Page 30 of Star Bringer
Suddenly, I’m furiously angry. This woman doesn’t know anything. Fuck all. I take a step closer, and she starts to back away but holds her ground. Looks like she’s braver than I thought.
“I told you my mother will help,” she says in a voice that wavers more than a little. Maybe not so brave, then. And definitely more than a little brainwashed.
“Princess, your mother will toss us in a cell and shut off the oxygen—if we’re lucky.”
“You don’t have any—”
“Give it up, Princess,” I snarl as my temper gets the best of me. “We arenotgoing to fucking Askkandia.”
She looks around the room, maybe expecting some support, but everyone glances away. Except for Beckett, who gives her an obnoxious smile. Definitely no love lost there.
“I think we should take a vote,” Merrick says.
“Keep your cool,” Max urges me.
I do my best. I even take a deep breath and count to ten in my head like Milla always reminds me to. But then I draw my pistol and point it straight at Merrick’s head. “Like everything else in this fucking system, this is not a democratic process.”
He stares at me, and if he had a gun, I’m pretty sure he’d be using it. He’s definitely got attitude for a religious type. But I learned a long time ago that attitude only gets you so far in this system—a gun gets you the rest of the way.
And he doesn’t have one. I do. So he can shut the fuck up.
“Cool gun,” Beckett interrupts like she’s discussing the weather, not watching a mercenary menace a priest. “How long’s it hold a charge?”
Really? Right now? “Around two months,” I tell her. Her interest is kind of undercutting the mood.
“Nice,” she says. “Really nice.”
“Okay,” I say, sliding the pistol back into the holster. I’ve made my point. “Looks like it’s decided. We’re going to Vistenia.”
Chapter 12
Kali
So…formidable I definitely was not.
Like so many of my mother’s other arcane rules, the smiling thing didn’t do nearly as much good as I’d hoped. Big surprise.
Then again, when has a smile ever trumped a gun?
Never, especially not when that gun is wielded by a guy like Ian. All of which means we’re definitely going to Vistenia.
On a more positive note—and by more positive I mean less likely to end in death than getting into a gunfight with an arrogant, draw-first-and-think-later kind of prick—I’ve never been to Vistenia, and after the complete mess of my first official duty, I’m likely never going to get another chance.
Then again, Ian can demand that we go to Vistenia all he wants—that doesn’t mean we’ll make it. Especially since no one actually knows how to fly this ship.
Sure, at the moment she’s doing it all on her own, but who knows how long that will last? Plus, if we don’t work out how to communicate with her soon, this thing is going to take us wherever she wants. Even if where she wants to take us is the surface of Serai.
Honestly, at this point, I wouldn’t even be surprised.
Now that we’re away from the immediate danger, the effects are hitting me. My feet are battered and bruised, my throat is sore from the smoke, and I’m thirsty. Really, really thirsty. I’m just about to ask someone to find me a glass of water when Gage speaks up.
“Don’t pull the gun back out, Ian, but I think we may have a problem with that plan.”
“You’ve got a lot of problems,” Ian shoots back without so much as looking his way. “Doesn’t mean I want to hear about any of them.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean weshouldn’thear about them,” Max tells him with a sigh. “Go ahead, Gage.”
“Thanks for the permission.” Gage makes a face at him before continuing. “I had a little time to poke around before you guys came on board, and I’m pretty sure there’s no food or drink on this ship. I just got the moisture-collection system working, so eventually we’ll get purified water from that—with the fun bonus of not drowning in our own sweat—but that won’t exactly keep us fed short-term.”
