“I am thinking about them. Which is why I need you to promise me you’ll stay up here.”
“I will. I already promised Beckett.”
“Did you?” Ian asks, and the look he gives her is inscrutable. She returns it with interest.
“Okay, are we ready?” Max asks, stepping in front of Beckett and breaking whatever weird eye contact was going on between her and Ian.
I’ll ask him about that later, when everything is done. Right now, we all have bigger things to focus on than some new petty conflict.
Everyone but Rain and I slip on breathing masks—apparently, we’re the two fragile flowers they don’t trust to go out there, besides Gage, who’s staying on the bridge in case we need to make a hasty getaway. I get why I’m not allowed out, but what about Rain? I thought she’d want to meet Beckett’s mother.
I start to ask, but she doesn’t seem in any better of a mood than Beckett. I guess I’m not the only one freaking out about what’s going to happen next.
The Starlight’s ramp lowers, and the others head down while Rain and I wait in the airlock. But when it comes time to bring the ramp back up, Rain doesn’t press the button. Instead, she puts her mask on and steps back through to the top of the ramp. At first, I think she’s going to disregard the plan and go down there anyway, but then I realize she’s just watching. And that I can, too, without breaking my promise to Ian or Beckett. With the mask on, no one will have any idea who either of us are.
So I slip on my breathing mask as well and then join Rain at the top of the ramp.
This meeting is to pick up the weapons the rebels have brought for us and to make sure we arrive on Delta V47 at the same time. They’ve spent hours finalizing the plan over the last days via the comms, and I think everything is finally in place.
I mean, it better be, since it’s time to go. And there are no second chances to get this right.
I just hope this meeting goes well. If it does, it will make it so much easier to believe that all the other death-defying steps between us and Milla and Jarved will go well, too.
Chapter 92
Beckett
I’m going to throw up. I never get nervous, but right now my palms are sweating and I can’t catch my breath. I tell myself it’s the oxygen mask—ever since I woke up on the Caelestis, I’ve had a fear of being trapped or closed in, and breathing masks definitely give that feeling.
But I know it’s not the mask. It’s everything that happened with Rain—and the uncertainty of what’s about to happen with my mother. There’s a part of me that thinks we’ll all be fine. That my mom is going to keep her end of the bargain and we’ll get back on the Starlight and fly off to the asteroid just like we’ve planned.
There’s another part of me that knows her better than that. Even thinking she’s got the better end of the deal here, between the jewelry and her daughter, she’s still going to look for an edge. Still going to look for a way to make sure she’s the one who comes out on top. After all, she hasn’t lived as long as she has as the leader of the Rebellion without being more canny than any opponent she comes up against.
I’m afraid she thinks that includes her own daughter. If that’s the case, then I have no idea what she’ll do. I just know that a double cross isn’t entirely unheard of.
I haven’t said anything to the others, but I don’t think I have to. Ian and Max came up in the same school of fucked-up knocks that I did, and they’re always prepared for the worst. I just hope this time that preparation is unnecessary, on all our parts.
Once we’re on the ground, I glance back up at the ship, and my gaze locks with Rain’s. She waves a little when she sees me looking, and the pain in my head—and my stomach—gets a million times worse. I can still smell her on my fingers, can still feel her body moving against mine.
I can’t believe that was the last time.
My mother’s shuttle has already landed about a hundred meters from the Starlight. And as we walk toward it, the door opens and the ramp lowers. Two people appear—Vix and my mother, with translucent breathing masks over their faces.
I step forward to greet them, Merrick on one side of me and Ian on the other. Looks like my mother isn’t the only one here with protection. But as we reach them, it’s clear their attention is not on us. They’re staring at the heptosphere as it floats a few meters off the ground right behind the Starlight.
“What the fuck is that?” my mother asks.
“That’s the heptosphere,” I answer. “I told you about it.”
“I didn’t think it would be so big.” She shakes her head. “We certainly live in strange times, don’t we?”
“They’re getting stranger by the minute,” Ian answers.
I shoot him a look, but he stares at me blandly in response. Then he turns to my mother and says, “Good to see you again, Marlina.”
“And you.” She nods before nodding at Merrick and Max in turn.
I introduce her to Merrick, and though I don’t say he’s a member of the Sisterhood, her gaze narrows in on him as if she knows exactly who and what he is. Then again, my mother has been everywhere in Senestris—even the Wilds—and she hears stuff from everywhere. It wouldn’t surprise me if she knew Merrick was the high priestess’s bodyguard.
“Now that everyone has gotten to know one another, do you have the weapons?” Ian asks. He’s really not one for small talk, but I don’t blame him. He’s been waiting for this day for a long time.
My mother nods to Vix, who walks to the shuttle and enters a code to open the cargo bay doors. Inside are three black metal boxes of what I hope are weapons.
Max and Merrick walk over, pull out the boxes, and bring them to where we’re standing. As they do, I notice my mother checking out the Starlight again. I turn to look, but I don’t see anything amiss.
“Do you mind if we do some inventory?” Ian asks.
My mother’s grin is sharp. “I’d be insulted if you didn’t.”
The guys open the boxes and check the contents. I catalog them, too, from where I’m standing. Laser guns, flash grenades, smoke grenades, explosives—more than we should possibly need. But Ian and Merrick both believe in preparing for any eventuality, and I can’t say that I blame them. The only people trickier to deal with than the rebels are the Corporation. No matter how smart and prepared you are, they’ll always find a way to screw you over.
I definitely have firsthand experience with that.
“Everything look okay?” my mother asks after they pack the lids back on.
“Looks good,” Ian agrees. Then he holds his hand out for my mother to shake.
She takes it, grinning as she looks him right in the eyes. “Pleasure doing business with you,” she tells him. And then, as quick as a shooting star, she whips the laser pistol out of her hip holster and fires—straight at the top of the Starlight’s ramp.
Straight at Rain…and Kali.
“What the fuck?” Ian exclaims, but I can tell from the look in his eyes that he already knows what’s going on.
He tries to rip the gun from my mother’s grip, but she kicks him in the balls, then fires up the ramp again and again and again.