Page 61 of Phoenix's Last Heist
“But on Xylothia, what Kraxis said about the idol…” Orion trails off.
“Look, I’m going to level with you about the idol—” I begin, deciding it’s time to trust Ranger Righteous with at leastsomeof the truth. The fact that he told me about the Dark Star is…well, it’s pretty fucking huge. And heavy. It means he trusts me at least a little, and maybe,just maybehaving someone on myside as I try to tear myself from Brill’s clutches won’t be such a bad idea after all. For the first time in a long time, I don’t feel like I’m carrying the whole universe by myself. That terrifies me more than the Dark Star—more than Brill—ever could.
At least, that’s my thinking when Evie patches in over the station’s comms, informing Orion and I that the salvage station is about to be boarded by the crew of theEdax Deorum.
16
orion
Dark Stars and Broken Hearts
After the initialflash of panicked terror in Lyra’s beautiful face, there’s a grim resignation that disturbs me even more.
“How far did we get with the repairs, Evie?” she murmurs, numbness sluicing off her in waves.
“Not far enough, Pinky Pie,” Evie sighs over the comms. “I’m sorry. They must’ve tracked you here after the jump. Either that, or their ship wasn’t as badly damaged as you thought.”
Her words land like ice in my gut. There’s a stillness in her—a kind of fatal calm I’ve seen when someone’s already accepted they won’t make it home. It terrifies me more than the fleet closing in. Shame and guilt erupt in my chest, settling aside the self-loathing that took up residence when I saw Lyra overhear my conversation with Evie. If only I’d been a better shot. If only I hadn’t let her down. If only I’d been the man she deserved to help her win her freedom. If only I’d had time to tell her about Xylothian matehood and how I really feel about her. I’m going todrown inif onlys before I make it back to Xylothia. That is,ifI make it back.
The look on Lyra’s face makes me wonder at the likelihood.
“I have a plan,” she says, eyes glassy with gathering tears.
“I already know I’m not going to like it,” I rasp, threading my fingers through her criminally soft hair.
“I’m going back with Kraxis,” she says, her tone steely despite the single tear that traces a line down her cheek. “To Ooneryx.”
The words slice through me. Ooneryx. Brill. Chains I thought she’d escaped snapping shut again. My pulse hammers so hard I feel it in my throat.
“Lyra…”
She’s already up, tugging me with her outside our temporary room and back down the corridor.
“We need to get back to the ship.Youneed to get back to the ship. Sneak aboard, take the idol, and hide out here until we’re gone. Then I need you to borrow one of Evie’s cruisers and pilot it to Epsilon-6,” she says.
Epsilon-6? My mind stutters. Why there? Who’s waiting for her?
A thousand questions claw at my throat, but what spills out is only panic—because every part of her plan sounds like goodbye.
“What?!” I shout. “Are you out of your mind? First of all, I’m not abandoning you to whatever cruel punishments Kraxis and Brill have in store for you. Secondly, I’m not about to sell the most critical piece of Xylothian history—and the map to a world-ending weapon, I might add—to some buyer for a few million credits!”
Lyra jogs down so many different twists and turns, I lose track of where we are. She, however, seems to have a very good idea where she’s going. She motions for me to keep my voice down, then pushes me into an empty service hover-vator that immediately lurches downward. It’s oddly quiet inside the metalroom—the only sounds the softwhooshof the station decks flying past us outside as we descend.
“My contact on Epsilon-6 isn’t a buyer,” she says, blowing out a breath. “He’s a Fed.”
A Fed? For a beat, I can’t breathe. My thoughts slam into each other like debris in orbit as things coalesce. There’s a man waiting on for her Epsilon-6—a man she trusts more than me. A fissure opens inside me, equal parts confusion, jealousy, and relief. She’s been risking everything not for greed, but for freedom—and still, she didn’t tell me.My brows lift and my mouth drops open, but before I can fire the million brewing questions at her, she winces apologetically.
“After my last job went so wrong and Iathos screwed me over—literallyandfiguratively—I knew Brill was going to lose it. I didn’t know what he would do for sure, but I had a pretty good idea.”
My gut twists. I can see it so clearly now—her recklessness hiding desperation. The nameIathosspikes fresh anger at him, at Brill, at myself for ever letting her think she had to fight her battles alone.
“I mean, stars, a month before I shipped off, I’d just watched him disembowel a Void Stalker with his bare hands because he didn’t like the tone of his voice. The fucker is unhinged on agoodday. So, instead of heading back to Ooneryx immediately, I stopped off at Epsilon-6 to hide out for a bit and figure out what to do. I was already half-way through an insane plot to slip some Uranian ice wort into his nightcap when an undercover agent approached me. Said he was with the High Crimes Unit and that they’d been after Brill for a long time with no success,” she explains, rushing through her words as the hover-vator begins to slow.
“This is insane,” I cut in, disbelief tangling with my sense of betrayal. It burns through my ribs like acid, but it’s mixed upwith admiration. She’s been walking a knife’s edge between two devils, trying to carve a way out. And still, she never told me the truth or asked me to help her.
“You’re working with the Feds? You’ve been working for them this whole time and you didn’t tell me?”
The hover-vator stops, but Lyra holds the button to keep the doors closed.
