It commanded her to understand the truth. To believe it, with every fiber of her being.

Nor Solis is the one true queen.

Lira had spent her entire life running from truths. In Adhira, she’d run from the truth that her mother had abandoned her. She’d run from the reality that her brother, Lon, and her aunt Alara wanted her to stay and rule from a cold, spiraling mountain that hardly saw the light. And when she’d joined a starship full of lady pirates...she’d run even then, flying the Marauder as far and as fast as she could away from Adhira.

But in that moment after she was shot, when she heard that command and was cast back out into the land of the living again...

Lira rose to her feet in the ballroom on Averia and looked up at the brightest light she’d ever seen. Queen Nor stood upon the stage, a pile of dead Mirabellian leaders at her feet, their blood drying in colorful rivers down the ballroom steps.

She’d smiled at Lira, at all the people standing around her.

And in that moment, Lira knew that she worshipped the queen. That the silver bullet had been not a curse, but a blessing meant to save her, to show her that when she followed Queen Nor, all would be as it should. For the first time in her life, she was at peace.

“You alright, Lir?” A voice drew Lira from her thoughts. She looked to her right, where one of her oldest friends stood, rifle clutched in her large hands.

“Fine,” Lira said, a small smile on her lips as she thought of the queen. “Perfectly fine.”

Breck was a giantess from New Veda, a natural warrior who’d spent her entire life behind the sights of a gun. She was the perfect soldier for Nor’s army, one who would give her life to serve the queen if she was asked.

“Again!” the commanding officer barked out, and Breck winked at Lira as she lifted her rifle and shot. A perfect bull’s-eye in the target.

The other soldiers scrambled to follow Breck’s lead. Lock. Load. Aim. Fire.

Lira’s next shot hit close to her intended mark, but she couldn’t yet match Breck’s accuracy. Shooting was still so new to her. She’d always preferred to use her own body as a weapon, but there were a lot of old preferences she’d once had that had melted away beneath the weight of Lira’s desire to please her new queen.

She’d spent the past two years of her life aboard the Marauder, a glass starship where her piloting skills were used to gallivant across the skies, following the lead of the Bloody Baroness, a space pirate notorious for raising hell.