Chapter 22 #2
Now she and the other woman were the only ones left in this convoy, along with the three male captors. Audrey didn’t think being left with the enforcer was random. It meant they were still useful. Or still dangerous. Maybe both.
The female enforcer looked carved from sturdier stuff than most—thick-legged and forearms honed with the kind of power born from repetition and obedience.
Although stripped of her armor, she was reduced to the same fragility as everyone else in the presence of fire.
Audrey had seen Nikos burn a man to ash with nothing but irritation scrunching his brow.
Fire was king here. Fire ruled.
And if Audrey could only find hers again—if they ever took off the restraints choking her—she would ignite this truck, these men, the whole dying moon, and burn a path to her sister.
Instead, she sat hollow with her power shoved somewhere unreachable.
Needing a distraction, Audrey gently kicked the woman’s boot with her own. The woman’s dark eyes assessed her, clearly skeptical.
“Hey,” Audrey murmured, her chin lifting. “Name?”
The slight razor-edge of Ezebethian in her thoughts should have told Audrey she wasn’t from Nepra, but she wanted to hear it from the woman herself.
She pointed to herself. “Audrey.” Slow, unthreatening.
“Taryn,” the woman said, touching her own chest.
“Great.” Audrey nodded, then pressed on. “Where are we going?”
“To Number Three,” Taryn replied, the words shaped with dread.
“To Ryker?” Audrey asked, slightly above a whisper.
Taryn barked out a rueful laugh. “Number One won’t be there. Number Two and Number Three rule Home Field, and once we arrive, we’re already dead. They’ll kill us after the questions.”
She said it without drama, as if she were reciting a weather report she could no longer change. Audrey recognized such resignation after hearing it in prison from women who had already made peace with their fate.
A dense silence unfurled. “What do you do here?” Audrey asked, trying to ease the tension.
“Keep the peace,” Taryn said with a shrug.
Audrey’s eyes narrowed. “I can virtually taste lies.”
The woman flinched a little before adding, “We guard the Fields. Powered people go in. They don’t come out.”
“Like Home Field?”
Taryn’s whole demeanor stiffened at that question. She didn’t answer immediately. When she did, she seemed to choose her phrasing with extra care. “No, that’s different. You don’t want to know what happens at the Fields. They run tests.”
“What kind of tests?”
Taryn’s eyes shifted toward the front of the truck, where the three men argued over some trivial matter. She angled her head closer.
“They test fire abilities. Mind abilities too.”
Audrey felt the words slide coldly along her back.
“Like Nikos,” she murmured. “Like...me?”
“Yes.”
“So, with his fire...he should be in a Field?”
“Not everyone goes. But most do.”
A sense of deep unease rolled through her. Whatever the Fields were, they sounded like cages.
The truck rattled over stones, and they both braced themselves against the jostling.
“The Separatists are dangerous,” she added softly. “We can’t trust any of them.”
“No argument there.” Audrey rubbed her wrists. “Why do they hate Ezebethians?”
“Voíríans want Ezebethian Citizenship.”
Emerson had said the Aggregate public knew almost nothing about Voíríans and their plight. Clearly, the security officers stationed here knew more.
“I do my job, then I get to go home,” Taryn added.
“What’s home like?”
Taryn almost smiled. “One big beautiful city. Clean air. Green water. Quiet.”
“And the three moons? What are those?” she asked.
“We are here on one moon—Nepra. Nomac is the middle moon, home to the Ezbeths. And the third one—Naamia—is supposedly deserted.” A pause. “I shouldn’t be telling you these things.”
Audrey snorted. “Do I look like I’m in a position to compromise you?”
Taryn’s lips twitched. “Why are you here, asking me these questions? You are Voírían?”
“I wasn’t born here,” Audrey said.
Taryn blinked. “Then where were you born?”
“Earth. Level Zero.”
Taryn stared as if Audrey had just said she was made from the stars themselves. “What’s it like?”
A desperate homesick pang for Earth stabbed her. Ugly, beautiful Earth.
“Alive but ruined,” Audrey replied. “I didn’t think I’d miss it this much until I lost it.”
Taryn looked at her differently. Not kindly, but less like cargo.
Audrey scooted closer and dropped her voice. “Is there a Silo here?”
Taryn nodded. “One is public. Others are illegal.”
“Can you get us to one?”
A long moment passed. “Yes,” she whispered. “I know one.”
Audrey should have heard only the usefulness in that answer. Instead, relief rushed through her so swiftly that it almost hurt. She wasn’t alone in wanting out.
“I think I can get us off Nepra,” Audrey whispered. But before she could say more, the truck squealed to a stop, and the doors were thrown open.
Basir’s grin gleamed like a knife. “Out, ladies.”
As they landed on a meager patch of grass, Audrey saw a village clustered in a valley in the distance. A pile of clothes landed at Taryn’s feet. “Change,” Basir demanded.
Taryn didn’t move. He pressed the muzzle of his gun to her head.
She complied—stripping in the cold as if peeling away her last layer of dignity.
Basir watched her like he was choosing a piece of meat, then turned his wolfish smile on Audrey.
Taryn angled her shoulder just enough to put herself between Audrey and Basir’s line of sight. It lasted maybe a second.
“Don’t worry,” he murmured. “Ezebethian trash isn’t my type.” He twisted Taryn’s nipple; she hissed. “I like Voírían girls. Your coloring. Your bite.”
Audrey’s jaw tensed so hard it clicked.
Her hands grasped the comb and toothbrush hidden in her pocket, the pointed teeth digging into her skin. They were small, poor weapons. But she’d killed with less. She’d kill with anything. Soon, she would make Basir regret every look, every word.
Nikos nudged her with the icy touch of his gun. “Walk.”
Audrey walked ahead, putting distance between her and her captors. She probably couldn’t get far, but even this little slice of freedom felt nice. They walked until they came to the village. It was filled with concrete buildings, all with chimneys spewing smoke.
They wandered through the cobbled streets until they came to a market. It was bustling, and Audrey savored the smell of cooking meats, spices, and incense. Nikos and Basir wandered over to a stall and started arguing, leaving Taryn and Audrey to stand awkwardly in the crowd.
An old woman stepped out of the market, her eyes fixed on Audrey.
It sent a shiver down her back, and she tried to move away, but there was nowhere to go.
The woman emerged from the market’s bustle, clad in white, her eyes radiant with a strange, ancient knowledge.
A warm hand grabbed Audrey’s arm with surprising strength.
Audrey tensed—but something in the woman’s black eyes froze her.
“You’re the missing one,” she whispered. Her nails dug into Audrey’s shirt. “We wondered if you were real.”
Her hands moved over Audrey in an almost reverent way.
“Golden aura,” she breathed. “Rare even among triads. Indeed, I have only seen that color once before...and that man changed the fate of the three moons.”
Her slender fingers ghosted across Audrey’s cheek. “He will try to protect you.” At that, her eyes teared with sadness. “But people like you are not meant to be protected.”
The woman snatched Audrey’s arm again, just enough to hurt.
“Listen to me,” she said, turning urgent.
“Once they see your aura clearly...” She trailed off, as if deep in her own head, then added, “People say that golden auras are touched by something old. Pnévmas so powerful that they resist breaking, and minds that cross boundaries others cannot. It is rare, and anytime one surfaces, it changes the rules.” She swallowed.
“No one here will let you leave this moon untouched.”
Audrey was rooted to the ground, transfixed.
The old woman searched her face, as if trying to decide whether to continue. “When Ryker acts,” she murmured, finally, “history tends to move.”
Then she drifted away into the crowd as if blown by the wind. But Audrey caught her last words.
“This is the year the pieces fall into place,” she said in a sing-song way. “The year the old balance breaks.”
The woman disappeared entirely.
Audrey felt an aura push against hers. She looked up.
Nikos eyes locked onto her as a tremor rolled through her muscles. He’d seen the whole exchange.
She ignored him, her heart beating too wildly.
Something inevitable was coming, and she had the foreboding feeling it was already too late to stop it.