Page 19 of Only Cold Depths
Zane shook his head. “You stupid, stubborn fool. You’re going to get yourself killed, and her along with you.”
“Perhaps,” I admitted. “But I’d rather be dead than be Holloway’s battery or wind up in some Techwave lab, and I’d rather die fighting for Vesper than anyone else.”
“Iwillcatch you,” Zane snarled. “And then the two of us are going to have a reckoning.”
“Do your worst, Zane.” I snapped my fingers again. “Oh, wait. You actually have tofindus first, something you are failing at miserably.”
“The two of you have led me on a merry chase, but all good things come to an end.”
I eyed him, but Zane stared right back at me, his face calm. As with many strong psions, his telepathy and telempathy often canceled out my own abilities, and I couldn’t tell if he was bluffing or if he really did know where Vesper and I were going. The other Arrow had always had an excellent poker face, and I had never been able to read him as well as I wanted to.
A faint noise sounded on Zane’s end of the holoscreen, and he looked at something I couldn’t see. After a few seconds, Zane focused on me again.
“Duty calls,” he drawled. “Tell my little sister I hope she recovers quickly from whatever injury you inflicted on her with your stubbornness.”
“Fuck off,” I snarled.
Zane smirked back at me. “See you soon, Kyr.”
He sliced his hand over his holoscreen, cutting the connection.
For several seconds, I glared into the empty space where his smug face had been. Then I shrugged off my anger, hit some buttons, and ran a diagnostic scan on the encrypted channel he had used. Zane was nothing if not clever, and it would be just like him to bait me into a conversation so he could try to track the signal back to theDream Worldand get a lock on the ship’s location.
The scan came up clean, thanks in large part to all the security measures Daichi had installed. But Zane hadn’t even tried to trace the signal, which made me even more wary.
Did Zane realize we were going to Sygnustern? But how could he possibly know that? Vesper and I didn’t have any obvious allies among the Erzton, and the group’s leaders would be reluctant to take us in, since that could severely damage the Erzton’s relations with Callus Holloway and the Imperium.
Still, Zane’s parting words indicated he hadsomeplan to find us. The other Arrow had always been a tricky enemy, and in some ways, he was the most devious and dangerous person I had ever met. Zane’s cleverness was another thing he had in common with Vesper.
But what annoyed—and worried—me the most was that he was right. Vesper was in danger every single moment she was with me, and sooner or later, someone would get the better of us. Zane, the other Arrows, another group of bounty hunters, some criminal conglomerates looking for a quick payday. Then Vesper and I would be captured and shipped back to Corios, to suffer Holloway’s wrath.
I just wondered how much longer Vesper and I could keep running—and what would happen when our luck finally ran out.
CHAPTER SIX
VESPER
Ididn’tlikebeinghealed by a medtable. It was awkward and uncomfortable and a giant hassle to just lie there, trying to be still, while dozens of tiny robotic needles stabbed into my body and stitched everything back together. Plus, this particular table was equipped with a smug feminine voice that seemed to enjoy trapping me in a plastic bubble like a mammoth butterfly and then cheerfully listing my many injuries.
“Severe burns detected, along with a deep puncture wound and significant nerve damage. More skinbonds needed . . .”
But the one good thing about the medtable was its truly excellent and extremely effective drugs. It injected me with skinbonds, antibiotics, and other medicines, including some anesthesia that sent me straight to dreamland—or at least, my version of it.
One moment, I was lying on the medtable, staring up at Kyrion’s worried face, and trying not to let him sense just how much my injured arm was hurting. The next, I was standing in a long corridor in an old-fashioned castle—Castle Caldaren, Kyrion’s home on Corios.
Relief rushed through me, along with another round of cool, soothing chemicals. I had been dreaming about Kyrion’s castle ever since I was a child, long before I had ever met him or set foot in the real-world Castle Caldaren. Despite all my visits, I always found something new to admire, from the crystal chandeliers sparkling overhead, to the elegant tables and chairs made of real wood, to the dark blue rugs underfoot that featured silver arrows and stars stitched in beautiful paisley patterns.
A grandfather clock bellowed out the hour like a stodgy butler. I ran my fingers along the wooden case, and the bellowing faded away, replaced by a steady, easytick-tick-tickingthat pleased my engineer’s heart. A few months ago, the clock hadn’t worked, but I had used my seer magic to repair it, the way I did so many broken things.
Too bad I could never seem to fix myself, especially when it came to my magic.
My mood soured, and I dropped my fingers from the clock and trudged onward.
Despite the beautiful furnishings, the castle seemed frozen in time, as though it was holding its breath and waiting for Kyrion to return home. Right now, our plan was to stay on Sygnustern until we figured out how to defeat Callus Holloway, but I had no idea how long that might take.
Holloway controlled the full weight, strength, and resources of the Imperium, including the support, however reluctant, of the Regals, along with the Imperium soldiers and his own personal Bronze Hand guards. Plus, he was an extremely powerful siphon who could absorb energy from a variety of sources, including blasters and other weapons.
Kyrion and I needed our own weapon to defeat Holloway—like the Techwave cannon, which could cut through a psion’s magic and body in brutal, horrific fashion. I was hoping that if I fixed the cannon, it might be powerful enough to nullify Holloway’s siphon ability and let Kyrion and me finally kill him.
