Ian and the princess are still on the floor. Probably thought it was the safest place. He’s sitting up, arms wrapped around his legs while she’s still lying flat out, eyes open, staring at the ceiling.
Even I have to admit Ian is a fine specimen of a man. I’d be tempted myself if I liked that sort of thing, which I don’t. Probably just as well. I’ve seen the way he watches the princess when he thinks she isn’t looking. I wish him all the luck with that.
Though I have to admit, her asking him to teach her to fight was…unexpected. And actually kinda cool. Which pisses me off.
My back is still bothering me, so I get up and stretch. “So,” I say. “After what just happened, should we renew the conversation about who wants the lot of you dead?”
“I thought we already went over this,” Rain says, sitting up straighter.
“Yeah, well, that was a whole new murder attempt we just lived through, so I think the sentiment bears repeating.”
Kali gets to her feet. “You don’t think it’s just people after the bounty?” she comments as she brushes herself down.
I roll my eyes. “The flyers said dead or alive, but even dead, they’d need bodies to prove it’s you all. And whoever that was, they were doing their best to vaporize us. No bodies, no bounty.”
“She’s right,” Ian says. “Whoever was in that ship wasn’t after the bounty. But it could still be whoever put out the flyers in the first place.” He shrugs as he gets to his feet before pulling a flask from his pocket and taking a gulp. “Or it could be someone completely different.”
“Popular lot, aren’t you,” I say. But it’s an intriguing mystery. One we need to find a few more pieces of if we actually hope to solve it.
If I’m being logical, I know it’s highly possible that it could be my group. Except, unless things have changed drastically since I’ve been away, we didn’t have the resources to take on a job as big as attacking the Caelestis. At least not without a lot of help.
“Maybe we just need to think it through,” Gage says.
“Don’t hurt yourself, big guy,” Max snarks back.
He just shoots Max a winning smile, then continues. “Who would want the princess dead?”
“Just about everyone in the system with a brain,” I offer.
Aw. She almost looks hurt. Which almost makes me feel bad.
Which, in turn, makes me lash out more. Because what the fuck does she have to be hurt about?
“What? You control the food and, through the Corporation, the technology. Where people live. What they do. How they die—which is miserably, by the way. The whole system is built around your time zones, your orbits, your years. Is it any wonder they hate you?”
She opens her mouth to argue, then shuts it again.
“Hey, the fact that the sun is failing isn’t Kali’s fault,” Max defends her. “Everyone is suffering.”
“You saw that dress she was wearing.” I turn to Kali. “You ever know what it’s like to think about drinking your own urine because you’re so desperate for water? Except you’ve got nothing to pee because it’s been so long since you drank anything.”
She looks away. Yeah, as much as I am coming to not full-on despise Kali, I hit a chord there. And it feels good. If she’s not all bad yet, I’m sure the Empress will guarantee that happens soon.
“So, you think it could have been the rebels?” Gage asks.
I shrug. “Who knows?”
Ian snorts. “Come on, Beckett. It’s not as though you wouldn’t have a good idea. Fly Free and all that.”
So, he knows. I did wonder. “How?”
“You talk in your sleep. Or yell, more like it.”
“Wait. You’re a rebel?” Kali demands. She’s got her hands clenched into fists now, and her face is suffused with rage. Or as much rage as a little princess like her can manage.
I narrow my eyes. Take off the mask I wear that hides my own rage. Which could bury her little candle of anger in one fell swoop, if I ever let it loose.
“You murdered my father,” she snarls.
“I didn’t, no. But I wish I had.” It’s a shit thing to say, but I don’t care. I’m sick of this little fuck always playing the victim.
Kali lets out a screech of anger and lunges for me. “We should have left you on the Caelestis to burn.”
Oh, goody, a fight. Even injured and recovering from who knows what, I’m more than up for kicking her candy ass.
I brace myself for a hit that never lands. Ian grabs her before she can get to me and holds her back.
“Spoilsport,” I tell him.
He rolls his eyes.
“The rebels blew my father up,” Kali cries out. “They killed him for their own selfish reasons—”
“And the Empress’s forces killed my father, just because they could,” I shoot back, getting in her face the way I’ve been dying to since the very first day. “Even though he wasn’t a rebel. Even though he had never been a rebel. They came for him in the middle of the night, tortured him to death right in front of me and my baby brother. And a few years later, they came back for Jarved. They kidnapped and killed him, too.” Or at least I’ve always believed they did. Now that I’ve been on the Caelestis, I can’t help wondering if he’s out there somewhere, locked up with Ian and Max’s Milla.
All I know is that I have to find out, so yeah, I’m down with following Ian’s lead here. If he finds Milla, maybe I’ll find Jarved.
“Okay, can we all just take a deep breath—” Max starts.
“I’m not done,” I snap at him before turning back to Kali. “You may want to keep living in your little fantasy land, but I’m sick as fuck of indulging you. Take a look around, Princess, at the people you’re traveling with. The people who have saved your life more than once in the last few days. Every single one of them, except maybe Rain over there, has suffered—badly—at the hands of your family. You think because we don’t whine about it all the time, it doesn’t count. That we haven’t been hurt just as badly or worse than you. But you’re wrong. The only difference between us and you is that we chose to save you anyway.
“You think I didn’t have the spaceship ready to go before you and Ian returned from your little adventure the other night? I could have left you to burn.” I deliberately use the same word she did a couple of minutes ago. “But I didn’t do it, and neither did they. Outlaw, murderer, thief, rebel. Looks like we’re all better than you and yours.”
Even though I know I should stop, even though part of me wants to, in this moment, I can’t.
“So fuck you, Princess, and fuck your whole evil little Empire.”
Chapter 33
Beckett
“Enough!” Ian roars in a voice that echoes through the bridge.
I contemplate not listening to him. But for once Ian looks like he means business. Besides, I’ve already said everything I wanted to, and now that it’s all out, I actually feel calm. Calmer than I have in ages.
“Is that true?” Kali whispers, looking between Ian, Max, and me.
“Kali—” he starts.