Page 18 of Star Bringer
I can see her looking back and forth between the two of us, taking in the similarities. Max is dressed in the same black-and-gray guard uniform as me, but it goes further than that. We look pretty similar, though Max is a little shorter, a little wider, and smiles a hell of a lot more than I do.
Fucking candy-ass.
“No shit.”He looks incredulous.“A princess? Really?”
“Really.”
The grin is back. He steps forward and holds out his hand. She eyes it like it might bite but then takes it briefly—no screaming athimnot to touch her, I notice.
“I’m Max,” he says. “Nice to meet you, Princess Kalinda.”
He glances at the other two and then at me.
“No fucking clue,” I respond.
The blonde steps forward. “I’m Rain,” she says, holding out her hand. Max shakes it. “And this is Merrick, my…friend.” She turns to me. “Thank you for what you did back there. I think we would have died if you hadn’t shot out the door.”
The dude in the robe says something in a language I don’t understand, presumably Seratian. That’s the only planet with its own language, likely because they were cut off from the rest of us for so long. Or maybe because they just like to be different—the Sisterhood thing they’ve got going definitely attests to that.
The girl gives a solemn nod before turning to the rest of us. “Merrick says if we’re going to leave, we need to do it now. This place is unstable.”
Too right. I’m ready to go—the ship is juddering beneath and around us, and the air is thick with smoke. I don’t know how many more explosions theCaelestiscan take before she implodes, but I do know that I don’t want to be here when it happens.
I glance around and go still. The docking bay has been reduced to carnage. “Shit.”
“Yeah,” Max mutters, “shitjust about covers it.”
The place is in ruins, littered with the corpses of all the bright, shiny shuttles. Gone is the neat semicircle of parked ships. In its place is a disaster zone. But over at the far end, near the airlock doors, stands a dilapidated ship, seemingly undamaged.
“TheReformer, huh?” I ask Max in my head.
He nods.
Finally something’s going our way.“Gage?”
“Fuck knows. But he did his bit—paid off whoever needs paying. All we have to do is get on board, and the crew will pretend they never saw us.”
“Good riddance to him, then. Let’s go,” I tell him.
He glances toward the others, but before he can say anything asinine, the princess asks, “So, what do we do now?”
“Our shuttle looks like it’s the last one still intact.” The Merrick guy nods toward the shuttle at the other end of the group of burned-out wrecks. He’s right—she looks in way better shape than the others.
“Well, have a good trip,” I say, because I certainly can’t take her on theReformer.
Strangely, I feel a flicker of what I’m guessing is guilt. It’s not an emotion I’m overly familiar with, though, so maybe it’s something else. Indigestion?
“You’re not coming?” the princess asks, and there’s something in her voice, too, that has me glancing at her sharply. Does she sounddisappointed? But then her eyes narrow on my uniform. “Isn’t it your job to keep us safe?”
Nope, not disappointment; just more of the Ruling Families’ arrogance. Good fucking riddance. My regret—scratch that, myindigestion—probably came from Max’s look…and what I knew he was going to suggest. He’s always been the kinder man.
Then again, he hasn’t spent the last few minutes with the princess snarling at him.
“Not anymore. I guess this is goodbye, Princess.” I send her a last smirk and turn away, then start to move through the scattered debris in the direction of theReformer.Max is close behind me.
“Wait! You can’t go. I demand you—” She breaks off, and I glance back to see what’s stopped her. She’s staring aghast at the last remaining shuttle. Flames are flickering from the rear engine.
Suddenly, there’s an ominous crack.
