“Then you could’ve taken her power for yourself.” Another councilor gives him a disgusted look.
“No.” He shakes his head. “I could’ve stopped this disastrous circle from forming.”
Kyte’s mother leans back and sighs as if the weight of the galaxies is on her shoulders. “Her destiny was set before she was born, Bartanz. No last-minute plan hatched in your over-eager mind was going to stop this circle.”
“I had to try.” He loses some of his bluster, and fear enters his gaze. “We have to keep her close now. Closer than ever. If the Sentients ever got their hands on her …” He blanches.
“We are aware of the danger.” Kyte’s mother straightens, bearing her burdens with enviable ease. “The peril is even closer to home now that my son is part of her circle.”
Bartanz finally softens, his viciousness receding as he gives her a look that verges on empathy. “I’ve never been blessed with my Omega, much less with a child.” His face hardens again. “So, for Kyte’s sake and ours, we have to keep the Sentients from reaching her. That was my only reason for claiming her as mine.”
“It didn’t work, and now, because of your rash actions, the circle has formed in such a way that the Sentients are such to have felt it.” Councilor Oruntian shakes his head.
“Bartanz is right. She’s not one of us.” Councilor Danelleria stands. “But sheisa weapon. One we must hone and use to our advantage.”
“She’s a cadet. And she’s my son’s Omega,” Councilor Ellarian snaps. “We will not be using her for anything.”
“She’s more than that, and you know it!” Bartanz approaches the long table, standing in front of Councilor Ellarian. “Hermotheralmost tore the fleet apart in the Great Calamity! Hermotheris out there right now planning to destroy us all and set her Sentient hordes loose across the galaxies.”
“Even so, her mother must remain a hero in the eyes of the fleet, and we will continue that legacy by allowing this circle to remain under our protection, continue at the academy, and when the time comes, allow them to fight if they so choose.” Councilor Ellarian’s tone is even, measured. “I have the votes, and this is the way it’s going to be. Discussion over.”
Bartanz grits his teeth but takes his seat at the table without argument.
Kyte’s mother turns to him, her eyes hard, and her demeanor like granite. “Above all, we must maintain that Nox is a fleet hero. Her legend is one of the few things that unites all our peoples. Keep it that way.”
I back away from the screen as Kyte ends the recording. Jeren is shaking his head.
My thoughts stutter and stop, then try to move forward again, but I cannot grasp the enormity of what we just heard.
“Nox.” Kyte leans back. “Nox is her mother.”
“But Nox is dead, right?” Jeren sinks into his co-captain seat and sends another feeler out for Lana.
“Is she?” I gesture at the screen. “Sounds like she’s alive.”
“Not just alive.” Jeren must be stunned, because he doesn’t have a knife in-hand. “She’s leading the Sentients.”
Kyte rests his head in his hands. “That deep part of her, the one I could never unlock.” Fear edges his voice. “Maybe I couldn’t get to it because someone was blocking it off. Maybe Nox is the only one with the key.”
“What will happen if she unlocks it?”
Kyte shakes his head. “I don’t know. But Lana will hurt, transform, become something that the galaxies have never seen before. If Nox is her mother, the power we’ve attained through the circle may be just the beginning, just a taste of what Lana can do.”
“We have to find her. To warn her.” I snap my eyes shut and reach for her, walking carefully down the thin, narrow bond. Kyte and Jeren follow, their steps silent as we enter her subconscious.
“Lana!” I yell for her.
She flickers into view, her mouth open in a scream, though no sound comes out.
We run for her, our desperation coloring the space around us in hues of sickly orange.
But she turns away, darkness engulfing her as scorching blue flames light at her feet, crawls up her body, then burns her away. Her ashes float briefly and fall between my grasping fingers until they fade, too, and nothing is left but the dark.
39
Lana
Iwake with a jolt, my body and mind sluggish as I try to blink away the spots and fuzz. When my eyes clear, I find myself sitting in a chair in a vast room with black walls and a wide view window.
