Blood of a Thousand Stars (Empress of a Thousand Skies #2)(13)

And she’d liked him back. Not that they’d ever talked about it, on account of being on the run for their lives the whole time they’d been together. But he’d felt it in their kiss, in the heat of her touch, in the stubborn way she’d stuck with him when anyone else in the galaxy would have walked away for good. And now, with Rhiannon’s return made official, Aly should be a free man—and he and Kara should’ve been safe.

Nope. Almost as soon as he’d tasted freedom, it was yanked away from him once again. Here he still was. Separated from Kara and Pavel. He’d told the little man to go find Kara, but he couldn’t help but worry the droid had been relegated to some far-flung scrapyard. War was raging everywhere, even on the most protected, peace-loving moon in the galaxy.

The mood in the camp was mixed. Some folks were shaking their heads, looking smug, like they’d seen it before and they’d seen it coming. Like Aly, most of the Wraetans weren’t surprised about the taejis of a reception the Princess just got. Some of them were probably glad too. The Ta’ans had technically saved their butts in the Great War—by ending it—but only after making a mess of their entire planet. And in the process they’d displaced Wraetans, scattering them around the galaxy in Wray Towns that were nearly as bad as this camp. Even now, the damage inflicted by the Great War made Aly’s mind reel. Its legacy threaded itself into him, made it so the anger shaped his present and future. How could you undo something like that?

Some of the Fontisians, however, especially the ones old enough to remember the Great War, didn’t look all that smug about Rhiannon’s wobbly reception. Probably because the writing was on the wall: Not even the Ta’ans could stabilize things now. Things were notching up toward a full-scale war, and pretty soon, Aly’s gut told him, every single piece of rock in the galaxy would be tainted with the stink of death.

Aly’s cube buzzed suddenly, and he ripped his gaze from the holoscreen, scared, adrenaline coursing through him. They’d forced him to turn his cube back on once they’d imprisoned him in the camps, and forced a cube update that was about halfway complete. He could only think of one other update in the last few years, and there was a lot of lead-up—a big campaign to outline the perks, and a safety warning to update in the night since it took processing power and made you drowsy. No warning with this one, though. He didn’t like it one bit, but he had no choice.

Now, a cube notification was how they summoned the prisoners in waves—so they’d come to the fence for food or water or a “shower,” which was really just a hose on full blast that pushed through the chain-link fence. He hadn’t showered yet; he was avoiding it as long as he could. He was no animal.

When he looked around, no one else seemed to react. Which could mean he was going to get his ass beat. No witnesses. Or even worse, that whoever had framed him had found him.

Aly trembled, nearly frozen until his cube buzzed again, this time stronger, like it would when he used to get priority calls from UniForce headquarters. When he closed his eyes he saw the designation “Vestibule 17” flash across his eyelids. Running parallel to the fence, nearly flush with it, the Vestibules were dark, rectangular boxes that felt like confessional booths. They provided privacy while your ass was getting kicked by a guard, and conveniently, being penned in by an electric chain-link fence was the quickest way to remind anyone you might as well be an animal to the UniForce soldiers.

It would get worse the longer he waited, so he slipped out of the crowd and made his way toward the meeting place. He’d been to a prison once before on Houl, but he knew what guards were like—guys who needed to feel big by treating you like taejis. Sometimes being compliant and chill wasn’t enough. Sometimes you had to act like you were excited to be ordered around; you did what you had to because your life depended on it.

Moonlight framed the soldier. He had a small build. Compact, feet planted firmly on the ground. The guard didn’t say anything, so Aly didn’t either. Didn’t matter how small he was. With a stunner in your hand you didn’t need to be bigger. You just needed to be heartless.

The guard came closer, and Aly took half a step back.

“It’s me,” a girl’s voice whispered.

Kara.

“How?” Aly moved forward but she shook her head. In the distance, he saw another guard—a real guard—pause on his rounds. He needed to pretend he was still being bossed around by a guard, but he was nearly losing his mind with relief, happiness. But then he realized where they were, and what she’d risked. “You shouldn’t be here,” he said. “You need to leave.”

“Um . . . you’re welcome for coming to save you?” He couldn’t see her face in the dim moonlight, but he heard it in her voice: She was offended, and hurt.

“I’m not messing around,” Aly said. He didn’t have time to spare her feelings. Not now. Not when there was so much at stake. He lowered his voice and looked behind him quickly. “The place is crawling with UniForce. You’re too important to be running around the moon.”

“Couldn’t agree more. That’s why we’re leaving. Pavel is waiting for us in the market.” So the droid had found her. Fear gave way to relief. They’d been together, looked out for each other.

Kara ducked further into the shadows and pulled back a patch of fence, squeezing through it to freedom.