Trials of Conviction, page 14
"What do you mean she's gone?"
Finn's face showed devastation, his pupils wide, eclipsing his irises. He looked like a man whose world had just been destroyed. "I didn't stop it."
Talon set a hand on his shoulder. "There was nothing you could have done."
Finn covered his face with his hands, his shoulders shaking as he lost control of his emotions.
"Would someone like to tell me what the fuck is going on?" Raider shouted.
Graydon ignored the question as he knelt in the place where Kira had disappeared, touching the ground where she'd last stood as he threw wide his senses. The ship faded around him as the universe flooded Graydon's mind.
A younger, less trained Tuann would have been overwhelmed at the amount of input. Their mind would have broken under the strain.
Graydon let the pain pass through him. Where are you, coli?
There. A trace.
Graydon opened his eyes. "I have her."
Wren knelt beside him. "Are you sure?"
Graydon struggled with the impatience that question caused. Of course, he was sure. He wasn't a man that made mistakes.
Graydon spared no attention for those around him, focusing on the increasingly tenuous connection. A single lapse in concentration and he'd lose her.
He closed his eyes again, concentrating on the ki he'd scattered into the air like a net the instant before the rift had snapped closed around Kira. His soul's breath condensed. He used it to rip open the remnants of the fissure in time and space the other man had caused.
Graydon strained, the tendons in his neck standing out as he forced it open a millimeter at a time.
"Holy shit," Raider exclaimed as the air screamed.
A breeze stirred, quickly becoming a gale as Graydon's ki manifested as black sparks in the cargo bay.
Finn lifted his head, hope replacing his devastation.
Talon quirked an eyebrow, looking impressed as Joule and Devon drew closer.
With one last cry, Graydon ripped the rift the rest of the way open. He staggered to his feet, fighting a spell of dizziness.
"I'm coming with you," Finn declared.
"Wait," Raider started. "Don't tell me. That crazy guy with the ability to rip holes in the fabric of reality took her."
"And Jin," Joule added quietly.
"Graydon, I'm her oshota. I need to go," Finn said, focusing on Graydon.
"You can't. It won't support both of us," Graydon informed him.
And if anyone was going, it was going to be him.
Graydon squared up with Finn, ready to flatten him if he tried to force the issue.
"You're not thinking of following her through that?" Raider waved a hand at the rift in disbelief. "Are you crazy?"
"Kira is on the other side," Graydon ground out.
Finn's stance eased at the human's interruption, the moment passing as the oshota ceded his duties to Graydon just this once.
"You're just as crazy as she is," Raider muttered.
"Would you rather I abandon her?" Graydon asked, sending him a hard look.
Raider sighed and shook his head. "Of course not. Curs don't abandon each other. No matter what fucked up rift they wind up on the other side of."
"Glad we have that settled," Graydon spat, turning his attention to the rift.
"Make sure you bring her back," Wren said.
"There was never any doubt of that."
As if Graydon would let anything stand between him and his coli.
"We'll meet you on Rothchild," Graydon told the others, stepping through.
Wren’s voice followed him into the darkness. "Good luck. May the Mea'Ave protect you."
Nine
Kira - Somewhere else
The rift spat Kira out in the same manner in which she entered. Tumbling backwards, ass over tea kettle like the newbiest of novices. As if she hadn't spent nearly every day of the past 92 years training to be the biggest threat in the room.
Her back hit the ground hard, knocking the wind out of her. Dots of black ate at her vision. Her stomach heaved.
Don't throw up. Don't you dare throw up.
That would be the cherry on top of this sundae of spectacular failure.
Pallas sauntered out of the rift while she was still trying to get her bearings. "I was expecting more from that ship of yours. It's a tiny bit run down. Somewhat lacking as a flagship of House Roake's heir. What's the matter, Nixxy? Your house experiencing financial difficulties?"
"Pallas," Kira snarled.
The world heaved as she flipped onto her stomach. Kira was forced to stop and breathe lightly through her nose as the motion set the world to spinning.
Fuck spatial dislocation and her idiot brother. Tuann teleportation devices didn’t cause this kind of reaction.
No. This awfulness was limited entirely to the use of Pallas's messed up little ability.
"Is it because they don't support your suicide mission? Is that why they half assed your ship's retrofit?"
Kira tuned Pallas out, his babble a low drone as she pushed herself upright. Devastation settled slowly over her at finding herself no longer on the Wanderer. Or any ship for that matter.
Stone walls had replaced metal ones. The floor she knelt on was made from the same material. The chamber was massive. Not something you'd find on a ship in space.
Its architecture wasn't of human design. Not Tuann either.
This place felt old. And abandoned. Dust had accumulated on the floor and stairs, disturbed by Kira and Pallas's arrival.
Three steps as wide as the room's length led up to a landing. Beyond it was a giant door that seemed almost narrow given the breadth of the rest of the space.
"What the fuck did you do?" Kira's question was spoken in a low tone. Her manner outwardly calm.
Pallas pointed at his chest in fake surprise. "Me?"
Kira stared.
His hand dropped. "I thought you'd be more grateful."
"Grateful?" The word was almost a hiss. "You kidnapped me!"
He'd taken her from her ship. She was alone. Against the greatest trial she'd ever faced. On a planet whose location she didn't know the first thing about.
"You ruined everything! I had a team. A plan. And now it's gone."
He didn't even look sorry.
A deranged smile played on his face as he watched her meltdown. As if he found all this vastly amusing.
Should she just kill him?
Tempting.
Except the last time she’d tried, it didn't exactly end well for her. Three broken ribs. A shattered wrist. And so much internal bleeding the doctors were surprised she survived.
The only thing that had soothed her wounded ego was that Pallas had been in equal if not worse condition.
Pallas's smirk grew predatory. Practically goading her. Dancing on her last nerve. Tip tap. Tip tap.
"Someone is feeling spicy." Pallas pretended to shiver. "Go ahead. You know you want to."
"Don't push me," Kira warned.
"What's the matter, Phoenix? Afraid? How do you expect to accomplish anything if you're pissing yourself right out of the gate?"
The last thread controlling her anger snapped. Rage roared to the forefront of her brain.
Kira launched herself at Pallas, her hand withdrawing the sheathed akieri blade that had once belonged to her father. A flex of her ki and the blade unfolded, the pieces snapping together with a snick that made her soul sing. Almost as much as the glowing lines that riddled the length of the metal. Like fine cracks on an egg's surface.
Pallas threw his head back as he shouted with laughter. It stopped a second later. His smile insane. "Finally."
Kira slashed the akieri at him. "Fucking psycho."
He was just as unhinged as Kira remembered. Normal people didn't seek out constant battle.
Pallas watched the blade getting closer and closer, doing nothing. Only at the very last second did he shift backwards. Just enough to let the blade whistle past his nose.
"I've been looking forward to this," he informed her, his expression orgasmic. "You have no idea how much."
Kira reversed her slash, aiming the blade at his eyebrow and the stupid piercing winking at her there. "You talk too much."
A black shield blocked Kira's attack. Her arms shook with the force of the collision, the reverberation reaching all the way to her shoulders.
"Shall we dance, little sister?" Pallas taunted.
"I thought we already were."
Pallas's smile broadened. His wrist flexed. The whip he'd had concealed in his hand shot out, the end wrapping around the hilt of Kira's akieri. "Then let's get rid of this."
The sword was ripped out of Kira's grip. The blade remained for a brief instant before the lack of ki caused it to collapse back into itself. The hilt fell, clattering against the stone.
"We wouldn't want another accident," he said meaningfully.
Pallas tossed his whip away, holding up his hands to show he was unarmed.
"Fine by me."
Kira preferred it this way anyway.
She punched him in the face. The sight of blood spurting satisfying in a way that should have concerned her. What did it say about her that she got off on causing harm to another living creature?
Then again, his chortle as he wiped away the blood under his nose was worse.
Kira snapped a kick at his chest. "Fucking crazy asshole."
He took it without even flinching, his grunt the only indication she'd connected.
"My turn," he said with a bloodstained smile that should have warned her.
It was like something exploded as Pallas went on the offense. Kira was forced to retreat, taking a blow to her cheekbone. The second to her sternum.
She ducked, barely avoiding a backhand to the face.
"More!" Pallas screamed.
Kira turtled in on herself, using her arms and fists to protect her core and face, unable to cope as Pallas rained blows down on her.
"Is that all you've got?"
Kira erected a shield as he hammered at her defenses. It collapsed less than a second later.
"Gonna have to do better than that," Pallas called.
Kira sidestepped his next charge, wrapping ki around her fist and then sinking it into his stomach. His breath exploded out of him as he folded forward.
"How's that?" Kira snarled.
She hammered a fist into the back of his head.
Or at least that was her plan.
Pallas vanished, a cocoon of black energy enveloping him before it, and he, disappeared.
Kira whirled, her guard up to protect her from what she knew was coming. Only his attack didn't land from the direction she anticipated. It came from the side.
She had an instant to push ki out of that side of her body then Pallas was on her. He lifted her and threw her across the room.
Kira hit the ground and rolled.
Pallas barreled toward her as she fought to her feet. Two hundred plus pounds of pure muscle belonging to a sadistic madman.
Kira braced, only having time to think that this was really going to hurt. Then Pallas was on her.
The next few seconds were a blur. Kira a fury of fists and teeth as Pallas egged her on.
"That is enough!"
There was a clap like thunder as Pallas and Kira were shoved apart. A sheet of pure ki descended between them.
Kira panted, catching her breath. She was in a box. A prison. Temporary but a prison nonetheless.
Curious, she knocked her knuckles against the wall in front of her. It felt real. Solid.
No matter. She could break it. She just didn't want to waste her energy was all. Instead, she'd be magnanimous and leave it standing. At least until she got bored.
"Are you two children? What is wrong with the both of you?" Selene demanded, descending the steps to stalk across the room toward them.
Her sister's heart-shaped face was creased in a thunderous frown. The serenity that normally defined her personality missing. Her expression was all exasperation and frustration as she glared at the two she'd separated with her soul's breath.
Pallas didn't acknowledge her presence, pondering the smear of red on his fingertips as if he'd never seen his own blood before.
Selene made an aggravated sound as she switched her attention to Kira. "What were you thinking?"
Selene had not just asked her that.
"Are you blind?" Kira threw her arms out to indicate their surroundings. "Look around us, Selene. At where we're standing. You kidnapped me. Off my ship. During a rescue mission. A rescue mission aimed at saving Elena. You tell me what I should be thinking right now."
Selene sent Pallas a horrified look. "Tell me you didn't."
"She needed an extraction. I gave her one."
"I had a ship. A crew. Allies. How the fuck do you expect me to do anything now?"
Because the forty three sure as hell weren't going to help her. Kira had been down that road before. She'd be lucky if they stayed out of her way long enough for her to accomplish anything.
She'd be alone. Against a planet of her enemies. No back up. No plan. Nothing.
Buzzing filled the space. Like a thousand insects swarming together.
Sparks flickered from the spot where Pallas’s rift had deposited them earlier.
"That's impossible," Pallas snarled.
The air parted. A black slash opening as a figure leapt out of the void. He landed in a crouch.
"Graydon," Kira gasped.
Pallas stared at the emperor's Face with an expression Kira had never seen on her brother's face before. An emotion somewhere between repulsion and fascination.
"Pallas, how did this happen?" Selene asked, the intrusion leaving her unsettled.
She wasn't quite hostile. Yet. But Kira could see on her face what they were all thinking. That the forty three were not going to like this. Not one tiny bit.
At least, they’d blame Pallas this time.
Pallas shook his head, his expression locked down tight.
Kira stared at him in dawning realization. "You can't explain, can you? You don't know how he followed you."
How delightful. If she didn't already love Graydon, this would have changed her mind. Any man who could get the best of Pallas deserved her esteem. If only so she could worship at the altar of his greatness.
"It's not possible," Pallas hissed in a rare loss of control.
That was the thing about Pallas. As psychotic as he was, he never reacted from an emotional level. Everything he did came from cold, hard reason. And piss poor impulse management.
"He looks awful real to me," Kira observed as Graydon prowled toward her.
He looked her over, his gaze lingering on her split lip. The bruises already forming on her cheek and under her eye from the blows Pallas managed to land.
"You didn't actually think after that stunt in the palace that we wouldn't come up with countermeasures, did you?" Graydon taunted, his expression slightly murderous as he glanced at Pallas. "Naive."
Kira released a puff of air. Finally. Someone crazier than Pallas.
Jin would have loved this.
She aimed a resentful look at the J1N puttering around the ceiling. He'd been circling since their arrival, his 'eye' aimed at the ground.
Graydon glanced at Selene. "We meet again, Lady. It's good to see your condition has improved."
Selene dipped her chin in a respectful nod. "Thank you."
They each looked up at the man who'd appeared on the stair landing at some point during the chaos.
He was tall and lean with wire frame glasses that made him seem more harmless than he actually was. He looked like a scholar. Maybe a professor of some kind. The cut of his clothes did a good job of hiding the muscular physique that would have called that illusion into question.
"How is it that you both have more brawns than brains?" Alexander asked Pallas and Kira in a crisp voice.
"Fuck off," Pallas informed him, echoing Kira's sentiments exactly.
Alexander's expression tightened, his shoulders rising and falling as he fought for control.
"If you wouldn't mind releasing this," Graydon said to Selene, tapping the shield that held Kira captive.
Pallas sneered. "What's the matter? You can't handle something this simple?"
In a movement almost too fast for the eye to follow, he slashed a hand across Selene's ki shield. It collapsed, dissipating as Pallas stepped out of the cage.
"I could, but I didn’t want to be rude." Graydon bowed an inch in Selene's direction, his manner respectful but not subservient.
"You're acting childish," Selene informed Pallas.
He rolled his eyes, not responding as he stalked up the stairs. His path intersected with Alexander.
"Move," Pallas growled when the other didn't shift to allow him passage.
"There's plenty of room. Go around."
The two men faced off. Pallas on the step below. Alexander looking down at him with a superiority that would have made Kira want to smack him if she'd been in Pallas's place.
"Pallas," Selene rebuked.
Kira watched in fascination as the men stared each other down, their hostility thick enough to strangle. Admittedly, she and Jin hadn't spent much time around the forty three since becoming adults so she didn’t know if this level of antagonism was normal for them.
A boom from the chamber beyond the door ended the face off.
"Next time." Pallas shoved his shoulder into Alexander's as he moved past the other.
"Charming bunch," Graydon observed.
"You have no idea," Kira muttered, stepping out of the cage as soon as Selene dropped the walls.
Graydon probed the wound on Kira's cheek. "He got you good."
She winced, avoiding his touch. "He has a habit of doing that."
The skin over Graydon's features went tight.
Kira caught his hand before he could do anything unwise. As dangerous as he was, the forty three were united. Any threat against one was a threat against all. Even Graydon would have a hard time against such odds.
"Explain what's going on, Selene," Kira ordered as her sister came up to stand beside them.
"I can't," Selene confessed. "Pallas's orders were to check on your condition and facilitate an extraction in the event you were being held against your will. He was never supposed to kidnap you."
