Page 168 of Star Bringer
I bite my lip, tell myself not to say anything that will upset her quite yet—there are so many things I have to say to her—but it’s hard. Really hard.
Thankfully, she takes that moment to start walking. “Come inside,” she tells me. “There’s someone who’s been waiting to see you.”
Lara?I wonder, excitement racing through me for the first time in days. It’s all I can do not to run into the palace. But I’ve worked too hard not to let my mother know how much I care about her to blow it now. The Empress tends to take away whatever I care about, and if I don’t want the same thing to happen with Lara, I need to keep up the facade.
One of my mother’s personal bodyguards holds open the door for us, and I can’t help the small grin that comes to my face as I walk inside. At least until I realize that I’ve miscalculated—horribly. Because it’s not Lara waiting for me inside the palace.
It’s Dr. Veragelen. She’s alive. She’s here. And she’s smiling.
Freaking steaming drokaray droppings.
Chapter 69
Kali
My feet are glued to the floor.
There’s a part of me that wants to run, but where would I even go? There’s nowhere to go except forward.Shit, shit, shit.
I square my shoulders. Because it doesn’t matter why Dr. Veragelen is here—I’m going to convince my mother to help those who need it, and she can’t stop me.
It’s that thought that gives me the strength to walk forward, to force my feet to carry me—one step at a time—straight toward her.
Don’t puke, don’t puke, don’t fucking puke.
Play it cool, and everything will be fine.
She gets my best regal nod—the one I reserve for people I despise. “Dr. Veragelen, how good to see you. I was so glad to hear you survived the…trouble…on theCaelestis.”
“I feel the same way about you, Your Highness, though I fear you had a much more difficult time of things than I did.”
I think about the attack in Rangar.
About the ships tracking us across the system.
About Ian and I both nearly dying on Glacea. How Milla and Max nearly died that day, too.
“I’m sure it was…difficult for both of us,” I tell her graciously. “But I am glad to be home.”
“As am I. And now we can put it all behind us and move on to a much brighter future.”
I really don’t like the sound of that.
My mother gestures to the group of seats around a small, ornate table where fiznachi and crystal glasses have been set out, and I have a sudden craving for the burning taste of gerjgin.
Dr. Veragelen and my mother sit on one side of the table while I sit on the other—as far from the doctor as I can manage and still be polite.
The lines have definitely been drawn.
I pick up my glass of fiznachi and swallow it in one gulp before pouring another.
My mother glares at me, and part of me wants nothing more than to raise the glass to her in a toast to the people. A small shock might do her personality good.
“So,” Dr. Veragelen starts without so much as touching her drink. “Now that you’ve returned to us, Kalinda, there’s something you need to know. The heptosphere—”
“It wasn’t destroyed in the explosions?” I ask. I was sure it would have been.
“Of course not. As far as we can tell, it’s impervious to any and all damage, thankfully, since it is vitally important in our strategy to save the system.”
