouth lifted into a smile, and it was the most nova thing I’d ever seen. Even with what little light we had, her colorless dreads seemed to glow, and the sharp angles of her body cast long shadow-like wings. She was truly beautiful. She truly was an angel. My angel. Sent to guide me home.
My heart thundered in my chest, so full, so heavy, so hers.
“Your soul is the most elegant design I’ve ever seen.” My voice cracked. “There is no flaw in you.”
She leaned over and pressed her forehead to mine. Her eyes filled with tears. “You know, I think I might love you.”
Every nerve ending was on fire. I pulled her mouth to mine as I whispered against her lips, “That’s good. Because I think I might love you too.”
An auto air-conditioning unit kicked on, causing the door to creak closed, but neither of us cared.
Chapter 29
JUPE
Tahnya’s hand nudged me awake. “Jupe? Jupe, wake up.” Her whispering voice tingled my ear. My vision had cleared and I could blink freely. Tahnya sat on her knees on the bed, peering over me.
I sat up, the fleshPatches crinkling with the movement. The soldiers dropped the medkit off who knows how long ago and I’d immediately applied the patches to the worst of the bruises. My headache was mostly gone and the throbbing in my side faded to a faint hum. At least no bones had broken. A fleshPatch wouldn’t touch something damaged that deep.
“How’s my eye?” I said.
Tahnya tilted my head back, her touch soft beneath my chin. She squinted. “Much better.” Then she went over to Brody. He had stopped doing that rapid eye movement thing and dozed against the wall. “Brody? Wake up. I think they’re coming. Now’s our chance.”
Brody was on his feet in an instant. “Tahnya! Do you see this? ‘Stroids this line is so nova.” He waved his arms as though trying to catch what only overlaid his vision in his own mind. “I never ever want to take this out.” His teeth shone as his grin widened to take over his entire face.
The kid was full of energy. Nothing like the grumpy shadow who had stalked Breaker’s ship. If this was what his little brother was normally like, no wonder they were all so worried.
Tahnya’s eyes gleamed. She patted Brody down, even as he shook her off to trace something in the air. “You seem to be feeling much better.”
“There’s a whole bunch of messages to Leader along the side here. Holy banging ‘stroids. Tahnya! Tahnya, look! There’s a banging entire world on here. Why would you ever cut this out, Jupe?”
“You forget Leader bartered for a royal Solteran line. Mine wasn’t near as nice.” I peered under my T-shirt at the fleshPatches along my ribs. Moss-lemon spots covered the areas the patches didn’t reach. Half an hora more should do the trick. I swung my legs over the bed. By the Angel, were they stiff. “Tahnya, what chance were you talking about?”
Tahnya’s smile was cheerful. “You two ready to get out of here?”
I froze midway through stretching my calves. “What?” I tilted my head. I still couldn’t hear as good, but the noises outside our cell were loud enough for even me to make out. The royal soldiers had arrived to take me away again. No, royal soldier. One.
Then I noticed Tahnya’s stance right by the doorway—knees bent, wrists firm, determination on her face, something glinting in her grasp—
The transcenGel softened. A hand entered first, a shoulder, a head—
“Tahnya, don’t—”
She rammed her hand into the pressure point at the side of the soldier’s neck, using her weight to force him down. Soon as he bent, she kicked the back of his knees. He collapsed to the floor. Then, Brody was there, fending off the soldier’s wild swings. A flash of silver and purple blood spurted from the back of his neck. Tahnya held his line aloft, triumphant. The soldier stared at the floor, both arms bracing him in a tabletop position, stunned.
It took three secs.
“The Queen is waiting for us,” I said. “She’ll know something is wrong when we don’t show up.” Then I noticed what was in her other hand. A tiny scalpel, the same color as the ring I’d stolen for her. “Is that the ring?”
“Now it’s a scalpel. If the Queen is waiting, that means she’s distracted.”
“But how—”
Tahnya fished out wrist restraints from the guard’s belt. The same pair he was going to use on me. “Brody, bring the bed over.”
“It’d be better to kill him,” Brody said. “That’s what Luka would do.”
“Well, I’m not Luka. Bring it over now.”
The bed scraped the floor. The sound needled my eardrums. Tahnya quickly fastened the guard to a leg post. He was already becoming more aware. He was young, about our age, and probably had his line updated when he became a soldier. The longer a line was in the system, the longer adjusting to a world without it took. He’d be completely conscious soon enough.
“He was planning to lead you out, right, Jupe?” Tahnya wiped the line on her tunic. “That means he had to tell the door to let two people out. You feeling good enough to pick up Brody? That way the sensors will think it’s only two people.”
I eyed Brody. “You’re pretty solid.”
Brody batted his lashes. “And you’ve had a rebel life of strength training.”
I rolled my eyes as I heaved him up. He was thicker than a wet bag of concrete. “Angel above. Next time you carry me.”
“It won’t work,” a deep voice said. The soldier had finally regained his senses. He still lay splayed out where we left him, but his head was turned toward us. “You’ll never escape. There’s cameras.”
“Then we’l
l just have to be faster.” Tahnya held the soldier’s line up and stuck her hand into the transcenGel. It didn’t freeze on her. She stepped through.
When I didn’t immediately follow, she beckoned. “Hurry up.”
I readjusted Brody and took a step toward her. But leaving . . . Leaving meant facing what was out there.
Brody tapped on my shoulder. “Come on, my chariot.”
I imagined ShuShu in front of me with a cup of steaming Bai Hao between us. The scent of Miaoli and the warmth of the nearest star on our faces. You are so afraid of being alone, he’d said.
Maybe Tahnya was right. Being here gave me an excuse to never confront the feeling or choose to fight against it.
I stepped forward through the gel.
I immediately dropped Brody and went into a defensive stance, waiting for more soldiers to arrive. They didn’t.
Tahnya looked to me. “Jupe, do you remember which way they took you to get out?”
“Sí, toward the Queen’s personal hangar, where she’s currently waiting for us. I don’t know any other way out.”
Brody stepped between us. “I know where to go. There’s a palace welcome map on my line and there’s signs everywhere, which you can’t see.”
“There’s not gonna be exit signs in the prison leading you to freedom,” I said.
“Nooo. But I can figure it out based on what is on the signs and not on the map.” He started down the hallway, whispering to Tahnya in a conspiratorial voice. “He wouldn’t last a dia on Scarlatti. You sure you wanna crush on him?”
She almost tripped.
I admit. His words made me blush too.
Fifteen mins later we were out of the ice cells and into the main part of the palace and we still hadn’t seen a single other person. The Queen Mother would probably be growing suspicious already and have dispatched another soldier. Or hacked the memory storage of the guard whose line we’d taken. Our only chance was if his memory data didn’t finish syncing before the line was ripped out. But surely the Queen would know something was wrong if she couldn’t access his line.
Still, from my experience, no soldiers meant too easy meant trap. Except the Queen gained nothing by springing one on us. Maybe it was luck. We were about due for Lady Luck to shower us with attention.
Tahnya sweated slightly, even despite the chilly air licking through the halls. We were now standing in what seemed to be a bunch of bedrooms. “Brody, where are you taking us? This doesn’t seem like the way out.”
“It’s not.” He turned a sharp right and started a long stairway descent. The temperature dropped. “We need a ship to leave, right? I’m taking you to the main hangar, not the Queen’s personal one.”
She beamed at me, proud as a mama bird. “He’s smart.”
When we reached the bottom of the stairs, the view suddenly opened to the biggest hangar I’d ever seen, and beyond it the great white and cerulean ocean raged. Cold wind whipped through, carrying the chill of ice with it. Below our observation deck, ships of all shapes and sizes lined the hangar in organized rows. Most of these were leisure ships. The true military ships would be staggered in different hangars throughout Atina. Even still, you’d need a mini ship just to travel from one side of the hangar to the other.
All of these ships would have the best security. If Lady Luck had smiled on us, she was about to frown now.
Shouts sounded behind me.
And our luck ended completely.
“This way!” Brody tugged on Tahnya, moving her to the side of the deck, where an open-air cable car dangled on a track network laid across the ceiling. He kicked open the door and shoved her inside.
The royal solider came out of nowhere, tackling me to the ground. The breath whooshed from my lungs. I gasped, trying to suck in oxygen. His fist came down, but I evaded and returned a right hook. My knuckles connected to his jaw. He recoiled. I landed a left kidney punch. I’d seen this soldier before. The same one who wanted my . . . A familiar clink reached my ears. I glanced down to see my pulsars now hanging from his belt.
“Jupe!” Brody called. “Hurry!”
The soldier caught the corner of my jaw, knocking my head left. A second soldier ran toward us.
I hooked my legs around the first soldier’s hips, twisting to reverse our positions. I gripped the pulsar circlet and released a pulse into his stomach. The soldier crunched over, and I yanked both pulsars from him. I sent a tiny one into his temple to knock him out.
The next soldier was even easier to take down.
I stood, breathing hard, feeling oh-so-much-better with my pulsars on my wrists. Like the end of every heist, now only one rule existed: Get out fast.
“Jupe!” Tahnya yelled.
I glanced toward the staircase to see the oncoming storm of feet. We’d be engulfed by them in a sec. “Go, Brody!”
Brody pulled the lever, sending the cable car into motion. I beat my legs and jumped onto the car, clinging to the bars on the side. Thank the Angel I’d left those fleshPatches on. More shouts as we sailed out of the soldiers’ grasp. We flew above the ships, their shiny tops winking past. The icy wind made my eyes water and shivers ravaged my core.
“Hold on!” Brody said. He yanked right, and the cable car followed. I nearly lost my grip on the bars. Another tight right turn. More forward. A sudden halt. A descent.
I glanced down to see my Leech rising up at me. I let out a whoop. “How did you know it was here?”
He tapped the back of his neck. “Leader’s messages. She was planning to sell it off.”
I let go of the cable car, curling into a roll aimed straight underneath the lower hatch, forcing my way inside. I let out the ramp and slid right behind the interface, already bringing the Leech to life. I sniffed the air. No sign of being pulsed. Bien, bien, bien. Put up the counter-codes against a hacking with a tappa, tap, tappa. A quick check on the data port receptors—nothing from Breaker.
Tahnya and Brody tumbled inside and I whirled us up and out toward open skies. Clouds encircled the Leech in welcoming coverage—
I yanked the ship in a sudden turn, sending Brody flying.
Tahnya gaped. “What?—”
Then she saw what I almost didn’t.
We nearly missed ramming the antiship net.
“Blast it, blast it, blast it!” I forgot about the medito gate. “We can’t get through.” My voice was panicked now. The royal soldiers would catch up soon with their rail guns. My brain stumbled over that train of thought. Why didn’t they shoot at us before?
I ran a scan. All clear. Nothing registered on the 3-dar except Atina itself, the net, and—
The 3-dar blipped. A swarm of ships poured out of the palace hangar. The 3-dar beeped again, as a flock of shiny cream and lilac birds rose above the Atina. Not birds. More ships from more hangars. My mouth dried. The royal fleet! All heading in our direction. All armed. While we had . . . Burrowing capabilities.
“Look!” Tahnya pointed past the gate, toward a ship hovering just along the edge of the clouds.
A lightness filled my chest. I knew that ship anywhere. Raelyn’s ship, the ManKiller. “Thank the Angel.” My old team had come for me. I commed over. “Took you long enough, Raelyn.” If anybody had a chance of hacking through the gate before the fleet got here, it was her.
“This isn’t Raelyn. Your team is not here.”
Scorpia. If there had been any doubt Scorpia was helping the factions, it was gone now. She had come to help escort us to safety.
“I can no longer access the gate. The Queen cut me off. She knows I am with the factions.”
I hissed. I couldn’t fly straight into the gate. The shock was a hundred times stronger than any pulsar. It’d kill us. If we’d stayed put . . . The fleet was halfway to us. Might as well throw ourselves into the wa
ter now.
“I can get us out.” Tahnya stepped toward the top hatch. “I can open the gate. Bring us close.”
“How?” Brody gripped the side of the interface, a study in fear and worry.
Time dilated, a sec bending into a full hora. The sounds coming from the outside faded, even the static over the comm diminished. I knew without any doubt whatever she said next was important.
Her gaze met mine and I saw the sunrise over Miaoli, the spark of promise and hope, dawn in her brown eyes. “Do you trust me?”
I didn’t hesitate. “With my soul.”
She was already opening the hatch. Real light and even more chilly air filled the Leech. “Do it.”
I brought the Leech in as close as possible.
Tahnya began to hum. Slow at first, then loud. She shaped her humming to singing. The Leech shook, vibrated, but in front—in front of me—the mesh peeled back like being stripped of skin. It oscillated as its translucent membrane winked out, then solid metal became completely visible in the light. The gate wrenched open, leaving a gaping hole big enough for Raelyn’s ship to pass through.
My jaw flopped open.
Brody whooped. “Tahnya’s banging Elik!”
Scorpia dropped through the gate. The ManKiller’s guns fired, purposefully aiming wide as a warning shot, the noise coming through muffled. Her voice echoed out of the interface. “Go, you idiots! I will be right behind you!”
Tahnya tumbled back inside.
I remembered the clearing covered with Extrat body parts, the blood smearing Tahnya’s face. It wasn’t the shock making me see things. That was her. She did that to the Extrats. She did this to the gate. “How?”