Chapter 22 #2
“It’s going to be hard to convince the Houses and Sariah of your impartiality if you’re stuck to my side.”
“You leave that to me, coli.”
Kira wanted to ask what he was going to do, but some things were better left as a mystery.
Raider and Jin got up from the table and headed for the door.
Dylan followed as Finn waited for Kira.
“Find us at the Red Rabbit,” Kira told Graydon.
Jin turned back at the last minute. “If I were you, I’d leave the inquisitors to Jace’s tender care. A few days in the station brig won’t hurt their disposition none.”
Graydon
Graydon held himself rigid as Kira walked out of the room. Letting her go felt wrong. The intelligence he’d received before arrival suggested the rebels had a strong presence on this station. Above and beyond the fact that they were working with these human pirates.
Someone like Kira, an heir who many perceived as weak because of her lack of formal training, would make quite the tempting target.
Too bad for them that his coli wasn’t the soft, inexperienced child they believed.
There were too many eyes on him right now. Watching. Judging. Just looking for an excuse to justify dragging him down from his position as the Emperor’s Face.
He needed to play this carefully.
The trap they’d set for him and Kira was beginning to take shape. To spring it without getting caught in its jaws was going to take cunning and patience.
Two things Graydon had in spades.
“Kashori’s heir is young. She might be swayed to our side if we use her family’s history to incite sympathy,” Amila suggested.
Solal nodded. “Asanth’s interim lord and the inquisitors are the problem.”
“Rhett is preoccupied with Alexander,” Graydon disagreed.
For that matter, so was Tinsley. With their focus split between the forty-three and the attackers, it made his job easier than it would have been otherwise.
“Jarek and Sariah are the issue.”
Graydon liked Jin’s suggestion. He could claim the maintenance of diplomatic relations as his reason for leaving them where they were.
“I didn’t anticipate Sariah’s use of an etav,” Graydon murmured.
It bothered him. He prided himself on being able to anticipate his opponent’s movements before they made them. Graydon had missed something. Either in Sariah’s character or her backing.
People died when he made mistakes like that. People like his coli.
“What are you thinking?” Solal asked.
“Many things.”
That Jarek was playing a deep game. Almost as deep as the one the emperor had set in motion. That for the first time, Graydon wasn’t certain he could control the outcome of what was coming. That Kira’s presence here was a headache he couldn’t afford but one he didn’t intend to avoid.
“But mostly, that my coli is being suspiciously accommodating.”
That wasn’t like Kira.
“You want me to put Baran on her?” Solal asked.
Graydon hummed an assent.
The easy way Kira had given in made him think she had something up her sleeve. Graydon had a feeling it behooved him to find out what.
Kira
Kira slowed as she spotted Jace on her way out.
He stood next to a railing overlooking the station’s spine. A mile long shaft that stabbed straight through the center of the station around which all levels revolved.
That would be impressive in and of itself, but it was the massive tree growing up through the spine and the park that existed in the shade of its sprawling canopy that really stole the show.
The tree was the largest one Kira had ever seen.
Its branches so thick and wide that some had been turned into walkways.
A mini forest had been planted in the immediate vicinity of the spine to create a tiny microclimate right in the middle of the station.
It wasn’t just this floor either. Green spaces had been allocated on every level Kira had visited. Usually in area around the spine but occasionally in other areas as well.
Jace’s face was filled with frustration as he listened to whatever Lieutenant Himoto and Sergeant Fitzpatrick were relaying.
“I understand. Write up a report and send me the footage,” Jace was saying as Kira walked up.
Jin slowed, looking back when he noticed she was no longer with him. She waved him and Raider on, wanting to discuss something with Jace in private.
He nodded, patting Dylan and Raider’s arms to indicate they were to follow him.
Finn stayed a few steps behind Kira.
Fitzpatrick sliced a glance at Kira, her gaze no longer friendly. The cool professionalism was replaced by a hostility Kira didn’t understand.
“Wizards can be such assholes,” Jace snapped at Kira.
She stopped, looking between the three. “What did they do?”
Lieutenant Himoto’s lips quirked as she glanced at Kira. “Your friends decided our accommodations weren’t up to their standards.”
Ah.
Kira tucked her hands in her pocket. “Broke out, did they?”
“Yes,” Jace hissed.
Himoto touched Fitzpatrick’s arm and motioned for the other woman to follow. “We’ll get started on that report.”
Kira watched them walk away. “And the Tuann wonder where I get it from.”
“Perhaps they were simply following the example you set,” Finn commented.
Kira glared. “My side, remember?”
He sketched her a half bow. “That will never change, heir.”
She snorted but let his comment go.
“They destroyed their cell and put two of my people in the infirmary. Who is going to pay for this?” Jace demanded.
He seemed angrier about the damage to property than the fact they’d escaped.
“Put it on their tab.”
“How am I supposed to do that? They’re long gone.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure they pay up,” she assured him.
He eyed her unsettling smile before shrugging. “You do that.”
Kira studied him for a moment, noting the exhaustion in his features and the air of defeat that hadn’t been there earlier. “Are you really okay?”
Demotion was something she and Raider had each experienced. Jace never had. He’d always been the golden child.
He’d shown a strong front earlier, but she knew better than most how easy it was to pretend when you didn’t want others to worry.
Jace rubbed his forehead. “Yeah, Kira. I really am.”
“Because if not, I can kill someone for you. I’m good at that,” Kira offered.
“I know you are.”
His reluctant chuckle had her relaxing a little. It was a good sign if he could still laugh.
“They took the Curs from me,” he announced out of the blue. “Technically, anyway. I still have Nova, Maverick and Tank under my command. But someone else flies under the name of the Curs. A bunch of pissants who can barely operate a wave board.”
Kira listened quietly.
“I don’t know why I’m telling you this,” Jace admitted.
“Because I’m your friend and I’m also a Cur.”
“It stings knowing that someone else is using the name we built. I hate it.”
For a moment, it wasn’t the rear admiral talking. It was Jace. The man who sometimes used to fly off the handle over little things. Stupid shit that didn’t matter to anyone but him.
“They can wear our colors and use our symbols but they’re not us,” Kira said.
They hadn’t paid the price in blood. They didn’t know the true meaning behind that name or what it took to protect it. They were children playing at being legends.
“Centcom is full of fools.” Kira pinned Jace with the full force of her attention. Her predator’s gaze. Meant to subdue and conquer. “You’ll show them the error of their ways, won’t you?”
Jace withstood her gaze for several seconds, beads of sweat forming on his brow. “Yes.”
Kira released him and patted his shoulder. “I’m counting on you, Knight. Next time we meet, you’d better have those old fools under the heel of your boot.”
Jace straightened to give her an irritated look. “Was that necessary?”
“No.” Kira smiled at him. “But it was fun.”
Used to her antics, Jace had a long suffering look on his face.
“You haven’t asked me about Blue,” he said as she was about to walk away.
Kira blanked her features and looked at him. “What about her?”
Her feelings regarding Blue were complicated. She loved the child she’d once been and admired the woman she’d become. Even as that woman’s occasional thoughtlessness frustrated her to no end.
Blue had always been there for her. Ready and willing to put her life on the line the moment Kira indicated it was necessary.
But she’d also done things that could have gotten people killed.
Before any forgiveness and healing could happen, she needed to recognize that and atone.
“She left the service.”
Kira tamped down her reaction, pushing away the tangle of pain and disappointment.
The Space Force and her place in it had meant everything to Blue. She’d turned down countless, much better, more lucrative opportunities for a future in the Curs. Only to have it all blow up in her face.
“Was she court martialed?”
“Yes. They demoted her and barred her from service as a Cur. They docked her pay for six months and rescinded all medals and accolades she received.”
Harsh—but not the worst possible outcome.
She could have been charged with treason in wartime. She would have spent life in prison.
“She chose to run rather than earn back her place,” Kira murmured.
That wasn’t the Blue she knew. That Blue would have faced the consequences of her actions with a raised chin and enough determination that you couldn’t help but respect her perseverance and stubbornness.
“I thought you’d like to know,” Jace said.
Kira pulled her gaze from the view of the station’s spine. “Thank you.”
She’d talk to Jin about tracking Blue down. It might be too early to make contact—Blue needed time to lick her wounds—but they could at least check on her and make sure she was alright.
Kira knew what it was like to be ostracized by your former friends. To meet gazes that contained a hostility you didn’t deserve.
At least she’d had Jin. Blue had no one.
“If you can, send me a heads up before you start your rampage,” Jace said as Kira straightened from the railing. “I know communication isn’t always your strong suit.”
“I’ll try.”