He kissed her cheek then, and squeezed her hand once more.
“It’s time,” he whispered, backing away with a small smile on his face. “I’m ready, sister.”
Darai stood, joining them. “You’re very brave, princeling. Brave and loyal to your core.”
For a moment, Nor thought she heard the echo of her brother’s voice, calling out to her from within. But then Valen grimaced, as if he were in pain, and she reached out to support him.
“No more time to waste, Nor,” he said weakly. “Come on.”
So Nor forced back her tears and took his arm. Together, they left the office, ready to complete their mission as one.
CHAPTER 34
DEX
Dex had never been a man capable of staying in one place for too long. It always made him feel like the rest of the galaxy had ceased to exist, like the world outside of wherever he was stationed was simply gone.
It was always good to be back among the stars. To head out on another mission.
And even today, with the threat of what was to come looming on the horizon, Dex felt like he could breathe a little bit easier, staring out at the stars as they streaked by, the ship soaring through hyperspace.
This ship wasn’t the same as the Marauder, by any means. Though full of incredible tech, it was smaller in its common areas, with far less room to stretch out and find some silence. But Dex had somehow found himself blessedly alone for a moment, seated in one of the lookout chairs below the main deck, and the hum of the ship’s engines was slowly lulling him to sleep—a sound that Dex hadn’t realized how much he’d missed while they were on Solera.
The flight away from the Underground was breathtaking. They’d soared up through a massive tunnel carved by soldiers of old before the Cataclysm, dug so far it stretched beyond the dome of Craatia above. They’d burst through a cavernous, ancient space adorned with one of Solera’s few waterfalls that wasn’t frozen over—a steamy, near-boiling cascade at the western edge of the Wastes.
No one had tried to stop them as they’d soared away, up through the atmosphere and into the blessed black skies.
Dex yawned, leaning deeper into his seat.
The new crew would work together well enough, especially with Eryn’s talents at their disposal. But he missed Breck and Gilly and Lira, and their perfect cadence with each other, almost as if they were Guardians of a different kind. They were warriors, Gilly perhaps the most terrifying of them all, despite her small stature.
“Hiding?”
Andi’s hands slid onto Dex’s shoulders. He eased into her touch. “Mulling over our impending deaths,” he said.
She huffed out a laugh as she slid into the seat to his right, dressed in her usual black, her hair braided back to reveal the silver implants across her cheekbones. She belonged here, too, in the stars, heading toward another mission. Dex could see it in the way she moved, the way she held herself—she was in her element again.
“We thrive in the face of death, Dex,” Andi said, crossing her legs, the tips of her boots kicked up against the viewport. “I thought you knew that. Once a captain, always a captain.”
“Or a general,” Dex said dryly. “We’re really messed up, Andi. How did it come to this?”
She shrugged. “The galaxy wanted nothing to do with us. So we had to wreak a little havoc in return.”
“Speaking of Havoc,” Dex said, looking over his shoulder. Andi had insisted the creature be brought along, for when they rescued Gilly. She’d said some part of her hoped that Gilly would remember the bloodthirsty little beast. That even if the compulsion held, her love for Havoc might have remained. Dex had agreed, if only because he loved Andi—and because he’d arranged for Soyina to be the one to deliver the creature to their new ship.
He reached across the space between himself and Andi now, grabbing her hand, lacing their fingers together. “Do you truly think we’ll survive this?”
Andi’s eyes found the streaks of starlight as she spoke. “I’m really hoping so.”
“But you’re not certain.”
She smiled sadly. “Life isn’t about certainty, Dex. It’s about taking risks, and hoping that they’ll pay off. No one ever lived by playing it safe. I wasn’t going to stay down there, hiding out, while my crew’s lives were in danger. Watching the clock run down, hour after hour, until Nor swung that second blade. We had to leave that place, at one time or another. Nor just fast-forwarded the clock. Got us into motion sooner than we’d planned for.”
“I know,” he said. If he’d been in the same situation, he wouldn’t have been able to sit idly by, either. He squeezed her hand. “I’ll be by your side the whole way. And Eryn will keep us all hidden until the moment is right.”
“And I won’t hand myself over until they agree to release Breck’s and Gilly’s minds from the virus,” Andi said. “They will walk free, and then you’ll help get me out of there. We’ll get into the mansion, shut down the weapons system...and that will be the end of it all.”
“For now,” Dex said. “There’s still the matter of freeing the minds of millions of other people.”
“Yeah,” Andi said with a sigh. “That, too. But that’s Klaren’s job. She said she had it covered. Not all battles are ours to face, Dex. We didn’t break this galaxy. In many ways, Klaren did. Let her help put it back together again.”
“And we believe her?”
Andi finally looked at Dex. “Do we have any other choice?”
He stood, pulling her up with him so that they could see the stars more clearly. “Do you remember when we first danced together?”
“Dex,” she groaned. “Now is not the time.”
“Now is the perfect time,” he insisted.
Because he suddenly felt like he was seeing her for the very last time. Her stormy eyes, her cautious smile, her fearlessness as she stood in the face of adversity and refused to blink or look away.
Dex reached out and took her braid gently in his hands, unwinding it so that her hair fell around her face. “So beautiful,” he said softly.
She smiled at him, wrapped in the starlight shining behind her. Dex stepped forward, sweeping her into his arms. When he spun her, she laughed, eyes annoyed at first as she stopped again before him, as if he were only playing a joke.
But when she saw the expression on his face, she stopped.
“What’s wrong?”
Dex shook his head. “I just want to remember this. I want to remember you, every part.”
“We’re going to survive this, Dex,” she said, so much certainty in her eyes.
“I know,” he said. And in this moment, he wanted to believe it. He leaned forward, guiding her toward the viewport to kiss her.
But at the last second she spun, pressing him up against the viewport instead, her palms splayed against the glass on either side of his face, as if she were touching the stars.
“Godstars, Androma,” he breathed. “I don’t know how I got so lucky to love you.”
She smiled. “I don’t think luck has anything to do with it.”
Then she kissed him like she never had before. Deeply, and fiercely, until their breaths were one and their heartbeats were like one cadence beating in time. Dex’s hands found their way beneath her shirt. Her hands were moving across his body, too, searching. Her tongue found his, and he gasped for a breath as she...
“So this is how you strategize for battle,” a voice said.
Dex and Andi broke apart, him cursing, her looking like she wanted to tear Soyina’s head off.
“We’re closing in on the Phelexos System, so Arachnid wants to chat,” the woman said. She smiled knowingly at Dex and Andi. “Take a moment to collect yourselves. Now isn’t really the time for...this.”
“Now is always the time,” Dex said.
Soyina blinked at him. “Now that I think about it...a
hh, yes.” She snapped her tattooed fingers. “I think I remember you saying those exact words to me, moments before I chained your naked body to a toilet during our short try at love.”
“There’s a toilet on board,” Dex growled. “Why don’t you go shove your head into it, Soyina? Or better yet—”
He cursed again when Andi slapped him across the back of the skull. “We’ll be there in a minute,” she said to Soyina.
But the moment the woman left, Andi turned back toward Dex, a wicked smile on her face as she pushed him against the glass once more.
* * *
Arcardius hung in the sky ahead, a tiny orb growing larger by the second as they closed in on it, no longer in hyperspace. The sky around them was filled with stars again, winking happily in the sky.
It all looked the same as it had on their last visit to Arcardius. Dex supposed he shouldn’t be surprised, but after everything that had happened in the past few weeks, it seemed odd. Nothing was normal anymore. He had always lived a life full of adventure, and the mundaneness of everyday life had seemed so foreign and dull to him before. But now he craved the idea of it.
But in order to find out what normal was really like, he’d have to finish this mission.
Klaren and the others sat in their respective seats in the bridge, looking out the viewport as Andi and Dex arrived. Klaren was back in her full Arachnid armor, to hide her identity from Nor.
“The transmission was received, and we’ve gotten one in return,” her droid said, eyes flashing bright red. “She wants us to land on the estate, below the Nexus satellite. She’s expecting only two of us—Androma and me.”
“And no one will see me, Soyina or Dex,” Eryn said, reciting their plan once more.
“Not until Andi is about to be handed over,” Dex added, crossing his arms.
Andi nodded, braid back in place, expression stony as she readied herself for battle. “There will be a fight,” she said. “I’m certain Nor won’t let me go easily. She’ll do whatever it takes.”
“But she will also have to keep you alive,” Klaren reminded her. “The system won’t accept commands from a dead leader. If you die, the system will shut down, and Nor won’t ever gain control that way. So she’ll ensure you’re kept safe.”
“Which means the rest of you will be targets,” Andi said, looking to Dex.
“Not quite so easy to take us down, though,” Eryn said. She marched over to the corner of the bridge, to the storage bins welded against the curved wall of the ship. Dex grinned as she hefted up a set of armor, the very same that they’d seen being made in the Underground. “I packed a little something for our journey.”
Three sets. Enough for Dex, Eryn and Soyina.
Klaren had the armor of Arachnid to protect her, and Andi likely wouldn’t be shot at. Likely didn’t ease Dex’s mind at all, but even if she was shot at, they knew now that she was immune. Nor wouldn’t be able to bring her over to their side—not in that way, anyway.
“We’re closing in,” Soyina said from the pilot’s seat. “Our team rigged the ship’s internal computer to combat their tech. No heat-seeking systems will work, so they won’t know anyone else is on board. But you’ve got to move quick once we land, Eryn. Be ready to shield us from view. When that loading ramp opens, the three of us will have to be silent and get off the ship before the cooling system shuts off. Otherwise they’re likely to hear us moving down the ramp.”
Eryn nodded, hands clasped together. “You won’t be seen.”
“And in the event that all hell breaks loose?” Dex asked.
Andi answered that one. “Hell has already broken loose. We don’t have any backups. If it goes badly, we get back in the ship, we get out...and we don’t return again.”
Dex heard the lie in her voice. She wasn’t going to leave that planet. Not without the girls. Which meant he wasn’t leaving, either.
“One-shot mission,” Eryn said. “Not great odds.”
Dex shrugged, because though he was scared as hell, he realized it was too late to care or turn back. “Andi enjoys missions with little to no chance of success. So this kind of thing isn’t new for us.”
“To not great odds,” Soyina said, lifting a pretend glass in the air. Then she angled the ship toward Arcardius, ready to take them down to the devil’s lair.
* * *
Dex took back what he said about everything looking normal, because the moment they soared into Arcardius’s atmosphere, they were met by a sea of black ships.
“Rovers,” Soyina said, bringing their ship in to hover in the sky just beside Averia’s floating mountain. “The same ones Nor has had seeking out the Unaffecteds across Mirabel all this time. Nasty little ships.”
The Rovers were small, but loaded with tech. The Solis crest was painted on their sides and underbellies, a menacing reminder of what they were soon to face. Dex wondered how many of the crews inside were there of their own accord, or if everyone was under the influence of Valen’s compulsion now.
“Looks like they’re here to guide us in,” Andi said, leaning forward in her seat. She looked back over her shoulder at Klaren. “You haven’t seen your children in years. Are you sure you’re ready for this?”
“I’m ready.” Klaren’s droid spoke from its perch on her shoulder. “I should have come to face them both a long time ago.”
Their ship rumbled as the Rovers locked it in place with a magnetic field. Then they were sinking down to the floating mountain where Nor’s estate awaited them.
There was no going back now. They broke through the layer of clouds, and the estate finally came into view, white and sprawling and exactly as Dex remembered it.
Only now, it had a new addition.
As the ships sank toward the estate grounds, Andi cursed. “It’s massive,” she whispered.
In front of them stood the largest satellite Dex had ever seen—planet-side, at least. It was a giant metal circle, more than double the size of the mansion. At the structure’s center was a circular pod. Dex could only wonder what was inside.
A smug smile pulled at his lips.
Normally satellites were built in orbit, but this one was rooted firmly to the ground. Since Andi still had control of their systems, they hadn’t been able to launch the pieces they needed into space. And if everything went according to their plan, Nexus would never even reach the atmosphere.
“There,” Klaren said from the front captain’s chair. “I see them.”
The enemy lay in wait below, a line of soldiers moving steadily from the estate toward the rendezvous point. Klaren turned, standing up in her massive armor. “Eryn? Hide the lot of you, before it’s too late. We’ll exit the moment we touch the ground.”
“Of course, Arachnid,” Eryn said, but she had already faded from view. Her cool, invisible touch landed on Dex’s wrist. He yelped, but silenced himself when the other three women looked at him.
“Scared, Dex?” Andi asked with a smug smile. But he could see the anticipation behind it, her eyes roving over that group of soldiers, searching for any sign of Breck and Gilly.
He shrugged and tried to lighten the tension, the way he always had on jobs. “It was just a sneeze.”
She rolled her eyes, likely trying to do the same thing he was. “Of course.”
“Alright.” Eryn’s invisible voice spoke up from Dex’s left. “Away we go.”
It suddenly felt like cold, icy water was slowly being poured over Dex’s head, spreading across his shoulders, stretching down to his limbs. He looked down, mesmerized, as his body began to fade. Inch by inch, he seemed to slip from existence, until he was no longer there at all.
“Incredible,” Andi breathed, looking at the place where Dex still stood.
Then the ship landed with a gentle thud on the estate grounds, and Dex reached out, grabbing Andi’s hand for a moment.
“I�
�ll be by your side the whole time,” he said. “I dare them to try and take you.”
“I’d like to see them try myself,” Andi said back. She turned to Arachnid, who lifted a set of magnacuffs. Andi nodded, holding out her hands. The cuffs were fake, the magnets inside rendered useless by Soyina, the woman’s wicked enjoyment of science proving useful yet again, but they looked convincing enough, and the sight of her in them made Dex’s chest ache.
He would do whatever it took, no matter the cost, to see that she remained free after this mission.
“Ready,” Andi said.
Klaren placed a heavy, gloved hand on Andi’s shoulder. Her droid clicked its claws against her armor as she pressed the button to lower the loading ramp. “Let’s go see my children.”
The loading ramp lowered with a hiss, the cooling systems spreading steam across the front, and then they were moving. Dex felt like a ghost as he walked, feeling his own footsteps and Eryn’s and Soyina’s on either side of him, but seeing nothing at all to reveal they were there. They moved quickly, following close behind Andi and Klaren, so as not to allow the steam to reveal that there were five bodies, instead of just the two that Nor had demanded on her return message to the ship.
The steam cleared as Dex’s boots touched Arcardian soil. It was cold, the wind whipping angrily, the very same as it would have been on Tenebris this time of year.
The winter solstice, a time meant for happiness.
Instead, Dex felt like he was walking toward his own grave.
He saw the line of soldiers first, clad in Solis black as they moved like a trail of darkness across the estate grounds. Each of them was polished to perfection, chins angled high, weapons in their fists. Those weapons, Dex knew, were likely loaded with the Zenith virus. But were other bullets mixed in as well—not to transform the target’s mind, but to kill?
He kept his eyes on Andi’s back. To her credit, she walked with the pride of the Baroness, instead of the broken steps of a prisoner. Arachnid was nearly three times her size in that New Vedan armor, but beneath, Klaren was actually smaller than Andi.
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