Page 65 of Phoenix's Last Heist
Evie’s gaze could strip paint off a wall, but she keeps her mouth shut. Instead, she pushes a button on her desk and the door to her office slides open with thehissof compressed air.
Kraxis grins, inclines his head, and motions for his crew to leave. One of them rounds on me, grabbing my arm and shoving me through the doorway roughly.
“Ow! Watch where you’re going, corpse-licker!” I snap, pulling back to throw a look over my shoulder.
Evie’s rage melts in an instant, and she looks at me with apprehension.
“I’ll transfer some credits for the repairs,” I call to her. “And thanks for…being there. Thanks for everything.” I want to say more, but I can’t risk it with Kraxis breathing down my neck. Ifhe senses the affection I have for her, it will make her just as much of a target as Orion is.
Seems everyone who gets close to me ends up in my own personal blast radius.
He’ll say it wasn’t my fault. They always do, the people left behind. But I’m tired of the math of loss. Someone always pays, and so far it hasn’t been me—not really. Maybe that’s what Brill will fix.
“Be safe out there,” she returns, her voice thick with emotion, as if she already knows I won’t be.
As the team of Void Stalkers marches me down the corridor toward the launch bays where our ships are parked, my stomach turns to ice. Each step feels like it’s carrying me closer to my own execution. My palms are slick, my throat dry, my heart a trapped animal in my chest. Pain lances through my chest when I consider the danger I’m in and the possibility that this might be the last time I see Evie and theHephaestus. It’s not the first goodbye that’s gutted me today—but it might be the last one I ever get to make.
Stars, if there was ever a time to get on my knees and beg for the benevolence of gods and goddesses, it’d be now. Unfortunately, I’ve never been a favorite of the omnipotent set and the only person I’d happily get on my knees for would be better off hating me for setting him on a collision course with fate.
Forgive me, Orion.
“Take her below and put her into confinement,” Kraxis snarls at the Void Stalker gripping my arm.
“Hold on,” I snap. “I need to make sure my ship’s fuel cells are intact. If they were damaged, they’ll need to be offloaded before you tow my ship. Otherwise, you’re risking scooting through space with a ticking time bomb in your tractor beam.”
Kraxis narrows his eyes, but nods. “Garbak, go with her. If she tries anything, bite off one of her fingers. Brill doesn’t needallher appendages.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” I shoot back. “You don’t know what I can do with my fingers.”
The disgust on Kraxis’s face gives me a perverse sense of pride—malicious compliance is the only thing that’s keeping me from completely falling apart.
I take a deep breath as I climb up the ramp to theAldrin, silently hoping that Orion has taken the idol and is already long gone. Peering around the ship under the pretense of checking for leaking fuel cells confirms my hopes and hollows out my insides at the same time. Some of Orion’s things are gone, and the stasis cabinet in the lab is empty. Satisfied, I return to the cockpit where Garbak is waiting, scowling at me and snapping his jaws every few minutes to remind me of what awaits my disobedience. He pushes past me toward the ramp and growls for me to follow.
Pausing at the threshold of my ship, I notice Spike’s absence from the console. For some stupid reason, the sight drops my heart into a shredder. I only have a few moments to do what I need to, but the thought makes me want to scream and cry and throw up. I don’t want to do this, but I know I have to.
I suck in a breath, trying to force the words past my lips before Garbak can realize what I’m about to do.
“Ada,” I say softly. “We’re on our way back to Ooneryx. You know what that means.”
If you would like me to enact the Yanvin Protocol, I’ll need your voice key and consent to process.
Everything in me aches with despair. This is my point of no return. I know what I need to do, but crippling sadness lodges in my throat, snaking into my lungs and squeezing my heart. Why am I always on the losing side of things?
Garbak finally turns and realizes I’m not right behind him. Growling and gesturing from the bottom of the ramp, he stomps back toward me hurling a litany of Void Stalker obscenities.
I’m doing this for Evie. I’m doing this for Orion. I’m doing this for my parents—for all the people of Xylothia. I’mnotdoing it for me because stars know I don’t want to.
Voice key and consent to process, Ada pings again.
“So long, Ada, and thanks for all the memories,” I choke out, eyes burning. Tilting my head back, I belt out the chorus to David Bowie’s “Starman” at the top of my lungs. Tears stream down my face as Garbak finally reaches me, backhanding me hard enough to make me stumble down the ramp.
Voice key and consent to process acknowledged. Initiating memory wipe. Goodbye, Captain Lyra Phoenix, and good luck.
A cheery tone echoes through the hangar and a robotic voice—not Ada’s—follows.
Welcome! I’m your Advanced Digital Assistant and Navigator. To select your ship’s preferences, just sayMenuand we can begin.
Kraxis stalks over and yanks me off the floor by my hair. Pain sears my scalp, but it’s nothing compared to the cavernous agony in my chest.
