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“No, no.” She patted his hand, missing the first time and slapping at the air. “But thank you. You’re so nice. So nice.”
There. A twitch in the smile. No ordinary customer would notice, but Inez had trained for years to notice every slightest change in emotion. It was the foundation of a star-maid’s training. “Have a good day and enjoy the bounties ofParadise.”
“I will, I will.” Inez pushed off the guest check-in counter and wandered back to her charges. No eyes followed her. She was just another drunk girl on theParadise,destroying her liver without a care in the world.
Inez hadn’t ever been so careless. Not since she was nine, at least.
When she reached her charges, she didn’t stop walking. “This way.”
They followed her like lost ducklings. Poor things. She didn’t know much about their pasts, but her contact in the Star Network said they were all recent escapees. Inez remembered that fear. She had been convinced the Sollirians were going tofind her for almost a year after she settled on Artema, a planet on the far side of the galaxy and a place of refuge for enemies of the Sollir Empire. Even now, within the empire’s borders, an old fear gnawed at her gut.
And anticipation, too, an emotion she never admitted to her psychologist.
The closer she was to the empire, the closer she was to her daughter.
Inez pinched herself. She didn’t let thoughts of Soriya distract her on her missions. One day, she would locate her daughter. Someone in the Star Network would learn something. She would make a plan.
It would succeed.
She entertained no other option.
Inez tapped the button to a transporter, and it dinged like an elevator before opening. The four star-maids squeezed into the square space. Within a minute, they were at their floor and within another, at their door. Inez waved her wristlet before the door’s scanner. It clicked open to reveal a single-room suite, with two hovering double beds, a kitchenette bar, and a small circular table near a window overlooking the planet below.
Tertia. The planet she had once called home. Where her daughter was born.
Inez glanced away from the windows, moving to the side and letting her charges in before the door locked behind them. Hannah went straight to the bathroom, whereas Rana sat robotically at the table and Astro wandered the space, examining his surroundings. It was a tight space to be locked in for twenty-five days, reminiscent of the dorms in the Star Temple.
At least no one would rip them out of their beds every morning at dawn to run laps around the property.
Inez settled into the seat across from Rana. The other female’s eyes were locked on Tertia. From above, the planet lookedundeveloped, barren, but through the perception shield, a whole civilization lived and prospered. Thousands of star-maids served their archlords, sharing the power of their very life forces so the lords could generate stronger magic.
Inez wanted to take her charge’s hand, but she didn’t dare touch her without consent. “Can I get you anything, Rana?”
Rana’s gaze flickered her way. She gave a quick jerk of her head.
Inez stood, planning to get the female a glass of water anyway. It had been hours since they left the Star Network base on Tertia. Surely they could all use a drink.
Inez plucked a glass from the kitchenette’s counter.
Someone knocked at their door.
Inez’s fingers slipped. She clawed for the glass, but it was gone, the cruise ship’s artificial gravity dragging it to the floor. Inez flung out a hand—
The glass halted in the air and flew backwards into her grasp.
She stared. Rana stared. Astro stared. Hannah, who’d exited the bathroom at the knock, stared. Inez examined the glass like it held all the secrets in the universe. That was impossible. She hadn’t moved an object with her mind since—
Inez dropped the glass. It shattered against the ground. “Fuck.”
Hannah gripped the bathroom door frame. “How did you—?”
Inez pulled the kitchenette drawers open. Where was a sharp knife when she needed one? She settled on a fork and twirled it in her grip. The things she could do with kitchen utensils when motivated. “Get ready for a fight.”
“A fight?” Hannah paled. “What are you talking about? How did you use Sollirian magic—”
Armed with her fork, Inez marched to the door and pulled it open. Rana scrambled from her seat and Astro pulled a small dagger from within his coat. Star-maids trained in combat inthe event rebels attacked an archlord and went for their power source. Inez could thwart a hunter or two, but none of them were meant to fight an archlord.
Even if it was an archlord she knew.
