Page 14 of Rebels Rising (The Intergalactic Union #3)

Alexander

I was so lost. I didn’t know what had happened between Addy and Artemis, but they were suddenly attached at the hip again and it was beyond concerning. What was even more alarming was that Eloria was joining in, the three of them behaving as if the rest of us didn’t exist.

I was sitting beside Julius, the pair of us watching the women in stunned, flabbergasted silence as they laughed and petted the oversized monster of a pet that Artemis had somehow acquired while they took turns pulling the child – Baldr – away from danger. The boy kept trying to fly away (what the fuck) or touch buttons (stars help us all) or ride the blatantly short-tempered Kikshrut (was he trying to die?).

‘Are we safe?’ Julius whispered to me from my right.

‘I don’t know,’ I answered honestly, whispering out the corner of my mouth.

Dave Junior’s head snapped towards us, his eyes narrowing on us as though he’d heard and understood our whispered interaction. Julius inched closer to me as if I could protect him from the monstrous creature, but my eyes stayed on Dave Junior. It was never a good idea to look away from a predator when it had its sights set on you, and despite my attempts to pretend I wasn’t afraid of him it was obvious that he knew I was still wary.

Okay, fine. I was shitting myself every time he was in the room. He was a living, breathing horror story come to life that was currently getting belly scratches from my girlfriend. Red venom was seeping from the tips of his fangs as his tongue lolled out of his mouth, for star’s sake. There was nothing ‘cute’ about him.

Right now I was terrified of her, too, and I wasn’t ashamed to admit it. Was I going to? No, of course not. I still had my pride, stars damn it. That didn’t mean I wouldn’t sit in my excrement in the corner while the women turned into beast tamers right in front of my eyes.

Remind me to never get on their bad sides. Ever.

Still, I couldn’t help but smile as I sat back and watched the woman I loved build friendships with people besides me. And they were other women, too, which was a bonus. I’d always been concerned over Addy’s inability to makes female friends. They usually only wanted to talk about sex. Their favourite positions, the sizes of the dicks they’d encountered, the weight of the breasts they’d fondled, how they were planning on seducing their victims for the night. All the things that Addy had never been interested in. It also made those women view her as some sort of strange, otherworldly creature that simply didn’t make any sense to them. She’d been bullied far too much over her lack of sexual urges, especially considering her race and their overtly sexual culture. It made making friends hard for her, and it was so nice to see the three of them getting along so well without any of that nonsense tainting the process.

I was warming up to Artemis, too. Just a little bit, but she’d saved Addy from those scientist bastards so I was grateful to her in spite of everything else.

When Colonel Granger had first shown me the security footage of Artemis, and then when the footage from the facility on the Forbidden Planet had been played for all of us, I’d been beyond nervous of what Artemis was capable of. If she ever decided to turn on us we were screwed. I didn’t even think there was a way to kill her. She simply regenerated within clicks as if it were nothing. I’d never even seen her flinch in pain, even when she burned the flesh off her hands, she reacted the same way as if I’d told her it was a Tuesday.

Quite frankly, she was even more terrifying than her Kikshrut pet, and that was saying something.

Yet, as I studied the smile on her face that mirrored Addy’s and Eloria’s, there was something about her that softened those hard edges. She wasn’t merely a killing machine. She was a person who had suffered through unimaginable torture, her body sliced apart and reassembled into the perfect assassin. A fate she had never asked for in the first place.

I ruminated over what I knew about her as a person. I had witnessed multiple acts of heroics, always putting others before herself. I had watched from a distance as she’d slowly opened up and allowed people to see a small sliver of who she truly was at her core. I’d seen her dazzle men and women alike regardless of her gender or disguises. She’d even begun a romantic relationship, possibly with more than one man if what Addy had told me happened with Cadmus was any indication.

Not just that, but I’d seen the way the others looked at her. None of us really knew what to make of her now that we all knew she was a woman, though I’d had a lot more time to let that information sit, and even I could admit she was a beautiful one at that. The footage we’d seen as evidence of her brutal abilities cast a negative light over her, shadowing all the good she’d shown us. However, that good significantly outweighed the bad.

I would have been a hypocrite if I’d held those kills against her. As a military officer, I’d killed before. I’d done it using an array of methods, too. I’d tortured and taken lives and destroyed buildings and ships and even at one point an entire city. All of it was legal since I’d essentially been hired by our government to perform those jobs. It was my duty, and I took it seriously.

She hadn’t been hired by the government, she’d been abandoned by them. She’d been turned into a monster at their behest in order for them to use her to bolster their own power. She’d seen the dark underbelly of the very people I had put my trust in, and while she was killing to survive I was doing so because I’d been told to.

Using that perspective, I was the monster, not her.

These thoughts were bringing up another issue I was struggling to wrap my head around.

Markus.

He’d been one of my best friends for so long now that I just couldn’t understand why he would disappear right when I needed him by my side. And he’d been there, too, before he’d performed his vanishing act. Nothing about it made any sense to me. There were no signs of him changing his mind for any reason. It was completely befuddling.

Addy was still acting shady whenever I mentioned him, but that wasn’t exactly shocking since they’d never gotten along. What worried me the most was that I was starting to doubt him now, too. I’d dismissed Addy’s accusations about his character for the entire time I’d known him, and now I was beginning to wonder if there had been something to it. She’d always had a knack for pinpointing the good people from those not worth her time, and Markus was the only person I’d ignored those warnings for.

Had I been wrong to do so?

I’d made myself abundantly clear to her that he was my friend and I’d trusted him implicitly, but after Artemis had informed us all ofJorna’s betrayal during that first meeting and taking into account the connection through their relationship, the evidence was piling up against him whether I liked it or not.

My mood plummeted as I recalled the details I’d received in that first meeting after we’d escaped. I’d assumed Jorna had died in the takeover, fighting for the side of justice. Instead, I’d learned she’d been alive the entire time, had abandoned those of us who cared for her, and was likely to have been responsible for the demise of her team. That was if they weren’t turncoats as well.

I hadn’t been able to sleep well since all the revelations, and I had the awful feeling that they weren’t even close to being over. The secret meeting Artemis had called that included Addy but not me was enough of an indication of that. It stung, I had to admit. If I was to be her second, then I was going to need to be looped in on everything, including those meetings. My exclusion made me believe that Artemis didn’t trust me, at least not fully.

The only explanation I could find for her mistrust was that my meeting with Colonel Granger had not remained as secret as we’d hope. How much of it she’d witnessed I didn’t know, nor was I privy to her thoughts and feelings on the matter. All I could do now was prove to her that I was someone she could trust, because we were going to be working closely for the foreseeable future. Not to mention her friendship with Addy brought us in constant contact whether we were willing or not.

But most importantly, Colonel Granger had been correct in her assessment. Artemis may have been a wild card, but she was a wild card we needed to recruit to our side. While that seemed to have come to fruition – of our own doing or otherwise – she was still a mystery, and mysteries could be dangerous in a war.

However, I had no other choice but to put all of my eggs in her basket. She was our only hope of defeating the enemy and putting an end to the corruption that had infected the Intergalactic Union to its very core.

All levity suddenly fled from the room when the door to the cockpit opened to reveal the two people I was still the most stunned were on board. The Christianson siblings stepped through, Katira hiding behind her younger brother almost shyly with her head bent down and her hair creating a curtain between herself and the rest of the word. Tarren, however, waltzed in with the opposite posture to his sister. Shoulders back, chin up, teeth clenched as if already preparing for the push back against their presence.

Except, the reception they received was not what I was expecting. No one jumped to their feet in alarm, nor did anyone start shouting for them to leave because they weren’t wanted here. Instead, Eloria took them in with an assessing eye, Addy looked at them with pity shining through loud and clear, and Artemis greeted them with an apologetic smile.

‘It’s been two days,’ Tarren snapped, his fists clenched so tight that his knuckles had turned white. Katira shrank back at his tone, and my heart panged at the loss of the person she used to be. Sure, she’d been a bit of a brat, the entitlement from her wealthy upbringing hard to shake, but she’d been bubbly and friendly for the most part.

Now, she was just a shell of her former self, and it physically hurt to see.

Still, with her brother ready to launch himself into action at the first sign of negativity towards either of them, I prepared myself for the same. Just in case.

‘I’m sorry. I’ve been busy, but I should have come to talk when I had a free moment. I didn’t mean to keep you waiting,’ Artemis apologised, and she even sounded sincere. My gaze ping-ponged between her and Tarren as I struggled to make sense of the interaction. She should have been spitting poison after everything he’d done. It was his fault Reece had been wrongfully arrested in the first place, his fault Reece had suffered the way he had, and ultimately it was his fault Addy had ended up as collateral damage. She was their friend, not Tarren’s. What was going on?

‘What did you want to talk about, anyway?’ he asked her, backing down a little at the apology though he didn’t acknowledge it.

Artemis tore her gaze away from the siblings to look at Addy and the two of them held a silent conversation that confused me even more that I already was. That feeling grew to heights I’d never before experienced when both women turned to face me wearing identical expressions of unease that filled me with dread. Both emotions swirled within me like a tornado of doom, and I knew that whatever was going on here was something I was not going to like.

As if she really didn’t want to do this with me specifically as an audience, Artemis shot me an indecipherable look before locking eyes with Tarren and then Katira, holding Katira’s gaze when she spoke the two words that completely shattered everything I thought I’d ever known.

‘Markus Fletcher.’

Katira flinched, immediately backing away as if the breath had been knocked from her lungs. Tarren hissed, blocking Artemis’s view of his sister and puffing himself up as if readying for a fight. Their reactions told us all everything we needed to know. Artemis backed down, sharing another look with Addy that broke me even further.

I fell back into my chair, my legs unable to hold me up as the severity of what had just occurred settled itself inside me, winding itself around my ribs and squeezing as if to suffocate me.

Artemis didn’t give me the chance to recover from the last blow before continuing. ‘He told you to blame it on Reece, didn’t he?’

Katira was shaking like a leaf in gale-force winds, hiding behind her brother like he was the only thing keeping her safe in this world. I came to the heart-wrenching realisation that to her, he was.

‘We had to,’ he snapped defensively, continuing to block his sister from our sight to the best of his ability. ‘He threatened to- ‘

‘You don’t need to tell me,’ Artemis cut him off, her tone gentle and compassionate. How she managed to find those emotions and direct them to the people responsible for Reece’s imprisonment I didn’t think I’d ever know. ‘I don’t need you to drag it all up to the surface. I just needed confirmation, and you’ve given it.’

‘What are you going to do with us?’ he asked guardedly.

She shrugged. ‘Nothing. You’re free do whatever you want. You can leave when we land on Burnos, run from The Program and the IU. Or you can stay and fight. I’ll leave it up to you.’

‘You’re going to let them stay?’ Addy asked, surprise lifting her tone.

‘I can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same thing in their position if it were Libby,’ she confessed. ‘I can’t hold them to standards I won’t even hold for myself.’

‘But Reece…’

‘They’ll have to figure that one out between them.’

‘You’re not… mad?’ Tarren asked, confused.

Artemis levelled him with a deadpan look, a fierceness in her eyes that made even me flinch. ‘I’m not impressed with your actions, nor have I forgotten your attempt to extort us on Nova Station. But – and this is a big but – I can understand why you did it. You were protecting your sister, and I can respect that.’

‘She’s right though,’ Katira spoke up from behind Tarren, her voice small and timid in a way I wasn’t used to hearing from her before she’d been attacked. ‘Reece won’t want us here.’

‘Like I said, that’s between the three of you to sort out. He at least deserves an explanation, but don’t be surprised if he puts you in Henrik’s care,’ she said pointedly.

‘That’s it?’ asked Tarren, his entire body deflating like she’d popped him like a balloon.

She shrugged again. ‘I don’t really know what you want me to say,’ she admitted. ‘Do you want me to be mad?’

‘No, I just… I don’t understand.’

She sighed, shifting in her seat in preparation for what she was about to say. ‘I masqueraded as a boy in an all-male military academy to find information that could lead me back to save my best friend. She’s the only family I have and I left her behind once before. I was willing to do anything to get back to her. To save her. What the two of you have endured is horrible, and I don’t blame you one bit for doing what was necessary to keep yourselves safe. It just so happened that in doing so you hurt someone I care about. If you do it again, I won’t be so lenient. My understanding only goes so far, but it’s not me you need to apologise to. I would suggest you find some time to grovel.’

She turned her back on them in a clear dismissal, reaching out to pull Baldr down from where he’d been trying to climb up onto the holo-table. Katira backed out of the room slowly, her eyes taking in Artemis with a glint of life in them I hadn’t seen in over a solar. Tarren was also eyeing her with interest, though the root of that interest eluded me. I was far too focused on my internal battle. A part of me still wanted to believe that Markus was my friend; that he wasn’t responsible for such a heinous crime or that he hadn’t betrayed us.

The larger part, however, understood that I’d been duped. I’d allowed such an evil man into my life, invited him close to the people I’d cared about, and trusted him to be a part of my inner circle. He hadn’t just betrayed the Intergalactic Union, he’d betrayed me . He’d betrayed our friendship. He’d betrayed my trust on levels I hadn’t even realised existed until this moment.

It hurt .

‘Baby?’ Addy asked from where she knelt in front of me. I didn’t know when she’d moved, too lost in my own head to pay attention to my surroundings, but she placed her hands on my knees as she gave herself to me for however I needed her.

I lifted my eyes to hers, the sting of tears biting at them, but I refused to let them fall. I’d allowed that man to remain close, not just to me but to her . I’d ignored all the signs, all her warnings, and even allowed him to walk free after he’d brutally raped and assaulted a member of my crew while an innocent man took the blame. I’d been blind, and I’d endangered everyone because of it.

‘I should have trusted you,’ I told her, my voice cracking with the emotion as it got stuck in my throat. ‘I should have believed you when you told me…’

‘Let’s not go there, Xan. I never saw this coming either. You’re not to blame here.’

I was shaking my head before she’d even finished speaking. I didn’t want to hear it. I didn’t deserve her compassion or kind words. I’d failed her. I’d failed Katira, and Tarren. Reece .

‘No…’ I whispered, then stormed from the cockpit before my heart could completely tear in two in front of them all.