Then he’d join his parents in whatever came after death.
The queen mite ached. He hadn’t slept, hadn’t eaten, and the more he wriggled and tried to scratch at the queen mite, at the flesh that had healed and cracked open again, despite the anti-rejection medication Rohtt pumped him with each night…
The queen mite was slowly sucking the life from him. Twice, he feared Karr had almost noticed, from the plans in his quarters, and the bleeding on his chest, when they’d landed on Dohrsar. But Karr had messed this mission up in other ways.
This was Cade’s last stand.
His last chance.
And he would do whatever it took to finish the job.
The rubble cleared, and Cade climbed over it, past the point of the drill as he beheld the Antheon within. The pulsing black rock wasreal,nestled in the middle of a golden amphitheater, a ring of firelight casting a glow on the entire cave.
He’d done it.
Cade nearly wept as he walked forward, his eyes finding the Antheon. All the pain and the planning, all the lies and the sins he’d commited… it would all be worth it, when he commanded his prisoner army to rip it right from the Dohrsaran ground.
Cade reached the edge of the amphitheater, a grin blooming on his face.
But it fell, the moment he got a full view of the bottom.
“Karr.”
Damn him and his resourcefulness.
For there his little brother stood, alive and well and still without his S2 helmet. Cade almost didn’t believe it, didn’t want to trust that his eyes weren’t betraying him. But sure enough, Karr stood before the Antheon, his hair pushed back from his face as the rock itself seemed to sigh. To take a breath in and out, pull and release.
“You shouldn’t be here, Cade,” Karr said.
His voice echoed up the golden steps like a gunshot.
Cade swallowed, and held out his arms, considering how he’d perform this very last dance. How he’d get Karr to come back to his side, before all was lost. “Come here, little brother. It’s not too late to return to your own people. Your family, Karr. It’s all been a misunderstanding. We can keep yousafe.That’s all we want. Whatever effect this poisonous atmosphere has had on you… let’s remedy it together. Come back to my side. We’ll take the Antheon and soar away from here forever.”
His voice carried out above the strange pulsing of the Antheon. The sighing of some sort of sickly smelling wind. Just as Thali had told him, it wasalive.Like a creature in its own right.
“You can’t have the heart,” Karr said. “This job, and what you’ve done to these people to complete it… it’s not worth it, Cade. Stop now, before I stop you myself.”
Rohtt laughed out loud. “Fool boy. I should shoot you.”
“You willstand down,Rohtt,” Cade commanded. He glanced back over his shoulder, where his army was still clearing the rubble.
The drill itself had died out, smoking and smelling of turned oil. They’d have to dig by hand to widen the entrance, and if they dared stop… Cade would tap the control panel on his S2, commanding them to feel nothing but pain.
“This is the end,” Karr said, drawing Cade’s gaze back. “Stop itnow.”
The Devil stood at the bottom of the pit beside him, staring at Cade with a hunger—a hatred—that he had never seen reflected in the eyes of the living. There was the outlaw Jaxon,who Cade had traded and set free. And there was the beautiful young woman, Azariah, who had snuck inside the ship with the Devil. Finally, the illusionist Markam, who’d changed Thali’s appearance—but he was unconscious, lying beside them.
Cade stepped closer, the dark space calling to him.
“Come to my side,” Cade begged one last time. What had happened, in so little time, to change him? To make him choosestrangersinstead of his own flesh and blood? Cade had given everything,everything,to protect him. Was it the poisonous air? Perhaps it morphed the brain, changed the way someone thought. “Come back, and we’ll talk about this. I’ll tell you the truth, Karr. All of it.”
“The truth doesn’t matter anymore,” Karr said now. “It won’t change a thing.”
The small group drew closer to Karr and the Devil, hands flexing as if they were preparing for a fight.
“Enough is enough, Karr!” Cade shouted. Fury sparked to life inside of him. “You’re acting like a selfish child. I’ve brought you a gift. I’ve promised you a forever with it. Leave the heart. Come to my side, where you belong.”
“I don’t belong there,” Karr said. He smiled sadly. “I belong right here. I always have.”
