Most of the movies that were popular on Arcardius ended happily, everyone too afraid of sinking back into that place of darkness so many people had felt during the Cataclysm. But Andi had seen one film, ages ago, that she didn’t hate. She’d watched it with Kalee late at night, hidden in the back of the media center in Averia. Kalee had been terrified, watching the lead actress walk through a dark tunnel that would surely lead her to her death.

But Andi had felt alive watching that moment play out. She’d known even then that she’d never be so foolish as to walk down a road that led to such an obvious, ominous death. And if she was ever forced to, she’d know how to fight her way back out.

At least she’d always thought so...until now.

“Well, this looks like a cozy place to cuddle up together in the shadows,” Dex said softly.

Andi couldn’t help but laugh, despite her nerves. “No time like the present, is there?”

The tunnel beyond the curtain was dark and narrow, with water dripping down the rocky walls like fresh blood. Had Andi been anyone else, she may have feared taking a step forward.

Instead, she clicked on her cuffs, allowing their light to bathe the tunnel in a cool, muted blue.

“The best gift I’ve ever given you,” Dex said. “Those, and the Marauder.”

“Oh, was that a gift?” Andi teased. “I thought I stole it, fair and square.”

He was right, though. Not only did the varillium cuffs protect her scarred flesh—burned into ruin the night Kalee had died—but they’d helped her get out of many sticky situations. The Marauder had, too.

“Let’s go,” she said. Andi stepped forward, her fists held before her. As she walked, she imagined it wasn’t just Dex with her, but also her crew. Breck’s tall figure at her back, Gilly’s delicate footsteps beside her. She imagined Lira, calmly assessing the situation, beautiful in her fearlessness as she prepared to destroy anyone who laid a hand on the girls.

So much had changed in a matter of weeks. But for the sake of her crew, Andi would bravely walk forward into the dark.

The tunnel suddenly opened wide, revealing another rounded room. Dex stopped and gently guided Andi’s wrist to shed light on the wall.

“More of those strange carvings,” he whispered.

The symbols truly were like the constellations that marked the Godstars, only flipped. Altered, in strange ways. They followed the carvings deeper into the darkness, until the rock walls began to widen, trailing upward to a spot where a single fire flickered on the rocky ground, the flames spitting embers that danced in the shadows overhead. The smoke escaped somewhere above, likely another clever design by whoever had once turned this place into a hidden home.