Blinking away the pain behind my eyes, I sat up to hear the conversation better. I recognized the surroundings as my room on the merevin cruiser, though I had no memory of getting back here. The last thing I recalled was frantically scanning the ground for any sign of Yorrek’s notebook. Even now, I wasn’t sure what had really happened and what had been in my head. Unlike the last time, I still had some vague memories of the images that had thundered into my brain, but they didn’t make any sense to me.
“Riley!” Lauren gasped, rushing toward me.
“You’re awake!” Angie smiled, hurrying to my side. Both of them peered down at me with worried expressions.
“Just about,” I croaked.
Lauren grinned. “It’s so good to see you’re okay! When we found you passed out on the ground, we feared the worst.”
Angie nodded. “Bashrik had come back to get you. He said you were barely breathing.”
“Can we hug you?” Lauren asked nervously, evidently worrying I would break if she tried.
“Of course you can,” I murmured. They needed no further invitation, and they lunged toward me, enveloping me in a warm hug. Tears pricked my eyes as I gripped them with every ounce of strength I had left. I was overjoyed to see Lauren safe and sound, though she was different than the girl she’d been when she was taken. There was a sharpness to her eyes now and a hardness to her demeanor, as if she were perpetually hiding a secret she needed to defend.
“How’re you feeling?” Angie wondered, pulling away.
“Worse than a hangover.”
Lauren chuckled. “I’ve been hearing about your adventures on the Junkyard.”
“Hey, where are your glasses?” I asked, realizing they were notably missing from her face. They were such an ingrained feature of hers that it was bizarre not to see her wearing them.
“They broke while I was on Stone’s ship,” she explained, a flush of pink dusting her cheeks. “He gave me some custom contacts as a replacement. They’re cool—they snap straight onto the eye and don’t dry out like the ones on Earth. Plus, they let me read alien languages, which is the best thing about them. Stone had the software installed for me.”
I glanced suspiciously at my friend, wondering why she was blushing. Part of me was desperate to know more, but I didn’t press the matter, knowing there was a lot more we needed to catch up on before we could get to the subject of romance.
“Anyway, you’re one to talk. What’s with the red hair?” Lauren said cheerfully.
“Felt like a change,” I joked.
“Well, I approve. It suits you. I mean, it’s way better than those pink highlights you got in seventh grade!”
I grimaced. “Oh, God, don’t remind me.”
“I think your hair looks rather lovely, Miss Riley, and I think you would look equally sublime with or without spectacles, Miss Lauren,” Xiphio spoke up bashfully, having entered the room. He seemed shy around Lauren, his eyes constantly seeking her out.
“Thank you, Agent Xiphio,” Lauren said politely, clearly both confused and flattered by his kindness toward her.
“Please, it is simply Xiphio to you, Miss Lauren.”
“Yeah, Xiphio here has been helping me fill Lauren in on everything that’s been going on. He insisted on it,” Angie explained, with a conspiratorial wink.
Xiphio nodded, missing the wink. “I thought it best that I throw in the perspective of a professional. An objective observer, if you will.”
“Yes, very objective.” I grinned at Angie, though Lauren still looked confused. Suddenly, everything came rushing back to the forefront of my mind, sending a ripple of panic through me. “Wait, what happened to Navan? He was on the ground. Is he okay? Did you bring him back?”
Angie smiled, resting her hand on my arm. “Bashrik and Ronad brought him back with you. They helped him to heal.”
“Well, can I see him? I think I can walk.” I moved to get out of the bed, but Lauren and Angie restrained me.
“He’s asked us all to give him some time alone, to fully recover. We’re not supposed to disturb him,” Angie said, exchanging a brief look with Lauren that worried me.
“Yeah, but that doesn’t include me, right?”
“He said that, even when you woke up, you shouldn’t disturb him,” Angie replied, her tone apologetic.
Lauren nodded. “He’ll come out when he’s ready, and it’ll be like the two of you have never been apart.”
Truthfully, I didn’t know whether to be angry or disappointed. I’d been through a lot, too. I mean, Bashrik had thought I was dead when they found me. Surely, after that, Navan would want to see me? And yet, if what Angie and Lauren said was anything to go by, he really didn’t. I wondered if it was just because he didn’t want me to see him with bad injuries, but I’d seen him battered and bruised before. It didn’t matter to me—I thought he was handsome no matter how many scars he had.
“Oh, there’s one more thing,” Angie said, gesturing to the bedside cabinet. The compass lay in pieces, the glass shattered, the vials crushed, the metal shell bent out of shape. “It broke when you fell. We’re not sure if it’s fixable.”
Just then, Ronad entered, bounding across the room toward me like an excited puppy, pushing Angie and Lauren aside so he could wrap me in a tight hug. Fading bruises still dappled his skin, and there were a few scabbed wounds scattered across his body, but he seemed to be in good spirits.
“Rask’s sake, don’t you frighten us like that again!” Ronad murmured, giving me an extra squeeze for good measure.
I laughed, my disappointment at the broken compass lifting. “You’re one to talk. Last time I saw you, you’d been thrown around like a rag doll. How do I look, anyway?” I didn’t want to tell him that he was hurting me, not when his hug felt so comforting.
“Like the other guy got away easy.”
“I guess we both look like we lost a fight,” I said wryly, thinking of Ezra. It turned my stomach to think of him out there with Yorrek’s notebook. Then again, maybe that had been a figment of my fevered imagination.
“Speaking of which, there have been a few developments since Bashrik found you,” Ronad admitted, his tone grim. “I don’t know how much you can remember from the fight, but a couple of pirates managed to get away with several serrantium weapons. Ezra’s lackeys chased after them to steal the weapons back, resulting in a few unfortunate deaths. Now, some of the crews of those dead pirates have put a couple of revenge bounties on your head. They know you weren’t directly responsible, but they need someone to blame, and, sadly, that person is you.”
I frowned. “What? I had nothing to do with the serrantium weapons being stolen. If they’d just stuck with the first revenge bounty, none of this would’ve happened!”
“I know,” Angie soothed, “but you know what pirates are like.”
“I’m really starting to hate pirates,” I muttered, scowling.
“Anyway,” Ronad continued nervously, “that’s why we need to decide on a destination, and fast. It’s not safe for us here anymore—not that it ever was, but we’ve just become target number one.”
Xiphio raised his hand, glancing at Lauren. “Not that it has been a complete failure. I managed to valiantly capture Stone, after all these years. Indeed, had we not crossed paths in the rather unorthodox manner that we did, I wouldn’t have been given such an opportunity. Now, if you’d permit—”
I cut him off, my stomach sinking further. “Where’s the notebook?”
“I didn’t see it on the ground anywhere near you, but I imagine one of the pirates took it. It shouldn’t be too hard to retrieve if we’re careful,” Ronad suggested. “We might have to check the darkstar market instead of sticking around, though.”
I shook my head. “There’s no point. If you didn’t pick it up from the battlefield then Ezra has it.”
The others gasped in unison.
“What do you mean?” Lauren asked frantically.
“If it wasn’t on the ground, then Ezra
took it. I thought it was safe—I didn’t actually see Ezra take it, but my mind was so messed up that I didn’t know what was real and what wasn’t,” I explained miserably. “I had it, and I threw it to Navan, to keep it out of harm’s way, but then I blacked out. He must have taken it while I was under the influence of the serum Kaido made.”
“You took that stuff?” Ronad stared at me, aghast. “No wonder you were wiped out!”
“I had no choice. Ezra was going to take us away, probably so Orion could do something horrible to me, to make me pay for what I did to Pandora. And Navan was out cold… It was my only option.” I sighed, suddenly filled with an immense sense of dread. Ezra had managed to steal the potential key to the immortality elixir, and he would undoubtedly deliver it straight into Orion’s blood-soaked hands.
A somber mood settled across the group at the conclusion that Ezra had, indeed, taken the notebook. We couldn’t afford to wait around and see what he was going to do with it. We had to follow him as soon as we could, to stop him from handing it over to Orion. First, however, there was something else I needed to do. To fight fire with fire, we needed to know the extent of what we were dealing with—and I knew just the guy to speak to.
“Take me to Stone,” I said. “I want a word with him.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Maybe you should stay in bed a while longer,” Ronad suggested. “We don’t know what other effects that serum might’ve had on you. I wouldn’t want you collapsing again and ending up in a worse state.”
I smiled. “I appreciate the concern, but I want to speak to him. Lauren, will you come with me? You know him better than I do.”
“He’ll be pleased to properly meet you without a million other things going on. I’ve spoken about you a lot,” she said shyly, helping me out of the bed. I took a deep breath, my body feeling unbearably weak, my legs shaking.
“He didn’t seem all that pleased to meet me the last time we saw each other,” I muttered.
“Those were unfortunate circumstances, but I swear he’s eager to get to know you better. All of you, in fact.”
Angie, Ronad, Xiphio, and I exchanged a dubious look, but Lauren wouldn’t be deterred. She offered her hands to help me stand. Angie and Ronad stepped back as I hauled myself out of bed, with Lauren propping me up. I would’ve gone to find Navan and asked him to join me, if he hadn’t locked himself in his room and banned me from seeing him. I tried not to let the thought bother me as I hobbled across the room. Lauren let me grip her shoulder as I shimmied into a pair of pants to cover my pajamas and pulled a sweater over my head. To be honest, I didn’t know how I’d ended up in my pajamas, but I imagined one of my two best friends had helped. Every movement sapped more of my remaining strength, but I wouldn’t be beaten.
Dressed and ready, I stepped out of the bedroom and headed up the corridor, moving through the main space, before continuing down the other hallway of the cruiser. Lauren was leading the way, since she knew where Stone was being kept. I’d expected Angie to follow us, but she hung back in my bedroom. I could hear the murmur of her voice, Xiphio’s, and Ronad’s as we left, but none of them sounded too happy.
As we walked, I took the opportunity to speak with Lauren one-on-one, knowing I might not get another chance if things escalated. It was so good to have her back after so long without her, but there was no denying that something had changed. She wasn’t the mousy girl she’d been before. Instead, a fierce woman had taken her place. Honestly, it was going to take some getting used to, but glimpses of the old her shone through every now and again.
“So, you were really just playing a part out there on the battlefield?” I asked. “We were worried when you wouldn’t even look at us. We thought something terrible had happened to you, like your memory had been wiped or something.”
Lauren smiled. “Life on board Stone’s ship was all about surviving, and that’s what I was doing. I couldn’t allow my feelings to get in the way of the exchange. I didn’t want Ezra putting two and two together, though I knew my humanness wouldn’t go unnoticed. I’d already told Stone I’d be more than happy to stay inside during the drop-off, but he insisted I come out with him. If I’d run to you or called out to you, Ezra might have used you as pawns to get what he wanted. I wasn’t going to let that happen.”
“So, Stone really hasn’t brainwashed you?”
“He really hasn’t,” she replied. “I’m not going to pretend it was easy being his prisoner, but I’ve learned a lot.”
“Did he hurt you?”
She shook her head, a funny expression on her face. “He hates unnecessary violence, and I never gave him a reason to hurt me. Even after he snatched me, he didn’t raise his voice or his hand to me. He was firm but not unkind. I was convinced he was going to sell me off at the nearest flesh market, but he told me he didn’t agree with the trafficking of sentient beings.”
“Then why did he take you in the first place?” I wondered, my tone bitter.
“I think he wanted to punish us for messing with him, though once he’d taken me he didn’t really know what to do with me,” she explained. “Anyway, I made myself useful in those first days, once the initial shock had eased off, just in case he changed his mind about the trafficking thing. Plus, I didn’t feel like being abandoned on a random planet, either, which was the alternative I’d heard him discussing with Niniver. I had free rein of the ship, and spent hours familiarizing myself with all the listings on the darkstar market. Alfa and Dio kept an eye on me, but they weren’t cruel at all. They were more curious than anything else. Once I’d figured out which items were the most valuable, I demanded that Stone let me go on a scavenging expedition for him, to prove my worth. I knew what’d be the easiest and most worthwhile to steal, without getting us into trouble.”
I realized she’d said “us,” as though she’d really become part of Stone’s crew. I wasn’t sure if she knew she’d said it.
“What, and he just let you?”
She laughed, her eyes sparkling. “Not at first, no. It took a week or so for him to agree to it, but once he said yes, he never looked back. He realized that my suggestions made sense—the thefts would be low risk for high gain. It was a double win, and he was more than happy to reap the rewards. After all, he’d lost out on the money for that nasty suit of armor, so he had to make the credits up somewhere.”
“You helped him steal?”
“I told you, I had to do whatever I could to survive,” she replied bluntly. Somehow, our situations had managed to mirror one another’s during our time apart. While she’d been doing whatever she could to become part of the scavengers’ crew, I’d been doing whatever I could to try to get her back. I understood, in that moment, that we’d taken too long. The old Lauren was gone, though I wasn’t sure this new Lauren was any less wonderful.
“I don’t know if I like the sound of that,” I murmured, half to myself.
“They’re not bad guys; they’re really not. As soon as I proved myself to be a useful member of the team, they started treating me like one of their own. Stone gave me a room and made sure I was fed. It wasn’t bad at all,” she said. “I missed you guys. It was really difficult to forgive Stone for taking me away, but I didn’t know if I’d ever see you again. I knew I had to get used to my new situation, in case it ended up being a permanent thing.”
“You must have known we’d do anything to find you!” I felt sad knowing that she’d had to endure that by herself, uncertain whether anyone would ever come for her. And yet, there was a fondness in the way she spoke about the crew, like they’d become friends.
“I hoped you might, but that’s something Stone and his crew have taught me: there are no certainties in life. You have to make your own path, or you’ll end up lost on someone else’s,” she said, casting me a sorrowful look.
I sighed heavily, unable to wrap my head around her affection for the scavenger crew. “But you wouldn’t have had to do all that if Stone hadn’t taken you in the first place!”<
br />
“But he did, and that opened up a new path in my life. I had two choices. If all I’d done was look back and sit around, waiting for you guys to come for me, he’d have dumped me on a planet somewhere, where I might have been in even more danger. So, I looked forward instead, learning and listening, the way I’ve always done,” she reasoned. Her allegiance to Stone was really starting to worry me. It was like she wouldn’t hear any criticism of his actions. There seemed to be a strong feeling of respect in there, too, which just didn’t make sense to me.
“Do you like him or something?” I asked, addressing the elephant in the room.
She pulled a face, her cheeks reddening. “As a friend, yes. I like all of them as friends. They’re nonviolent and loyal, and they’ve taught me a lot, believe it or not. I’ll keep saying it until I’m blue in the face, but they’re not bad people—they just do what they have to, to make a living.”
I resisted reiterating the point that they would have dumped her on a planet, all by herself, if she hadn’t proven herself to be a mastermind of thievery. Even if I had, I was pretty sure she would’ve had a comeback for me—a seemingly rational explanation for everything Stone and his crew did.
“So, how do we stop him from freezing us and escaping?” I said, as we arrived at the room where Stone was being kept. It was one of the storage closets, though it was still massive inside. There were boxes stacked opposite the door—presumably containing the valuables that had been cleared to make room for Stone.
“Ronad insisted on chaining a leather strap across his third eye and cuffing his wrists. He found some cuffs in one of the cruiser’s bedrooms,” Lauren replied, arching an amused eyebrow.
I shuddered, thinking of Killick. “Nice.”
“He won’t freeze me, anyway,” she assured me. “There’s honor amongst thieves, and I’m one of his crew members now. When a new person joins, he swears an oath never to use his power against them. So far, he hasn’t broken that promise.”