Andi looked to Dex. “You’re with them on this?”

He held out his hands, looking hopeless. “No, Andi. I’m with you, and that means keeping you from walking right into what is clearly your own death. And for what? You show up there, Andi, you hand yourself over, and they still win. Your crew will still be prisoners to the compulsion. They won’t be free. Not truly. They’ll use you to blast off those weapons and...” His eyes had actual tears in them now. “Godstars, Androma, I’m begging you right now... Please, just wait. There has to be another way.”

Seeing Dex’s anguish, Andi’s anger slowly began to dissipate.

Now all that was left was sorrow.

For she knew that they were right. She knew, yet again, that she was powerless to save her crew.

Andi turned off her swords, the electricity fizzling out. Dex let out a deep sigh as she placed them back into their sheaths.

“Thank you,” he said. “Now—”

But Andi turned away.

She could listen no longer, when the image of Lira’s body still haunted her, the cracked mask of the Baroness not enough to hold it at bay.

She found herself walking away from the group. Ignoring them calling after her as she stepped, one foot in front of the other, into the darkness.

For now, it seemed, the darkness was her greatest friend.

CHAPTER 28

NOR

“Well done, my soldier,” Nor said.

She smiled at the Adhiran girl lying on the ground, arms splayed on either side of her body like a fallen bird.

Beside her, the other two members of Androma’s crew stood, grins on their faces as they watched Nor.

“She’ll come for us now,” Gilly said, glancing down. “Lira was always her favorite.”

“And when she does come, she won’t be alone,” Breck responded. She looked at Lira’s body, too, as if she were contemplating an interesting portrait.

For a moment, Nor was almost convinced that the Adhiran truly was dead.

But then she rose, just as she had in that ballroom during Ucatoria, a smirk on her face as she looked at her queen. “Was it convincing?”

“Very,” Gilly answered. “Andi’s probably losing her shit.”

“Language,” Breck hissed. She lowered her voice, eyes widening. “We’re in front of the queen.”

“It’s alright,” Nor said.

It struck her then, as she watched the crew, that they truly were a sisterhood. All of them, like extensions of the others. Nor had never had any female friends before—someone to lean on, someone to share the world with.

She’d had far better with Zahn.

Anger swept through her, followed by a surge of grief, and she found that she could not look upon this crew—this family—any longer.