Page 47

One moment, I’m tackling three Denarso with one body slam inside a hangar on Deck Eleven. The next, I’m taken to my knees by the electric Storm ropes of Royal guards.

They weave a suffocating net around me that takes me to my knees. My arms are cinched to my sides. The draining arrestors ignite green, siphoning the strength I have left.

Storm powers can only legally be wielded and displayed by Royals in public. But this is war. And the faces that glare down at me are a mix of Royals, Rogues, and commoners.

I recognize a few. Some are from the mothership Keohiit . Others from Evalar . Several I don’t know, but none wear a green stripe.

My father’s prized guards take out their daddy issues on me. But I’m pretty sure I’ve got them beaten.

Haliux is Pronkus’ size and slings me across the room, sending me skidding on the floor.

Lareux picks me up with a hand, drags me a short distance, and drops me on the hoverpad deck.

My back smacks a support rail as the round platform segments from the dock.

Lareux’s a shorter, stockier ball of hatred and punches me before I can ask where we’re headed.

Gareeth is beside him with a heavy boot to my armored suit.

They hold me down as we cross the massive expanse of Gravion toward the main plaza.

When I try to wrap my legs around Gareeth to tug him down with me, he shoots my thigh with an arresting blast that steals the last of my strength.

“I know you think you’re doing what’s right,” I rasp.

I see his conviction in his eyes, same with Lareux.

Pronkus and Haliux have taken separate hoverpads to either side of ours and glare at me with similar hatred.

“But I never thought you’d be stupid enough to follow my father. I’m his son, and I’m not.”

Gareeth growls and stomps my side, making me jolt from a flare of hot pain. “Shut up.”

I think they mean to make an example of me. And even with my best efforts, I cannot fight under the weight of the arrestors that have not just taken me down but have also shut down my Hellion suit. I am much heavier than if I wore just Rogue armor, and holding my head up becomes nearly impossible.

The suit deflects impacts, but I fear I’ll be soup by the time someone cracks open my husk.

I feel a sudden emptiness that I can’t place.

Jovie—

Fear grows in me that she is not safe, and it is my fault.

We should’ve fled to protect her. She is human and innocent in this war, like Talros and Jorusk. They did not deserve to be dragged into our mess!

Eluni was right.

As we dock, Gareeth drags me off the platform by a fistful of the arrestor cords over my chest, then drops me in the plaza’s entrance.

Pronkus picks me up by the back of my armor and flings me at a wall.

I bash into it, sending a bone-rattling pulse through my right side.

Gravity grips me, and I fall to the floor, where I finally get a moment of peace to process the thunderous pangs in my body and ask my Storm why it’s betraying me.

Even Allele has gone silent. She doesn’t respond when I call to her.

Maybe my implant is busted?

Footsteps near my side. My father squats beside me. “I told you that Storms were unpredictable and would get you into trouble. But you’re just a horny little teen who never grew up. What a disappointment.”

“Just because you’re a miserable king doesn’t mean we all want to be like you.

” I cough and taste blood. When I lift my head to glare into his evil green eyes, I see a lot of commoners and Rogues from Tiatith , Keohiit , Evalar , Luridia , Raiem, and more.

They’re at war in the main plaza amid merchant shops, gardens, and seating areas.

Bolts arc through the ship. Loose ones that miss their targets absorb into Gravion’s walls.

Orange Denarsoan gunfire mixes flashes of Amphiran green.

“Oh. You thought you inspired a revolution?” My father cackles.

He doesn’t try to help me. He just watches me writhe in my misery.

“They tried to escape in the middle of the night, transferring here through cargo ships. But Royals have these pesky little portals that let us jump all over the universe any time we want. So I knew all about your plan and your treachery.”

He gets to his feet. “But I’m not going to kill you. I’m going to punish them and make you watch. Ijor has made sure Denarso had entry. Now you get to watch your rebellious people suffer.”

My father adjusts his cybernetic crown and lifts his wristband. “Initiate Storm dampeners.”

“No!” I fight my restraints. Desperation and hopelessness wind like iron bands around my lungs.

Panels light up in the walls, siphoning Storm power from every Amphiran until there is nothing left to throw but bullets, blades, and fists. Except for, of course, Royals, who are born to a higher power class than Rogues and commoners.

We used to be the protectors, the soldiers, officers, and military elite who stood between commoners and death.

My father has become the enemy of Amphir.

I spot Fieri and Blaize fighting on the floor as their Storms splutter out, rendering them almost human.

“Come on, trash.” Pronkus snatches me up and drags me to the central ring of the plaza, where prisoners are typically held while awaiting security.

I try to call to my friends, but I can’t speak under the suffocating Spark Arrestor and magnetized surface that abruptly draws me to the center of the ring, my back to the floor.

I fight the pull of it to monitor my friends, the ones who left Tiatith with me when I was exiled, the ones who chose freedom and are now facing the consequences of their decisions.

But Rogues are not as helpless as Royals think. We are used to blood and breaking bones however we have to because we fight the battles in the fields. We defend other species. We are used to sleeping in ditches, taking fire, and getting up again.

Wristband communicators light up on the Rogues who are deep in battle with the Denarso and the Royal guards, Elders, and Delegates who’ve taken the side of the enemy. More Rogues rush in from the hallways as they get the calls. We are outnumbered but not broken.

Blaize throat punches a Denarso, draws a knife, and cuts out the male’s heart before he hits the ground.

Many commoners cower and strain to protect their females when Denarso try to take them. The hangar fills with desperate screams that make me fight my ropes. A few commoners rise with makeshift weapons and wield them with years of pent-up frustration.

It is a beautiful sight, even if it is not what I dreamed of. Genesis is finally fighting back.

I regain control of my voice. “If you hate me so much, Father, you wouldn’t play games. You would kill me with your bare hands. This is about something more than me.”

My father smirks down at me as kings from other ships portal-in around us. The plaza fills with Royals, including delegates and Elders. Drones hover in, recording the situation, no doubt playing the feed on every mothership that hasn’t joined the party.

“Disloyalty to Amphir is a punishable offense,” my father says smugly. “All who step out of line must meet their fate.”

“I agree.” Eluni steps out of a portal among the guarded Royals and warring Rogues and Denarso. Something drips onto the floor. She walks toward me and works her mouth around like she’s trying to find words.

I focus on the head that hangs from her hand by the hair. “Is that King of Evalar ?”

Eluni lifts her nose at my father. “Catianna is free. She has joined Genesis.”

My father throws an arc at her.

Eluni blocks his attack with ease, and another from a nearby king with a hand, then throws a vibrant pulse that flings them both back. I think Eluni’s more powerful than she ever mentioned.

She hangs her head. “I am sorry, Aura. I have failed you.”

“What are you talking about?” I strain to roll onto my side so I can look at her straight on.

My father makes another move toward Eluni. A bullet launches out of a rifle somewhere in the crowd. It hits his Arkus shield and shoves him back, but it’s enough that he takes a minute to himself.

Eluni smirks for a barely visible second. “Kings think they’re above the law.”

“You’re a Savage!” King Eikener bellows from where he picks himself up.

She barely spares him a glare over her shoulder. “Piss off, Bruit. My savagery protected you for years.”

“Eluni.” My chest feels like it’s collapsing. Tears blur my vision. “Tell me it isn’t Jovie.”

She sways. “Talros took her to Allele. We came to look for you.”

“Is she alive?”

Eluni lifts a shoulder and sways her head. “I don’t know. I left to get vengeance. Jorusk went with them.”

Someone throws an arc at her from the crowd outside the prison colonnade. It bounces off of a shield like an Arkus, but it’s different. It shimmers a bit bluer. “I am not a worthy Keeper of Viestria.”

An arc launches out of the hand of a delegate in green robes. Then more Royals attack Eluni’s shield until she is forced to her knees, hunkered inside it, shuddering.

“I am sorry, Aura!” she cries out. “I could not protect your mate. But I will protect you.”

In her hand is a grenade that swells with light so bright that she looks like an Archangel from the history books.

Viestria would not be ashamed of her.

I am shattered and distraught, knowing my mate has likely left this universe. Eluni disobeyed an order, but watching her take the hits as if she deserves them isn’t right.

I can’t stand the thought of her sacrificing herself. I know it’s her plan when she focuses hard on the crowd of Royals gathering in a corner of the plaza behind me.

“I forgive you,” I say.

There isn’t much else I can do where I lie Storm-arrested. A cavity has opened up in me. I don’t know what my father has planned for me. But I know Genesis needs soldiers like Eluni. And I don’t think I have long.

Her eyes dart to mine like she doesn’t believe me. So I say it again, even though I am adrift in a black hole of pain I didn’t know could exist, cracking my chest, fracturing my Storm’s strength.

My heart beats heavily and slowly. When my soul leaves me, I want the last thing I did to be something good.

“I forgive you.”

Symbols light up over Eluni’s body, ones I never noticed before. They brighten until they shimmer with her Storm. She growls, strains to plant a foot under her as the Royals close in, trying to strengthen their assault.

Eluni’s eyes narrow, and she belts out a warcry. Her body throws an explosive wave of light with the grenade.

Turning away, I shield my eyes. The buzz of her arcs hums through the air.

The Royals fight to push her back into the crowd away from me. Eluni gets caught up in the flood of Denarso and New Order loyalists. But she keeps fighting. And that’s what matters to me.

Immense agony fills me for Eluni. I was hard on her and now regret it. This whole time, she has held back many painful secrets and an impressive Storm.

But all of it fades when I think of Jovie.

The king of Evalar had a thing for throwing bolts at anything and everything he despised.

Eluni, undoubtedly, went after him because she knows the pain of losing a mate and the desire I now have for vengeance.

But because the king’s head lies on the floor before me.

There’s nothing left for me to do in this universe.

It’s easy to give up when my hope is gone.

My father makes his guards tighten the net, forcing me to strain for breath as I watch my people fight for their lives and their loved ones.

Denarso shred them. Rogues throw themselves in the line of fire and protect commoners with shields and bullets.

They group up, holding off Denarso. But it’s only a matter of time until shield generators on their lower-tech wristbands run out of power, and the slimy orange bastards get inside.

I choke up because I can’t stop it. I don’t have the energy to break free.

“How are you okay with this?” I ask Pronkus.

He smirks and crosses his arms as his Arkus shield protects him from a thrown bolt. “Some of us are just born better.”

His sense of entitlement burns so hot it ignites a shred of purpose in me. Pronkus deserves to die because of what he did to Jovie.

“Too bad you weren’t born smart!” a familiar voice shouts.

Jorusk drops a gigantic string of metal parts. It’s held together only by strained wiring. It’s not Amphiran in design. It must be from the Denarsoan ship.

He darts away into the hallways as Royals fire at him. They roast the parts in their attempt to kill him, earning them the attention of nearby Denarso.

“That’s from our computers! You destroyed our ship!” a Denarso shouts.

“We will give you another ship. Finish the job!” The king in metallic purple armor, who steps out to speak with him, shimmers with an odd hue I don’t like, and I don’t think others can see.

Cold dread fills me. Cloaking tech. Concealers! “You’re not a Royal!”

He whips his head around and snarls. “Shut up!”

The truth is in the yellow gleam to his green eyes. When his back twitches and his Royal cloak moves like there’s something underneath, I know what he is.

“You’re a Talhuskin !”

He turns away from the Denarso and charges toward me. His concealer flickers and fades, exposing a massive brown, winged male with talons for fingers and teeth like Denarso. “You befriended the ones who betrayed us!”

The Talhuskin spreads his wings and soars toward me while my father and other Royals move aside like cowards.

“We escaped your bullshit hierarchy!” Jorusk, mid-flight, crashes into the Talhuskin, sending them into a tumbling battle of wings and claws and coals.

The Denarso snarl at the Royals the moment they turn their backs, advancing on them. “You brought us here for females. Get us a transport! We are taking what we came for or killing all of you!”