Then he wept tears of joy, whispering Nor’s name over and over like a song, the words pouring from his very soul. Lira leaped to her feet, cheering alongside the other soldiers.
But beside him, the female captive began to scream. It broke through the power of the moment, through the joy of the man’s transition into the light.
“Enough!” Aclisia shouted. She lifted her rifle, set the woman in her sights and fired.
The scene was the same as before...and yet the effect was not.
For the woman did not lose consciousness. The liquid spread against her skin, but her eyes never closed. She kept screaming. “Let me go! Please, Godstars, let me go!”
The room should have felt frozen, a horror scene unfolding in rapid time. But Lira only felt calm as the woman began to howl and writhe against her bindings. Blood dripped from her wrists as she fought, shaking like a demon was clawing at her from the inside out. “LET ME GO!”
“Unaffected!” one soldier shouted. The others joined in, beating their fists and stomping their boots against the bleachers.
But Aclisia held up a hand. “Inject her.”
At once, the guards sank a tranq needle into the woman’s neck. Immediately, she fell silent.
“Do you see?” Aclisia asked, turning to the crowd of soldiers, now quiet, as well. Lira chanced a look at Breck and Gilly, their expressions stony as they looked forward. “This is what happens to those who do not believe.”
The guards cut the woman’s bindings loose, and Lira watched as they hauled her away, the woman’s pale hair dragging against the ground as they disappeared through the double doors. Lira continued to stare after the woman, even as the crowd came to life again.
She never wanted to return to that state of desperation. Never wanted to return to that place of feeling, of running and wishing to hide from the truth.
When she left the warehouse with the rest of her unit, Lira’s heart beat steadily in her chest as she stared out across the silver city all around her, as she saw the glorious banners, the Solis crest displayed for all to see.
I will always serve Nor Solis, Lira thought, saluting the symbol of her queen.
She turned her eyes to the sky, the ghost of a smile kissing her lips as she stared up at the distant floating mountain that housed her one true queen.
Beside it, the Nexus satellite winked beneath the starlight.
And all was well in Lira’s soul.
NOR
Her hands wouldn’t stop shaking.
That armor. That voice. Nor’s heels clacked on the polished marble floors as she paced, her mind racing in circles. Who was behind that crimson helmet? She wished, desperately, that her gift went beyond compulsion, that she possessed some greater power that would allow her to see through the shield to the enemy beyond.
“Nor?”
Darai’s voice yanked her back into the present. He pressed his cold hand to her wrist, the feeling like an electric shock. She backed away, her heart racing. Beside him stood the producer, his four arms crossed as he waited for her orders. Despite the sudden shock of the moment, he still looked at her as all the others did—like she was a goddess come down from the stars.
“We’ve managed to trace the origin of Arachnid’s message, Majesty,” the producer told her. “It seems he was filming in a cave on Sora.”
Sora. A moon in the nearby Prime System, virtually uninhabitable due to the poisonous gases in its atmosphere. The perfect place to hide, shivering in the shadows like a spider.
Nor would see the fool squashed beneath her heel.
Zahn’s eyes met hers from across the room. She gave him a quick nod, and though they didn’t share a mental link like she and Valen did, a silent message seemed to pass between them all the same. I’m okay. We’re okay.
Nor lifted her chin and turned to Darai. “His armor is likely the only reason he was able to survive long enough to send us a message from Sora. A clever place to hide, where I cannot easily reach him.”
“Could we send drones in to find him?” Zahn asked as he began to pace, already trying to solve the problem for her. She loved him for his effort, but it would take more than what Zahn could come up with on his own to silence this threat.
For Arachnid knew. Somehow...the man behind that red helmet knew about Nor’s and Valen’s compulsion. But how? It was impossible, and yet Arachnid’s final words were all Nor could hear. You cannot compel me.
“Clear the room,” Nor said. She reached for her crown, straightening it against her curls.
Darai’s jaw looked to be hanging on broken hinges. “My dear...”
She held up her hand, and her adviser fell silent. “I said, clear the room.”
Darai snapped his fingers, ushering the others out. They raced from the room as if it were on fire. As the doors closed behind them, Zahn rushed to her side. Years before, when Xen Ptera was attacked and everything was stolen from her, it was Nor who had picked herself back up. She’d had Darai and Zahn at her side then, as support. But ultimately, the decision had been hers to stand up. To carry on with her life, and make something more of it.
She’d never believed she needed to depend on others until Valen came along—and until Zahn’s heart had merged with hers. She let her lover press his hand against the small of her back as he gazed at her with worried eyes, his soldier’s mask gone now that the room was empty of watching eyes.
“He knows,” Nor said shakily. “If he knows about the compulsion, then there’s a chance he knows about Exonia. And he will try to stop us from reaching the other side.”
“Then we will destroy him before he takes another breath,” Zahn answered. “We’ll tighten the security measures around Nexus, too.”
Nor fell silent as she considered what to do next. She was the queen of Mirabel. The savior of this planet and the many beyond it. She would not bow to any man, especially one too cowardly to show his face.
“Please, Nor, you must tell us what it is you wish to do,” Darai begged. “Do you want to send a team after him? Give another speech? Do you want to have Valen—”
“Valen is not to be disturbed in this chaos,” Nor said. “He needs peace. Time to focus only on his compulsion. If anything, we need to move more quickly now. For if this Arachnid poses a true threat, if he manages to share his knowledge of our compulsion with the other Unaffecteds... Exonia could be at risk.”
“I’ll do whatever it takes to stop this man,” Zahn said. “You give the command, Nor, and I will send every soldier we have.” His dark eyes could have burned a hole in Nor’s soul, for all the fire in them. He’d always been a fighter, leaping to her defense the moment anyone dared speak ill of her name.
“I know what needs to be done,” Nor said, moving toward the window to look out upon her estate. Her kingdom. Zahn shifted to stand behind her, his warm hands closing around her shoulders. She sank back against him—not because she needed his strength, but because she wanted it. Because when he was at her side, she knew she had all the loyalty in the world.
“Phase Two will come soon,” Nor said, pulling away from his touch, turning to face him instead. Darai hovered in the background, a bitter expression on his lips. “But we may as well conduct a test fire, in light of Arachnid’s message.”
She typed a code into the holoscreen on her desk. The lights overhead responded at once, fading to near-darkness.