Merrick is looming over me, face concerned, a large, rough hand held out to me. I grasp it, and he pulls me to my feet.
“Are you all right?” I ask because he still doesn’t look well.
“Of course. I was just worried about you. You were out cold.”
“I hit my head, I think. But it’s fine.” I pat his arm to reassure him. “You won’t have to go back to Sister Grinor and tell her you’ve failed and she has to wait for the next high priestess to awaken.” At least not just yet.
He shudders, his tan skin going sallow. “Don’t even think that.”
See, he cares, even if it is just about keeping the high priestess safe. I know it’s not exactly the same thing as caring about me, Rain the person, but at least it’s more than the nothing I used to have.
I peer through the smoke and spot the princess. She’s with the guard who helped us—Ian—and they seem to be having a…contentious conversation. “Come on,” I say to Merrick, “let’s join the others.” Before the two of them kill each other.
“Just keep your hands to yourself,” I hear the princess snap as we draw closer. She’s looking a little frayed at the edges. Literally and figuratively.
Ian snarls. “I was just helping you. Again.”
“I never asked for your help.” She draws herself up, then catches sight of us and neutralizes her expression. “Rain, I’m so glad you’re okay.”
“Thank you, Your Highness.” I smile as I realize I got it right.
I glance at Merrick to see if he noticed, but he just shakes his head at me, which makes me smile more. We’ve been together long enough that I even know why he’s shaking his head—high priestesses are supposed to be concerned with less worldly things.
But then my short-lived pride in myself dies because there are people screaming somewhere, and they clearly need help, and the space station is collapsing around us, and there’s a very good chance we’re all going to die.
And despite the reassurances that, according to the scriptures, I’ll be reborn, I really, really don’t want to die. Especially not here on some cold space station in the middle of nowhere.
“Where’s that screaming coming from?” the princess asks, beating me to it.
Ian gives a jerky nod toward the end of the docking bay. “From there.”
“Where?” I frown as I look around. There’s a ship parked at the far end of the docking bay, close to the airlock. It’s considerably bigger than the shuttles, and—at least for now—it’s in one piece. It is lying on its side, though, and doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere anytime soon.
“There are people in that big ship all the way at the end?” the princess asks. “Why?”
He gives her an incredulous look. “It’s a prison ship. I doubt anyone’s there by choice.”
“A prison ship?” she repeats slowly, like she’s really thinking about his answer. “But that doesn’t make sense. This is a research facility. Why would Dr. Veragelen okay a prison ship to land here?”
“I guess she’s just taking out the trash,” Ian answers, voice dripping with disdain.
Her eyes narrow on him. “What does that even mean?”
“She brings people here. For her experiments.” Ian is speaking slowly, enunciating each word. “And she has to do something with them when they’re no longer of any use. Don’t tell me you don’t know about the experiments?”
Shock flares on her face. Clearly, she didn’t. Neither did I—I haven’t heard so much as a hint of such a thing. I glance at Merrick, and he shakes his head. He doesn’t know, either. But there’s a ring of truth in Ian’s voice that makes it hard to doubt what he’s saying.
I wish my ears would stop ringing long enough for me to make sense of any of this.
Ian lifts a brow. “Nothing to say to that, Princess?”
“Stop messing with her,” Max says as he runs up. He’s bleeding from a gash on his arm, but he doesn’t seem to notice. Neither does Ian. “We need to go.”
“I was just waiting for you.”
Max frowns. “I was looking for Gage, but he’s nowhere.”
“Probably ran for cover at the first big bang. He’s not exactly the kind to care about anyone’s ass but his own.”
Max smirks. “I don’t know. From what I’ve heard, he likes all kinds of bangs. And all kinds of asses.”
“Shut the fuck up.” Ian shakes his head. “You’re shocking the princess. Not to mention the other one.”
Other one? Does he mean me? “I’m…not shocked.” I actually really want to know more about the different kind of bangs this Gage person likes.
Ian raises a brow but doesn’t say anything else to me. “We don’t have time for this.”
He takes off toward the so-called prison ship without another word.
“Come on, Princess Kalinda,” Max tells her, waving a hand to encompass Merrick and me, too. “We’d better get on that ship.”
“It’s Kali,” she murmurs. “And what—”
“Leave her,” Ian tosses over his shoulder. “We don’t need her.”
“You don’t know that,” Max calls after him. “What about an insurance policy?”
What does he mean by that? I glance at Merrick, but his face is deliberately blank, a definite tip-off that he and I are on the same page. Who exactly are these men? Not who they appear to be, I’m beginning to think. They definitely seem to know more about things than the rest of us. Does that mean they also have a different agenda?
Merrick touches my arm and leans close. “I don’t think we should have anything to do with these people,” he says quietly in Seratian. “We’ll find another way.”
I want to agree with him—something definitely seems off here. Trouble is, I don’t think there is another way.
“That ship is headed where we need to go,” Ian is telling the princess. “That’s all you need to know.”
“Not to be a killjoy,” the princess retorts, “but that ship is not going anywhere. Look at it. It’s dead.”
“We’ll get it moving,” Ian replies.
“How can you be so sure?” I ask.
He shrugs. “Because we have to.”
Max gives us a rueful smile and hurries after Ian. The princess looks at me, a definite question in her eyes—one I don’t have an answer to.
At least not until the Caelestis gives a particularly violent shudder, like the death throes of some great beast. Without a word or another thought, we take off running after them.
We’re halfway across the space when the ship’s doors open and a flood of people clamber out. They’re all in gray jumpsuits. Are these the prisoners, then?
Before I can ask, another explosion tears through the station, and the interruption of gravity on the Caelestis makes it feel like we rise several feet. I throw my arms out to steady myself as the shrill shriek of a new alarm fills the docking bay. It’s so loud it freezes all of us in place, and I clap my hands over my ears in a desperate attempt to shut out the noise.