Page 20 of Star Bringer
He gives her an incredulous look. “It’s a prison ship. I doubt anyone’s there by choice.”
“A prison ship?” she repeats slowly, like she’s really thinking about his answer. “But that doesn’t make sense. This is a research facility. Why would Dr. Veragelen okay a prison ship to land here?”
“I guess she’s just taking out the trash,” Ian answers, voice dripping with disdain.
Her eyes narrow on him. “What does that even mean?”
“She brings people here. For her experiments.” Ian is speaking slowly, enunciating each word. “And she has to do something with them when they’re no longer of any use. Don’t tell me you don’t know about the experiments?”
Shock flares on her face. Clearly, she didn’t. Neither did I—I haven’t heard so much as a hint of such a thing. I glance at Merrick, and he shakes his head. He doesn’t know, either. But there’s a ring of truth in Ian’s voice that makes it hard to doubt what he’s saying.
I wish my ears would stop ringing long enough for me to make sense of any of this.
Ian lifts a brow. “Nothing to say to that, Princess?”
“Stop messing with her,” Max says as he runs up. He’s bleeding from a gash on his arm, but he doesn’t seem to notice. Neither does Ian. “We need to go.”
“I was just waiting for you.”
Max frowns. “I was looking for Gage, but he’s nowhere.”
“Probably ran for cover at the first big bang. He’s not exactly the kind to care about anyone’s ass but his own.”
Max smirks. “I don’t know. From what I’ve heard, he likes all kinds of bangs. And all kinds of asses.”
“Shut the fuck up.” Ian shakes his head. “You’re shocking the princess. Not to mention the other one.”
Other one?Does he mean me? “I’m…not shocked.” I actually really want to know more about the different kind of bangs this Gage person likes.
Ian raises a brow but doesn’t say anything else to me. “We don’t have time for this.”
He takes off toward the so-called prison ship without another word.
“Come on, Princess Kalinda,” Max tells her, waving a hand to encompass Merrick and me, too. “We’d better get on that ship.”
“It’s Kali,” she murmurs. “And what—”
“Leave her,” Ian tosses over his shoulder. “We don’t need her.”
“You don’t know that,” Max calls after him. “What about an insurance policy?”
What does he mean by that? I glance at Merrick, but his face is deliberately blank, a definite tip-off that he and I are on the same page. Who exactly are these men? Not who they appear to be, I’m beginning to think. They definitely seem to know more about things than the rest of us. Does that mean they also have a different agenda?
Merrick touches my arm and leans close. “I don’t think we should have anything to do with these people,” he says quietly in Seratian. “We’ll find another way.”
I want to agree with him—something definitely seems off here. Trouble is, I don’t think thereisanother way.
“That ship is headed where we need to go,” Ian is telling the princess. “That’s all you need to know.”
“Not to be a killjoy,” the princess retorts, “but that ship is not going anywhere. Look at it. It’s dead.”
“We’ll get it moving,” Ian replies.
“How can you be so sure?” I ask.
He shrugs. “Because we have to.”
Max gives us a rueful smile and hurries after Ian. The princess looks at me, a definite question in her eyes—one I don’t have an answer to.
