Broken Moon Series Digital Box Set

by F. T. Lukens

  “I want to see Nadie.”

  Asher lifted an eyebrow. He grabbed Ren’s shirt and pulled him close. “Are you serious?” he said, voice low and harsh. “Are you addled?”

  “You don’t have to come with me, but I want to see her. She could have information for me. She could know something I don’t.”

  “What is this about, Ren? What do you have in your head?”

  “Can you trust me?”

  Asher sighed. He put his hands on his hips and studied Ren. His gaze pierced Ren to his core, then swept up and down his frame, finally studied the color of his eyes. They were the familiar brown. Ren was sure. He didn’t feel as though his hold had slipped or that he was sparking anywhere. Yes, the drift buzzed around him, spoke to him on levels that Asher couldn’t hear, but so did the people, the low hum of movement, the burst of voices, the rustle of fabric.

  “What could she know that we don’t?”

  “The future.”

  Asher rolled his eyes. “Really?”

  Ren’s lips almost brushed Asher’s jaw. “I control technology. You’ve met a man who can influence others with his voice. And for some reason, you still can’t believe that she can see glimpses of the future.”

  “Is there a question in there?”

  Ren stepped out of the alcove, knocking into Asher’s shoulder. “I’m going.”

  “I’m not stopping you.”

  “Good.” Ren looked down the outer curve of the drift floor and took a step. He stopped, looked to the inner spoke, and then back to the other side. He huffed, annoyed. “I don’t know where her office is.”

  Asher smiled, smug and irritating. “It’s three floors down.”

  Ren grumbled under his breath and marched to the nearest lift. During the ride down, Ren turned off the cameras with a tendril of his power, in case anyone was looking.

  When they arrived where Nadie’s office used to be, all they found was a cracked window and a torn sign. Ren peered through the frosted glass and could see nothing of the eccentric room that had greeted them last time. He tried the knob and found it locked, but at a push the door fell away from the frame on broken hinges.

  The mess that greeted them reminded Ren of his childhood home—broken objects, scattered papers covered in scrawled predictions, items tossed everywhere. Her business, her home, her life had been destroyed. Ren froze; fear shivered down his spine, but he had to know. Maybe she’d escaped, too. Maybe she had been warned. Maybe there was a coded message here, too. Anything. There had to be something.

  Brow furrowed, Ren stepped in, but Asher’s hand on his forearm stopped him. “Don’t,” he said, voice low, full of warning.

  “Why?”

  “We’re being watched.”

  Asher kept his chin tucked down, but jerked his head toward the middle of the drift floor. Sure enough, two birdmen watched with interest. Their hands were near their weapons; their body armor was snug around their torsos. The symbol of their institution blazed stark red on their shoulders—the phoenix with wings outspread, talons hooked, rising from flames.

  The image of Beatrice’s red hair spread out against the snow flashed in Ren’s mind, and he shook with anger. He clenched his hands, and bit his lip, and fought against the swell of power that rose in him.

  “Ren,” Asher whispered fiercely. “Stop whatever you’re doing.”

  Ren blinked, turned away, and covered his face with his hands. “We should walk away.”

  “Good idea.”

  Asher jerked on Ren’s arm, pulled him away from the broken entrance of Nadie’s office, and led him parallel to the wall, back to the lifts.

  They went a few steps, then passed a dark alcove, and a hand shot out, gripping Ren’s shirt. Elegant fingers with long fingernails and adorned with jewelry tugged Ren out of Asher’s grasp and then let go. Twin red orbs stared out from the darkness, and Ren remembered how Nadie’s eyes glowed red when she used her power, as his glowed blue.

  “Nadie?” he asked. He moved into the alcove with Asher a hot presence at his back. “Is that you?”

  “Why are you here?” Her voice was deep and resonant, as if several people spoke at once, echoing in the small space.

  “I wanted to see you.”

  “Do not seek him out. Do not find him.”

  Ren moved closer. In the sparse light, he saw that the elegant, ageless lady he had met before was gone. Instead, a haggard woman with glowing eyes and tangled hair stood in front of him. Her dress was tattered, though colorful, and she walked with halting steps; her bare feet slid backward along the deck plate as she drew them farther into the alcove.

  Asher stiffened behind Ren, but Ren followed her.

  “Why not?”

  She didn’t answer; her gaze shifted to Asher. “You have left the flames,” she said.

  “Yeah. Not quite by choice.”

  “You will watch him cross. In your arms. After you cross him. He will leave, but don’t let go. Don’t let go. To the ship.”

  “What do you mean? Who will leave? Ren?”

  She shook her head and the long tresses of her black hair swung at her hips. She rolled her neck and moaned, then moved her lips soundlessly. She pushed the heels of her hands into her eyes, and then laughed as she swayed. Then abruptly, she stopped. She dropped her hands and raised her head. Her eyes were dark. Nadie blinked, looked around the alcove, and scanned the area.

  She leveled her gaze at Asher. “You again. If you’re here to arrest me, I’m not going without a fight, Phoenix.”

  Asher raised his hands. “I’m not here for you.”

  “Then why are you here?” She jerked her chin toward the main floor. “Are they still out there?”

  “Yes,” Asher said.

  She stiffened. “They’ve been there for days, since they destroyed my office, my life.”

  Ren stepped closer. “What happened to you, Nadie?”

  She cut her gaze to Ren. Her eyes flickered, shifting from red to black, before blazing.

  “I saw them. I saw them. I saw them. I saw them.” She laughed again, wildly, terrifying. “They have come for me. I hid in the shadows, waiting for you. You have come.”

  Ren stiffened. “Why did you wait for me?”

  She stood motionless for a long moment, and then lunged. Ren scrambled backward, but hit Asher’s chest. She grabbed him, nails digging into his skin, and she smiled, a crooked, broken expression that made Ren shudder in her grip.

  “Do not seek him out. Do not let her guide you. Find the star when it happens. Find it and be safe. Be safe. Be safe. Be safe.”

  She released him and went back to mumbling incoherently. She drew her nails up her arm and down again, leaving scratches. “I had a life,” she said softly. “I had a life. I wanted a life.”

  Ren’s heart sank. “Cassandra,” he whispered.

  She snapped to attention and stared at him with eyes like dying embers that slowly turned to ash. She lifted a trembling finger to her pale mouth, and took a breath. “You need to leave, young star. You’re putting us both in danger.”

  “Come with us,” Ren said. “We can help you. We can hide you.”

  Her lips pulled into a smirk. “I don’t need your help. My alter ego may be dramatic but I am prepared. I have a plan. You must go. Remember whatever I told you. I am rarely wrong.”

  “No,” Ren said. He shook off the hand that Asher placed on his shoulder. “No, I’m not leaving you. We can help each other.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “Save me from idiots,” she said softly. “I am not afraid. I am not helpless.”

  “No, but—”

  Then she screamed and her eyes glowed red.

  Ren flinched backward, bumping into Asher’s chest. His eardrums rattled as she screamed and screamed. Her voice pierced Ren’s core and vibrated there, as if he were ma
de of glass she could shatter. He and Asher scrambled from the alcove and bolted to the side as the members of the Phoenix Corps swarmed toward them.

  Asher pulled Ren close, and they left the scene.

  Nadie continued to scream, high-pitched, hysterical, insane.

  Ren peeked over his shoulder and watched as the Corpsmen pulled her from the alcove. She shrieked and clawed and cried. Her eyes were red as fire and her body writhed as she saw a future no one else could. Ren hid his face as they marched her away, dragged her when she wouldn’t walk, took her away from her home to only she knew where. She had seen her own future, and now it enveloped her, overwhelmed her, and she succumbed to it. But as she had in the alcove, she stopped and suddenly broke their hold. She cackled as she raced away with her long black hair a streak behind her.

  With the Corpsmen focused elsewhere, Ren slammed a hand on the wall, released his power and plunged the drift into darkness for the count of two breaths. Then he brought the lights back up, silencing the panicked cries of the populace.

  Nadie was gone.

  Asher grabbed Ren by the shoulders and pushed him into the crowd. They blended in and disappeared, and only when they were certain no birdmen were watching, they slowed.

  “Ash,” Ren said. “She hid and waited for us. They drove her from her business, her home, and she waited for us. To warn us.”

  “I wish you would stop believing everything you hear,” Asher said. He pulled Ren farther down the outside curve of the drift and then to a lift. He shoved Ren inside. Asher leveled a glare at the lone occupant, who scurried out. Asher slammed his hand on the close-door button. “Turn it off.”

  Ren nodded, cutting the video feeds. They rode in silence; the lift took them up and up and up to the higher levels of the drift.

  “She said—”

  “I don’t care.” Asher cut Ren off. “What the hell were you thinking?”

  “I had to help her.”

  “No, you didn’t.”

  “She was right before.”

  “Well, she wasn’t glowing and crazy last time, was she? Did you not see her, Ren? She had clearly lost whatever tenuous connection she had to humanity. She was star.”

  “That doesn’t mean she wasn’t accurate. If anything, it meant she was more so.”

  “Who knew what she saw? That could’ve been minutes into the future, or hours, or decades.”

  “So you admit that she was seeing the future?”

  Asher set his jaw. He watched the numbers tick by.

  “You… you didn’t like seeing her like that, did you? It reminded you of me.”

  Tapping his foot, Asher breathed heavily through his nose. “Yes,” he finally said, clipped, strained.

  “She was driven to that. The Corps had obviously been watching her, and they drove her into hiding, which makes what she said even more important. She waited for us, Ash. She was compelled to tell us those things.”

  “She made no sense. It was a jumbled mess. What does watch you cross mean? Huh? After I cross you? It was nonsense.”

  “It wasn’t nonsense.”

  Asher spun on his heel. He crowded close, pushed Ren to the wall of the lift with his body. Ren was suddenly overcome by the heat of him, the smell of his skin, the warmth of his breath puffing against Ren’s neck.

  “What do you want me to say? That I’ll betray you? That you’ll betray me while you’re in my arms? Do you want that future?”

  Ren shivered. “No, No.”

  “Then don’t.”

  “Don’t what?”

  “Don’t believe her. Don’t make it a self-fulfilling prophecy.” He swallowed. “Don’t keep secrets.”

  Ren met Asher’s gaze; Nadie’s words rang in his ears. Asher will cross him—betray him—to the Phoenix Corps, to get his rank back, his family back. Asher had already shown more allegiance to the organization that had taken him in as a teenager than to anyone else. And Ren was… Ren was a stupid duster who had been nothing but trouble—a star host, a being who skirted humanity, a person whom people feared. “I’m not keeping any,” Ren lied, voice even.

  Asher dropped his head and sighed. He nodded and pushed away as the lift dinged and slowed to a stop. “Okay,” he said. He rolled his shoulder and stepped out into the bustling corridor. “Okay,” he repeated.

  Hollowed out and rattled, with Nadie’s glowing eyes vivid in his mind’s eye, Ren followed.

  11

  “That’s for running off!” Rowan said.

  A slap to the back of the head wasn’t quite what Ren was expecting when he saw Rowan again, but he couldn’t complain. Well, he could, but it wouldn’t be a good course of action. Instead, he silently rubbed the sore spot and stared at the floor, trying to convey a mixture of guilt and apology. He didn’t pull it off, if Ollie’s snort was anything to go by.

  She smacked Ren again, and he ducked out of her reach. Then she did same to Asher, two quick taps to the side of his head.

  “Hey!” he yelled. He pushed her shoulder. “What did I do?”

  “That’s for making me worry.” Rowan put her hands on her hips. “Honestly, I don’t know what to do with the three of you.”

  “How about not hit us?” Asher said, rubbing the spot above his ear. “We’ve had a difficult week, thanks.”

  Ren bit his lip. Difficult was an understatement. He and Asher had hidden for two days while Rowan made her way back to Delphi. Staying below the radar was tougher than they’d first thought. Nadie had been able to hide as long as she did because she could see the future. But Asher was an AWOL Phoenix Corps soldier and somewhat of a celebrity, as the son of a high-ranking official. Ren didn’t stand out, but the Corps under VanMeerten knew every angle of his face, and though Ren could monitor vid feeds and comm systems, he wasn’t clairvoyant.

  Two days of using fake names, a credit chip, and the little charm they had, got them rooms in two different hotels. They’d changed after the first night, just in case. They didn’t leave their room unless it was necessary, and thus spent two long, tense twenty-four-hour drift cycles sleeping and staring at each other. It was maddening, especially since Ren held a secret, and Asher was determined to pretend he wasn’t aware of it.

  Also, Ren couldn’t shake Nadie’s visions. They pierced him; the truth of her words sank into his bones and made him wary and afraid.

  “What were you thinking?” Rowan asked, moving back into Ren’s personal space. She gripped him by the collar of his jacket and shook him like a naughty puppy. “You could’ve gotten yourself killed. You could’ve gotten Asher killed. And where is Jakob? I need to yell at him, too.” She whirled around, finger pointed, looking behind the pair of them. When she found nothing, she froze, and her eyes went wide. “Where is he? Is he okay?”

  “He stayed behind,” Ren said. “We found Sorcha, a friend of ours, and his sisters. He couldn’t leave them again.”

  Rowan nodded, then tugged on her golden braid. Her relief that Jakob was alive was evident. “I’m glad for him. He’ll be missed. He was good crew. But I’m happy he found what he was looking for.”

  “Yeah,” Ren said, throat tight.

  “And you? Did you find…?”

  “Not here,” Asher said, breaking his silence. He gestured at the open ramp, at the life and energy of the drift within arm’s reach, as well as vid feeds and comms.

  “Fine. Come on in. Though if you weren’t family and you couldn’t turn my own ship against me with a thought, I’d draw this out a little more. I’m still angry at both of you. Keep that in mind.”

  “Your stubbornness has been noted and will be filed in the proper receptacle,” Asher said.

  Rowan made a rude gesture. Asher smiled smugly. Siblings.

  Ren’s stomach ached.

  Rowan led them into the cargo bay, and Ollie shut the doors behind them. The yellow light from above
cast them in a warm glow, though it didn’t do much to illuminate the rest of the area. After the kinetic atmosphere of the drift, the dim surroundings and the silence of the closed cargo bay were a reprieve. Ren breathed slowly. Being back on the Star Stream gave him a sense of peace he hadn’t felt recently. It was more home than anywhere else now, and Ren was happy to be back, happy to be in a place where he knew every wire, every conduit. It was familiar and comforting, and Ren cloaked himself in it, wrapped it around him like a blanket, and indulged in the systems that welcomed him.

  “Ren?” Rowan hedged, touching his sleeve. “You okay?”

  Ren sucked in air. “I’m fine. Why?”

  Rowan stared at him, brow furrowed. Ollie towered next to her with arms crossed over his chest and muscles bulging beneath his brown skin. He also seemed concerned. “I’ve asked you the same question three times, and you haven’t answered. You stared off into space and glowed.”

  “Oh,” Ren said. He shook his head and cleared his mind of the ever-present crackle of the comm system and the glitch in the starboard thruster. “What?”

  “I said, did you find what you were looking for? I hope your insubordination had a payoff.”

  “I found my parents.”

  “Oh, that’s… good? You don’t sound like it was good.”

  “It wasn’t really.”

  Rowan raised an eyebrow. “I’m missing something.”

  “You’re missing several things,” Asher said. He crossed his arms. “To make a long story short, the Phoenix Corps believes I’ve abandoned my post and that I’ve gone AWOL. They are all over Erden looking for Vos and now us. And Ren is keeping information from me.”

  Ren glared. “Your short stories suck. First, the Phoenix Corps is all over Erden looking for star hosts and killing residents because they believe that there are more people like me hiding in the population. Second, we went to see Nadie.”

  Rowan’s eyebrows shot up. “The seer?”

  “Yes, and she warned me that Asher is going to cross me and that I’m going to cross him. So I’m sorry if I don’t feel like sharing all the information I have right now.”