Kira was betting this was how the Osiri kept Elise under control all these years. By keeping her vulnerable. Her soul half-starved and locked down tight to protect itself.
With her weapon formed, Kira peeked over the bed to get an idea of the situation.
Strange.
She hadn't expected to find Pallas in such a sad state. Like her, he was having trouble accessing his ki. It left his normally ironclad defense full of openings that their assailant had taken advantage of. Blood leaked from several holes in his armor. One at his shoulder. Another in his thigh. A third in his abdomen.
Pallas glared in the direction the shots had come from, not quite out of the fight yet. A junkyard dog baring his teeth in warning.
The person hiding tsked as something solid hit the metal walkway. Probably the discarded clip they'd burned through in their ambush.
A woman sauntered out from behind the bank of metal cannisters lining the opposite wall. "I should have known our enforcer wouldn't be taken down by a trick like that."
Kira stared at her in surprise. "Thea."
Without the face paint that Thea normally hid behind, Kira almost didn’t recognize the woman. It was the first time she’d seen Thea’s true face since the camps.
Her gaze trailed down Thea’s body, taking in the Consortium made battle armor. The exact type and design that Lieutenant Himoto's co-pilot had worn. Right before they bailed out of a crashing ship.
"You followed me."
"It's a good thing too." Thea waved the muzzle of her pulse pistol, the make and model identical to what Centcom pilots were issued, at the other. "Otherwise, you'd have had to face Pallas alone."
Pallas stared at the other woman with an emotion Kira didn’t quite know how to classify. Rage seemed too mild a term for what was in his expression. A relentless intensity. As if he wished to burn Thea alive with his gaze.
There was also a startling ruthlessness. Something she’d never seen aimed at another member of the forty three.
"He's the traitor, I take it," Thea declared, unbothered by the way he was looking at her.
Pallas bared his teeth, the look in his eyes nearly feral.
"It certainly has been made to appear that way," Kira said softly.
Seconds before she'd been so certain. Not so much now. She'd been too distracted earlier by her hurt and anger over Pallas's culpability in the moon's explosion to really think about things.
Thea threw Kira a careless grin. "Who would have thought the forty three's enforcer was a traitor?"
"You're not angry,” Kira said softly.
What was it Diesel had said? That a woman approached him with an offer he couldn't resist. Pallas was many things. A woman he was not.
She couldn’t see him working with one to set up the Vega either. For something as sensitive as that, he would have wanted to be hands on. Like he was with the moon.
Kira studied Thea. "Why aren't you angry? I'm furious—and I'm an outsider."
Thea was one of the forty three. There should have been some sign she felt betrayed. Rage and hurt that someone she trusted had broken her faith so thoroughly. Not this cheerfulness. Like this was a game where the stakes didn’t really matter.
"Pallas—did you betray the Vega's position to the Tsavitee?" Kira asked.
Pallas spat on the ground. "No, I didn't."
Thea lowered her weapon, her expression affable. As if she didn't understand—or maybe care was the better word—what Kira was insinuating. "He killed your friends. Are you really going to believe a thing he says?"
"He never denied his role in their deaths."
If he was willing to admit to that, knowing how Kira would react, why deny the rest?
Elena poked her head over the wire cradle she was hiding behind. "Auntie, Thea is the name of the person mother entrusted me to. She was supposed to bring me to you if anything were to happen to her."
Rage slammed through Kira as she looked at her former sibling. "You fucking bitch."
Thea was responsible for everything.
Behind Thea, Pallas gave her a tiny signal. On three.
Kira's expression was fierce as she stared Thea down, not daring to look away from her for an instant.
Thea dropped her head, her shoulders starting to shake.
It took Kira a moment to realize she was laughing.
"You always were so smart," Thea said, wiping the tears from her eyes with one hand.
"I'm going to kill you," Kira informed her.
Her primus hammered at her psyche, begging for release. Kira resisted. Elena was too close to allow it out.