Page 38 of Veiled Vixen

CHAPTER SIX - VALOR

I come to lying on a recovery chair and as soon as I open my eyes I recognize Lady Luck’s medical bay.

“Don’t move yet,” she says in her soft feminine voice. “Seline got you good right in the heart. You can’t talk to them like that anymore, Valor. They’re not adjusting to their new power very well.”

“What the fuck?” I say, ignoring her order and sitting up in the chair. Then I clutch my chest. Because I feel like I’m gonna have a heart attack. “Fucking princesses,” I croak out.

“I’ve sent for Nyleena. She should be here soon.”

I take several shallow breaths, trying my best to get my heart rate under control and suck in enough air to power my brain. And then I whisper, “How long was I out?”

“I’m not sure. You were dead for a little while. But luckily you were already here with me so I brought you back.”

“Fucking bitch,” I gasp. “I hope that little red-headed mongrel is going to be punished for that.”

“Not likely. She’s one of our best soldiers, actually. She had to shoot you to maintain her rank with her men.”

I groan as I swing my legs over the side of the chair and lean down to hold my head in my hands.

“If I may?” Lady asks.

“Sure,” I say, waving her on with one hand. “Say it.”

“The princesses harbor a lot of resentment towards Serpint and Crux right now. And the fact that you have been up there with them for almost six weeks isn’t going over well.”

I glance up at the ceiling. It’s a nice ceiling. Painted bright yellow. God, I miss that ceiling. I miss my old life so much. Why? Why does it have to be like this?

But then I rally. A little. Just enough to explain myself. “Veila just woke me up a few hours ago. I haven’t really been up there for six weeks, you know that, right?”

“I gathered as much when I accessed your implant health data. But no one else knows that.”

“So Luck thinks I’ve been, what? Up there cohorting with Veila this whole time?”

Lady says nothing. But I can feel the shrug.

“It’s not even a real rebellion,” I say. “So that’s just stupid.”

“It’s more real than you think,” Lady says.

“What do you mean? This whole thing is just a plot to buy time.”

“It started that way. But wars have a way of maturing when you’re not looking. Intentions and outcomes are often misaligned once you get past a certain point.”

“That’s dumb,” I say, mostly able to breathe again. “Luck knows why we left. Hell, it was Tray’s plan to start a princess rebellion in the first place. He had to know I was brought here in a cryopod. None of this was my choice.”

“The fact remains, Valor, you came back alone. And that was not in the plan. Where is ALCOR?”

“I don’t know. We didn’t pick him up.”

“What the hell have you been doing all this time?”

“All this time? I just told you. I was in a cryopod.”

“And the week before that?” And now I can feel the eyebrow raise. Even though she doesn’t have eyebrows in any shape or form. It’s body language and I’ve known this ship long enough to translate her silences.

“The week before that… the week before that Tray and I were inside a virtual. And then Veila got us, and then… well, most of what came next I’ve thankfully blocked out. I woke up approximately two hours before that red-haired psychopath shot me.”

“Seline,” Lady says. “Her name is Captain Seline the Red.”