"Careful isn't always enough." He pockets his device. "But yes, we'll prioritize her extraction. Though I should warn you, Briar might not be grateful. Some humans resist being rescued.”
I don’t miss the look he gives me that says, just-like-you’re-resisting.
"I understand. But the baby?—"
"Will have a chance at freedom. You have my word and my thanks for all you’ve done.” He moves toward the door, then pauses. "RememberEve, the Sovereigns are neither monsters nor saviors, and if the time comes, use the poison on them.”
“I’d never make it out of the Spire alive if I killed them.”
“No, but you would go down in galactic history as a three-person Romeo and Juliet death. You’re already in the history books. And you would be immortalized by Terra Ka,” he says. “No one thinks they’re the villain the moment they decide you’re expendable.”
Gael bows and then walks away. I don’t see him disappear but he’s completely gone now, as if he had been an apparition, leaving me alone with my fear.
I can’t kill Rafe and Lorian. Can I?
I don’t think any more wrongdoing can undo the evil I’ve done here. Every human pet I’ve checked in, every kiss I’ve enjoyed with Rafe and Lorian. Every minute I’ve slept in luxury…
Even if I killed my alien lovers, I still couldn’t be a saint for humanity. I’m damned, and I choose it. I have betrayed everyone. The Sovereigns, Terra Ka, the human competitors… everyone.
I am a handmaiden for the Devil.
But not because I’m entirely evil. Because I must do the Devil’s work with the hand I’ve been dealt.
And the Sovereigns aren’t inherently evil either. They don’t pretend a cage isn’t a cage. They polish it, weaponize it, eroticize it—but they never lie about the bars.
However, I feel like Terra Ka lies to me and to themselves. They say think they’re better than me and the Sovereigns because the suffering they demand from their followers is only temporary, because it serves a future they’ll never have to live inside. Every time they ask me for something—another schedule, another reroute, another name—they’re not asking if I can survive the fallout. They’re asking if I’m willing to die for their cause. I’m just a temporary number, one of the countless humans, dying for Terra Ka’s cause.
The Sovereigns want me alive, complicit, and breathing because of who I am. But Terra Ka would be satisfied to immortalize me as a saint as long as I was useful enough.
That thought chills me to the bone. Gael was right about one thing, the galaxy is painful and messy. And none of us are clean.
I will help Terra Ka, but I won’t kill for them.
52
WHEN THE LIGHTS COME BACK ON, RAFE
This isnothing like last year. Thank the goddesses,I think as the Championship arena transforms before us, reality bending as the Bond Breaker Challenge takes shape. From our VIP box, I watch holographic walls rise and shift, creating a neural maze that will test the bonds of this year’s champions, Aefre’s pets, Ember and his new partner, Ash.The champions must navigate the maze, identify their true partner, and retrieve the artifact together before time expires. Choosing the prize alone is a victory, but a lesser one.
Eve sits between Lorian and me and is a vision designed to distract. The Reima Two dress she’s wearing is little more than strategic strips of purple fabric held together by chains. Her makeup is dramatic, with eyes lined in gold that catches the arena lights, and her human lips are painted a deep crimson. The jewelry she selected marks her as ours: a collar-like necklace that holds her IDand a matching bracelet with her liaison pin. She's playing a part. Being what we need her to be for Jin Kol and the other dignitaries. But I see her obvious tension as she emotionally bleeds through the performance.
"Remarkable," Jin Kol observes from his seat to my left. "The neuralsynchronization between the pets is quite advanced. Almost... unnaturally so.”
"Aefre is the best trainer in the galaxy," I reply. "His methods produce the best results, and he wasn’t going to make the same mistake as last year.”
Jin Kol says to Eve, “Last year, Ember’s partner died in this same challenge. He was heartbroken for a few minutes. Do you think he still remembers? I mean, do all humans have a memory like yours?”
Eve gives him a fake smile. “I’m sure he doesn’t remember a thing,” she says pleasantly.
On the arena floor below us, Ash and Ember navigate the first phase of the maze. Their movements are perfectly synchronized, each anticipating the other's movements before they're made. The crowd roars approval as they dodge a series of plasma bursts that would have incinerated lesser pets. They’re impressive to watch.
Eve's small hands clench in her lap, and I place my own over them.
"Steady," I say. She must be exhausted in every way a person can be after this past week. Not only from witnessing the Grand Championships, but from lack of sleep.
But it’s thanks to her that Gael has been caught. We were going to tell her we knew what she’d been doing, transferring information to Terra Ka. That’s why Lorian sent the guards to get her on that same night after the formal dinner, but at the last second we decided not to tell her. We didn’t want to tell her that we’d used her. Instead, we made love to her, and erased all traces of her betrayal in the system just liked we’d always planned to do.
Below us, the Bond Breaker intensifies. Holographic illusions spring up around the pets, false versions of each other designed to confuse and divide the pair. I watch Ember strike down three fake Ashes without hesitation, recognizing the deceptions instantly. The real Ash does the same with his duplicates.
