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What would happen to me if he lost control?

I look up to Otho’s battle-brother.

“What’s your plan, Lazar?”

Lazar eyes, still darting from building to building, turn to focus in on me like Orb-Beams.

Those eyes are cold. Grey. Inhuman. Every time I look into those eyes, I’m reminded of how different he is to me. Our similarities – arms, and legs, and the common tongue – are overshadowed by our differences. How could I fathom what goes on in the mind of such a man? How could I even begin to imagine the effects that hundreds of years of killing, fighting, and conquering could have done to his psyche?

“We should reach out to your father,” Lazar murmurs. “You are safe. He deserves to know that. There is no reason to make him worry unnecessarily.” He turns to me, and growls: “We must secure the rights to that Orb-Material and finish the deal. That’s why we’re here.”

His eyes stare at me – filled with a heat that radiates from beneath the illusion of cold, granite indifference.

“I’ll speak to Brennan about it.”

Brennan.

Of course.

Brennan is their leader. He makes the final decisions.

I lick my lips. I have a bad feeling about this. From the very start, these Aurelians have demonstrated what they’re good at – honorable, competent, and deadly – but also what they’re not so skilled in...

Like kidnapping, and extortion.

They’re amateurs on a planet like Marn.

“My father’s been working his whole life for this,” I warn Lazar. “What if he doesn’t make a deal?”

Otho turns to face me, pulling me closer to him.

“Your father is a good many things, but one thing was clear when we met him. He knows he’s been working on you for far longer than that mine of his. If you’re part of the arrangement, he’ll make a deal.”

Really?

I believed that, too – back when I was first kidnapped.

But I’d also believed he’d take their original deal – the one they made in good faith, when they were welcomed into my father’s estate as guests.

My father’s stubbornness and arrogance came to the forefront then. Now, I’m not so certain how well I even know my own father anymore. Ever since we received news of the incredible Orb-Deposits he’d gained ownership of, he’s become a different person.

Paranoid. Nervous – as if his delusions of grandeur had changed the moment they went from delusions torealpotential.

My father has been handed his dreams – and now I don’t know how easily he’ll ever give them up.

“My father,” I murmur. “I thought he’d have accept your original offer – the one you made back in my house. He’s been telling me for years that as soon as we make enough to get off this dangerous planet, we’d be gone.”

I sigh.

“To start a new life, he promised. A life in which I don’t have to look over my shoulder every second.”

Lazar looks at me with certainty painted on his face.

“Don’t worry, Natali. He will do exactly as we…”

Suddenly, Lazar’s wristwatch turns a deep, dark red – and interrupts him with urgent beeping.

Lazar stiffens. Dread fills me as Otho jumps up, too – pulling his arm from around my shoulders. His hand darts down to the hilt of his Orb-Blade, instantly ready for battle.