Darken the Stars

by Amy A. Bartol

  My head begins to ache, like something is hammering on it. I rub my temples to try and ease the pain. All of a sudden, I’m overwhelmingly nauseous. Kyon touches my arm. “Are you ill?” he asks.

  “I don’t know . . . I’m—” I drop my hands from my head and notice a blue laser dot on my chest. I look up, following the direction of it. I see Nezra next to an Alameeda soldier in a Striker uniform. His freston is leveled at me. Before I can react, Kyon grasps me and turns me around. He growls when the blue laser flash of ammunition pierces his arm and passes through the meat of it. It doesn’t stop him from pushing me to the ground and drawing his harbinger from his side holster. He turns back around and begins to fire at the Alameeda Strikers who are aligned outside the tent.

  Somewhere behind us, Kyon’s security team swarms in, creating a barrier between the Strikers and us. I’m lifted off the ground by Kyon’s arm around my waist. He places me in front of him as he ushers me away from the fighting. I stumble into a crowd of panicking people. I don’t know where to go. Kyon moves me toward a round circle of light. The spotlight slowly shrinks over the ground ahead of us. People are scrambling to get out of its harsh glare.

  Looking up, I realize that it’s Kyon’s Hallafast. It lands in front of us and the stairs descend from it like liquid pouring down. I’m urged up the stairway and into the aircraft. Kyon follows me in and closes the door. He pulls me to his chest, kissing me hard. His good hand is on me, running over me as if he’s assessing my state of being. I kiss him back. His kiss becomes gentler when he slowly realizes I’m not hurt. “You’re okay,” he says with relief.

  “You’re not. You’ve been shot.” I indicate his arm.

  He glances at it and then looks back at me. “It’s not bad,” he says, as if his wound is inconsequential. “You see my knife in my shoulder holster?”

  I nod.

  “Take it out and cut my hair.”

  I do as he says. Grasping the short handle of the knife, I walk around the back of him. Rising up on my tiptoes, I capture his hair at his nape. I don’t have the strength that he has, so I can’t just cut his hair off in one swipe. I have to saw through his hair. It can’t feel good, but as I do, shiny new hair grows out from his scalp. I feel foolish for never having suspected his secret. While we were on Earth, I’d watched as Luther had shot him, and yet he hadn’t been killed. He also hadn’t died from the knife wound I gave him.

  When I’m finished cutting his hair, I walk back in front of him and hand him his knife. He rolls his shoulder, testing its healing. It already looks better, but not by much. His skin is less bubbly and crisp in some places. “Your sister is a psycho,” Kyon snarls. “She brought Verka with her.” He stuffs his knife back into the holster.

  “Who’s Verka?” I ask, my eyes going to his upper arm where the skin is scalded and burned away. The charred flesh is becoming smoother. It still smells as gruesome as it looks.

  “Verka is a cooler. Her gift is blocking other priestesses from using their gifts.”

  “My headache?” I ask.

  He nods. “She blocked you from seeing them coming.”

  “I had no warning,” I admit.

  “Nezra has crossed the line! She tried to kill you!”

  “She’s in love with you. She warned me to stay away.”

  “I didn’t give you a choice,” he says. The skin on his injured arm is starting to peel and flake. It’s not weeping anymore. It’s gross but it’s also fascinating. “If I didn’t promise to take care of her, I’d kill her right now.”

  “Who did you promise?” I ask.

  “Our mothers,” he growls. “I’m sending you home. You’ll be safe. I’ll send an escort with you. I’ll join you after I sort out this mess.”

  “What? You can’t go back out there!”

  “It’s Nezra,” he says in a derogatory way. “She’s already done her worst. She’ll be horrified that she hurt me.”

  “You’re worried about her?” I ask.

  “No. She should be worried about what I’m going to do to her.”

  “What are you going to do to her?”

  “Something dire.” He clenches his fists and stalks toward the door of the Hallafast.

  “Wait!” I call. “Let me see if it’s safe! I’ll go into the future and look—”

  He turns in my direction and shakes his head. “That won’t work. You’re going to be cool for a while.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Verka blocked you. I have to cleanse her from your system. I have something that will help at home. I’ll see to it when I get there.” He turns to leave again.

  “Wait!” I call again. “You can’t just go out there blind. Anyone can be out there.”

  He pauses, and then a smile forms on his lips. “Are you worried about me?”

  My mouth drops open. I begin to bluster, “No! Of course not! That’s so stupid!”

  Kyon crosses back to me and takes me in his arms, kissing me as if he has caught my soul. “You’re full of surprises, Kricket. I’ll see you when I return home.” He lets go of me. Using his communicator, he tells Keenan to report to the ship.

  I lean down and tear the hem of my dress away, making a long strip of silky fabric.

  “What are you doing?” Kyon asks.

  “I’m protecting your secret. Everyone saw you get shot. No one needs to know that you heal fast.” I walk to him and gently press the scrap of my dress to his upper arm, tying it loosely around it.

  “You’re protecting me?” he asks as if dumbstruck.

  “I’m protecting me. The only person standing in the way of Excelsior tearing me apart at this moment is you.”

  “Admit it—you have feelings for me.”

  “You’re my partner. It’s temporary. Don’t read into it.”

  He leans down and whispers close to my ear, “I’m your lover, at the very least.” Behind him, Keenan boards the airship with several other members of my security team. Kyon reaches out and cups my cheek, making me look into his eyes. “I’ll be home soon and we’ll continue this conversation.” He gives me a quick kiss, and then turns and disappears back into the night.

  The Hallafast ascends at a stomach-dropping rate, and we fly back to Kyon’s estate. Touching down inside one of the many inner courtyards of the snowflake-shaped castle, I disembark with Keenan by my side. As we walk to the door that leads into the Mercy tower, Oscil halts us in our tracks. I’m startled as its fem-bot voice announces, “Security breach, south perimeter. Security breach—”

  Keenan growls. “Protect the priestess,” he says to the other security team members. They form a circle around me. “Back to the Hallafast,” he orders me, making me turn around. Just as I do, every soldier of my security team collapses to the ground as if they’re mechanical toys and someone has turned them off. Then I’m struck by dizziness. I sway on my feet. Ahead of me, New Amster soldiers swarm over the courtyard. Among them, I recognize Giffen and another dusty-blond, long-haired soldier. He has a look of concentration on his face as he raises his hand out in my direction. As he brings his hand down in front of me, it’s lights out for me. I lose all ability to function and drop to the ground like a stone.

  Aboard Kyon’s Hallafast, I open my eyes, staring up at the ceiling as someone strokes my hair. “She’s waking up,” Jax says beside me.

  Confusion and disorientation make me feel nauseous. I start to retch. I try to sit up, but someone has me on their lap, so instead, I lean over.

  “What’s wrong with her?” Jax barks at someone behind me.

  “Jaden is an arterial contortionist.”

  “What’s that?” Jax demands as he hands me a small bag and I vomit into it.

  “Jaden has perfected the ability of contorting the arterial vein to cease the flow of blood in the neck. It momentarily cuts off the flow of blood to his victim’s brain, rendering them unconscious. A side effect of what he does is usually dizziness and vomiting when the victim regains consciousness.”

&nb
sp; When I’m done throwing up, Jax takes the bag from me and hands me a handkerchief. I wipe my mouth. “Jaden is a total knob knocker,” I growl.

  Jax takes the handkerchief from me and gives me a small square piece of paper. He pushes it toward my mouth, saying, “It’s mint-flavored antinausea medication. Take it and you’ll feel better.” Trusting him, I put it in my mouth. It dissolves instantly.

  From across the room, I hear Giffen say, “We need that plan you promised us, Kricket. Excelsior is still drawing breath, and it’s making us angry. People are dying.”

  A warm hand touches my clammy skin, smoothing my hair back from my face. I look up and blink a few times, seeing Trey looking back at me with a pained expression. My head is in his lap and I’m stretched out on a long divan in the common area of the aircraft. “Can we talk to her alone, without you?” Trey asks as he looks in Giffen’s direction. “I want an opportunity to explain things to her in a way she can understand,” he adds, like I’m some kind of halfwit.

  I glance around me. There are a lot of New Amster soldiers on the ship. They’re all staring at me with their burning matchstick eyes.

  “You have a quarter of a part, then we’re out of here.”

  “All right,” Trey says.

  Giffen frowns at me as he and his men leave the ship. I realize when they’re gone that Wayra is here as well. He’s just staring at me as if I’m a favorite pet that he has to put down. His look makes goose bumps break out on my skin. I try to sit up on my own, but I end up needing Trey’s help. I hold my head in my hands as I rest my elbows against my knees.

  “Please tell me one of you can fly this airship. I can, but I’ve only done it once,” I mumble, before lifting my head and trying to see through my double vision. “If we can make it to the Forest of O, we can be at the reservoir to Earth in a matter of a day or two—maybe we can fly all the way there this time. Once on Earth, we can make arrangements to smuggle out my friend Phlix and your families—”

  Wayra moves from the wall and starts to pace, as if he can’t stand to be still a moment longer, “Aww, she’s breaking my heart, Trey! Make her understand why we’re here before she rips the rest of my guts out!”

  Trey reaches out and takes my hand. “Kricket, we can’t take you to Earth just yet.”

  “Oh. Is it too far?” I ask, rubbing my forehead. “Are we going to New Amster then?”

  “We can’t take you to New Amster, either. With Nezra’s ability to track you, it’s too dangerous to them to have you there.”

  “Okay, then where are we going?” I ask.

  “We’re not going anywhere yet,” he says gently. “We need a plan from you to wipe out the Brotherhood and their leader, Excelsior Ensin. They’ve ordered their troops to attack the remaining bases in Rafe. Cavars are holding their own at the moment, but Comantre Syndics have been monopolized by attacks on their own soil by Wurthem and Peney. Alameeda Strikers are pursuing the citizens of Rafe into the annexed area. They’ve located our base camps in the Forest of O and are systematically attacking them there as well. If we don’t act soon, there will be nothing left of Rafe to defend.”

  I remove my hands from my face to look at him. “You know what’ll happen to me if I give New Amster a plan to destroy Excelsior and the Brotherhood, right?”

  Trey reaches over and gently tucks my hair behind my ear. “We’ll have a team in place to help you execute your mission,” he says reassuringly, but he has doubt—huge doubt.

  “My mission?” I ask. Even though I know what he’s been told by my father, I want to hear the words from him.

  “I’ll be there for you, in whatever scenario you come up with, to defend you, Kricket.” He believes what he says for the most part, although his answer shows that he has grave reservations as to whether that’s right.

  “I was there, Trey,” I say quietly, “when my father spoke to you at the Ensin Institute and told you about his expectations of me.” Trey frowns and I continue: “Pan told you that when I do this, the moment I kill Excelsior, I’m as good as dead too. New Amster wants Astrid as empress. They don’t want me.”

  “They don’t want Kyon. We’ll be there to kill him so that he’s no longer part of the equation. You just have to do your part and this is over,” Trey says naïvely.

  “You’re wrong. Kyon’s not the problem. I am. My father and New Amster are afraid of me. They think I’ll want revenge against them for abandoning me on Earth.”

  “They’ll see reason. And if they don’t, maybe Earth is the option. Maybe letting you return there is all they need to allow you to live.”

  I shake my head. “Pan is known as a ruthless strategist. He understands that as long as I live, I’ll always be a threat to Astrid. Someone powerful need only find me on Earth and return me to Ethar for this to happen all over again. I threaten her reign. The only way that ends is if I’m dead.”

  Wayra stops pacing and says, “Kricket would make a stronger leader than Astrid. You’ve met her, Trey. Astrid’s smart, but she doesn’t have the kind of heart needed to make the brutal decisions it takes to rule.”

  “See?” I say to Trey. “The debate begins already, and with it comes a new war—sister against sister. Pan won’t allow that. He loves Astrid too much to see that happen. So if I don’t leave Ethar soon, I never will.”

  “He’s your father.”

  “He left me for dead a long time ago.”

  “You could abdicate to your sister.”

  “Really? Could I? Because that’s worked so well for me before when I’ve refused to do something. I was almost Manus’s consort, not because I wanted to be, but because he wasn’t going to let me refuse. How hard is it for you to envision a scenario like that happening again?”

  “If you leave Ethar without helping us, then everyone we love dies,” he retorts with anguish in his eyes. “My brother, Charisma, my family will all be wiped out! This war began because of what we did, Kricket! We have a duty to save our people from the destruction we brought to them!” He knows what he’s asking me, but since he and I are responsible for this, he sees the sacrifice as justified: my life and maybe his for the lives of Rafe. “I’m asking you to do this for me.”

  “So be it,” I say softly. “I’ll get you your plan on one condition.”

  “Anything,” he replies.

  “Promise me you’ll protect Kyon after I kill Excelsior.”

  Wayra growls, “Giffen’s right—you are insane.”

  “I’m not crazy, Wayra.” I glance at his face and see his disgust. “Kyon wants what you want. He’s Excelsior’s son, but they’re bitter enemies. Kyon has been hunting me all this time for the same reason you are now: so that I’ll kill Excelsior. He’s not the person driving this war; he has been trying to protect me because he swore to my mother that he would. He thinks I’m supposed to be the empress of Ethar. He doesn’t know about Astrid.”

  “Have you slept with him?” Trey demands with mounting anger.

  My face snaps back in Trey’s direction. “Are you kidding me right now? What difference does it make?”

  “Have you?” he insists.

  “Yes,” I whisper.

  His reaction is violent; he reaches for my throat and tears the ribbon choker from my neck. He crushes the copperclaw in his fist before throwing it onto the floor. “You were mine!”

  “Tell me not to do this and I’ll be yours still.”

  “I can’t do that,” he says wretchedly.

  “You’re so bad for me, Trey,” I reply, shaking my head. “Your Boy Scout bullshit is bad for me. You brought me here to Ethar! I begged you not to, but you wouldn’t listen to me! You promised to protect me and you couldn’t. I saved your life from Giffen, so you don’t get to judge me for how I chose to survive losing you.”

  “I’ve never felt more sorry for finding you than I do in this moment.”

  “I’m a world ender, Trey. You should be sorry.”

  “I promise to protect your consort Kyon,” Trey says like I
cut his heart out. “When do we get that plan to kill Excelsior?”

  “I’ll start on it tonight. When I have something, I’ll come to Giffen in New Amster, like I already said I would. You can tell him that. He’ll know what I mean.”

  Trey gets up from the divan, making it clear that he can’t wait to get away from me. He walks to the door of the aircraft and doesn’t look back. Wayra doesn’t know what to say to me. So he doesn’t say anything, he just follows Trey out. Jax is slower, his shoulders rounded. “I’m sorry . . . for my part in all this, Kricket. If any of us had known what would happen when this started, things would’ve been different. If it means anything to you, I’d like you to know that I think you’re the bravest Etharian I’ve ever met.” He turns to leave.

  “It means something to me, Jax,” I say in a choked voice. “Can I ask you for a favor?”

  “Yes.”

  “Will you tell Trey and Wayra, after this is all over, that I did love them?”

  “They know.”

  I nod because I can’t speak right now without crying. Jax leaves and Giffen reboards the aircraft. “Your guards will come to soon. Our nepenthe, Sanham, has wiped their memories of tonight. You can explain what happened to them any way you want to, but you can’t mention New Amster or us.”

  “Is that it?” I ask. I can’t look him in the eye. I just have to get through the next couple of minutes and then I can fall apart.

  “That’s it, fighter,” Giffen answers.

  “Why do you call me that?”

  “Because I’ve never lost anything betting on you.” I watch as he has my unconscious security team brought back into the aircraft and spread out on the floor.

  CHAPTER 15

  HIGH KINGS

  Keenan groans next to me, vomiting on the floor of the Hallafast as he becomes conscious. He sits up and looks around in confusion. When he sees me sitting numbly on the sofa, he rises and stumbles to my side. “Are you okay?” he asks with concern, trying to regain his composure.

  I’m close to tears, but I reel them in. “You of all people should never ask me that question,” I reply.