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  “Hmm, interesting,” Bashrik murmured thoughtfully, glancing down at the navigation panel.

  “What’s up?” I asked half-heartedly.

  “Well, the course to Glossa is in the same direction as Vysanthe,” he explained. “We can either pass by it or take a route that avoids it altogether.”

  “Wouldn’t passing by it be too dangerous?”

  Bashrik nodded slowly. “In theory, but if we’re very clever and use the cruiser’s shields, we can move past it without detection and pick up some news transmissions, to get a status on the war. If we’re planning to take on Orion and the rebels, we should probably find out what the queens are up to first—make sure they’re suitably occupied.”

  “I wish there were intergalactic newspapers,” I joked, putting my feet up on the dashboard.

  “Well, there are interplanetary news stations, but Vysanthe doesn’t allow reporters in. It’s a no-go zone with a hefty sentence if anyone gets caught undercover.”

  “Really?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, take a look.” He pressed a few buttons on the control panel. Images and video clips flickered to life on the monitor. I couldn’t read the words running along the bottom of the screen, but the images didn’t look too good. From what I could gather, it was talking about a shipment of factory-farmed Sonorans, which had been intercepted en route to a black-market trade deal.

  “And planets can just opt out?” I asked. There were countries on Earth where the media wasn’t allowed to go, but surely planets were harder to regulate than countries.

  “They can when they’re as powerful as Vysanthe.”

  “Point taken,” I said wryly, as Bashrik switched the screen back to navigation mode. “Anyway, don’t suppose you can shed any light on what’s wrong with Navan, can you? Apparently, I’m banned from seeing him. Is he really that bad?”

  Bashrik squirmed in his chair. “I don’t know too much about it, Riley. You should just ask him when he decides it’s time to come out of hiding.”

  “So, he is hiding?”

  “I didn’t say that!”

  “Yes, you did—what’s he hiding from? Is he hiding from me?” I couldn’t understand what might have happened that would lead him to forbid me from seeing him. We’d already been through so much together. Prior to waking up after my serum coma, I didn’t think there was anything in the universe that could have kept us apart, but he seemed to be letting something get in the way.

  “Ask Navan!” Bashrik muttered, setting our coordinates to pass close to Vysanthe.

  “You called?” Navan asked, stepping into the cockpit.

  I whirled around in my seat, peering suspiciously at him. He’d come out of nowhere and looked just fine, with no visible marks on his face. I knew that didn’t mean he wasn’t injured, but he wasn’t moving like someone in pain.

  “You’ve got some explaining to do,” I said, beckoning for him to come over. “What happened to you? Are you okay? Has something happened to stop you healing?” I reached for the edge of his shirt and lifted it up, checking his torso and chest for any sign of injury, prodding his muscles just to be sure. Aside from the old scars that had always been there, his skin was smooth and unharmed, without the slightest hint of a bruise or a cut.

  “Not that I mind you looking, but you won’t find any wounds,” he teased. “I’m fine now.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “What were you doing, locking yourself up in your room like that? Angie said you’d banned me from visiting. Is that true?”

  He crouched on the floor in front of me and lifted my hand to his lips. “I needed to take some extra healing measures, that’s all.”

  “What measures?” I pressed. “You’ve never done that before.”

  “I just needed some time. It’s not a big deal,” he assured me. “I didn’t want you worrying, so I thought it best that you stayed away. You had your own healing to do, without having to think about mine, too.”

  I wasn’t satisfied with his answer, but I could see I wasn’t going to get anything else out of him. There was a warning in his eyes, urging me not to keep asking about it.

  “You realize that about a million things have happened while you’ve been hiding, don’t you?” I said, feeling a bit miffed. He was keeping something from me; I could tell.

  He chuckled quietly. “I wasn’t hiding—I was healing. Lauren and Ronad filled me in on everything.”

  “What do you make of it all? What do you think of Ezra snatching Yorrek’s notebook? Do you think he’ll take it straight to Orion? Do you think we’re doing the right thing, asking for Stone’s help?” I asked frenetically. “I wanted you to come with me to speak to him, but you were ‘healing.’”

  His expression darkened suddenly. “I’d forgotten about the notebook.”

  “I tried to keep hold of it, but Kaido’s serum temporarily took me out of action,” I replied, my tone apologetic. I knew it wasn’t entirely my fault, but it didn’t make the truth any easier. Had I not blacked out, Ezra wouldn’t have gotten his hands on it. That was hard to stomach.

  “You couldn’t have done any more than you did, Riley. I’m already in awe of your bravery, taking him on like that, on your own. I only wish I could have helped you,” he said softly, leaning up to kiss me on the lips. “Anyway, it just means we need to speed up our timeline. Now, more than ever, the rebels need to be destroyed, and sooner rather than later. Who knows, maybe the notebook won’t help them—maybe it’s a false hope that they’ve all been running after.”

  “That’s a comforting thought.” I smiled, though I didn’t believe a word. There was a reason everyone wanted that notebook. Someone might find success within the trials and failures of one of Queen Brisha’s best alchemists.

  “So, what plan have you got in mind with Stone?” Navan asked. “Lauren gave me the vague details of your deal, but the big picture was a bit sketchy. Sorry I couldn’t be there to help.”

  “I figured we could use Stone’s freezing powers to immobilize the rebel base. It’ll mean we can take the majority of them out from afar, with us standing behind Stone’s line of sight to avoid being frozen. Either that, or we ask him not to freeze us, though I’m not sure how it works on that scale—maybe there’ll be too many people for him to focus on avoiding a few individuals. So, it might be better if we just hang back,” I mused, speaking my thoughts aloud. In truth, I hadn’t ironed out every detail just yet, but I would get around to it. “We can use long-range weapons to destroy them, or round them up. Whichever is easier.”

  Navan stroked my thighs reassuringly, holding my gaze. “That sounds like a good plan to get started with. I’m sure things will unfold as we get closer to combat.” He looked as concerned about Earth’s safety as I felt. After all, if Orion and the rebels caught wind of what we were planning, they could retaliate against Earth itself. Or, if Stone’s powers couldn’t stretch that far and hold all the rebels in one go, that would leave us in a precarious situation.

  “You really think it’s a good idea?”

  He smiled. “I think it’s the best one we’ve got. My only concern is, what do we do about the rebels’ new allies?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You saw Ezra with the president of the United States. If Orion has humans working for him, that leaves us in a sticky predicament,” he explained. “We’ll have no choice but to take them out, too, even if that means involving the American government as a whole.”

  “What if everyone’s in on it?” I gasped, the thought a horrifying one.

  Navan pulled a doubtful face. “Knowing hierarchies the way I do, I’m fairly sure nobody has any idea that the president is in cahoots with Orion. He’ll have taken the advice of a few close confidantes, and perhaps informed some of his military personnel, but that’s a secret he’ll be keeping to himself. If it got leaked to any other country that the US president was making deals and taking meetings with alien rebels, they’d strike him down before you could even say ‘little green men.’�
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  “Provided Orion hasn’t already gotten to those world leaders, too. What if Orion has made the same deals with other countries, swearing them to secrecy so nobody knows other leaders are involved?” I wondered, knowing it could be a very real possibility.

  Navan sighed. “That might be the case, but it’s something we’ll have to tackle when we come to it—or rather, if we come to it.”

  “I mean, if they aren’t involved, we could use that to our advantage,” I said, trying to shed a flicker of hope on the ever-increasing mountain of crap we were up against.

  “That’s another possibility, but we won’t know until we make our move. I think we have to resign ourselves to the fact that we’re dealing with a lot of unknowns, which won’t become any clearer for a while.”

  I grimaced. “Is it wrong that I just want this to be over?”

  “Hey, I second that!” Bashrik chimed in. “I’m still looking forward to my beach vacation. It’s the only thing keeping me going!”

  I laughed, the tension broken. “Remind us all to join you.”

  “No way. Get your own tropical islands. I want nothing but sea, sand, and solitude.”

  “I’m sure Angie will be delighted to know that,” I teased.

  Bashrik lifted his finger to his lips. “What she doesn’t know can’t hurt her. I may even indulge in a second vacation and invite her along.”

  “Instead of daydreaming about vacations that may never happen, with girlfriends who may well have left you by then, shouldn’t you be getting us out of here?” Navan asked, laughing heartily.

  Just then, Mort strode into the cockpit, his fleshy feet slapping on the floor. He yawned loudly, stretching up his arms, the skin dangling down like two huge hammocks. I stared at him suspiciously, trying to recall what had happened in the midst of the battle with Ezra. I couldn’t remember seeing him when the throng dispersed, though I’d spotted the others branching off.

  “Having trouble turning the engine on, Bashy-Boy?” Mort mocked. “I imagine it’s a problem you have a lot.”

  Bashrik flashed him a withering look. “I’m charting a course. I happen to know my way around things, unlike you.”

  Mort gaped at him dramatically. “Was that… a comeback?”

  “Get used to them,” Bashrik retorted, turning his attention back to the control panel.

  “I thought we’d be rid of this place by now. I’m getting sick of seeing junk,” Mort muttered, wandering over to one of the chairs at the side of the room and plonking himself down. He proceeded to yawn again, stretching out his limbs.

  “Tired, are you?” I asked coldly.

  He grinned at me. “Exhausted, thanks for asking.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure running away and hiding from a fight is really exhausting.”

  His expression darkened. “Do you have something you want to say, sweet cheeks?”

  “What happened to you out there? While the rest of us were busting our asses trying to fight Stone and Ezra, you were nowhere to be seen,” I said. All he’d done was run around, determined to keep out of harm’s way without doing anything to help.

  Mort shrugged. “I’m here for one thing, and one thing only: I want to make Orion pay for what he’s done to my kind. I don’t care what happens to you or your little friends along the way, so long as I get to make that happen.”

  “Just when I was starting to think you weren’t a lost cause,” I muttered, feeling weirdly betrayed. Throughout several disputes, he’d been the only one on my side, to the point where I didn’t mind having him around. But now he was proving that he was only in this for himself. His loyalty was hitched to the promise of getting revenge on Orion, nothing else. I had known that all along, but for some reason, I had wanted to see the good in Mort—for him to actually become a friend.

  “Not my fault if you got ideas in your head, princess,” he replied bluntly. “I’m not risking this fabulous ass for anyone else.”

  A prickle of annoyance bristled through me. “It’s not just your cowardly behavior, either. All you do is sponge off us like a leech, serving yourself, without offering any kind of help around the ship,” I said accusatorily, feeling my anger rise. “And don’t get me started on your secret-keeping. You knew more about Ezra than you let on, and you selfishly kept it all to yourself. You knew it might affect us all, and you said nothing!”

  “I told you not to trust me,” Mort retorted, a cold smile on his face. “Still, I’ve never been anything but honest, unlike you and your bloodsucker boyfriend. The two of you have more secrets than the rest of us combined!”

  “That’s not true and you know it!” Navan shot back furiously, though his impulsive rage made me worry there might be some truth in Mort’s words. I wasn’t keeping anything from Navan, but I couldn’t say the same for him.

  “Ah, but Riley kept that news about Seraphina to herself for ages, even though it opened up the field for Aurelius—the old horndog,” Mort said smugly, shifting briefly into the figure of Aurelius. “And you, Mr. Goody Two-Shoes, you hid the fact that you were already engaged! The two of you are a joke.”

  How had he managed to learn so much about us? Maybe that was the whole reason he’d gotten so buddy-buddy with Angie. Whatever creepy means he’d used, him pointing out the hiccups in our relationship made my temper flare.

  “I don’t know why we keep you around!” I snapped. “You’re like a poison, infecting everything you touch.”

  “I think you mean a disease, princess,” Mort sniped. “Is this really because I didn’t tell you Ezra was Pandora’s brother? Did you want to make it a matching pair or something?” Punctuating the point, he shifted into Ezra’s form, and a shiver of fear coursed through me.

  “No, I didn’t,” I shot back, recovering my nerve. “You know you put us in danger—you put me in danger, by not telling me that.”

  “So?”

  “What if he’d killed me? What if he’d gotten revenge on me?”

  Mort grinned. “Again… so?”

  I yanked open one of the drawers underneath the control panel and pulled out a small credit device. Killick had loads of them stowed away all over the ship, but we’d put most of them in this drawer for safekeeping.

  Mort glanced down at it casually. “What’re you going to do, put a price on my head?” He cackled, pleased by his joke. Well, it was the last one he’d tell on this ship. Enough was enough. If he wasn’t going to watch our backs, or contribute anything to our mission, then he was just dead weight that we could do without.

  “No, this is me buying out my end of the deal,” I said, throwing the device at him. He caught it awkwardly. “Take it and go get revenge, all by yourself. See how far you get without us. With that, you can buy your own ship and enjoy your freedom, just as I promised. But my part in all of this is done.”

  Mort gripped the credit device and stood sharply, his red-veined eyes glowering in my direction. “It was getting a little too crowded for my tastes, anyway. A merevin was bad enough, but an ambaka? There was a reason the coldbloods wiped them out. You’re fools for trusting him,” he spat, making for the door of the cockpit. “Besides, I don’t want to be around when all of this comes crashing down on your heads! Let’s see who misses who first, shall we?”

  I hauled myself out of my chair and followed him to the door, determined to make sure he actually left the cruiser. There were too many places to hide on this ship, and I wasn’t about to have a vengeful shifter creeping around without our knowledge.

  Opening the hatch, he turned and shifted into the form of Galo, my lycan friend who’d been cruelly murdered by Orion and his vicious control devices. He grinned at me through wolfish teeth, his eyes glittering strangely. I knew he’d done it to hurt me, evidently knowing the lycan from his time as a prisoner at the rebel base, but I refused to give Mort the satisfaction of reacting to it. With a smirk, he exited the ship, the hatch closing behind him as he ventured into the wild Junkyard.

  Good riddance, I thought, although it
was laced with a twinge of regret that I quickly brushed aside.

  As I headed back to the cockpit, a vague memory flooded through my mind, of Galo telling us to seek out the star. I’d thought it was a weird thing to say, even then, but now it seemed even stranger. He hadn’t been able to finish the sentence, with death coming so quickly for him, but what if we’d been wrong all this time—what if he hadn’t been telling us to seek out a star? What if he’d been telling us to find the Stargazers all along?

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  I decided to keep my thoughts about the Stargazers to myself, especially after the conversation I’d had with Stone about them. Even if we wanted to get them on our side, Stone had made it sound impossible, and right now we had enough on our plates. Plus, our first stop had to be Glossa, to placate Stone and keep him sweet.

  The cruiser was faster than a lot of ships, but it lacked the deep-space technology that Orion’s vessels had. Although, Stone had assured us, after a lengthy discussion, that he had the required materials on his ship for Navan, Bashrik, and Ronad to use to soup up the cruiser, using the design they’d built with Ianthan and Jethro. He figured they’d have to improvise a bit, but he had the basic items. Whether that was true or not remained to be seen, but Lauren had backed up the claim, telling us he had a load of cool stuff tucked away. I mean, if anyone had the goods, it had to be the man who scavenged and traded rare things for a living.

  With that in mind, and with nothing available to improve our engines just yet, our journey to Glossa was set to take four days, though we’d reach Vysanthe on the morning of the third day, by Bashrik’s estimate. I wasn’t really looking forward to being near the coldblood planet again, but it was a necessary evil. We needed to know what the queens were up to, and that was the only way to do it, unless we wanted to go traipsing around a load of port-planets on the off chance of overhearing some news in a ladies’ changing room.