Page 42 of Star Bringer
“I’m sorry I threw up,” Rain says quietly.
If it was Kali apologizing, I’d make some kind of sarcastic comment—but this is Rain, so I shrug it off. Even I’m not that big a shithead.
“It’s just a little water,” I tell her, handing over a towel from my bag. Which reminds me that a sip of water is all she—or any of us—has had for more hours than I want to think about.
“Did anyone find any food or drink on their search?”
The others shake their heads—except Kali, who moves to the chair farthest away from Beckett and sits down in it, hugging her knees to her chest.
Fuck. We probably have enough for a couple of daysifwe’re careful. Not nearly enough to get us to Vistenia, just like Gage said earlier.
“Looks like we’re going to make a detour to Askkandia. If Beckett can get us there, that is.”
“I’ll get us there,” she says grimly. She leans toward the accelerator, but I put a hand in front of it before she can touch it.
“Why don’t you concentrate on figuring out how to turn us around for now?” I suggest. “At a normal speed?”
“You’re as boring as you look,” she tells me. But she keeps the ship at a normal speed.
I reach for my bag again and rummage inside. The rations Max and I packed consist of protein bars filched from theCaelestis’s commissary. I grab a handful and drop one in front of Beckett before tossing another to the princess.
She catches it, then looks at it as if she doesn’t quite know what it is—or what to do with it. By the time I hand the rest around, Beckett has already finished hers, so I give her mine. I’m thinking she likely hasn’t been eating too well.
She glances up, surprised. But I don’t want to get into a thing with her, so I just lean against the front console and look out at the others.
Kali is staring at her bare feet, her bar in her hands. Rain munches on her rations as she watches Beckett while Merrick watches her. Max is dozing in one of the chairs, his legs kicked out in front of him while Gage watches him.
As crews go, we’re a goddamn disaster. A princess, a priestess, a bodyguard, a prisoner, a con artist, a goofball, and me, self-appointed asshole in charge of them all.
It’s a recipe for catastrophe, but we’re just going to have to figure out how to make it work. Because I’m not walking away from this ship until we’ve rescued my best friend.
“I think I figured it out, Ian,” Beckett says to me from the pilot’s chair. “Get ready to turn.”
Instinct has me grabbing hold of the nearest chair, and it’s a fucking good thing because the next minute, we’re spinning madly around.
We’re in a full-out flat spin, one I don’t know if we’ll be able to recover from. I try to turn around, try to see if the princess is okay, but we’re spinning, spinning, spinning and the force is too great for me to even turn my head.
The screaming gets louder, but over it, I hear another sound. It’s Beckett—and she’s fucking laughing.
That’s when I know for sure that we’re doomed.
Chapter 16
Kali
It’s been two days since we ended up on this ship, and honestly, it feels like a lifetime.
And definitely not a good lifetime.
I thought life at the palace could be a minefield with all the intrigue and backbiting, but living in close quarters with six of the strangest—and, in some cases, the most dangerous—people I’ve ever met is something else entirely.
It doesn’t help that I feel like a total and complete mess. Not just in looks, but in knowing how to do…anything. The only things I’ve ever really been trained in are diplomacy and leadership, and this group has no interest in either one of those.
Then again, it’s nearly impossible for me to takemyselfseriously, looking like this. Is it any wonder that they don’t take me seriously, either?
My slogg dress is unraveling. It’s at mid-thigh now, and it won’t be long before it’s completely indecent. I’m still barefoot, and my hair more closely resembles a drokaray’s nest than the coronet braid it was originally styled in. All in all, I’m a disaster.
You would think that would help me fit in with this group—every one of them is a calamity—but somehow it just sets me further apart.
