Valen needed to stay strong for her. The Unaffecteds would fall eventually, when they ran out of steam. When they realized that the galaxy was beyond saving. And sending Nexus into the sky was the best way to achieve that, to ensure that Valen’s compulsion would be sent out across the galaxy forevermore, even long after he was gone.

Sometimes, Valen could scarcely believe what they had already accomplished; how quickly the galaxy had fallen beneath their joined hands. Having a scientist of Aclisia’s caliber on their side had been vital to their success in that regard. It had been her idea to send out the orbs full of tainted rain as soon as they’d seized control of Arcardius.

A war does not always require soldiers, she’d said, showing Nor and Valen how the weapon would work. Thousands of silver droplets falling from the skies across the galaxy, unleashing the Zenith virus upon all nearby.

So quickly, the Solis reign began.

So easily, the weak-minded Mirabellians had fallen beneath Valen’s compulsion.

Valen shivered a little as the wind blew through the treetops now, drawing the leaves down from the canopy overhead. They were a beautiful shade of purple and blue at their edges, the colors swirling together as they tumbled in the wind.

This garden, once a place he’d used to escape the darkness of his past, had grown brighter under the light of Nexus being built nearby. Even with the chill of winter soon to come, Valen felt almost cozy, safe in his own skin as he lay down by the water’s edge, his head on a thick pillow of moss imported from one of the garden satellites outside the Prime system.

Nor would do well with her speech today. The Unaffecteds would see her, and they would tremble in their hiding places. Nexus would be finished on schedule, and all would be resolved soon enough.

Of that, Valen was certain.

He yawned, his headache pulsing a little harder as he closed his eyes and let his consciousness slip deep into the confines of his mind, seeking the one place that was safe and sound and entirely his own.

Dark clouds.

A fortress made of night.

Iron bars that ensured no one else could enter. Only he belonged.

The velvety moss a cushion against his head, Valen allowed himself to relax, to remember the first time they met—a moment of hope and light after the twisted darkness of Lunamere. And as he fell deeper and deeper into his mind, losing himself in the memories, he hardly noticed the twin droplets of blood that slipped from his nostrils, a deep crimson against his pale skin.

CHAPTER 4

NOR

Power. She had always had it, but now she was it.

The Mirabel Galaxy bowed to Queen Nor Solis. Its inhabitants worshipped her, and there wasn’t anything that could disrupt what she and her brother had created.

Or so she’d thought.