Chapter 11 #2
"You can ask. Whether I answer depends on the question."
We turned onto the street leading to the docks. Ahead, I could see The Night-Piercer's masts silhouetted against the night sky.
"He's planning something," I said quietly. "With the codex. Something he's not telling me."
“I’m afraid that’s not a question.” I cut him a look, and he was quiet for a moment, a half smile the only sign that he understood my meaning clearly. "Cypher always has plans within plans. It's how he's survived this long. But I don't think he'd do anything to hurt you deliberately."
"That's not the same as saying he won't hurt me accidentally."
"No. It's not." Vic stopped walking and turned to face me.
"Look, I don't know what he's planning beyond the basics.
Give Gideon the codex, you get paid, steal the codex back, and we all disappear into the Gallery.
But I do know if he's keeping secrets, it's probably because he thinks he's protecting you. "
"Or because he doesn't trust me enough to handle the truth."
"Maybe. Or maybe he's scared that if you knew everything, you'd stay in the Prime Realm and we'd never see you again." Vic's smile was sympathetic. "Talk to him. Tell him your concerns. He listens to you more than he listens to me, that's for sure."
We reached the ship, and Vic escorted me aboard. Cypher stood on deck, clearly waiting. When he saw me, relief washed across his face. "Thank you, Vic."
"Anytime, Cap." He disappeared below deck, leaving us alone.
"You were worried?" I said, arching a single brow.
"In a city where Gideon Pike has eyes everywhere, yes, I was worried."
"I needed to see my mom."
"I understand. But next time I'll go with you."
I studied him, silhouetted against the moonlight. It was cold and dark on the top deck, and the wind was picking up. I'd almost forgotten what the stars looked like during our time in the Gallery. "Vic says you have plans within plans."
"Vic talks too much."
"Do you? Have plans you're not telling me about?"
He sighed. "Juno—"
"I need honesty, Cypher. Complete honesty.
No more half-truths or convenient omissions.
Kora is staying with your crew, and that means I have a decision to make.
She's my family, and I'd follow her anywhere.
If I'm going to leave my parents and my life to build something with you all, I need to know you trust me enough to tell me the truth. "
For a long moment, he just looked at me. Then he took my hand and led me below deck to his cabin. He closed the door, checked that it was locked, and turned to face me.
He sat on the edge of his bed and ran his hands through his hair.
"The codex is just one part of what I need.
The crown gives me authority and signals to my people that their leader still lives.
The Last Lights give me more power. But to actually create a new realm, to terraform a dead world into something livable, I need one more thing. "
"What?" I knew what he was about to say. I could see the answer in his eyes. But I wanted to hear him say it. To tell me the truth.
His voice dropped to a whisper, as if anyone could be listening.
"A rift who can tear through the void's very fabric, who can harness the Genesis Engine to forge a realm from nothingness.
I need you. Not just because I—" The words died in his throat as his jaw clenched.
"Without your power, everything I've sacrificed, everything I've stolen and killed for... worthless."
The Genesis Engine.
I wanted to scream at him. Yet when I looked into his eyes, I saw a desperation that made my fury falter. My heart pulled in opposite directions—the part that felt used warring with the part that understood his impossible position. I couldn't decide which feeling to trust.
"How long have you known?" I asked quietly. "That you needed me to do this?"
His face hardened into shadow, eyes like cold fire, burning with naked desperation.
"Since the void storm," he said. "You're not just a rift.
You're what the ancients whispered about in their prophecies.
" He rose and stalked toward me, slowly, carefully.
"I should have told you then. Should have confessed what I truly needed from the power that sleeps inside you since those three days you were trapped in the dark. "
A small voice in the back of my mind whispered that maybe this tentative friendship between us had been built on a foundation of necessary lies and nothing else.
Yet, hadn't I seen genuine fear in his eyes as I was pulled over the ship's railing?
He dove into the darkness after me with no certainty that I'd have the power to get us back.
Was Cypher really just a cold, fallen prince who needed me to fix him?
"I need time to think," I said, hating how my voice wobbled. I didn't cry often, but right now tears made my eyes sting.
His jaw tightened as shadows deepened across the hollows of his face.
He didn't like my answer, but it was the only answer he'd be getting tonight.
He stepped closer—close enough that I felt the heat from his body, smelled the leather of his coat and rain on his skin.
"The handoff with Gideon is tomorrow at noon," he said.
My pulse quickened when his fingers brushed mine, barely touching. "Whatever you decide, I'll respect it."
I left his cabin and fled to mine, my throat tight and my eyes stinging. Kora was there, already in bed but not asleep.
"Everything okay?" she asked.
"I don't know," I admitted. "I really don't know."
I climbed into my bunk and stared at the ceiling, my heart pulling in opposite directions.
Part of me wanted to march back to Cypher's cabin and tell him I wasn't some tool for him to use as he pleased.
Another part whispered that his desperation felt genuine, that this could be a chance to give a better life to a lot of innocent people.
Tomorrow we'd meet with Gideon. Hand over the codex. I'd get my money, save my father.
And then what? Stay with the people who'd become like family, or return to the life I was supposed to want?
Both choices felt wrong somehow.