Aurora Burning (The Aurora Cycle #2)(102)

Caersan leans forward, glowering into the lens. And then he speaks five simple words that bring the whole galaxy down on our heads.

“Give me back my daughter.”

The feed drops into darkness.

I can’t breathe.

I can’t see.

I can’t speak.

The thought of it washes over me like black icy water. The weight of it hits me in the chest so hard I put my hand to my aching heart.

“Daughter … ,” I manage.

We all look to Kal, but Kal is staring at Auri, horror in his eyes. The same horror I can see reflected in hers, I feel in mine.

“I’na Sai’nuit,” she whispers, voice trembling. “Those Unbroken on the World Ship. That’s what they called you when Tyler used your name.”

“Be’shmai, please,” he begs. “Let me explain… .”

I’na Sai’nuit.

Son of the Starslayer.

“You’re his,” I whisper.

I stand slowly, my legs shaking, my face twisting as tears fall from my eyes.

I can’t believe it. We’ve all been so blind.

“You’re that bastard’s son.”





29

KAL

Tell her the truth.

That is what the note told me. A message handed to me through an improbable, inexplicable twist of time. The handwriting was not mine. It was not I who discovered it. But still, I knew in my heart that the message was for me. And, looking at the pain in her eyes, she who is my all, my everything, and now perhaps my nothing, I know I should have listened.

“He’s your father?” Aurora asks me, bewildered.

Why did I not give her the truth, when she gave me so very much?

Because you were afraid.

“Be’shmai … ,” I whisper.

“You told me he was dead,” she says, tears welling in her eyes. “You told me he died at Orion. You lied to me.”

“I did not lie,” I say, heat flushing my ears. “He is dead. He is dead to me.”

Finian shakes his head, aghast. “Maker’s breath, Kal—”

“He died the day he chose pride over loyalty,” I all but shout. “He died the day he threw honor aside for the sake of victory. He killed tens of thousands of soldiers at Orion under a flag of deceit, and he has remained forever dead in my heart. He is not my father.” I clench my fists. “And I am not his son.”

I feel fury in me. Whispering.

You abase yourself before these worms? You are a warrior born. We Syldrathi called the stars our home when these insects were still climbing down from their trees. You owe them nothing, Kaliis.

“Silence,” I hiss.

He does not listen. He speaks again, as he has always done.

With my father’s voice.

I’na Sai’nuit.

But Scarlett’s voice breaks in over his. “He killed my dad.” I look at Scarlett as she speaks, and I see betrayal. Her cheeks are wet with tears, her lower lip trembling. But her voice is hard as iron.

“He killed my dad and you knew. You knew what he did. What he took from us. And you looked us in the eyes and didn’t breathe a word of it. We had a right to know.” She shakes her head, disgusted. “But instead, you had the balls to pretend to be our friend.”

“Scarlett, I am your friend.”

“You put all of us in danger!” she shouts. “Saedii was hunting you for him! If not for her, if not for you, we’d never have been aboard the Andarael! Tyler would never have been captured by the TDF! And the Ra’haam wouldn’t have a way to goad your bastard father into a war that’s going to set the galaxy on fire!” She glowers at me, fists balled at her sides. “This is your fault, Kal!”

Zila clears her throat softly. “Scarlett, that is overstating somewh—”

“Is it?” Scarlett cries. “You think if he’d told us who he was, he ever would have been allowed to join this squad? That he’d have even been allowed to join Aurora Academy?” She whirls on me, eyes narrowed. “I bet you lied on your application, too, right? No way Adams and de Stoy would have accepted the son of the most infamous murderer in the galaxy into the Legion. No way.”

I meet her gaze, my lips pressed thin. I feel the anger swelling inside me at her challenge, push it down with all my strength.

“Well?” she demands.

“I took my mother’s name after Orion,” I confess. “I wanted nothing to do with Caersan, or the Unbroken. I joined Aurora Academy because I wished to atone for what he had done! But I knew the commanders would never let me into the Legion if they knew who I truly was.”

“So you lied,” Scarlett says.

My temper flares, despite myself. “It was none of their business!”

“But it was ours! He killed our dad, Kal!” she spits, looking around to the others to register that the blow has landed. “Anything else you wanna confess while you’re at it? Your name is Kaliis, right? Or did you lie about that, too?”

They all look at me then. Even Aurora, and how my heart aches to see that. I watch as the thought crosses each of their minds—that perhaps everything about me is deceit. That they do not know me at all.

“I am Kaliis,” I say. “You know me, Scarlett.”