Zenith (4 page)

“Governor Cyprian,” Andi gasped.

She practically fell into a chair, her legs going weak beneath her.

The Governor’s face had haunted Andi for the past five years, sworn to destroy her in every dream, and sometimes, in her waking moments, too.

She was at a loss for words.

The last time she’d lain eyes on Cyprian, she’d been a desperate girl in chains, seated alone at the trial where she was convicted for the death of his daughter.

Kaley.

All the tallies on her swords combined couldn’t cover up the pain of that first death.

Guilt brewed in her gut, and Andi was sucked back into her memories, back to that fateful night on Arcardius.

Wind in her hair, the kiss of freedom coating her skin as she sprinted through the darkness, Kaley beside her.

Laughter bubbling between them as they snuck onto the Governor’s personal starship.

The click of Kaley’s harness, buckled tight in the copilot’s seat, and Andi’s laughter, again, as she dared Kaley to undo the harness.

To fly free.

“Don’t you trust me?” Andi asked, as her fingers curled over the wheel.

“I have to admit, you’ve looked better,” Governor Cyprian said, and Andi was yanked back into the present, breathless and nearly trembling beneath the man’s stare.

Stars above.

All these years, she’d tried to suppress the memories, only to have them brought back with sudden, whip-sharp cruelty. In front of her was a victim of her foolishness, and next to her was the man who created her and then betrayed her.

The two of them, together? It was nearly enough to shatter Andi.

She forced her eyes up at the screen, grateful her crew wasn’t here to share this moment.

Cyprian had aged since she last saw him. His once-brown hair was now peppered with grey and wrinkles coated his sun-worn skin. His body looked tired, though his brilliant green eyes sparkled with the very same scrutiny he’d always had.

“You’re the one behind all of this?” Andi asked.

“I’m a very powerful man, Androma.”

The Governor of Arcardius was seated in a chair behind a silver desk, somewhere unfamiliar. Behind him, a large window held back blasts of snow, a world of white. Howling wind whipped against the glass where frost formed a thin veil.

He’s on Solera,
Andi thought. The ice planet.

For a while, Cyprian said nothing. He worked his stubbled jaw back and forth, as if chewing on a thought he wasn’t sure he could share.

I’d like to kill you, the way you killed my daughter,
Andi imagined him saying.

I’d like to give you the death sentence you deserve.

A million possibilities, all of them grim.

And
all
of them well-deserved, filling Andi’s gut with another layer of guilt. Another bit of heaviness to carry with her to her grave.

But when the Governor spoke, his words weren’t of punishment or death.

“You’ve been quite busy since we last met.” He snapped his fingers, and a cloaked woman shuffled forward from the corner of the room. A Cyborg woman, smooth skin on a bald head, bits of metal peeking out from beneath her flesh. She held a screen out to Cyprian, which flickered to life in his hands.

“
Blood Stains the Skies Above Pazus
,” Cyprian stated, reading from the screen. He tilted it ever so slightly, and Andi could make out the telltale white-and-black, bold title of a news feed. She sunk into a chair, remembering that news story. It had gone viral across Mirabel.

Cyprian sighed before he continued. “Two passenger ships were shot down in the sky that night, with seventeen lives lost on impact. That was a story from seven months ago. Black market arms dealers paid you a large sum to haul their weapons for them, and when things got a little complicated...you shot those passenger ships down as a distraction, so you could get away.”

One of the darker choices I’ve made,
Andi thought.

“You were never caught,” Cyprian said, his voice low, “but I knew it was you. That is what you do, Andi. You leave a path of chaos in your wake, and you don’t ever look back to see whose lives were ended because of it.” His green eyes flashed at her.

Worlds away, and Andi still withered beneath that careful stare. But she refused to take his bait, to breathe out a word that this man would twist and turn on her in an instant.

Cyprian tapped the screen again, and another headline materialized, this one with a photograph of the
Marauder,
all of its glass-sided glory. “The Bloody Baroness,” Cyprian said, as he set down the screen, “is mentioned in thirteen cases since last year, six of those involving numerous deaths. Though I have no doubt, Androma, that there are many more cases that went unnoticed. You are one of the most notorious criminals in all of Mirabel.” He sighed, and shifted in his seat. “Which is why I hired Dex to find you.”

“Then get on with it,” Andi said. The words poured out of her, unable to stay locked inside any longer. “Hang me, or lock me up, but let my crew go free. I’ll take the blame. All of it. If this is about…” She couldn’t bring herself to say the name. “If this is about your daughter…it was an accident, Cyprian. A mistake.”

“I’m not here to speak of the past,” Cyprian snapped. His voice was pained, and he took a rattling breath before speaking again. “I’m a powerful man, Androma, but a desperate one.”

“Desperate for what?” Andi asked. “To finally see me die?”

Cyprian leaned back, wincing as if in some hidden pain, and folded his hands on top of the silver desk. “I’m not here for revenge,” he said, and again, Andi was reminded of the crash. The light. Kaley’s bloody hand, slipping from Andi’s as she breathed her last breath. She could scarcely even hear Cyprian when he said, “I’m here to offer you a job.”

Andi almost fell out of her chair.

“What?”

She didn’t know what to say, or even what to think, so she stayed silent, waiting for him to continue.

“It is desperation, Androma, that brings a man to his knees. And believe me,” Cyprian said, glancing at Dex, who had been sitting silently with his feet still propped up on the table, “I have exhausted every option.”

Dex winked, and Andi couldn't fathom why Cyprian wanted Dex to be his personal bounty hunter on this job. Probably just to spite her.

“My son, Valen, went missing two years ago,” Cyprian continued.

“I remember,” Andi said with a curt nod. How could she forget?

Valen, Kaley’s older brother with summer hair and soft eyes, who’d made her blush as a child, who’d never spoken more than a few fleeting words to Andi each time she visited Kaley’s floating estate on Arcardius.

Except for
that
night.

He’d seen them sneaking out, and tried to stop them, only for Kaley to put him in his place as they slipped out the door of their skyrise apartment. He hadn’t shown up to the court when Andi was on trial.

Three years later, Valen Cortas disappeared in the night, all traces of him whisked away. No sign of a struggle. No belongings taken, but Governor Cyprian swore it was a kidnapping.

The news had spread like a wildfire across Arcardius, and then into the skies, to the other Governors and Governesses of every planet and moon in Mirabel.

“We suspected a mercenary from Xen Ptera took him,” Cyprian said, “but there hasn't been word from their end. We couldn't risk upsetting the peace treaty between our half of the galaxy and theirs.”

He paused, grief heavy in his voice. Three years after losing one child, the other had been taken from him.

Again, the guilt clawed at Andi from inside.

“So what do you want me to do?” she asked carefully. “If all traces of him are gone, and there was never any trail to begin with…”

Cyprian leaned forward in his chair.

“Two weeks ago, one of our satellites picked up a coded signal from Xen Ptera’s prison moon. The message was in the code that our top military operatives use, meaning only a select few know it. It said four words:
I am here, Father.”
Cyprian ran a hand through his graying hair. “There has been no word since, but we feel strongly it is Valen.”

Andi listened intently. After two years, everyone thought Valen Cortas was dead. “Why are you telling me all of this?” she asked.

“Because I want you to get him.”

“I don’t…” Andi fumbled for the right words. “I can’t…”

“You
can’t?
” Cyprian barked out a laugh. “The Bloody Baroness does whatever she wants. Even if it means stealing a starship in the middle of the night, crashing it into the side of a mountain, and slaughtering an innocent girl in the process.”

Andi sucked in a breath.

“She was to be my heir,” Cyprian whispered. “And you stole her from me. From my wife. From my people.”

Andi’s throat was dry as a husk, her heart hammering against it. There was nothing to say, nothing to do to take back what she’d done.

So she focused on the present.

“Why me?” Andi asked. “There are a million Patrolmen you could offer the job to.”

“Not without starting a war,” Cyprian said.

It made sense. The Mirabel Patrolmen couldn't just waltz into the prison of their enemy and steal a prisoner out from under them without violating the boundaries of their treaty.

But a pirate, not officially affiliated with any side….

Cyprian tapped his fingers against the desk, drawing Andi’s attention back to the screen. “There is, of course, another option.”

Andi raised her eyebrows, and Cyprian smiled, cold and calculating.

“I could send you and your entire crew to the pits of Tenebris to serve out a life sentence for the crimes you've committed. Murder, robbery, forgery, arson.” He ticked off each word on the tips of his fingers. “Dare I go on? I can bury you all, so dark and so deep, that you will never see the sun again.”

Andi sucked in a breath.

“
Or,
” Cyprian said, “your slate could be wiped clean. If, and only if, you bring my son back to me.
Alive.
”

It was too good to be true.

One job, and she would be free to go back home.

One job, and she could have her life back, return to the way things used to be. For years, Andi had been on the run, too afraid to slow down for fear that the past would catch back up to her. Now she had a chance to eliminate the past.

“That's it?” she asked. She crossed her arms over her chest.

Cyprian nodded. “That's it.”

Andi narrowed her eyes. There had to be a catch, some hidden motive that Cyprian wasn’t revealing. But she was out of choices. Her Marauders were somewhere in this very ship, surrounded by armed guards. One wrong move, and she’d have their blood on her hands, too.

“When do we leave?”

Cyprian signaled for the android woman, who sauntered back to his side and straightened his sleek jacket as he stood. “I want my son back as soon as possible.”

“My ship will need to be fixed,” Andi said. “And I’ll need supplies, enough for a months-long journey for me and my entire crew. Xen Ptera is at the far side of the galaxy, and well-guarded by their leader’s rover ships.”

“You’ll have what you need,” Cyprian said with a curt nod.

“I’ll also be needing more ammunition,” Andi said, as she remembered her promise to Lira, before this all began. “And bigger guns. There’s no telling what Nor will throw at us, once we gain entry to Xen Ptera.”

At that, Cyprian smiled, and looked not at Andi, but at Dex.

“He will take care of that for you,” Cyprian said, his voice dripping with sick satisfaction, “since he’ll be joining you on your mission.”

“The fiking hell I am!” Dex leapt to his feet.

Cyprian, that old, sagging, sneaking bastard.

He smiled at Dex like a Soleran ice wolf who had just cornered its prey. “You will be joining Androma on her mission to make sure she stays in line and doesn't escape.”

Dex cursed inwardly.

He should have known better than to scheme with the Governor of Arcardius. After all that he’d heard about the Governor, the upstanding citizen with a strange ability to
always
get what he wanted…

“We had a
deal,”
Dex said, through gritted teeth.

“And the deal will still be honored. The terms have simply been…” Cyprian waved a hand, as if dismissing their old agreement. “…extended.”

“I could kill her,” Dex hissed. “And then what would you do to get back your precious son?” He glanced sideways at Andi, who was now on her feet, too, hands balling into fists as if preparing for a fight that Dex wasn’t sure who would win.

“Ah,” Andi said, “but we both know how that will go.”

Dex turned back to Cyprian.

“She’s plenty capable of doing this job on her own. I am not a babysitter.” He’d played his part, now his job was done.

Cyprian raised a graying brow. “Do you want your money or not, bounty hunter?”

So he was going to play it that way. Dex sighed. “You have a thousand men at your command. Why not pick one of them to escort her?”

“She would eject him from the ship the moment they got out of range, you know that.” This was true, an incredibly
Androma
thing to do.

“Do I get any say about who is coming onto my ship?” Andi said, arms held up in exasperation.

Dex whirled on her. “
Not
your ship.”

“Finders, keepers, Dextro,” Andi snarled.

“Enough!” Cyprian barked out. He approached the camera on his side, his face taking up the screen so that Dex could imagine the smell of his breath, the rise and fall of his chest.

“You can go with her, Dex, and get your money when the job is done, or you can leave here with nothing. The choice is yours.”

Fike upon fike.

Dex was truly and thoroughly star-screwed, backed into a corner that he couldn’t possibly get out of. Not unless he played Cyprian’s awful little game.

His guts roiled, just thinking of soaring away from here with Androma Racella at his side, on board
his
ship. The same one she’d stolen from him three years ago, leaving him bleeding and dying on that fiking moon.

He turned, slowly, to look at Andi.

This was a battle he’d lost against Cyprian. But there was cash on the line, hundreds of thousands of Krevs worth, and freedom for his crew.

He wouldn’t go down without a fight against this heartless girl.

He’d caught her, just as he’d set out to do. Now he just had to keep her in his grasp, a little longer, until the money was his.

So Dex, the best bounty hunter in the entire Mirabel Galaxy, stared deep into Andi’s gray eyes, put on his best game face and winked at her as he said, “It’ll be just like old times, love.”