The blow lands hard and sends me to a knee. I don’t have to look up to know it was the guard with the limp. He steps back into position, and Requin sighs theatrically.
“Must you always make things difficult, Anton?”
“I found him,” I say, lifting myself up. “Down in the belly of the ship.”
The words scrape the humor away. Requin stares at me, eyes narrowed. I have him now.
“His plan was to kill everyone,” I say, laughing. “Which is fair. I’d want the same thing if I were him. How long did you torture him? A year? Longer? He’s very angry, Requin.”
“Seal the command bay,” Requin thunders. “Seal the bay!”
“Sir, some of our units are still patrolling—”
“I said seal it!”
I ignore the scrambling techies, knowing they’re far too late to make a difference. I keep my eyes locked on Requin as I speak. “Not to worry, Requin, cooler heads prevailed. He agreed not to kill everyone. It’s only sensible. We need the astronauts, the mechanics. Well, not all of them. Some of them. So they’ll be spared. But you, Requin? He really hates you.”
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” Requin hisses at me. “Guards, to the doors.”
My captors leave my side, retreating. There are three entrances, spread at perfect intervals around the circular exterior. Guards wait at each, weapons drawn. All roads lead to Requin. The thought makes me smile. A techie pipes in. “The bay is sealed, sir.”
Requin nods, but I can see the fear coiling around him, choking the air he’s breathing.
“Cage is locked,” I say, clapping tied hands. “I hope the monster’s not already inside.”
“You think this is a game,” Requin snaps. “You’re a fool, Anton. Erone is not a sword for hire. He will not do what you ask, take his reward, and return to Eden. He’s a natural disaster, a reckoning. You can’t control him. This will not work out the way you think it will.”
I smile, even though he’s speaking my fears out loud for me. Erone has acted reasonably so far, but there have been times when that side of him vanishes. The bondage and torture have reduced him to animal instincts. We moved through the dark no-gravity chambers for nearly a week. Plotting and planning. His moods swung from curious to obsessive to deadly.
I know he’s dangerous, but right now I need dangerous.
“He’s an inventor,” I say loudly. “But you knew that when you took him, didn’t you? He was working with your niece, Jacquelyn. I didn’t get to meet her, but you should have heard Erone singing her praises. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he has a little crush on her. They worked together. Taking nyxia and inventing new technologies, new defenses. He’s brilliant.
“So naturally, when I showed him my copy of the ship’s blueprints, he had a few ideas. Really good ideas. We noticed the layer of checkpoints and access doors around this room. He pointed out some of the circuitry, said this room was the command center. He thought you’d be here. So, we just had to figure out … how do we get in there? How do we get past all those checkpoints?”
The silence fills with gasping doors. All three entrances open on their own. A few of the techies scramble at their desks, but they’re helpless. The doors are nyxian. The walls are nyxian. They’re in Erone’s kingdom now. They always have been. The second they let me inside, this was already over.
The guards tense, waiting for one of the gaping holes to fill with movement, with some threat. Nothing comes, and I smile. Erone’s sense of drama is right up there with Requin’s.
“And then it was obvious,” I say into the quiet. “We just have your people bring us through the checkpoints. Your clever guards finally caught me. They brought me waltzing through your defense system, which gave Erone the access he needed. And, well, you see where this is going, don’t you?”
There’s a snaking whisper. My eyes leave Requin long enough to see a black substance ghosting through the air. It settles in the space between each set of guards like a floating, shimmering mirror.
The guards turn toward each other, and their eyes widen in fear. I’m not sure what they see reflected, but all of them lift their weapons immediately and fire. Six guards drop. I stare in shock at the pooling blood, the wounds, unsure how Erone forced their hands.
The entire room flinches in terror. A shiver runs down my spine.
“Look what you’ve done,” Requin mutters, backing away.
Erone walks through the nearest entrance with savage grace. His great two-handed sword swings with the rhythm of each pounding step. His eyes are for Requin alone.
I step aside. Erone walks past me.
He doesn’t give a speech. He doesn’t play with his food or boast his revenge like a character in the movies. He shoves Requin to his knees and plunges the sword through his back.
Blood bursts out with the sword tip, dribbles up his throat, runs from the corners of his lips. I watch him die and remind myself that kings aren’t innocent in war. When you put on the crown and order troops to kill, you invite the judgment of an enemy’s sword.
Erone breaks from his reveling long enough to cut my bindings. He returns my knives. I shake my arms loose before considering the silent techies in the room. My eyes swing directly to Aguilar. “Do me a favor and shut down outgoing communications. Wouldn’t want any of your brilliant colleagues panicking and setting off the alarms.”
Aguilar grins up at me. “They’ve been shut down for two minutes now.”
“Always a few steps ahead.”
The nearest techies stare at her like a traitor, but she’s always been one of ours. Aboard Genesis 12 she started slipping Morning information just a few weeks into the voyage. She saw what Babel was doing. She saw what they were planning for us and decided to do whatever she could to keep it from happening. That was always the risk when Requin decided to play God. Push too hard and the lowly will push back.
“How many marines left on the ship?” I ask.
Aguilar glances back at her screen, runs through a few interfaces, and looks back up.
“Nineteen.”
“Great. Connect me with the ship’s communication system.”
Erone has taken a seat in his would-be throne. His bloodied blade lies across his lap, and Requin’s body is crumpled at his feet. I wait for his confirmation, a sign that I can take command of this part of the plan. I know what he can do now; I don’t want to overstep my boundaries. Taking Requin and the ship was the easy part. Reining the storm back in will be much, much harder. Erone gestures idly, as if the details bore him.
Nodding, I turn back to Aguilar. She hooks me up to a glowing headset, switches the outputs, and gives me a thumbs-up.
“Tower Space Station, this is Anton Stepanov of Genesis 12. I am joined by an Adamite named Erone. We have taken control of the ship. Requin is dead, along with every guard who had the misfortune of being posted in the command center today. You have thirty minutes to turn in your weapons before we resort to using some of the ship’s built-in defense mechanisms. Hide somewhere and you might be safe, or you might be in the part of the ship we choose to jettison. Your safety is up to you. I would prefer no more blood be shed. But test his patience, and Erone will show you just how much he’d prefer if the blooding continued. All surrendering parties should gather in the third protective ring outside the command center. Enter the second ring prematurely and you’ll see what kind of fun toys we’ve left there for you.”
I release the output button, and the faint sound of beeping echoes louder.
I nod to Aguilar. “What is that god-awful noise?”
“Incoming message, sir.”
Some of her colleagues flinch at the use of the word sir. I note which ones before turning back to her. “A message from who?”
“Babel’s fourth ship: Genesis 14. They want permission to dock.”
Acknowledgments
A planet-sized thank-you to the team at Crown BFYR. The past few months have given me opportunities to meet many of you an
d spend time with you. I’ve seen how hard you work and how easy you try to make the lives of your authors. These books couldn’t take off without all the tireless energy you pour into the process. Thank you.
To Emily Easton for challenging me to be a better writer and pushing this story to its best possible version. To Samantha Gentry for being a correspondence goddess. And special thanks to Josh Redlich for his ability to snap his fingers and make anything happen. Someone should probably look into Josh’s illegal use of magic? I’d also like to thank my agent, Kristin Nelson, and the entire team at Nelson Literary Agency, for their continual support in this and so much else.
I’d like to thank the brilliant authors who’ve taken time to read my work: Marie Lu, Nic Stone, Fonda Lee, V. E. Schwab, Jason Hough, Jay Kristoff, Jay Coles, Vic James, and Tomi Adeyemi. I’d like to thank Pierce Brown for allowing Nyxia to grace his kitchen table. May all my books make it there one day.
I will always be indebted to my wife, Katie. While I was writing this book, she was literally making a human being. So we were both working on sequels, and—spoiler alert—I’m proud of this book, but I greatly prefer the one she and I wrote together. Which reminds me: Henry. Eat your vegetables, buddy. That’s an order.
I would not have completed this draft without the help of longtime critiquing partner Keith Dupuis. While I tore through early edits, yours was the calmest voice in my head. I also want to thank Neil F. Comins, author of What If the Earth Had Two Moons? Thank you for taking the time to answer all my questions, and with such enthusiasm.
Finally, I wrote this one for my momma. There’s no one who has put more time into making me a decent human being. I do not have to look far to find your love threaded through my life. If I know anything of forgiveness, grace, compassion, and presence, I learned it at your elbow. Thank you for loving us toward our dreams.
Final shout-out to Luna for being a good dog.
THE BEGINNING
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MICHAEL JOSEPH
UK | USA | Canada | Ireland | Australia
India | New Zealand | South Africa
Michael Joseph is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com
This is a work offiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to the actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
First published in the United States by Crown Books for young readers, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, 2018
First published in Great Britain by Michael Joseph 2018
Copyright © Scott Reintgen
The moral right of the author has been asserted
Artwork by www.stevestoneartworks.com
ISBN: 978-0-718-18738-5
Nyxia Unleashed_The Nyxia Triad Page 30