The twist of nausea in Caledonia’s gut told her it was true: she didn’t know her brother at all anymore. She hadn’t known him in a long time, but in spite of everything, she didn’t know how to conjure a Donnally in her mind who was capable of what Remi claimed. Yes, Bullets killed. But not their own.

Or, that was the way it used to be. Things would be different now that Aric was dead and Lir was in charge. If Caledonia let her thoughts detach from her heart, she could see the purpose behind the strategy. Without Aric to control the Fivesons, what was to stop them from challenging Lir’s claim to the Bullet Seas? Perhaps they’d started to do just that, and he’d asserted his dominance and removed them from play.

She could picture him commanding Donnally to do it as a twisted test of loyalty. Donnally had almost been a Fiveson himself. Had he killed the others to show he was no threat to Lir? To his brother?

Caledonia closed her eyes as the freezing waters of memory swept over her. The moment she’d seen Donnally on the deck of the Titan rushed through her mind; the strong surge of her relief breaking against the firm edge of his resistance; the fluttering panic as her brother looked into her eyes and said, “I can’t abandon my brother.” The slow pain that had seeped in after and never left.

Her brother. Was he even that anymore? It was the word he’d used for Lir, and if he had truly done what Remi claimed, then perhaps he was more Lir’s than Caledonia had ever wanted to believe. Once, she’d had hope that she could win him back, but now, knowing this, that hope was all but gone. In its place, her anger burned like the sun.

A hand twisted softly in the back of her shirt, Pisces pulling Caledonia back to the task before her. “Your orders, Captain?” she prompted.

With a deep breath, Caledonia cleared the anger from her thoughts. Without Fivesons, there was no one to divide Lir’s power. No one to challenge him. He was consolidating his forces. Making sure there was no one left to stand against him.

No one except Caledonia.

She’d been determined to take him down before, when he was only responsible for the death of her family. Now that he was remaking himself in Aric’s image, Caledonia had no choice but to destroy him. And the only way to do so was to take all his power away from him. Then with it, create a world that wasn’t ruled by fear.