Prologue #2
Quietly, she cursed the impulse that had compelled her to step in.
It would have been safer to maintain the status quo, but memories of a boy with eyes the color of sun-drenched daisies and the way they’d sometimes danced with laughter on very rare occasions had kept her from burying her head in the sand.
Damn it, she wasn’t built for the spotlight. She faded into the background. She didn’t stand out.
Luckily, her siblings lost interest almost as quickly as they’d gained it. Their attention turning to the negotiation with Graydon.
Gus let her shoulders slump the faintest bit. The only outward sign of her relief.
Thankfully, things wrapped up quickly after that.
No surprise—Pallas was chosen as the forty-three’s representative to keep Kira in line.
Gus wished him luck. Their youngest sister’s tendency to buck against authority was the most predictable thing about her.
Kira didn’t like being told what to do. For any reason.
Even her safety. It made Gus wonder how a man like the emperor’s Face, someone well known for his tendency to manipulate and control those around him, managed to entrap Kira.
Not that it was any of her business. She was never going to have occasion to find out.
Gus rose, gliding down the stairs to the exit she’d scouted ahead of time. The rest of the forty-three milled around, either taking the rare opportunity to catch up with each other’s lives or to jockey for dominance to see if anything had changed in the intervening time.
Wanting no part in any of it, Gus kept to herself as she reached the bottom.
She entered the great hallway running under the stands and gradually made her way toward the back of the complex where one of the exterior walls had partially collapsed, allowing sand and other detritus from outside to blow into the building.
A woman, her face heavily painted in a manner resembling the jesters of a different age, stepped away from the wall. “Going so soon?”
Gus stopped short, suddenly on guard. “Thea.”
Of all the luck.
Thea was one of those siblings that Gus preferred to avoid. Actually, she tried to avoid all her siblings, but Thea and a few others especially.
It wasn’t that Gus didn’t like her.
Okay. Scratch that. Gus didn’t like her. Hate was a strong word that Gus didn’t often waste her time contemplating, but Thea sometimes tested those boundaries.
The woman was arrogant and sly. A pathological liar with an appetite for starting shit that other people had to finish.
More than once, Gus had found herself on the wrong side of one of her nasty little pranks.
That was bad enough, but Thea also had a terrible habit of bad mouthing her to anyone who’d listen.
She twisted every encounter until she came out smelling like roses and Gus stunk of betrayal and excrement.
It had happened often enough that Gus felt her stomach sink as her gaze slowly traveled to the wall Thea had made a show of stepping out of.
Illusion. One of the many tricks in Thea’s bag.
In this case, she’d manipulated the waves of light, bending and refracting them around her body to render herself effectively invisible.
What she’d done wasn’t hard. Any of their siblings could have done the same.
Well—maybe not Kira.
But the rest—definitely. Even Gus whose pool of ki was pathetically small when compared to the others could have managed. It would have drained her to do it, depleted her ki reserves so completely that it would have taken hours to recover, but she could have done it.
Yet for some reason, Thea thought her little illusion made her better than Gus. As if her simple parlor trick was a feat deserving of worship.
“What do you want?” Gus asked.
She couldn’t say why Thea’s presence made her so apprehensive. The forty-three didn’t harm each other. Permanently, at least.
That was how it was supposed to be.
Reality, however, had a funny way of failing to live up to ideals. Life always challenged your most closely held beliefs. The ties of yesterday coming loose if not reinforced through affection or some equally strong emotion.
Eventually, the forty-three would drift apart. The same way the Tuann had in the thousands of years since they’d gained their freedom; a race that was once wholly united fracturing into what was now the Great and Minor Houses.
As the humans would put it—death by a thousand cuts.
Choices, often simple and seemingly unimportant, stacking up to lead to diverging paths that eventually led you to standing on opposite sides of an unbridgeable divide.
The strange thing was that Thea set off the same instincts of self-preservation in Gus that the strongest of their siblings did. Siblings like Ryan. Alexander. Pallas.
Even Kira.
Thea wasn’t on their level. But the voices didn’t lie. If they said Thea was a danger to her, then she was a danger. And right now, those voices were whispering that she should be careful.
“Just curious is all,” Thea purred.
With the heavy paint masking her features, it was hard to read the other’s expression.
Gus stayed quiet, using her silence like a weapon in hopes Thea would reveal her intentions without her having to do much conversing.
It worked, too.
Thea’s head tilted, her creepy expression unwavering. “You never voice an opinion at these things. Is the hermit finally coming out of her shell?”
Under the veil of her cloak, Gus touched one of the vials of poison she kept close at all times. It was a hobby of hers, creating poisons. Her own version of armor. Collected from the most toxic and venomous plants and animals she could find.
“Tell me, sister—what about Kira’s plight inspired you to find that mousy little voice of yours?” Thea asked.
Reading the danger in her tone, Gus moved her hand from the vial she’d been fingering to one that was a little more lethal.
This particular poison had just been refined a few days ago. She hadn’t had a chance to test it yet. It was a painful concoction. Death would be slow and agonizing as they drowned in their own blood over the course of a few days.
And, of course, she was immune.
Thea’s front brushed the edges of Gus’s cloak as her voice lowered threateningly. “Cat got your tongue?”
Gus slid the vial out of its hiding spot.
“Is there a problem here?” Ryan asked.
Catching his approach out of the corner of her eye, Gus put the vial back where it belonged, tugging its covering over it, so it was fully concealed. That done, she moved her hand away from the hiding spot and put an innocent look on her face before remembering her mask covered her expression.
Although the question was posed to both of them, Thea was the one who received the full force of Ryan’s attention as he stopped a few feet away. It was like Gus didn’t exist. Like she wasn’t even standing there.
Unable to stand the blistering corona that roiled around his form, the seething mass that was as bright as a star, Gus dropped her eyes to the ground, blinking away the spots in her vision.
As always, Gus found herself uneasy in Ryan’s presence. She tried to make herself as unnoticeable as possible.
“Such a gallant protector,” Thea teased with a laugh that sounded like bells. “No need to worry though. The hermit and I were just catching up.”
Ryan’s answering silence acted like a cudgel.
Under the weight of his stare, Thea’s mocking smile gradually faded, her head dipped, her manner more respectful than it had been when it was just her and Gus.
“I hope I didn’t offend,” Thea pouted at Gus.
With both of them looking at her, Gus had no choice but to nod once to show there were no hard feelings.
“Oh good,” Thea drawled, her attention already moving beyond Gus to where a few of their siblings had appeared at the end of the hallway. “The last thing I want to do is scare our recluse back into her den.”
Thea bounced past them. The three waiting for her said something when she got close. Thea cast a mischievous look in Gus and Ryan’s direction before turning back to her companions.
“What did she want?” Ryan asked.
Without Thea there, Gus found herself the center of attention. His orange eyes, a unique shade that Gus had never seen on anyone else, pinned her in place.
“To know why I voted the way I did,” she confessed reluctantly.
There was no point in remaining silent. The tricks she used on Thea would never work on Ryan. From previous encounters, she knew he wouldn’t let up until he got a response. He’d be annoyingly patient and obnoxiously persistent until she gave in.
He was the only one who didn’t let her get away with her reticence, dragging her out of her self-imposed isolation whenever the fancy struck him.
It was one of the many reasons she avoided him as much as possible. For a moment, she cursed Thea for waylaying her. If not for that, Gus would be long gone. Not having to deal with this sometimes annoying, always terrifying, brother.
“I’m curious to know that myself.” Ryan regarded her thoughtfully. “You don’t typically involve yourself in our matters.”
“And I haven’t now. It’s a vote. The same as countless others.”
“You’ve never cast one before. You’ve always abstained,” Ryan pointed out. “What’s changed?”
Gus clammed up.
“Is there something I should know?” Ryan pressed.
There was, but Gus wasn’t planning on being the one to tell him. He could figure it out himself. He certainly had enough spies.
Sensing he wasn’t going to get anything out of her, he changed tactics. “I have a job for you.” Ryan smiled at the sharp look Gus gave him, his expression lazy and indulgent. “You’re not thinking of turning me down, are you?”
“Of course not.”
The only thing worse than being tasked with one of Ryan’s missions was turning down said mission. It would be less annoying in the long run to just do what he wanted.
For a moment she yearned for the isolation of the shipping container she considered home. She craved the solitude and comfort of her bed.
Alas, that would have to wait.
“What do you want me to do?” Gus asked.