“Sonara!” Jaxon’s voice followed close behind. “What’s wrong?”
But she faded into the mess of booths, passing by until she came to the closest finger of the fallen goddess. With trembling hands,she gripped the vines, hauling herself up with the others who climbed in hope of getting a better look.
Her palms stung as the prickly blossoms scratched at her skin. But she climbed, ever higher. Up and up, until she saw them coming along the mountain pass.
Adorned in red armor, riding on black two-wheeled machines that roared as if they held the souls of wyverns within…
The Wanderers had arrived.
Chapter 12
SIX MONTHS AGO
Beta Earth
Cade
It wasn’t hard to play a part.
After thirty-one years, Cade Kingston found it easy to slip into the act of being someone else. He kept thosesomeonesfiled away in his mind. He memorized their mannerisms, the way some of them smiled with half their mouths. Some stuttered in the face of fear, or acted a drunken fool, unable to utter out a single clear word.
Part by part, person by person, he kept them filed neatly away, ready to change himself out at a moment’s notice.
It was how he’d managed to claw his way up the ladder of this broken universe. How he’d managed to bite his tongue, grit his teeth, and keep quiet when Jeb was on one of his power surges. Jeb was a man of many threats, and Cade was a man of survival.
For himself.
For his crew.
Above all, for his younger brother Karr.
It was playing parts that allowed them to live their life with the illusion of freedom, because some was better than none. A starship could go anywhere, see anything, and yet it was the art of surviving that kept Cade crawling back to Jeb’s doorstep, dropping off the next lot of illegal goods every time.
It was several months ago, sitting in a holo bar on the northern continent of Beta Earth, that Cade finally played the part he’d been dreaming of playing for years.
Jeb Montforth lived and breathed smoke, and he’d blown a faceful across the table at Cade, the stinking cloud twirling right through the holo between them.
It was one of a dancing girl, half-naked and whole perfect, though nothing about her was real.
But Jeb liked perfection.
And he was less than thrilled about theStarfallgetting caught by the ITC.
Soless than thrilled,in fact, that he’d made the threat that brought out the hidden monster in Cade Kingston.
“We’ve had plenty of eyes on us in the past,” Jeb had said. “You screwed up, Cade. And now thanks to you, we have more eyes than ever before. I have half a mind to march down to the skyrise I’ve put you up in and tear your precious brother’s skin from his face. That would teach you, hmm?”
Oh, that smug smile.
Cade’s blood boiled while his mind said:Play the part. Protect Karr.And so he’d simply become the smooth criminal the man across the table had made him to be,Cade laughing along with Jeb as if he’d just made a stellar joke.
“You know my little brother does whatever I say, Jeb,” Cade answered, “and that means he does whatever you wish. Let’s not be rash. Punishing him isn’t the wise way to punish me. We both know who holds the power here.”
Jeb lifted his glass of swirling, glittering purple, and raised a scarred brow. “You’re like a son to me, Cade. But family isn’t everything. Mistakes have a way of breaking apart even the strongest of bonds.”
Cade nodded. “It won’t happen again, Jeb. I’ll find whoever tipped off the ITC, and deal with them.”
Here he was, groveling like a dog, even though his crew hadn’t done a thing to give themselves away. Nobody on his crew would have crawled to the ITC for a measly tip-off sum. It was Jeb’s fault they’d gotten caught.Jeb’sfault that they were docked indefinitely. The man had feds eyeing his every move.Of coursehis hired hands were bound to get caught, now and then.
