“They wouldn’t have done it without reason,” Karr said. “They weregoodpeople, Sonara.”
“As good as Cade?” she asked.
His words died on his lips. He looked past her, at the dashboard. “I should get to work here… I should get ready to eject us once we stop the power source. Before Cade finds a way in.”
She felt like time had frozen, like her skin had gone numb, the feeling spreading from the outside in.
Ten years of searching…
Ten years of hoping…
She had her answer. She had a piece of Soahmhere,the most evidence she’d ever been able to find to prove that he’d been taken, that this ship was the one who’d hauled him aboard. She should be elated, as if she were close to finding the rest of him.
But something felt final.
Like this was all she would ever discover of her brother.
Sonara placed Soahm’s necklace over her head, tucking the stone beneath her shirt to keep it safe. Soahm’s scent faded as she settled down on the ground beside the pod, trying to breathe in the last of him. But little by little, the aura was fading, as if it had held on long enough for her to discover it.
One breath more… and she sensed it no longer.
“I think I found the power source,” Azariah said.
Sonara glanced up, wiping her tears away.
The Princess stood over her, those dark eyes watching her closely.
“I am sorry, my friend,” Azariah said carefully. “We have both lost someone we love today, in different ways.” Sonara knew she spoke of Thali, her trainer and advisor and perhaps the only true family she’d ever had. “But we must finish the job we started. Only then, once the battle is won, can we take the time to sit and weep.”
The words were brutally honest, but there was not a hint of coldness to her voice.
Only strength without judgement, so far from how the royals in Sonara’s life had always behaved. And so different from Azariah’s own father, Jira.
“Come, Devil,” Azariah said. “Let’s finish this together.”
When she held out a hand, Sonara reached up and took it.
Chapter 31
Karr
Not long ago, he’d been in this very space alone, dreaming of another life.
Now Karr led the outlaws through the storage bay, past rows of tied-down crates that were now emptied. How long had Cade been planning this with Geisinger, while Karr drank his daylights out on Beta Earth, and ignored everything his older brother was loading onto the ship each night?
He hadn’t known the crates were hiding assault rifles, a massive electric drill, and—
God forbid he even think it—the mites that kept the Dohrsarans prisoner.
But then again, if he had… what would he have done, back then?
What level would he have pushed himself to, to stop Cade, before his eyes were opened by the people who walked with him now?
“It drops down lower,” Karr said, stopping before the small rickety ladder that led to the ship’s engine room. He’d spent plenty of time down here as a kid, hiding in the hard-to-navigate places.
Pipes slowly spat out steam, cooling the engine room as he climbed through the opening and down the rungs of the ladder, the others closely following.
“Cade can’t be running the force field on the ship’s power alone. That would have meant going into total shut-down mode, lowering the levels so that the only power was fueled towards the light-wall itself. And the mites… they’d have to have a constant source, too.”
