“Right,” I say, after a moment. “Pol is—” As soon as I start to speak, I realize I have no clue how he is. We haven’t heard anything from Leonis since leaving Deva… and if he isn’t dead already, potentially going forward with Shey’s plan could get him killed. “He’s fine,” I finish after an uncomfortable pause, and take another long drink. “Let’s wait for Drom,” I say as I lower the glass, and the table descends into silence.

It remains until Drom emerges from her room, hair still damp from the shower and face stony. She sits at the opposite head of the table from Lyre, folds her arms over her chest, and waits.

With everyone seated—and two seats left glaringly unfilled—panic swells inside me. This is it: the moment I have to come clean with everyone, and the moment my sisters lose their faith in me forever. I’m guessing I can say goodbye to my hope of being the captain, though at this point I’m not even sure that I want it anymore.

I meet Corvus’s eyes across the table and he inclines his head in a small nod. It gives me enough courage to stand and clear my throat.

“Okay,” I say, and take a deep breath. “I called this meeting because I have something to tell you all.” Lyre scrutinizes me, while Drom looks deeply unimpressed. “I lied to you.” No one looks remotely surprised. “And I’m sorry.” Their eyebrows rise slightly. “And I’m going to tell you the truth about everything.”

Now I have their attention. Lyre leans forward in her chair, head tilted toward me.

“That could take a while,” Drom deadpans, her expression unchanging. “Get on with it, then.”

“When we left Deva, I told you all this would be a diplomatic mission. That was a lie.” I drop my gaze, unable to look anyone in the eye now. “Leonis sent us to do the same thing to Nibiru that she manipulated us into doing on Titan. Our cargo is junk. The real delivery is the last vial of the bio-weapon we watched destroy people there.”

Just speaking of it conjures up a memory of Pol writhing on the cargo bay floor, his mouth frothing black. The others look queasy, their thoughts likely following the same path. I take a deep breath and force myself to continue.

“I agreed to do this because I thought it was the only way to save Pol and protect the rest of the family. And I lied to you because I wanted to save you from the burden of guilt.” I look around at them. “Now I understand how awful it would be to deny you a choice. But Leonis has our brother.”

Drom and Lyre exchange a glance, both faces holding a silent question. I hurry on before either one of them feels the need to make that decision without all the information.