Raising the receiver once more to her mouth, Caledonia let all her rage and fear and hope collect her voice. “This is Caledonia Styx. I have taken the Holster from Fiveson Lir. The city, and all its ships, are mine alone, and with them, I promise to end the time of Bullets. I will change the face of these seas, but I cannot do it without your help. If you are listening to this, then I am speaking to you. Now is the time to stand up and join us. Now is the time to fight.”

>><<

Caledonia went straight from the communication tower to Donnally’s room.

If he was more Lir’s brother than he was hers, she needed to know it. Not from Lir, but from Donnally himself. She needed her answer.

At his door, she paused, hand raised to knock. If he chose Lir, she had to be ready to harden her heart against him. She had to be ready to face her own brother as an enemy.

She drew in a deep breath, preapring herself for the conversation that would follow, but the door creaked on its hinges, already ajar.

Caledonia’s heart thumped swiftly in her chest as she shoved open the door and found an empty room. The bed was neatly made and every trace of Donnally was gone save for a note left on the pillow.

The paper was small, hardly enough to contain more than a few words. Snatching it up, Caledonia unfolded it and read the message:

Caledonia,

Please understand, I cannot make the choice you want me to make. Not yet. Not without seeing him again.

Donnally

Vividly, violently, she recalled that moment on the deck of the Titan when she’d asked him to go with her and he’d refused. He’d called Lir brother.

That single word had carved a wound so deep in Caledonia, she wasn’t sure she’d ever recover from it. Perhaps that was the moment she’d changed. Perhaps her ability to make terrible decisions, to build and use her own star blossom bombs, to slide a dagger into a man’s neck without mercy, all stemmed from the moment her own brother had looked at her and chosen Lir instead. Would she be capable of these things if she had lost less? If she had cared less?

Caledonia shook the thoughts from her head. It didn’t matter. All that mattered now was what happened next. Whoever she’d been in the past, she was different now. She was capable of terrible things, even of looking at her own brother and seeing a Bullet. An enemy.

Stuffing the note into a pocket, Caledonia turned her back on Donnally’s room and rushed from the Ready Racks. Donnally was gone. He’d chosen Lir a second time. And she had promised to let him.

CHAPTER FORTY