Chapter 18
“You sure you’re up for this, Sunshine?”
Shade stood shirtless and barefoot in the arena. Kael stood at the sidelines, removing his own boots.
“I mean, the way Ash wiped the floor with you yesterday, you’ve got to still be hurting.”
He was. But probably not the way that the slim man meant.
Although his body was reminding him that Wraith hadn’t bothered pulling her punches.
He gave Shade a considering look, then pulled his own shirt off.
As he’d found out the day before, Ghosts had no compunction about choking him with his own clothing given half an opportunity.
Shade raked his gaze over Kael appreciatively. After three days with the chaos demon, he didn’t take it personally.
He glanced across to the other side of the arena where Wraith was sitting cross-legged at the sidelines, her face expressionless.
Watching them.
The hooded cultists—why did they never show their faces?—were also gathered. Apparently, they found watching him bleed entertaining.
He took one last look at Wraith, then stepped into the arena’s center.
“Ready to dance again?”
“With you, Sunshine?” Shade grinned, all teeth, “Wouldn’t miss it for the end of the world.”
And he rammed a punch at Kael’s nose.
Kael darted back easily, “Saw that coming a mile away.” He stepped back in, battered Shade’s incoming fist to the side and smashed his foot into the side of Shade’s knee, “But apparently you didn’t notice that.”
Shade hobbled backwards.
“Just lulling you into a false sense of security.”
“Sure you are.”
They moved around the arena, and it was like dancing. If dancing involved more kinetic energy, spikes of pain and, eventually, blood.
He wiped his lip where Shade had split it.
“First blood to you. Last will be to me.”
And he swept the man’s legs out from under him. Except that the small man remembered his acrobatics and somehow managed to twist, catch himself, and swing his full body around to smash into Kael.
They fell to the floor in a maelstrom of fists, knees and elbows.
Kael thought he had the upper hand; until one of the robed men appeared beside them. Silent and respectful.
Shade glanced over, headbutted him, and slipped free of his hold with a fluidity that shouldn’t have been possible.
Both of them stood. Kael felt his nose. It was bleeding a little, but wasn’t broken.
He wiped it again. It stung, but so did the realization: Shade hadn’t even been trying. Not really.
Kael had more scars than Wraith had expected.
A lot more.
His chest, back, and arms were criss-crossed with layers of overlapping scar tissue. Most she couldn’t identify, but there were some that were obvious. Narrow blade cuts, the raised pucker of glancing laser fire across his bicep, and on one shoulder: massive burn damage.
Given the sort of MedTech that SID had access to, Golden Boy shouldn’t have been this damaged. Hell, they could have fixed him, even now.
So, why hadn’t they?
His fight with Shade had been amusing. She doubted he realized how little effort Zane was putting into it.
She hadn’t expected them to get along, let alone become friends. And yet the evidence was in front of her and somehow it felt like a betrayal. By both of them.
Zane was talking to a tall man. Raja, unless she missed her guess. He was taller than most of the others, but broader shouldered than Mikel.
He had introduced her to a couple of his acolytes.
And it disturbed the hell out of her to discover that they were acolytes. Shade had turned himself into a Void-damned cult leader.
And the worst part was that it wasn’t an act.
He believed it.
It wasn’t the usual insanity that overexposure to the Inbetween caused. He was perfectly and utterly in control of himself. Always.
Void, he might just be saner than she was.
And that was a terrifying fucking thought.
He finished speaking with Raja and jerked his head to get Kael to follow him. Over to her.
She refused to let her eyes linger on his scars… or the way his body moved like a soldier who hadn’t yet decided what he was protecting.
She shifted her focus to Zane’s eyes instead, which gleamed hard and bright.
As they neared Kael glanced once at her, then kept his focus on Zane. She stood.
“Time to pack,” Zane told them, sharp and certain. “Your ride’s almost here.”
The cultists were gone. Vanished into the tunnels with little left to say they’d ever been here.
Kael had pulled his flight suit back on and was waiting for Wraith in the silent arena.
“Phantom.”
He jerked in surprise and cursed himself.
How the fuck did Shade manage to keep getting the jump on him?
He turned, “What?”
Shade was wearing some kind of spacer armor, painted black. For the first time he looked like the former Fleet officer he’d been.
“Phantom. That’s who Tom is. Was. It was her name for him.”
Kael felt his brows draw together slightly, despite himself.
That meant—
“Yep,” Shade told him cheerfully. “Got it in one. As you well know, fraternization may not be encouraged, but it does happen.”
Kael said nothing.
“I would say do with that information what you will. But I’m not that stupid. So, instead, I’ll tell you that if you use it to hurt her, not even the Tether will stop me from raining hell down on you. After all, I’d just need to keep you alive. Not in one piece.”
He stepped forward and pulled Kael into a rough hug.
“Been great getting to know you, Sunshine. Hope you’re on the right side when we meet again.”
He turned and walked away towards where Wraith had just entered.
“Oh,” he turned, but kept walking backwards, “when you file your reports on my little menagerie, you should tag them GEO.”
Kael’s brows drew together.
GEO? What the fuck was that?
Then Shade twisted and stepped up to Wraith, pulling her into his arms and kissing her soundly.
Something cold and hollow coiled behind Kael’s ribs. He didn’t know if it was jealousy, fear, or something worse.
“Just go with it,” Zane whispered, and he stepped forward, pulled her into an embrace and kissed her.
His technique had… improved.
But still.
She pulled back, mock glared at him. Part exasperation, part warning.
“Just messing with the Sun God,” Zane grinned. “I’m not going to stick around for the cavalry to arrive. You understand.”
“Yeah, yeah, leave me alone with them. Again.”
His expression turned deadly serious.
“I thought you were dead! We felt you die. And when I found out you weren’t? There wasn’t Void damned thing I could do to get to you. And don’t you think we didn’t try.”
His grip was painful on her arms. She couldn’t breathe.
“You need to find Phantom. Need to hear what he has to say. But he’s not going to be easy to find. You’ll need to listen for him in the Void.”
Blue eyes held hers.
“After that, and only after, you’ll need these.”
She felt him reach for her, saw the co-ordinates in her head.
“That’s where they’re preparing our funeral rites. But you’re not ready yet. None of us are. If we’re lucky, they’ll wait. If we’re not—”
He shrugged, as if death schedules were someone else’s problem, then leaned in and gently kissed her cheek.
“Love you, babe.”
She raised a hand to his heart and rested against him for just a moment.
“Love you back.”