Unless Sret couldn't.
The power conduit chamber was empty—completely clean. Someone had taken even the dying citricite stone. Her hands trembled as she dropped the new stone inside and sealed it.
The lights flickered. Brightened.
And Adryel saw her roommate.
Sret lay crumpled near the kitchen, her body twisted at an unnatural angle. The cauterized blaster wound in her gut was black and cold. Hours old, at least.
But it was the moonstone fragment that made Adryel's knees buckle.
A small shard of pale stone, placed deliberately on Sret's chest. Moonstone from Orlicia—the same kind her archaeologist friend had given her on a necklace years ago. The planet was gone now, blown apart, making the stones rare. Expensive.
The Rhysgarrds left them at completed contracts.
This wasn't a robbery. This wasn't the policing guards.
This was a message.
Contract complete. You're next.
"Oh stars." Adryel backed away, her hand over her mouth. The vetiver and ash incense had been burned here, in her apartment, while they killed Sret. While they searched for?—
The safe.
Adryel bolted for her bedroom, vaulting over overturned furniture. They'd torn the room apart looking for it. Drawers emptied, mattress shredded, every panel pulled from the walls.
Except the one.
She shoved debris aside with shaking hands and palmed the hidden scanner. It stung as it verified her identity. The tiny compartment opened.
Still there. The data chip. Everything she'd heard, every name, every deal. Her insurance policy that had just become her death warrant.
She yanked it out and shoved it into her underwear, tucking it where no one would find it without a full search.
No time. No time to think, to grieve, to call anyone.
She grabbed a long coat, twisted her wild red hair into tight knots, and pulled the coat on.
They'd found her again. They'd killed Sret to send a message.
And Adryel was next on the list.
She ran.
3
STRON
A week later
Stron's father, a Coalition member, looked him up and down as he came out on the balcony of the family residence. “I have heard rumors that you have committed to helping Khalzin in his experiment.”
The wide forest spread out before them as they both appreciated the expanse.
At least, his father appreciated something.
He didn’t always appreciate Stron.
