Starfall (Starflight #2)(5)
Her chest filled with enough air to allow her a single sob of panic. She dragged herself into a cluster of plants and curled up beneath the leaves. Judging by the snap of breaking stalks nearby, she didn’t have much time. With trembling fingers, she unfastened the com-link from her shirt and relayed a final message to the Banshee.
“Renny, the Daeva caught me,” she whispered. “Collect everyone and get as far away as you can. I’m dumping my tracker so you can’t follow me. Please take care of Kane.”
“The tracks lead this way,” said a man. “I see her now.”
She shut down the link and buried it in the soil.
A moment later, strong hands gripped her ankles and tugged her into the open. She squinted against the sun and met her captor’s bloodshot gaze before she scanned his utility belt for anything she could use against him. She spotted a pulse pistol hanging loosely in its holster. When the man bent down to taunt her, she snatched the weapon and shot him in the chest.
His body collapsed beside her, and she heaved him onto his back to search for the key to her ankle restraints. She’d just dug into his shirt pocket when a new hand appeared from her periphery and struck her across the face. Pain exploded behind her cheekbone while the force of the blow sent her slamming into the dirt.
“Careful,” a third man warned from behind them. “She’s a return, not a kill. You break her, you buy her.”
The Daeva towering over her released a snort. “Might be worth it.”
Cassia spat blood onto the soil and laughed, despite the pressure of tears building behind her eyes. “As if you could afford me.”
That earned her another slap, but only half as hard as the first.
“Where’s the boy?”
As she lay on the ground, she resisted the urge to ask which boy the Daeva was talking about. Provoking him any further might hurt her odds of saving Kane. “He’s not here. He flew off world for shore leave.”
“Don’t lie to me,” the man said, and kicked her in the stomach.
Her lungs emptied again as her mouth gaped to take in air that wouldn’t come. She curled into a ball, racked by dry heaves, until a trickle of breath made its way past her throat. Gasping, she told the Daeva, “I swear! He already left.”
The second man knelt by her side, then roughly yanked back her hair to peer at her with eyes colder than the grave. Finally, he gave a satisfied nod and released her. “Her story matches what her captain told me.”
At the mention of Renny, her head snapped up. “What did you do to him?”
“The boy’s on New Haven,” the Daeva said, ignoring her. “Let’s dispatch a recovery team for him and set our course for Eturia. There’s a bonus for returning the princess before the next gathering moon. I don’t want to wait.”
When Kane arrived at Planet X, he had to do a double take.
A lot had happened in the months since his last visit—enough that the barren, moon-size planet now boasted an impenetrable shield and the foundations of a manufacturing plant unfolding across its frozen landscape, all provided by the Solar League in the interest of quickening Infinium production.
Kane had no burning love for the government, but he couldn’t blame the League for wanting to get its hands on another shipment of super-fuel. One chunk of Infinium had been powering the Banshee for weeks, allowing the captain to make ten times the deliveries at half the cost. Colonization in the fringe was expected to triple as soon as Infinium reached the open market. With his invention, Gage Spaulding had single-handedly transformed the fringe from a desolate hellhole to a promised land for the poor.
Not bad for a homeschooled eighteen-year-old.
Once Kane made his way inside the underground compound, he hardly recognized that, either. The typically silent bunker hallways now bustled with activity as engineers and construction foremen scurried from one makeshift conference room to another, having been forced to seek shelter from the icy winds aboveground.
Kane and the others eventually found Gage standing behind the sofa in the living room, which was being used as a command center. Surrounded on all sides by advisors, Gage pinched his temples and blew a lock of dark hair away from his face, probably wishing he could retreat to his lab and leave the business details to someone else.
As soon as Gage glanced up and locked eyes with Doran, his expression brightened. He lifted a hand to silence the chatter around him and strode toward his brother wearing the broadest smile Kane had ever seen on him. Gage and Doran were twins, identical except for the scar tissue that marred Gage’s face. They’d recently found each other after a decade apart, and they were still navigating the uncharted waters of their relationship.
With a prickle of envy, Kane stood back to give them some space, thinking about the half brothers he’d never met and probably never would. There were three of them, or so he’d heard. For all he knew, his dad had a bastard at every port.
“I’m glad you’re here,” Gage said to his twin while extending a hand. The two clasped palms and moved in for a hug, but must have thought better of it because they pulled back at the last second and gave each other an awkward pat on the shoulder. “You were the business intern, not me. I’m in over my head.”
“Is Mom here?” asked Doran while sweeping a cautious gaze around the room. It was clear he didn’t want to see her. Understandable, as she’d faked Gage’s death and kept the twins apart for years. Their dad was a real prize, too. He was serving ten years on a penal colony for trying to steal Gage’s invention.