Chapter 29
She dove into the memory buried in Ryker’s mind—and it snapped into brilliant clarity around her.
Kat, Nikos, and Ryker stood tense in a white room drenched in clinical light, firelight stuttering over the fine lines of Ryker’s face. The place reeked slightly of sterilizer layered over old smoke. It was the kind of space where decisions were made that no one survived.
“When did you get back?” Kat asked.
Ryker didn’t turn to face his Number Three. His hands were steepled as he stared at the burning pits, jaw set, every line of his body rejecting her presence.
“Last night. You think I’d wait for this conversation?”
Kat scoffed. “You’d rather rot in your library drinking than admit you run a war.”
He ignored her, a silent verdict that insulted more deeply than words. That, more than anything, revealed the pecking order to Audrey.
“Tell me about Earth,” he said. “Where is Mihail? Where is Sophia?”
Not how are they? Not what happened? Just—where?
“Sophia is dead,” Kat said. “He let Audrey kill her.”
Ryker went unnaturally rigid. “He did what?” he uttered softly enough to tremble the glass.
Kat shrugged. “She was unstable. Hunters swarmed us. Mihail stayed as a distraction. He thought Audrey was worth Sophia’s life.”
Ryker glared. “If Mihail saved the wrong daughter, this all changes. She’s worthless to us. If she were a gold triad, I’d know.”
A gold triad: rare assets wars were built around. Weapons the Aggregate hunted and empires feared.
“She’s an empath and a telepath. That’s it.”
Nikos snorted. “Don’t underestimate her. Perfect ass, violent streak. Stabbed Nassar. Almost gutted Basir.”
Ryker’s jaw flexed. “I’ve seen her ass,” he growled. “Say one more thing about it, and I’ll rip out your—”
Kat slapped her hand on the table. “Enough.”
The room grew silent—not at Kat’s words, but because Ryker allowed it.
“Mihail saved her for a reason,” Kat said. “We need to test her.”
“We’re not testing her,” Ryker snapped.
“And your reservations?”
Ryker laughed harshly. “You expect me to change everything for a liability because Mihail had a hallucination? No.”
“Mihail believed in her,” Nikos said. “He got captured to save her.”
“And he was right,” Kat said. “So, what do we do with Audrey?”
Everyone watched as Ryker’s mind worked through the options. “Lock her up,” Ryker said at last. “Let him deal with her after we rescue him. Where is he, by the way?”
“Field One,” Nikos said. “Being prepped for Nomac.”
“And how do we get in?” Ryker asked.
“We don’t know,” Kat admitted. “We need you to question the security officer. She’s refusing to give up the final piece.”
His smile turned cold. “Finally,” he said. “Something I’m good at.”
The memory fractured, and Audrey was flung back into her body, limbs burning as she gulped air, disoriented.
Reality dragged behind her mind, leaving her shaken and raw.
She could hate him later; right now, she needed control and a way to use Ryker to reach her sister before he could claim her for himself.
Ryker’s violence was barely leashed as he prowled toward her. “You think you can break into my head and walk away?” he snarled, inches from her face.
He studied her differently now. Like something with edges that could hurt and maim.
Killing her would solve nothing. Training her might change everything.
Fear and heat at his thoughts roared—as raw and hot as his aura. Would he feel the same if he knew how lost she truly was?
A chittering, inhuman sound rose in Audrey’s throat in answer. In return, he mumbled a few phrases in a tongue she didn’t know. Electricity spidered through her bones.
Then he struck, entering her mind even more painfully than before. He was out for blood this time, and she couldn’t speak, could barely breathe as he tore through her memories. She expected more taunting from him, but he was silent, taking without mercy.
As soon as it began, it was over. “Ahh,” he whispered. “I get it now.”
“Get what?” she demanded, rubbing at her temples, trying to fortify her mental shield again.
“I get why Mihail threw everything away for you.” Ryker’s eyes burned with opportunity.
“You’re not valuable because you’re Sophia’s daughter.
You’re valuable because your mind does not fracture where it should.
You kill by instinct, adapt in the moment, and recover faster than anyone with your training level has a right to. ”
She bit her lip against the maelstrom of emotions she felt hearing his conclusion. Was it horror or pride twisting inside her?
“Most people with unstable triad expression burn out, break, or turn feral before they can be shaped. You didn’t. You survived prison. You survived suppression. You survived Sophia. And when I pushed into your mind, you pushed back hard enough to wound me.”
Vindication flickered—a slim hope that she was more than broken. But shame chased it, caught up with the memory of what she’d done. Biting back words, she struggled not to recoil from his violent clarity.
His mouth curved, but there was no warmth in it. “That makes you more than a hidden asset. Since Sophia is dead, and this wasn’t one of Mihail’s misplaced ideas,” he said, “I won’t kill you. Yet.”
“I thought I was nothing.” Her lip curled in disdain.
“I’m willing to admit when I’m wrong.”
She was necessary, so he wasn’t going to kill her.
He circled her slowly, eyes predatory—reassessing, deciding if she was still prey or something else entirely. “I want to make a deal,” Ryker said.
Audrey would be a fool not to hear him out. “I’m listening.”
“Help me rescue Mihail,” he said. “And Cary remains untouched.”
Protectiveness ripped through her. “Why should I believe you?” she snarled. “Do you even know where Cary is?”
His stare softened, but with a dangerous possessiveness. He brushed a wild curl off her forehead with a tender yet claiming touch. “No,” he said, voice velvet over steel. “But I’m very good at finding what I want next.”
The second triad, if she exists.
Audrey bared her teeth. “If you touch her—”
Before she could finish, he closed the distance—their breath intermingling and danger vibrating between them. “You’ll kill me? Sweet girl...you don’t even know what I am.”
She wanted to tear him to pieces just as badly as he wanted to break her.
Her aura struck harder than before, but this time, he was ready.
He managed to keep her out, although the strain showed on his creased brow.
“You’ve made a serious mistake,” he gritted out.
“No one enters my mind without consequences.”
A blade kissed her neck as something brutal rose inside him.
Kill her. End it. The thought flashed—but then he buried it.
“You shouldn’t leave doors unlocked,” Audrey said, masking her fear under false bravado.
Ryker tilted his head. Then he smirked. His eyes were blown wide, storming with emotion.
That same, low chittering rumbled inside his chest—too intimate, too like the hunger inside her.
It felt like being recognized and devoured at once.
Then he retreated, as if he thought better of it, and he rammed into her mind again without warning.
It wasn’t a jeer like before; this time, it was a war. “Get out of my head!”
But nothing could stop him. He blazed a path of destruction through her—
Sophia’s face—
the rope—
the kitchen knife—
the facts she hadn’t finished accepting—
When he withdrew, it was with a harsh laugh. Audrey groaned.
He knew everything now. Everything about her.
“I understand everything now.”
“You understand nothing,” she spat, wiping tears away with unsteady fingers, hating the weakness.
He pushed the blade deeper. His face turned calculating. “You could be useful—if you choose to be.”
“Useful how?” Audrey asked, even though part of her already knew.
“As a replacement for a piece I lost before it had fully matured,” he said.
“As bait, if necessary.” He said it as if naming tools laid out on a table.
“But most importantly, as someone the system will misread. The Aggregate—what passes for government and surveillance here—trusts its bloodlines, its records, the logic of its records-keeping AIs. It cannot see people like you coming.”
That made her stop.
“The Aggregate understands bloodlines, records, and category compliance. It does not understand what survives outside its models. You do. You shouldn’t exist in this form—not here, not after Earth, not after Sophia’s failed containment.
That makes you dangerous in a way even Mihail didn’t fully explain. ”
Ryker watched her carefully. “If I can teach you control before they get their hands on you, you don’t just help me recover Mihail. You change what this war produces next.”
Hate flared so hot she bit the inside of her cheek. “And if I refuse?”
“Then I kill you—you already know too much—and try my luck with Cary.”
There it was—the clean and honest truth. Unavoidable. Audrey dragged him down to her face despite the dagger biting deeper. “Tell me the truth about that night,” she demanded. “All of it.”
“Done.” His stance went cold, unfeeling. “I went to your home to collect your mother and Cary. Sophia told me Cary was a gold triad. That was the agreement.”
A beat.
“But she lied.”
The room turned on its axis.
“She planned to flee with Cary,” he continued. “You were the distraction.”
The realizations didn’t hit together. They slid in—slow and poisonous.
“You’ve always known the truth,” Ryker said. “You just refuse to understand it.”
“She wouldn’t,” Audrey whispered. But the memory didn’t dispute his words.
“Eventually, she would have killed you if you hadn’t taken her out,” Ryker said. A pause. “She believed you would either replace her...or destroy her.”
Ice spread through Audrey’s veins.
“She wasn’t stable that night, and it only grew worse this past decade,” Ryker continued. “Your mother’s power was slipping, though, at first, I thought it was you.” He wrenched her back by her hair, exposing her throat more. “I was wrong.” He skimmed his nose along her neck. “You were stronger.”
“Don’t twist this—”
“Because you’re what we thought she was.” He let out a deep breath. “A true gold triad.”
Everything narrowed to a point. She wasn’t broken, like she’d thought, as her mother thought. She’d always just been...something different.
“She hoped to keep you both from me,” Ryker said.
That woke her from her trance.
“You’re going to stay away from Cary,” she said.
“As long as you obey,” he hit back. “Disobey, and I carve my way through every lie you’ve built between her and me.”
Ryker studied her—strategically. “Power like yours changes the balance of things,” he said. “Not just on Nepra.”
“You must be desperate.”
“You have no idea.”
His lack of denial surprised her.
“If Mihail dies,” he continued, “this entire war collapses.”
“You must value his partnership.”
“Please,” Ryker said, rolling his eyes. “This isn’t about sentimentality. With Mihail captured, every rival actor recalculates, and the Aggregate grows bolder. The people still pretending this is a controlled insurgency start making rash decisions instead of smart ones.”
Audrey’s brow wrinkled. “Meaning?”
His eyes shuttered, mask firmly in place again. “Mihail in chains doesn’t just endanger one man. It destabilizes the architecture holding this entire operation together.”
Her aura reached out on instinct, probing to taste the lie. He pressed the smooth edge deep enough to draw blood, forcing a deep intake of breath from her. “I didn’t...” Audrey trailed off, feeling pathetic.
“Any pain you’ve tasted today,” he stated, “will be nothing compared to what I will enjoy giving you if you ever break into my head again.”
Nothing about his words was sexual, but the dominance was. And Audrey hated the answering heat in her blood.
“You think this is about revenge?” he asked.
“Not for you,” she said. “It’s survival.”
He didn’t like that answer, knowing she’d read it in his mind. With a frustrated growl, he scratched a Voírían sigil just below her clavicle. The symbol burned into her flesh like a claim. She glared and grabbed at her neck, but didn’t move away from him. “Does this mean I’m a prisoner?”
“Consider it a contract.” His smile was maddeningly calm. “You may leave whenever you want.”
“What does that even mean?”
“You’re a gold triad.” His eyes glittered. “If you can free yourself, I won’t stop you.”
“And if I can’t?”
“If you can’t...then yes, you’re a prisoner.” He turned to Kat without sparing her another glance. “Start her training immediately. We have less than a month.”
Kat frowned. “You’re certain?”
“They always consolidate their problems first,” Ryker said. “That’s how empires behave.”
Then he stripped off his ruined shirt. Blisters blemished his torso. Tattooed lines seemed to move across his skin, like the art was alive. Audrey’s gaze caught and held, despite herself. She hated that it did.
“Telekinesis is the last thing we train,” Ryker said, still not looking at her. “You learn control first. Otherwise, you’ll kill someone.” He pulled on a clean shirt and headed for the door. Just before he disappeared, he barked, “Get out of my space. You’re all unbearably boring.”
The door slid closed behind him.
A calm settled, full of expectation. Audrey touched the burning sigil.
Less than a month, he’d said.
Ryker thought she was a weapon.
Audrey wondered if he was right.
The problem was that she had no idea how to control it.
That truth surrounded her, suffocating, and her fear returned in a rush.
If she couldn’t master whatever Ryker had roused, who would pay the price?
No. She couldn’t let that happen. With enough time, maybe she could seize hold of this power and use it for herself, not just for Ryker or the war he waged—but for herself.
She didn’t know what control would look like or how to reach it, but right then she promised herself she would fight to find out.
She hoped this wasn’t giving up. This was honing herself for the future.
The steady throb of uncertainty remained, but Audrey put her hand against the burning sigil and drew in a slow breath.
Maybe all she could do tonight was refuse to surrender her mind to anyone else.
But that refusal was enough. She chose it, and amid that brief act, felt the first trace of resolve rise through the cloud.
She would become something more than a weapon Ryker wielded. And when the moment came, she would use her power to reclaim Cary and decide her own fate, not just survive the designs of others.
Kat watched her for a while.
“Congratulations,” she said eventually. “You just became the most important person on this moon.”