He filled her brain with the desire to lead. Not just with her head, but with her entire heart. Body and blood, a head raised high, an iron fist intent on crushing their enemies.
But now, fifteen years after the fighting had ceased, despite everything she had done, Nor was out of options.
Or, rather, she thought, as her eyes adjusted to the dim hallways of the Lunamere prison, the best option has only just been revealed.
The click of her heels and the steps of Zahn beside her were the only source of noise in the corridor. Darai, who was following them, had a way of slinking silently in the shadows. Not even a whisper of his cloak brushing the ground was noticeable.
Sometimes Nor thought of him as a shadow himself, quiet and hidden.
They passed a series of closed doors before walking into the observation room. A glass window separated the three of them from the five prisoners cuffed to chairs inside.
“Queen Nor, it is a pleasure to see you again,” Aclisia said. Her two heads each grinned at Nor, bowing slightly as the queen stopped and pulled her cloak tighter around her shoulders against the chill of the prison.
“We are very pleased with the latest batch of Zenith,” her lead scientist continued. “The test subject’s death was actually quite fortuitous. It showed us an unstable property in the weapon that was previously undetectable.”
“How did she die?” Nor asked.
Aclisia’s left head smiled. “Painfully.”
“Quite a mess,” the right head agreed. “But we are happy to say that we think we have finally perfected the solution.”
Nor, stone-faced, nodded once.
The right head continued. “We have handpicked these prisoners to be the first participants in this study. It will be interesting to see if there are any further side effects.”
The left head nodded in earnest. “We are very confident that this new sample will meet your expectations. If all goes well...this will be the final batch.”
Aclisia rubbed her hands together, both heads in agreement.
This was reassuring to Nor, as Aclisia’s two heads were often at odds with each other. As she opened her mouth to order the testing to begin, however, a wad of discolored spit landed on the window in front of her.
“Scnav!” one of the prisoners growled at her. Nor ignored the slight; she had been called worse names before. Such insults stopped bothering her a long time ago.
Zahn, however, took a step toward the door that led to the adjoining room, a deadly look on his face. Nor held up a hand to stop him.
“Enough.”
Zahn froze, but his eyes were molten with rage. “He has no right to call you such a name,” he said under his breath, but a sharp look from Nor silenced any further commentary.
She turned to the window, her gaze falling on the prisoner who’d forgotten the meaning of fealty.
“Aclisia, begin the testing with that one.” She paused, a thought occurring to her. “Can the weapon be activated on any part of the body?”
“Yes, it can be,” the right head said.
The left smiled. “As long as it makes contact with living flesh, and can enter the bloodstream, the fun can begin.”
Nor tilted her head, pinning the prisoner with her gaze.
“Then we should have a little fun, Aclisia. Let’s see how painful it is when placed in the eyes.”
She watched as the prisoner’s mutinous expression transformed to one of fear, his body trembling as Aclisia and two guards moved into the room where he sat.
“Stop. No, stop!” His voice was frantic, and his hatred toward her morphed into a plea for mercy. “Please, I’ll do anything!” He kept yelling as the guards held his squirming body still and a metal instrument was placed on his eyes to hold them open.
“The lively ones truly are the most captivating,” Aclisia’s left head said.
Nor watched with equal amounts of amusement and fascination as the glowing silver liquid dripped from the vial, slowly inching its way toward the prisoner’s eyes. The silver liquid was an art form of its own, one that had the ability to enthrall a person or terrify them, depending on how strong their will was.
As it made contact with his right eye, Aclisia stepped back, the guards still restraining the man. Nor watched with curiosity as the silver bled into his iris like paint dropped into water. The prisoner, pleading forgotten, was back to yelling profanities at her, pain lacing his voice each time he spoke.
Suddenly, his screams cut off.
He fell blessedly silent.
The other four prisoners looked at their fellow inmate, then at Nor, bowing their heads to her. She wasn’t a fool. Their sudden respect was just a facade to save themselves, but it was thrilling to see the power she now held over the people who had spent their entire lives despising her.
Nor turned to Darai, and he gave her an approving nod.
“Go on, my queen,” Aclisia’s two heads spoke together. “Test him.”
Zahn held open the door, his hand lightly brushing Nor’s as she walked past. He and Darai followed her inside, the guards behind them ready with hands on their guns.
She stepped up to the prisoner. His gaze, once full of hate, was now awed.
She stopped over him, glancing down her nose the way Darai had taught her, chin still held high.
“Who do you follow?” she asked him.
“You, my queen.”
He lowered his head in an attempt to bow, even with his hands tied. Nor watched as the other prisoners received their own doses of the liquid on their forearms. She saw again, the way it slipped through their skin, leaving no trace of evidence behind.
Nor waited a moment before asking all of them her most vital questions.
“Will you fight for me? Die for me? Bow down to me?”
“Yes, my queen,” the five responded in unison.
Nor let out a breath.
Her dream, her mission in life, was on its way to becoming a reality. The weapon was complete, a success fully capable of changing the future of her planet, and that of the entire galaxy.
She turned to Darai and Zahn with a grin as solid as steel. “My soldiers, it’s time to darken the stars.”
Chapter Forty-One
* * *
ANDROMA
“CAN YOU TURN that cursed siren off?” Andi yelled over the ear-splitting noise, running to her captain’s seat on the bridge. Lira was already punching in the override code, blue hands a blur.
The alarm turned off, leaving the room eerily silent as Lira righted the ship.
Andi’s stomach swayed as the Marauder leveled out.
“What the hell’s going on?” Andi asked finally, breaking the silence. She activated her com and signaled to Breck, requesting permission to view her gunner’s feed. She granted the request, and Andi blinked, suddenly seeing through Breck’s eyes.
Breck was down below, in the med bay. Her large hands and Alfie’s metallic ones were frantically working to strap Valen’s again unconscious form to a table. Gilly and Dex slipped in and out of view as they tried to help.
“Memory!” Andi barked. “Run a ship-wide diagnostic, now!”
Silence for a few moments, and then Memory’s mechanical voice filled the bridge.
“According to assessment, the engine is in meltdown. Please proceed to the nearest landing bay and prepare for engine failure.”
“Meltdown?” Andi barked. “How in the hell is that even possible? We just got her repaired a few days ago!”
Lira popped a wad of Chew into her mouth. The scales on her arms began to light up. “It’s possible the fools who repaired her missed something. She’s overheating.” Lira pressed a few more buttons, yanked on a lever and tapped on the screen again. “If we can cool her down, we should be able to make a safe landing. But according to the numbers, with the velocity
we’re going at right now—plus our weight—the situation seems rather dire.”
“Breck,” Andi spoke into the ship’s main com system. “Get down to the engine room and see if you can cool it down.”
Breck’s voice echoed back in Andi’s ear. “On it!”
Andi’s stomach swayed again, and Lira gobbled up another wad of Chew. When the Chew came out, it meant the situation needed her full attention.
Moments later, Breck’s voice came back, nearly hysterical. “Oh, Godstars. Andi. The cooling system is totally blasted. I knew I should have demanded to oversee the repairs.”
Andi blinked, slipping into Breck’s open feed, viewing the scene through her eyes.
Smoke billowed through the open hatch. Breck’s hand waved in front of her face, trying to clear a path through the haze. She pointed, leveling her gaze onto the cooling system. All the wires were melted, along with the outer shell.
“It’s bad, Andi,” Breck said. “Like...‘kill us all’ bad.”
Andi blinked again, pulling herself out of Breck’s view and back into her own. She cast a glance sideways at Lira, and could tell from her stricken expression that she’d seen Breck’s feed, as well. “How in the hell could that even happen?” Andi asked.
“Fool mechanics who don’t know how to work on a classic,” Breck growled.
Lira hissed out a breath. “We have to make an emergency landing. If we leave hyperspace now, the closest system to us is...” She cursed. “Stuna.”
“Which means we’ll have to land on Adhira,” Andi said.
Lira nodded, her scales flashing.
Her past on Adhira, her home planet, was something Lira did not speak of often. But Andi knew—especially judging by her pilot’s rapidly heating scales and the way her fingers gripped the throttle tighter than ever before—that going back home was something Lira definitely didn’t want to do. She’d avoided jobs there for years. But if Lira was openly suggesting they land on Adhira...then the Marauder really must be beyond helping right now.
“Are you sure about this?” Andi asked, pulling her long hair into a braid.
Lira’s skin began to smoke, but her voice was calm and even. “I can tap into my connections there. We will have help.”
“Good help?” Andi asked. “Or bad help?”
Lira bit her lip. “I am undecided at present. The queen and I have...a bit of a muddled past.”
Andi groaned. “I guess we’ll find out soon, then.” She reached up and tapped her com. “Ladies...”
Dex’s voice echoed back into her ear. “And handsome gentleman.”
The ship rattled, a reminder of how little time they had. She’d kill those pathetic mechanics for this.
Andi grimaced. “We’re making an emergency landing on Adhira.”
Gilly’s voice chirped into the com. “But Lira doesn’t want to go there!”
“This is my order, Gilly!” Andi commanded. “Get to the bridge, now. Alfie, com the general. Tell him to let the queen know we’ll need a quick repair if we’re going to finish this stars-forsaken mission.”
“Already on it,” Dex said.
After all they’d gone through to get Valen, things just had to go wrong now. The life of a space pirate, Andi thought to herself.
She tightened her harness, then sat back and watched as they exited hyperspace in a wounded ship, soaring straight for Adhira, the planet full of color and life.
Beside her, Lira looked like she would rather die.
Chapter Forty-Two
* * *
ANDROMA
THE SIGHT OF Adhira spreading before her should’ve taken Andi’s breath away.
Instead, she was just hoping she would still be breathing once they landed. The crew’s fate was in Lira’s hands, and Andi could only hope her pilot could keep them from exploding into bits of metal and flesh.
As they neared the planet, Lira sent a message to the landing dock she’d managed to secure moments ago in the capital of Rhymore. This would be their first time landing on Adhira as a crew, and Andi didn’t think it would bode well for any future visits they might make to the planet if they crashed.
Especially for Lira, whose scales had already begun to glow to the point of smoking.
“Those complete airheads,” Lira mumbled as she turned off the com. “They think we have enough power to make it to the landing base, but at this point, the engines are so bad I’m surprised we haven’t lost the oxygen pump yet.”
“Don’t listen to them—land where you can, and they will come to us,” Andi said, trying to calm her Second. This was the first time Andi had ever seen Lira so close to losing complete control of her emotions, and she knew that it was the impending return to her home planet that was unnerving her so.
As they entered the atmosphere of Adhira, the ship gave a lurch. Andi definitely did not like the screeching groan the ship made—or the fact that they weren’t slowing down as they should.
This definitely wasn’t a normal atmospheric entry.
“Come on, baby,” Andi said, patting the Marauder’s dash as if it would actually listen to her plea.
“Coming!” an unwelcome voice came from behind her.
Andi let out an audible groan.
“Get in a seat, Dextro. Now!”
“I’m trying to lighten the mood, Androma. We all know Lira is fully capable of handling this situation.”
“Thanks,” Lira muttered as Dex plopped into one of the chairs behind her, legs sprawled out in front of him like he was about to watch a film. Breck and Gilly rushed in after him, strapping into seats, as well.
“Where’s Alfie?” Andi asked.
“Down making sure Valen doesn’t fall off the table,” Gilly said. “Which wouldn’t matter, anyway, since he said there is a 93 percent chance of immediate death or dismemberment upon impact.”
“Damned artificial lifeforms,” Breck growled.
Andi turned back around, eyes wide as she took in the oncoming view.
Below, the Endless Sea appeared, the single ocean on Adhira that made way for the large central land mass, which was scattered with veiny rivers, monstrous trees, red deserts and the central Rhymore mountain.
Lira’s hands were steady on the controls as she eased the ship the best she could toward the quickly approaching ground. Andi watched as her pilot maneuvered around the massive trees that dotted Adhira’s landscape. They were so tall that they peaked above the clouds, and some even towered higher than the mountain.
Dex hooted from behind her, as if this was a joy ride instead of a highly dangerous emergency landing that could kill them all.
Godstars, he was a fool.
Blocking Dex out, Andi gripped the armrests of her chair and looked out the viewport again, which was now full of trees and utterly devoid of any glimpse of the sky.
“This had better not scratch my ship!” she yelled, thinking of its already damaged hull.
“Scratch?” Gilly yelped. “I think we’re in for more than that, Cap!”
“You want the good news or the bad new first?” Lira asked Andi, teeth gritted, eyes wild as she wove around the worst obstacles in their path.
“The good news,” Andi said, hoping it outweighed the bad.
“The good news is that the trees should lessen the impact, and when we come out of the forest, we should be only a few meters from ground level. There is a field up ahead, according to the radar, and at this angle, I’ll be able to manipulate a semicontrolled landing.”
Andi was momentarily relieved, but tensed again at the ominous expression on Lira’s face.
“And the bad news?” she asked.
Her pilot grimaced. “We’ll be landing in one of the clearings that has a major village surrounding it. Even with the trees slowing us down, we’re still gaining too much velocity, meaning we’ll likely plo
w right into the village.” Her voice caught in her throat, as if she were holding back equal parts terror and nausea. Her hands flew over the controls. “The field isn’t large enough to land in without potential casualties.”
Andi’s head spun, racing for any idea to grab a hold of. “If the ship was lighter, would we be able to stop in time?”
There was a pause before Lira responded. Andi could almost see her making the calculations in her head.
“Yes. But we’d need to lose at least one ton if we want to make a dent in the velocity.”
A sudden lurch threw Andi forward against her harness as they hit a wicked bout of turbulence. By the time she looked back up, rubbing the back of her now-tender neck, her view was no longer of the catastrophe happening outside, but of a rear end.
Dex’s rear end.
“Do you have a death wish, Arez?” Andi yelled, trying to reach the band of his cargo pants to pull him back.
“No, I’m not hell-bent on destruction like you are, Racella. If you would pull your head out of whatever dark hole you have it in, you would notice that I’m helping you.”
Before Andi could stop him, he’d slammed his palm against a big, red button and a whooshing sound echoed throughout the ship.
“Did he just hit the red button?” Gilly screamed.
“You’re welcome, ladies,” Dex said. “You can thank me later. I just released the escape pods and lessened our load enough for us to stop before we completely annihilate that village with my ship.”
“My ship!” Andi barked at him.
“Would the two of you just stop fighting?” Breck howled.
Lira cursed as the harness strapped across her chest began to melt away beneath the heat of her scales. Already, the suit she wore was turning to cinders. If she didn’t regain control of her emotions, Andi knew she’d lose consciousness.
“Lira.” Andi tried to sound calm. “You have to breathe. You have to keep yourself present.”
Her pilot’s brow wrinkled, scales flashing ever brighter. “I will breathe when I see us safely on the ground, Androma.”
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