I head down the ramp. “Let’s get this over with.”
“Stay safe!” Kali calls after us.
It’s the first time anyone’s ever said that to me, and it feels good. I can’t help grinning as I set foot on Glacea—something I never thought would happen. But knowing Kali’s waiting for me back on the ship is kind of nice, even if we still have some shit left to work out.
“A lot of shit,” Max comments.
I snort. “Why do you have to rain on my parade?”
“Oh, it’s a parade now, is it?”
“Better than the shitshow we’re used to.”
“Isn’t that the truth?” He claps me on the back as our boots hit the ice and snow that perpetually line the streets of this frozen shithole.
It’s early morning, so it’s especially cold, the weak sun illuminating the ice and snow around us but doing nothing to actually warm us up. I pull my jacket more tightly around me as we set off through the town, Beckett in the lead, since she knows where we’re going.
I’ve tried to get the location out of her, just so I could scout it a little from the Starlight and make sure it’s safe. But once a rebel, always a rebel, and there’s no way she was giving the exact coordinates of their stronghold to me.
Which makes sense, I guess. But I still hate going into this thing not knowing. Beckett may trust her mother, but that doesn’t mean I do. There are a lot of stories out there about Marlina Orsgood, and none of them are good.
But time is running out, and right now, this is the best option we’ve got. Fuck, even if we do get the rebels to help, there’s no guarantee we’ll actually succeed at this. We could all die in the attack, though I am working on a plan that should at least keep Kali and Rain safe. If it all looks like it’s going to shit, they’ll take the Starlight and evacuate as fast as they can. Gage as well, probably. He’s a lot of things, but he’s definitely not a fighter. The guy is basically a walking head injury, for fuck’s sake.
Obviously, I haven’t actually broached this with any of them yet—something tells me Kali will be particularly ornery about it. Doesn’t mean I’ll care, but I think I’ll leave the conversation until I absolutely have to.
Beckett slips a little on the ice in front of us, and I speed up so I can grab her arm and keep her from falling on her ass. She of course repays the favor by snarling at me and shrugging me off. But not before I get a good look at her face.
She’s pale, and despite the cold, there’s a sheen of sweat on her forehead. I make a mental note to stock up on the painkillers she’s been popping like candy lately, but the truth is, I don’t think they’ll fix whatever this is.
“You’re sure this is the right thing to do?” I ask for maybe the hundredth time in the last few days. But Milla’s life depends on us not fucking up, so we have to get it right.
Beckett blinks at me like my words are taking a second to register. When they finally do, she says, “No. Actually, I think we should all get back on the Starlight and go visit Kali’s mother instead. See if she’ll help us.”
I do hate sarcasm. In anyone else.
Max chuckles, and I send him a fuck-off look, which only makes him laugh harder.
I don’t know what he’s got to be so happy about. Except for the fact that Beckett has given us a real chance.
I’ve always suspected saving Milla is a suicide mission, but now, I think we may actually have a possibility of succeeding. But only if we can convince the rebels to help us.
We’re walking through the town now, and though it’s still closed up—it’s early yet—the place actually seems quite prosperous, especially compared to the other side of the planet, where everything is shit.
The houses are brick and solid-looking. There are a lot of stores that seem to carry pretty impressive goods. And there are even stores selling some decent-looking food.
Definitely one of the richer towns in the system.
Makes me wonder if that’s a rebel thing or if there’s something else going on here that I don’t know about. It doesn’t matter, I guess, but I don’t like mysteries. And I especially don’t like mysteries that involved unexplained money, because it usually means there’s more to worry about than I thought.
For most of the Senestris System, the Sisterhood of the Light isn’t the organized religion. Greed is, and people will do anything for a buck.
I make a mental note to dig a little deeper into Sorcha when we make it back to the Starlight.
If we make it back.
The wind kicks up again—there’s nothing money can do about the fact that Glacea is a meteorological shithole—and I hunch against the chill as we traverse several more streets, winding our way deeper and deeper into the center of the town.
I don’t like how far away we are from the edge of town and the Starlight. But I’m not calling the shots here; Beckett is.
She finally stops in front of a tavern called the Dancing Varnook.
“We’re here,” she announces, and for the first time, she looks a little nervous.
“You good?” I ask. Maybe her paleness has more to do with meeting her mother than her actual sickness.
“Worry about yourself,” she snarls before pushing through the heavy double doors. Max and I exchange a look—here goes nothing—then follow her inside. It’s dark after the sunlight, and I take a moment to let my eyes adjust.
The room is bigger than I expected, with numerous tables—all empty at the moment—and fires already built in the fireplaces at both ends. I gravitate toward one of them, but Beckett coughs and nods toward a door at the side of the bar.
A tall man with a black beard stands in front of it, a gun on either hip and a scowl on his face. Beckett heads over, with Max and me right behind her.
“It will work,” he tells me.
“It had better.”
The man, who’s clearly Permunian like most of the rebels, doesn’t speak. He looks us over, his face expressionless, before opening the door and nodding at us to enter.
The room beyond is much smaller, with a second door opposite and no windows. But there is a fire, and I can feel the warmth sinking into my bones. I really, really, really hate this fucking planet.
There’s another problem, though. There’s no one here but us. Maybe Beckett’s mother isn’t coming after all. Maybe she’s decided she doesn’t trust us.
“She’ll come.”
Max is being annoyingly optimistic. “And you’re being a miserable bastard.”
I lift a brow. “You mean a realist?”
At that moment, the door at the back of the room opens and a man enters. This one isn’t Permunian. At a guess, he’s from Serati. He’s tall and broad and just big in every direction. His skin is swirled, his eyes are a dark blue, and he has a head of bushy black hair that looks an awful lot like Max’s when he doesn’t get near a barber for a while.
Beside me, Beckett makes a little shocked sound. My hand goes automatically to my own weapon, but then she’s running forward.
The giant opens his arms, and she leaps right into them. Then he swings her into the air with a belly laugh that fills the room.
“Well, that’s something you don’t see every day,” I tell Max.