28. Twenty Eight

Twenty Eight

Elena – Osiri Lab

"Mom!"

Fear rushed through Elena at the awful silence that answered her. She didn’t know if Elise was dead or simply unconscious. And the not knowing was tearing her apart.

"Answer me, Elise," Elena cried, thrashing against her bindings.

Why did the Osiri have to be so inventive? Hadn’t they ever heard about giving someone a fighting chance?

And this bone pick! Why was it so useless?

She’d thought when Fyr slipped it into her hand that it might be her beacon of hope. But no. All it had done was poke a hole in her thigh when she’d tried to cut herself loose.

"I won’t call you egg donor in my head anymore. So please say something."

"She’s not dead. You can stop screaming," Fyr told her.

At the reminder that she wasn’t alone, Elena went still. She’d almost forgotten about him.

"How about you release me instead?" Elena tried hopefully.

Fyr’s snort was tired. "I don’t think so."

Elena shifted on the bed until she could spot Fyr out of the corner of her eye. "What do you have to lose at this point? They betrayed you. As long as you remain in the Osiri’s control, your future will be nothing but the pain you warned me about."

The general boy was sitting on the edge of the platform near Elise’s prone body. His shoulders sagged and his head bowed in a posture of defeat.

It was strange to see him so down trodden when he’d been nothing but arrogant not too long ago.

"They didn’t betray me."

"It sure seems that way to me."

He needed to take a good look at his situation. From where Elena was lying, he’d just been stabbed in the back, assassin style, and was now bleeding out from a mortal wound.

"This is just how things happen sometimes," Fyr said, sounding like he was trying to comfort himself. "This is our fate. It’s always been our fate."

Elena rolled her eyes at the ceiling. Boy, these generals sure were dramatic.

"You do what you want. I’m getting out of here."

And she was taking her mother with her. For that matter, her siblings too.

"You’re tied to a bed."

Regrettably, that was true.

"And even if you weren’t, you’d collapse after being exposed to the oteron field. Just like last time."

Elena’s forehead furrowed. "Oteron?"

"It’s what cut off your connection to your soul’s breath. The pod you’re in negates some of the effects but as soon as you step down, it’ll return."

"So that’s what that was."

No wonder it felt like something had drained the essence out of her.

"It caught me off guard last time is all," Elena declared with a mental shrug. "I’ll be better prepared next time."

"Doubtful," Fyr said with a curl of his lip.

"Even if I collapse again. You heard Ajix. Auntie is on her way. All we have to do is wait for her to arrive."

There was despair in Fyr’s laugh. A hopelessness that said he’d already given up as he rested his forehead against his knees. "You’re so naive. Not even the Phoenix could make it this far."

Elena glared at the ceiling, biting back her argument. He’d see soon enough. Elena wasn’t naive. She was confident. Auntie was going to come. And when she did, she’d bring a whole lot of pain down on the Tsavitee and their masters.

Fyr’s head lifted. "Someone’s coming."

"Wow, that was fast," Elena said.

She’d just barely gotten done telling him about Auntie and here she was.

Except instead of the aunt she was expecting, it was Kai who appeared on the stairs. The Sye’s dispassionate gaze swept the chamber, zeroing in on Elise’s still form.

"What are you doing here?" Fyr demanded, the arrogance that so irritated Elena infusing his voice with a dangerous rumble that had never been aimed at the Sye.

"Peace, child." Kai couldn’t have been more dismissive as the Sye headed for Elena’s mother. "You must realize I had no choice."

"I don’t have to do anything you say anymore. I’m the Osiri’s now."

"Do not speak of them in that tone of voice."

"I will do as I please. I’m not the one trespassing in the Osiri’s territory," Fyr snarled.

"I would not stand against me, boy," Kai warned. "Or do you want me to tell the exalted ones just who brought that child to my door?"

Fyr flinched at the insinuation.

The corners of Kai’s lips hooked up in a sly smile. "I wonder what they would do if they found out about the generals’ conspiracies."

"You don’t know anything."

"Are you willing to test that hypothesis?"

There was a look of triumph on Kai’s features at Fyr’s hesitation.

"Are you kidding me?" Elena shouted. "He just betrayed you and now you’re going to do what he says?"

What happened to the big, scary enemy Auntie had always warned her about? Right now, the generals seemed more like pushovers than actual predators.

Kai stepped around Fyr.

"What are you doing?" Elena demanded as the Sye stopped next to her mother. "Don’t touch her."

Kai regarded Elise with a half lidded gaze. Almost covetous as the Sye looked her over.

"I never thought I’d get this chance," Kai murmured, glancing Elena’s way. "I really have to thank you."

Elena was quiet as Kai went to pick Elise up.

Fyr stopped him. "I can’t let you do whatever you’re thinking."

"I was afraid you’d be stubborn," Kai said with a regretful sigh.

Fyr jerked, making a pained sound.

Kai looked on with an inscrutable expression. "That’s why I made a few preparations beforehand."

Fyr collapsed, falling to the ground.

"Fyr?" Elena called. "What did you do to him?"

Kai squatted beside Elise. "Nothing that will cause long term harm. After all, he is the exalted one’s possession now."

Elena’s gaze darted to Fyr’s still body. "Why would you hurt him?"

Kai looked over at her with an inscrutable expression. "Did you know that when a Sye leaves their haven without the permission of our masters their entire genetic line is stamped out?"

Elena kept quiet, staring at the Sye warily.

The Sye’s gaze deepened. "You’ve met one of my kind before. I can tell."

"I don’t know what you’re talking about."

"Maybe it’s not your mother who I should be focusing on."

Elena tried to scoot further away as Kai rose, crossing the walkway to her.

"You have what I want, don’t you?" Kai crooned.

There was something strange in Kai’s gaze. Obsession and an avarice that made Elena sick.

"I’ll ask you one time, child." Kai’s hand wrapped around her throat. "Where is that person?"

Elena whimpered, her pulse racing against the Sye’s fingers.

Auntie, if you’re going to get here, now would be a good time.

"So stubborn. All the way to the end. Perhaps your mother will be more forthcoming."

Kai started to squeeze.

Despair caught Elena in its grip. No, this couldn’t be how she died. She still had too much to do with her life.

A pained grunt came from Kai, the Sye’s grip loosening as something wet splashed Elena’s face.

There were similar expressions of surprise on her and Kai’s faces as they both stared at the blade sticking out of the Sye’s chest.

Auntie put her lips next to Kai’s ear. "You’re right. Odin is alive."

She ripped the blade out of Kai’s back. Her gaze cruel as the Sye collapsed.

"Too bad you won’t be able to tell anyone."

No wonder the generals feared her aunt. There was no one more terrifying. Or awesome.

Kira

"Let’s get you out of those," Kira said, stepping over the Sye’s already cooling body.

Odin wasn’t going to be happy about the death of a relative, given how far the Sye had gone in trying to liberate them, but Kira couldn’t let herself care about that right now. The Sye had tried to kill her niece. They were lucky she’d given them a quick death.

"Your dad is going to be so mad I didn’t wait for him," Kira informed Elena, cutting her niece free of the strange bindings covering her.

Especially since she’d ordered him to wait for her if he found Elena first.

"I think he’ll forgive you this time," Elena said.

Kira reached for her, pulling her niece into a tight hug. "I’m so glad you’re safe."

Words couldn’t express the rage she’d felt upon entering the chamber to see that Sye trying to squeeze the life out of her niece.

If she’d been just a little later.

Kira cut that thought off before it could take hold. Her primus rolled under her skin, a reminder of how dangerous it would be to lose control right now.

Elena burrowed into Kira’s chest, her shoulders heaving with repressed sobs. "I can’t believe you came for me."

"I told you I would, didn’t I?"

Kira smoothed a hand over her niece’s hair, thanking the Mea’Ave and every god she knew that Elena was alive.

"Let me get a look at you," Kira said, setting Elena back from her. "Are you hurt anywhere?"

Elena shook her head. "Just my pride."

This child. She was going to be the death of Kira.

"If that’s all that’s been damaged after weeks in the Tsavitee’s care, then I’d say you got off pretty light."

"Only because of Mom," Elena admitted in a small voice.

Her gaze slid to the side. Kira followed it to find Elise’s prone body next to that of a general’s.

"She tried to protect me." Elena’s watery looking eyes found Kira’s. "He hurt her."

Elena dissolved into tears, the strong front she’d been maintaining collapsing.

"It’s my fault," Elena babbled as Kira pulled her back into her arms.

"No, it’s not," Kira corrected fiercely, pressing Elena’s face into her chest. "It’s not your fault at all. That’s what moms do. They protect their children from harm."

Damn it, Elise.

Kira’s gaze fixed on her friend; her vision clouded with tears. From here, it was impossible to tell whether Elise was dead or alive.

Kira cupped Elena’s face. "Alright, I need you to be brave. Can you do that for me?"

Elena’s nod wasn’t as confident as Kira had hoped.

She had a way to fix that though.

"Watch your uncle for me."

Kira unhooked the J1N from the makeshift backpack she’d fastened him into and placed him on Elena’s lap.

Elena turned the drone over in confusion. "What happened to him?"

Kira was reluctant to delve into the memory of Jin dropping like a rock upon entering this strange place. It also wasn’t the sort of visual she wanted to saddle an already traumatized child with.

"That’s a good question."

Steeling herself, Kira crossed the floor to Elise’s side. She crouched, touching Elise’s neck with two fingers.

A pulse beat against them. Steady and strong.

"Thank God," Kira whispered with an overwhelming sense of relief.

Elena came up behind her. "She’s not dead, Auntie."

Kira started to answer when the cryopods in front of her caught her eye. She froze, staring at them in shock.

Elena glanced over at them too. "My siblings. Mom’s been trying to save them."

"I don’t think they’re the only ones she’s been trying to save," Kira said in a grim voice, her gaze trained on the last of the pods. The only one whose shape resembled a sphere.

A boy floated inside, his hair partially obscuring his features.

That was okay. Kira had already guessed the boy’s identity.

"Is this what you couldn’t tell me?" Kira asked, looking down at Elise in understanding.

No wonder Elise had been so cagey. She’d known how hard this would hit Kira and Jin. The lengths they would have gone to as a result.

"Who is he? Uncle Jin got very upset when he saw him."

"Yeah, I can understand that."

Kira was a little upset herself.

Elena’s gaze followed Kira as she moved to the cryopod, setting a hand against its cold surface and hanging her head. "Damn it."

"Auntie?"

Kira dropped her hand. "He’s your uncle."

Elena’s gaze was shocked as it snapped to the boy. "How is that possible?"

"That’s a very good question," Kira said grimly.

And one she didn’t have an answer to.

She’d always assumed his body was destroyed when his soul was transferred to the drone. For every action, there was an equal and opposite reaction. She’d thought his physical form was the price of that miracle. Her theory seemed to be supported by Himoto’s claim that she and the J1N had been the only things left in the clearing when he arrived.

There was also the possibility that the boy was Jin’s clone. Maybe Kira and Jin had missed something when they’d searched out and destroyed all copies of their DNA.

The thought of other Kira clones running about without her knowledge brought with it a cold feeling of dread. Because if they missed eliminating all of the DNA material taken from Jin, they likely had Kira’s as well.

"We have to save him then." Elena glanced from Kira to the boy with an uncertainty that grew the longer Kira was silent. "Right? We’re going to save them all."

Kira took a step back from the tank. "No, we’re not. We’re going to leave."

Right now. Before the Osiri came back and Kira lost control of the situation.

Elena stood there as Kira stooped to grab Elise.

"We can’t! We have to save them,” Elena protested.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to save Elise’s children and Jin’s possible clone. The thought of abandoning them destroyed something in her. She knew the future they’d face. What the Osiri would do when he returned to find his prize gone.

The children would be better off dead.

If Graydon or the others had been here, she could make a different choice. Maybe try to save both the children and Elena.

But they weren’t.

This was the hand Kira had been dealt. An awful one to be sure. But that was life. Sometimes shitty. Often tragic.

"This is unexpected," someone announced.

Pallas sauntered into view from the same entrance Kira had used to gain access to this place. "Kira Forrest abandoning the innocent. Is this what they call personal growth?"

Kira moved protectively in front of Elena.

Pallas’s expression contained a cruel edge. "I didn’t appreciate being imprisoned on my own ship."

"What a coincidence. I don’t appreciate you killing my friends."

There, now they both had something to hold against the other.

"That was for your own good. You were never going to do it. You were going to sacrifice yourself. Someone had to do what was necessary."

"That wasn’t up to you to decide!" Kira screamed.

"It was!" Pallas roared. "You were ours! Our sibling! Our friend!"

With Elise in her arms, Kira eased back, using her hip to keep Elena behind her. The girl was careful not to hinder their retreat, clutching the back of Kira’s armor with shaking hands.

"Auntie," Elena called softly.

At the sound of her voice, Pallas’s gaze flicked to her niece and Elise before returning to Kira’s face. Calm replaced his anger.

"Besides, it wasn’t like I was operating on my own. I was under orders. Your admiral’s orders."

"Bullshit."

"Do you think so?" Pallas flashed her a cruel smile. "Who was it who taught you about the ’greater good’? The admiral, wasn’t it?"

Kira’s heart went cold, her veins filled with ice.

"We were in contact with him for years," Pallas informed her, digging the knife a little deeper.

He really did like to talk. And talk. And talk.

How had she never realized he was so chatty?

"All that time and he never told you," Pallas mused.

Her eyes locked on Pallas, Kira addressed Elena. "When I tell you to—run."

Kira sensed her niece’s instinctive resistance, catching her stubborn expression out of the corner of her eye. Elena’s hands clenched on Kira’s armor before loosening.

"Alright, Auntie," Elena whispered.

"Good girl."

Pallas’s expression was incredulous as Kira turned back to him. "You can’t be serious. The forty three don’t hurt each other."

"I warned you what would happen if we met again."

Did he think she was lying?

"How did we get to this point?" Kira asked, feeling weary all the way down to her soul.

She’d really like to know. How did that little boy who’d once hated causing pain to others become so used to death that he thought nothing of taking the lives of her loved ones?

He wasn’t even remorseful. He acted like it had been his right. Like he’d done her a favor.

Kira loosened her hold on Elise, preparing to drop her. Sorry, Elise. This might hurt a bit.

Pallas’s eyes narrowed. "Don’t you dare do what I know you’re thinking. I’m responsible for the moon’s explosion but not Rothchild. Someone el—"

A shot came from the dark. Several others followed in a rapid burst.

The first took Pallas in his shoulder. The rest deflecting off his shields.

Kira crossed the short space, taking refuge behind the monstrous cradle Elena had been strapped into earlier. She set Elise on the ground and pulled Elena down with her.

"Stay here," Kira ordered.

It took effort and concentration to send ki into the akieri. Something in the room making the task as difficult as it had been the first time she’d attempted it.

To her relief, the metal snapped together at last, forming a blade smaller than usual. Something between a dagger and a sword.

All those years operating in ki depleted environments, only reliant on the soul’s breath her body could produce, had come back to pay dividends in this moment. She could feel how wrong this place was. How painful it was to draw ki from the pool in her center.

Kira was betting this was how the Osiri kept Elise under control all these years. By keeping her vulnerable. Her soul half-starved and locked down tight to protect itself.

With her weapon formed, Kira peeked over the bed to get an idea of the situation.

Strange.

She hadn’t expected to find Pallas in such a sad state. Like her, he was having trouble accessing his ki. It left his normally ironclad defense full of openings that their assailant had taken advantage of. Blood leaked from several holes in his armor. One at his shoulder. Another in his thigh. A third in his abdomen.

Pallas glared in the direction the shots had come from, not quite out of the fight yet. A junkyard dog baring his teeth in warning.

The person hiding tsked as something solid hit the metal walkway. Probably the discarded clip they’d burned through in their ambush.

A woman sauntered out from behind the bank of metal cannisters lining the opposite wall. "I should have known our enforcer wouldn’t be taken down by a trick like that."

Kira stared at her in surprise. "Thea."

Without the face paint that Thea normally hid behind, Kira almost didn’t recognize the woman. It was the first time she’d seen Thea’s true face since the camps.

Her gaze trailed down Thea’s body, taking in the Consortium made battle armor. The exact type and design that Lieutenant Himoto’s co-pilot had worn. Right before they bailed out of a crashing ship.

"You followed me."

"It’s a good thing too." Thea waved the muzzle of her pulse pistol, the make and model identical to what Centcom pilots were issued, at the other. "Otherwise, you’d have had to face Pallas alone."

Pallas stared at the other woman with an emotion Kira didn’t quite know how to classify. Rage seemed too mild a term for what was in his expression. A relentless intensity. As if he wished to burn Thea alive with his gaze.

There was also a startling ruthlessness. Something she’d never seen aimed at another member of the forty three.

"He’s the traitor, I take it," Thea declared, unbothered by the way he was looking at her.

Pallas bared his teeth, the look in his eyes nearly feral.

"It certainly has been made to appear that way," Kira said softly.

Seconds before she’d been so certain. Not so much now. She’d been too distracted earlier by her hurt and anger over Pallas’s culpability in the moon’s explosion to really think about things.

Thea threw Kira a careless grin. "Who would have thought the forty three’s enforcer was a traitor?"

"You’re not angry,” Kira said softly.

What was it Diesel had said? That a woman approached him with an offer he couldn’t resist. Pallas was many things. A woman he was not.

She couldn’t see him working with one to set up the Vega either. For something as sensitive as that, he would have wanted to be hands on. Like he was with the moon.

Kira studied Thea. "Why aren’t you angry? I’m furious—and I’m an outsider."

Thea was one of the forty three. There should have been some sign she felt betrayed. Rage and hurt that someone she trusted had broken her faith so thoroughly. Not this cheerfulness. Like this was a game where the stakes didn’t really matter.

"Pallas—did you betray the Vega’s position to the Tsavitee?" Kira asked.

Pallas spat on the ground. "No, I didn’t."

Thea lowered her weapon, her expression affable. As if she didn’t understand—or maybe care was the better word—what Kira was insinuating. "He killed your friends. Are you really going to believe a thing he says?"

"He never denied his role in their deaths."

If he was willing to admit to that, knowing how Kira would react, why deny the rest?

Elena poked her head over the wire cradle she was hiding behind. "Auntie, Thea is the name of the person mother entrusted me to. She was supposed to bring me to you if anything were to happen to her."

Rage slammed through Kira as she looked at her former sibling. "You fucking bitch."

Thea was responsible for everything.

Behind Thea, Pallas gave her a tiny signal. On three.

Kira’s expression was fierce as she stared Thea down, not daring to look away from her for an instant.

Thea dropped her head, her shoulders starting to shake.

It took Kira a moment to realize she was laughing.

"You always were so smart," Thea said, wiping the tears from her eyes with one hand.

"I’m going to kill you," Kira informed her.

Her primus hammered at her psyche, begging for release. Kira resisted. Elena was too close to allow it out.

The amusement dropped from Thea’s face. "I doubt that."

An explosion from the wall behind Pallas threw him forward. He hit the ground hard, the walkway above crashing down to pin him underneath.

Thea tossed a couple of marbles in the air. "Got to love sticky charges. The ability to delay their boom is just so fun."

Kira started forward.

Thea plucked a rifle out of thin air and pointed it at her. "Ah. Ah. Let’s not be impetuous."

Kira stopped, eyeing the weapon uncertainly. It was a Sinister 3421. Developed since the last war for the purpose of taking off a demon’s head.

That must have been what she used on Pallas earlier. If not for his Tuann armor protecting him to some extent, he probably would have been dead.

Kira wouldn’t be so lucky. Her Centcom issued suit might deflect some of the weapon’s charge, but she didn’t want to risk it with Elena behind her.

If she went down, Elena would be on her own.

"Good choice. If you tried something, I was planning to set off the charges I placed beside your niece."

Kira looked over to find four holes in the restraining device Elena crouched behind. That must be how she’d gotten Pallas too. By using the rifle’s bullets to attach the charges. All she would have needed to do was put them in a few of the bullets and then fire them where she wanted.

And Kira hadn’t noticed that they were being fired upon because of Thea’s talent with illusions.

Elena stared at Kira with wide frightened eyes. "Auntie?"

"Stay there," Kira ordered.

At her side, she gave the sign for "Prepare."

Thea rolled her eyes. "Just stop. Did you forget I helped come up with those signs?"

No, actually. That was what Kira was banking on.

"Why?" Kira asked.

Thea shrugged. "Why not? We’re weapons, Kira. We’re meant to be used. Not rot in darkness."

"That’s your justification for working with the monsters who destroyed our childhood?"

Thea rolled her eyes as she shadowed Kira. "Don’t be so melodramatic. A little short term pain for an unlimited future. Once we’d passed their tests, we would have ruled as kings and queens at their behest."

"You would have still been their slave."

Thea lifted a shoulder. "Everyone answers to someone. Might as well be the top dog."

"You’re insane."

Kira couldn’t believe Thea had thrown away her freedom to willingly re-enter hell. That’s what awaited her as the lapdog of the Tsavitee’s masters. No matter what pretty bow she chose to wrap it in.

Thea’s smile was sadistic. "Yes, I am. Isn’t it fun?"

"How long have you been betraying your family?"

Since Rothchild, obviously. But Kira wanted to know how long before that.

"Ah, ah," Thea crooned, shaking her finger at Kira. "I know what you’re doing. You’re pumping me for information, thinking that you’ll get out of this alive."

Kira smirked. "You’ve got that right."

This time she didn’t bother to try to hide the movement of her hands as she sent another hand sign to Elena. "Horns. Left."

"I’ve already warned you that won’t work," Thea said with a frown.

Kira continued to sign. "Ten. Bee."

Thea lifted her weapon. "Kira!"

Three.

Kira’s eyes never left Thea’s as Elena rose, Elise on her back.

Two.

Thea switched her target to Elena. "I said stop!"

One.

Kira lunged. Elena broke right, over the central platform toward the opposite side.

Thea didn’t have time to get off more than one shot before Kira was on her. She brought the rifle up using it to stop Kira’s akieri from cleaving her in two from forehead to pelvis.

Kira bore down with her full strength. "I never liked you."

Thea had always been something of a coward, always willing to let others take the brunt of any punishment. Never stepping up when it counted.

Maybe Kira could have accepted that if not for the other’s habit of being so damn smug and superior all the time. As if Thea had the right to judge Selene for being weak when she was the one always at the back, using the others as shields.

Thea’s arms shook under Kira’s pressure. "That’s fine. Because I always hated you."

Kira’s sudden grin was a little insane. "That’s settled then."

Before Thea could disengage, Kira grabbed her arm, jerking the other woman closer. She slammed her forehead into Thea’s face.

Cartilage crunched. Blood poured from Thea’s nose.

"That’s for what you did to Pallas," Kira informed her.

Kira might want to kill her brother for the part he played on Rothchild, but this traitor wasn’t allowed to touch a hair on his head.

Unfortunately, a broken nose wasn’t quite enough for someone like Thea. Although Kira considered the other woman weak when compared to the rest of the forty three, she’d still undergone the same training.

That made her a threat. Coward or not.

Thea hammered a kick into Kira’s thigh. Directly over her knee.

Kira turned into the blow, deflecting some of the force to prevent the bone from snapping.

Pain shot through the muscle. Kira’s leg threatened to collapse, barely holding her weight as she sliced the akieri across Thea’s stomach.

The other woman dodged, stumbling back.

"What are you doing?" Thea screamed, Elena’s voice coming out of her mouth as she held out a placating hand with a terrified expression. "Auntie, it’s me.”

Rage clouded Kira’s mind. How dare she think to use Elena against her? Who did she think she was?

"You’ve forgotten Thea. Your tricks don’t work on me."

They never had.

Kira swung her sword, following up that blow with another. And then another. Her attack merciless as she drove Thea to the edge of the platform.

Did she really think Kira wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between her and Elena?

The two’s fighting style couldn’t be more dissimilar.

For starters—her niece was so much better than this coward.

Kira knocked aside the rifle Thea pointed at her. "Next time use a weapon better suited for close combat."

Rifles were great at a distance. Not so much in close quarters.

Thea’s smile was nasty. "Okay."

Something darted from the ground, wrapping around Kira’s calf. The serrated edges of the cord cut through her armor, biting into flesh.

Kira slashed at it, kicking it away after severing the piece around her calf from the rest.

"A briar," Kira snarled.

"Brings back memories, doesn’t it?"

So named for the thorns embedded in the nine strands protruding from the handle, like briars on a bush, the flogger had been a particular favorite of their masters. Especially as a tool for punishment.

Thea sent Kira a wink. "Don’t relax quite yet."

Out of the corner of Kira’s eye, she caught a shadow of movement along the walkway. Warned, Kira flipped backwards, arcing over its tip as it snapped toward her. She landed, immediately leaping back into the air as another whip targeted her.

"Dance, Kira!" Thea shouted.

Kira was pushed back, barely evading taking damage from the smooth movements of the whips.

She landed a short distance away, crouching to consider Thea carefully. The handle Thea held was how she controlled the briar. It acted via a neural interface. Only a thought was needed to manipulate its movements.

As such it was a difficult foe to break through. Like fighting nine different enemies to get at one.

A sharp cry broke Kira’s concentration.

Thea’s smile was evil. "Still think that’s an illusion?"

No. Not this time.

With a feeling of dread, Kira turned to find Elena dangling from the grip of a creature that looked startlingly Tuann at first glance. His height and the unnatural beauty of his features told her otherwise.

Nothing in nature could have approached that level of perfection.

It was his eyes that clinched it for her though. There was no conscience in them. No morality or sense of soul. Just utter detachment. A clinical remoteness. As if they were bugs he planned to dissect. Or a science experiment he was evaluating.

"The Osiri, I take it," Kira said.

The nightmare even the generals feared. The mastermind behind the Tsavitee and their armies. And the target Kira had been hunting before she ever knew they existed.

It felt surreal meeting one for the first time. A tad anti-climactic, if not for his hold on her niece.

"Put her down," Kira ordered.

Her gaze darted to Elena’s scared face. Jin still clutched to her chest. Where was Elise?

The Osiri stood on the central platform in the middle of the room. Directly above the heart of the pool below. The water rippled with the movement of something big.

Three of the briar’s whips slammed down in front of Kira, denting the metal of the walkway when she would have taken a step toward the platform.

"Ah, ah, ah," Thea sang, using one of the other walkways to join the Osiri. "You stay right there."

Kira controlled her rage, not letting anything show on her face as Thea reached the Osiri’s side.

"Master," Thea breathed, worship singing from her face as she looked up at the monster.

"You’ve made quite a mess of my lab."

Thea bowed submissively. "They were trying to steal your subjects. I couldn’t let that happen."

The Osiri’s gaze showed indifference as his attention shifted to Kira. "We finally meet."

Kira’s hand clenched around the akieri, wanting nothing more than to remove his head with it. She forced herself to relax her grip. Losing her calm right now would be a mistake. It was exactly what they were hoping for.

Instead, she’d be calm. Patient. As she waited for her moment.

"You’ve caused my forces quite a bit of trouble."

She planned to cause them even more before the end.

"I’ll take that as a compliment," she said.

"You realize you haven’t won this. You’ve only been a tiny nuisance to us. Even now, my forces are massing to eradicate the vermin you’ve brought. Once we have, we’ll take our origin ships and relocate somewhere you’ll have no hope of finding again."

Kira lifted her chin in response. "I don’t think it’s going to go the way you hope."

Though the fact they would so easily abandon this planet upon its location being compromised led her to believe that it may not have been their home world as she’d assumed.

The Osiri set her niece down, his hand still gripping the back of her neck. "Your faith in those vermin is misplaced. As we speak, they die in droves."

Elena kept her gaze locked on Kira as the Osiri spoke, nothing but faith and trust in her eyes.

Kira had no intention of disappointing her niece. Not now. Not with so much at stake.

"You don’t believe me," the Osiri said, his head tilting as he studied Kira with a dispassionate expression.

Kira watched him calmly. His words doing nothing to shake her.

A perplexed look crossed his face. No doubt because she didn’t react as he’d expected. "Shall I show you?"

The image of the space battle taking place over the planet was projected above the platform.

Kira tilted her head to take in the view of the CSS Reliance and CSS Horizon in the midst of battle. Their fighters had been deployed. Both their fixed wing aircraft, along with their waveboards.

Despite that, they were getting their asses handed to them. Both ships taking heavy damage from the much greater forces on the Tsavitee side.

It was only a matter of time before they were destroyed.

"Everything you’ve done to this point has been futile. All you’ve accomplished is delivering yourself and your friends to my door."

Kira’s smile was bittersweet. "There’s an old human saying that I’ve always enjoyed. ‘It’s always darkest right before the dawn.’"

The Osiri stared at her. "You still believe in them."

"I do."

She would until the very end.

"You are foolishly naive. I will have to break that trait in you."

Panic flooded Kira as the Osiri reached around Elena for Jin. Her niece resisted, clutching the drone with both hands in an effort to protect him.

The Osiri tightened his grip on the back of her neck in punishment.

Elena made a pained sound, her grip on the drone loosening.

"What are you doing?" Kira asked.

The Osiri lifted the drone out of Elena’s hands, holding it up in front of him to study. "I’ve heard stories about your relationship with this soul bound. Did you know we weren’t aware until relatively recently what he was?"

Kira aimed a pointed look at Thea. "What? Your spy never told you?"

The forty three knew. She still remembered Elise’s expression the first time she’d realized what—and who—Jin really was. That meant Thea would have known as well.

The fact she’d never told the Osiri was something Kira could use to drive a wedge between them. Plant a seed of discord and doubt.

Thea lashed the briar at her, aiming for her throat. Kira sliced it in half with a quick move.

It looked like she was getting to her. Good.

Unfortunately, the Osiri didn’t respond to her provocation, more preoccupied with his study of the drone than the conversation.

"There you are," the Osiri declared.

He did something.

Pressure squeezed Kira’s skull. The connection she shared with Jin roaring back to life. An onslaught of sensation poured down their bond. White hot and searingly intense as it blistered the nerve endings in her mind.

Kira fell to the ground, Jin’s screams mixing with her own.

"Intriguing, isn’t it?" The Osiri crouched in front of Kira, his fascinated expression the only thing she could see as her vision began to tunnel. "The things that can be done to you."