Rebel Born (Secondborn #3)(45)

Reykin grimaces, worrying that he’s hurting me. He has no idea that I died for the second time yesterday, pierced through the heart by a goatish man with a fusionblade. This feels like a pinch, maybe less.

“It doesn’t hurt,” I assure him.

The moncalate sucks the chip into a chamber attached to the device. The laser seals my skin so that only a small scar remains, but the pink line rapidly fades, like most of my other wounds. Reykin doesn’t seem to notice the fading scar as he triggers the device again. The tool compresses the moniker until it shatters into small pieces.

He glances to Cherno. “You’re next.”

Cherno gives Reykin a bored stare while he slits his skin with a talon and digs out his own identification processor. He drops it to the floor and presses his bootheel to it, crushing it.

Reykin turns to me. “Where did you find him?”

“He’s my bodyguard.”

“Have you earned another heart?”

I blink, unsure what he means. “I don’t think so. He believes I’m Roselle, the Goddess of War—his sworn enemy.”

Reykin must have been listening to our conversation in the tunnels, because he doesn’t seem the least bit surprised. Instead he replies, “You have a way of making your enemies sticketh.”

“Only one Star ever did that . . . and one is all I need,” I say.

Daltrey moves closer. “There’s still the matter of her neural implant, Reykin.”

Reykin scowls at his Gates of Dawn commander. “You saw what she did on the beach. She resisted Crow’s mind control. She fought them in ways I don’t even understand. She brought down airships!”

“It could all be a ruse to make us trust her enough to bring her into the fold,” Daltrey replies. “Or maybe she can control it but Crow can find a way to reinstall her in his ranks. What, then? Crow has a direct link into her head. He could be watching us now.”

Reykin snarls, “Do you want to destroy the best chance—maybe the only chance—we have of saving our lives?”

“Daltrey’s right.” I rub my temples. “I woke up once before this and was pulled back into Spectrum. No one’s safe around me. I have to talk to your brother. I need him to show me where we were—the Sword Tree Base in Seas where I was implanted. I need to stop the manufacturing and implantation processes—or at least slow them down. After I see Ransom, Cherno and I can make our own plan. We won’t stay and put you at risk.”

“You’re going to take on Crow?” Reykin glowers at Cherno. “Just the two of you?”

“No.” Cherno glowers back. “First we will awaken the gods. Then we will destroy Crow.”

“Is he insane, Roselle? I mean I was listening in the tunnels when he was explaining his supposed history to you—I’m just not so sure if he really believes it, or if he’s programmed to believe it.”

“I don’t know,” I reply, eyeing Cherno, “maybe he isn’t programmed. Maybe it’s real.”

“Maybe it’s real?” His tone oozes skepticism.

“I’m not programmed,” Cherno huffs. Curls of smoke smolder from his nostrils.

“You don’t know everything that’s happened, Reykin,” I reply.

“Then tell me. Everything.”

“I can’t tell you.” I cover my face with my hands.

“You can,” Reykin insists, gently lowering his voice.

I drop my hands and glare at him with tear-blinded eyes. “I really can’t. Huge chunks of time are gone—pieces of me have disappeared. I don’t know what I’ve been doing. I woke up once about a month ago, and I was in your garden in Stars. Your whole estate was an inferno. And Mags”—my voice catches—“Mags was there, and Crow—h-he was questioning her, but she broke away from him and she threw herself in the fire. And I-I envy her because maybe now he can’t ever get to her. Crow can’t bring her back to life to torture her over and over. He can’t—”

Reykin pulls me to him, and I bury my face in his chest. I can hardly hold back my tears.

“I’m sorry,” Reykin’s deep voice rumbles in my ear. “You need rest.” Then he tells Daltrey, “Keep us away from the main ship as long as you can.”

“You think they’ll want her on the main ship?” Daltrey asks.

“I don’t care what they want. Follow my orders, Daltrey. You’re not in charge anymore. You transferred leadership of everything to me when you made your suicide plan to kill Roselle, remember? Everyone reports to me now. Just keep us away from them while Roselle rests. And get a status report on my brother.”

Reykin’s arm shifts around my shoulders. He leads me away from Cherno and Daltrey, toward a hatch door. We enter a narrow corridor together. The dull-blue ceiling and metallic walls echo his booted footsteps. My bare feet make almost no sound. Heavy footsteps ring behind us.

Reykin pauses and turns to confront my gigantic shadow. “Why are you following us?”

“Where she goes, I go,” Cherno replies, pointing from me to his chest.

“I’ll give you a room, but I need to speak to Roselle alone.”

“Try to make me leave her side,” Cherno challenges with a malicious grin.

Reykin’s hand twitches near his belt—to a fusionblade that isn’t there.