Page 37 of Shadows of Stardust

“Name your price,” she says. “What’ll it take for you to stay and play out this charming little romance Geeno seems to think will resonate so well with our audience?”

I lean back in my chair and fold my arms over my chest, strangely comforted by her straightforward, unadorned opening salvo.

I can work with this.

“You first. What’s our time and cooperation worth to you?”

She looks me up and down, considering. “I already know what I can offer you to make it worth your time.”

“And what would that be?”

“Your rank. Restored. Your position with the Aux reinstated.”

Deep within my chest, my heart stutters, skipping a beat in a way I didn’t know it still could. It kicks back up in hard, aching beats, and though my face twitches, I keep it neutral. Calm. Collected. So Marva doesn’t know the blow she’s just landed.

I scoff. “Name something within your power to grant, and I might consider it.”

“You think it’s not? Two comms calls. A couple of favors cashed in from the deep pockets that fund production on this show, and you’re back in.”

Marva juts her chin up, fixes her mouth in a half-smile like she’s just waiting for me to try her.

A trickle of doubt lodges itself in the back of my mind, along with something that feels nauseatingly like… hope.

“Show me proof you can make it happen, and I’m in.”

The words aren’t even a choice.

A chance, any chance, even one as unlikely as this seems to be, is one I’m not going to pass up. To gain back my position, to get out of this fatesdamned assignment and back into the role I spent decades earning, to make good on my vow to go after the Aux’s recruiters…

There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for a chance like that.

“It might take me a couple of days to confirm. Can you give me that?”

“Yes. I can give you that.”

Fates, if she only knew the things I would give to see my life restored.

“And you?” Marva turns her attention to Roslyn.

All that burgeoning hope withers to nothing.

I can’t do this without Roslyn’s agreement.

And I won’t blame her for turning down whatever they offer her.

She’d be a reckless fool to agree to work with me, to pretend to bewithme for the sake of the cameras. I’ve already shown her she can’t trust me. I’ve treated her with suspicion from the moment she stepped on-world, and though tonight has shown my suspicions are more than justified, I know the damage is already done.

“A million credits has a nice ring to it.”

An exorbitant amount. Laughable, even.

I admire the gall of it, even as I wait for Marva’s flat refusal.

“Done.”

I don’t know who’s more shocked, Roslyn or I, but she speaks first.

“Done? Just like that?”

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