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“You need to vocally support the emperor whenever you are out. Whether it’s dress shopping, having lunch, or just walking down the street. He needs to be assured we stand by him and only him.”
Her mother nodded eagerly. “Yes, Badar. I can do that.”
“You have to, or we’re all dead, including Talyani. Not even her fame will save her if Shui discovers she is the half-sister of a cyborg.”
Talyani couldn’t believe what she was hearing. The news report wasright? The emperorhadrecalled the Cyborg Military Elite and was incarcerating them. Not just them but their family and friends.
Andher parents were planning on supporting him even though they knew it was wrong. Spinning to leave, she inadvertently caused a pebble to strike a pane of glass in the door.
“Who’s out there?”
Hearing her father’s footsteps quickly moving toward the opened door, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the earbuds she always carried. Sticking them in her ears, she bobbed her head up and down as if listening to something.
“Talyani?” When she didn’t respond, he touched her shoulder.
Shrieking, Talyani quickly spun around and dramatically grasped her chest. “Father! You startled me.”
His brows lowered, and he scanned the area behind her. “What are you doing out here?”
“I was coming to see you but knew Zau wouldn’t let me in, so I took my ‘special’ way.” She gave him a smile she knew he could never resist. “But then Kru sent me this new arrangement for my latest disk, and I couldn’t wait to listen to it. You know how I am.”
“I do.” Relaxing, he gave her an indulgent look.
“Do you have time to chat?” She glanced behind her father. “Oh, hello, Mother. Am I interrupting something?”
Her mother brushed an imaginary piece of lint from her sleeve. “No, dear, of course not. Your father and I were just discussing some upcoming social events.”
Talyani feigned surprise. “How funny, that’s what I was coming to discuss with Father.”
“You were?” he asked.
“Yes, I wanted to let you know I scheduled my next concert on Bionus, so I’ll be going off-planet in the next few weeks.”
He grimaced and shook his head. “Oh, baby, I’m not sure that’s a good idea right now.”
“Why, Father?” Her crystal blue eyes widened in confusion. “Is there something going on I don’t know about?”
“Of course not,” he immediately replied.
“Then I need to fulfill my contract. Otherwise, I’ll owe the promoter an obscene number of credits.”
“Yes. Well, we can’t have that,” he agreed.
“Well, I just wanted you to know. If you’ll excuse me, I want to listen to this arrangement again. Hopefully, I’ll be able to debut it on Bionus.”
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
Returning to her suite, Talyani began to pace. What was she going to do? She couldn’t let Shui send her half-brother to Tyurma. After meeting Nas all those years ago, her mother swore Taly to secrecy, telling her it would upset her father if he ever found out they’d met.
She hadn’t understood it then, but she’d obeyed her mother and never mentioned it. That didn’t mean she hadn’t kept in touch with Nas.
At first, she wasn’t sure how to do it, but after winning Worlds, she requested to perform for the soldiers who’d saved her, and her request was granted. During the concert, she’d been able to slip Nas a secure comms code. It allowed them to communicate and be involved in each other’s lives, although Talyani always revealed more about her life than her brother ever did.
After his father died, Nas would only say it was because of a cluster fuck. He’d also talked even less. For months Talyani hadn’t heard from him. She and the rest of Kirs were told their space forces had encountered a previously unknown species with deadly consequences, but their forces had been victorious. Those lost were honored as heroes.
Nas’s name hadn’t been on that list.
Still, she hadn’t heard from him. She’d been ready to go to her father for help when Nas finally reached out.
During the alien confrontation, he’d been badly wounded and decided to enter the Cyborg program. If she thought he’d been distant before, now it felt as if there was a universe between them. He only ever contacted her on her birth day to wish her well, then would disconnect. None of that mattered, though. He was her brother, and she wouldn’t let him die on Tyurma.
She just needed to figure out how to prevent it.
