“Are all your friends this rude? Being the child of a Hellspawn I expected as much.”
“Watch how you speak about my mother, meat,” Jack spat, her beast moving under the skin of her face.
As far as threats went, calling someone meat when you were an opportunistic predator that had no problem eating sentient beings, was a damn good one.
Rathal sniffed, his chin lifting. “And uncivilized as well, how surprising.”
Jack’s growl was low pitched and rumbling. Had she been in the garden with us, we’d have felt it in our chest. Someone threw a wadded up ball of paper at Jack’s face, bouncing it off her forehead. “Quite growling at Rathal. He’s your older cousin. Play nice,” Hella said from off screen, humor making her voice almost pleasant.
Jack’s head jerked and then she squinted at Rathal as if she needed to see him better. “No he isn’t,” she scoffed. She waved her hand at Rathal. “Look at him!”
Rathal cocked his hip and put his free hand on his waist, giving Jack an annoyed look, like what you would give a child who’d gotten the math question about the four apples wrong. “We are related. A thousand times removed to be sure, but I am kin. Which makes me clan and not edible. Sorry to disappoint.”
Jack stepped away from Ohem and leaned forward towards the camera so she could show us her sharp teeth. “Eaten doesn’t mean dead, bitch. You don’t need both legs to live.”
Rathal huffed, looking down at me with wide eyes. “Your friend is a psychopath.”
I nodded, playing the long suffering martyr. “I know. It’s a disease. She can’t help it. Have pity on her.”
A grin spread slowly across his face. “Ah. Why didn’t you say so? Allowances must be made for the unfortunate.”
Jack growled, the muscles under her gray t-shirt bunching like she wanted to punch us and the fact she couldn’t pissed her off to no end. Ohem’s crumbling mountain chuckle had me biting the inside of my cheek so I didn’t laugh.
“I’m afraid you’ve brought this on yourself, my love. I told you you should have come to the briefing earlier. Your mother explained who Rathal was,” Ohem said, his hands coming to rest on Jack’s shoulders so he could pull her into his body.
Jack huffed. “I was being swarmed by fifty of my little cousins. I had to save my shoes.”
Rathal cleared his throat and draped his arm over my shoulders, pulling me into his side. I kept the content, lovesick sigh from escaping my mouth. No need to antagonize Jack any further.
“As much as this sparring has been entertaining, I’d like to get back to the task at hand. I don’t have all day. Regarding yourfriend—the unstable one—I can gather my mercenaries and send them to Tuanov to assist in repelling the Unity, but whatever reprieve I could provide would only be temporary. Even if we manage to kill most of the invading force, the Unity will just send more. What is Hella’s plan for a long term solution? Are the Rijitera going to war?”
The sound of a chair sliding backwards across wood flooring was loud in the pause between question and answer and then Hella walked back into the view of the camera and took her place beside her daughter and Ohem.
“The only way to stop the Unity for good is to crush them; mind, heart, and soul. We have to take Solaris. Conquering their home world will break them. We kill their Councilors, and I am sorry, my son, but your father must die as well,” she said, her softening gaze landing on Ohem.
We’d discovered during the battle of Korsal that while Ohem’s brother Rakis was the face of the corruption inside the Unity, it was Ohem’s father that was the whip driving the whole thing. The former Councilor had been a busy bee behind the scene, instructing his eldest son on what pieces on the chess board to maneuver.
The lies and cover ups went all the way back to Ohem’s ancestor A’tens, who’d manufactured the Red Plague that destroyed the Rijitaran Empire and killed billions. Who then went on a campaign of erasure of anything Rijiteran, including a hunted purge of survivors down to the last child. He did this not by combat superiority, but by hiding the live virus in a jewel that was delivered to the Empress as a gesture of good faith. This fact was erased. The genocide was spun as some great victory of war, a defeat of a deadly and unrelenting enemy through valiant warfare. The existence and use of the Red Plague struck from all records so that the Unity were the heroes in history. Jack had killed Ohem’s brother during the Battle of the Plains on Korsal,but it was only cutting off one head of the hydra. Ohem’s father was the heart of the beast, and he needed to die for us to win.
Ohem’s monstrous face looked grim, but he nodded stiffly all the same.
“I know.”
He wrapped his arms around Jack and she clutched his forearms, stroking his skin in a soothing gesture.
Hella placed her hand on Ohem’s shoulder but kept her eyes on us. “We will be en route within forty-eight hours. TheVengeancecan travel to Tuanov in roughly three days. Once we jump in our element of surprise will be gone. The Unity will know of the Rijiteran Awakening. ”
Goosebumps raised on my arms as she said the last part, reacting to the gravity in her voice. We were going to be a part of a historical event that would shape the trajectory of our part of the universe. People would read our names in archives and texts in future history classes and hold discussions on our actions. Kids would write book reports and make powerpoints about the battles and victories. Here’s to hoping we were on the side of the angels. Looking into Hella’s eyes and seeing the fires of vengeance burning in them made me a little nervous. I could see cities burning in their brown depths, with her standing over the blackened ruins, blood on her claws and a roar echoing over the screams.
I looked at Jack, who watched her mother with a determined look on her face. I sure hoped Jack had a plan on how to deal with the aftermath of a Rijiteran victory, because I didn’t want to be trading one tyrant for another and something told me her mother would be a hell of a lot harder to stop if she went off the rails.
“That’s fine. We can get ready by then. I have quite the little armada built up now. Do try not to be late,” Rathal said, rubbing his hands together like a knock off Bond villain. His accentgained richness in his excitement. What was it with aliens and fighting? Most of the individuals I’d talked to acted like war was a fun pastime.
Jack and Hella’s eyes met and some silent communication passed between them before Jack returned her attention to Rathal. “You can’t attack until we get there to engage the Dreadnaught. It’ll just crush you and no matter how many ships you have, you’ll never get through its shields. I appreciate your enthusiasm though.” She gave me a sharp look. “Callie, wait for Aga. You’ll need his help to pull this off.” She dipped her chin to give me the full force of her wolf’s stare. “I know there is going to be a lot of shit going on, and the planet is in danger and there are a few billion lives at risk, blah, blah, but I’m asking you to make Patty and Rema your priority. Find them. Rathal and his pirates can handle the Unity Insects when they swarm the capital. Please.”
I read the unspoken part in her face. None of this would be worth it if our friends died. We joined because Jack loved Ohem and she was hellbent on killing anyone who threatened him, but if we lost every single friend along the way, what was the point of winning other than revenge?
“Understood. I’ll find them.”
