The ship opens to my handprint. “I guess my DNA is just bad enough to work.”
As we move to board the ship, a trail of warping gunfire scorches our path. Elix caves under the power of the blasts. His body launches away from me as I lean away to shield myself from the fire.
“Zariah!”
I swivel from where I crouch on the ground to glare over my shoulder at the familiar voice. Seeing his wretched face confirms my doubts. “Faked it again, didn’t you?”
He shrugs inside his long black leather coat. Wrinkles have deepened among the scars since I saw him last, and the red tracework of augmentations seem to have replaced more of his body, from his eyes to his fingers.
“This is why.” He motions his rifle back toward the clash of his forces with my brother’s. “Anyone who wants my spoils will try for it at some point. The difference is the cowards try it when they think I’m gone. They are often the self-proclaimedloyal servantswhen I’m alive. This is how I weed them out. But I admit, I never expected to see you come and try to take it.”
“I’m not. That asshole you used to praise over me captured us and forced me to open the doors. I don’t want anything from you.” I find the courage to get to my feet, though I was rarely afforded such honor in his presence.
I’m not living under your rule again.
“So you ran from me,” he says, sounding almost surprised. “You weren’t taken?”
I’m caught off guard by his question. “Of course, I ran! You were going to sell me to Daglin as a bride in exchange for a ship like I’m some sort of product to be traded!”
“You’re female. You have one purpose: serve males.”
I scoff. “You’re disgusting and narrow-minded.”
“Oh, come now.” He rolls his eyes like I’m being petulant. “Your life was not that horrible. I’ve seen women treated far worse.”
“You’re right. I should be grateful for your beatings and the scraps of food you gave me when you didn’t have me risking my head in some jungle of puzzles in search of these treasures you guard with your life, let alone tossed around like a plaything for your guards.” A bullet skips off of the ship from the distant battle and makes me duck. “It seems I had another purpose. And you know what? I still find what I’m looking for.”
He shifts between his boots, making his cloak sway, exposing the hoverpads in his heels. My father’s upgraded a lot since I left. “So you did come to take back what you found. You’re lying to me like everyone else!”
I shake my head. “I’ve had a lot of time to think about things, and you know what saddens me most?”
My father grimaces like he’s anticipating something distasteful.
“That you wasted your intellect on stealing instead of building and that you’ve surrounded yourself with so many greedy people that you can’t see the genuine ones. But I guess that’s why Mom left you and died alone.”
One of his scarred cheeks twitches.
“She loved you when she was younger. That was until you came and took us away.” I think back to finding her again after I’d escaped his ship. She’d moved to a different camp but didn’t have the funds or the skills to get a ride off of the planet. “You destroyed something more precious than all of your gold, credits, and gemstones.”
He growls as he charges toward me. I lift my rifle and fire at him, but his shield is impenetrable. My father knocks the rifle from my hands, invading my shield like it doesn’t exist.
Then he grabs me by the vest and shoves me against the side of the ship. “You shut up! Do not talk to me in such a way, you insolent little shit! Ineverwanted you!”
“I think you did.”
My father looks over his shoulder and sees Elix standing behind him, then drops me. “What do you know, serum goblin?”
Elix stands calm and ready, iceblade handle tight in his palm. “Love opens a world of tenderness we can’t afford in the business of war. And it scares us to be so vulnerable, which is why we try to destroy it, block it out of our minds. Yet it is the only thing that gives our otherwise meaningless lives purpose. That clash of dreams—power versus love—can drive anyone insane. But I guess when you’re used to living in denial,Branthor. It makes you not see what’s standing right in front of you. Don’t recognize me do you?”
I steady myself as I listen to Elix and realize he’s speaking from his core.
“I’d know your smug face, anywhere.”
“Really?” Elix rhetorically asks. “If you knew who I was, you would not have hesitated to kill me. But you murdered thousands of my people. So of course you wouldn’t be able to sort my green face from the others, not even after I’d put a blade through your side or stabbed you in the back after you ran your blade through my neck. At least you have bad aim. But you know who doesn’t?”
My father growls. His body tenses.
“Your beautiful, powerful, gifted daughter who has given my life purpose.” Elix tosses a device over my father’s head toward me.
