{Cinder}
All of them fell to their knees. Tameka couldn’t care. She never knew power like this. A glow encompassed her. Not white like Rayne’s, but green like Tameka’s eyes. Was there a point past Atramentous? Nanite circuitry buzzed inside her like live wire. Electric. Almost on fire.
It burned.
It hurt.
Somehow it needed release. There was too much, and it threatened to consume her. Tears spilled so hot down her cheeks they left scorch marks. Use it or send it somewhere else, her instincts begged.
But the power was so enormous, so monumentally colossal. Where could she send it? How could she use it without killing her friends? Rayne was right. It wasn’t time yet. If Tameka killed Abresson now, she’d never see her son again. Even this display of power risked her precarious position.
Tameka sought a vessel vast enough. A nacre called to her. With only one intention. To consume.
It lived in Li.
Tameka fed it. Let Cinder’s star take it all before she committed a crime against the Vast Collective and killed her best friends on accident. The red giant pulsed in time to her heartbeat as it drank from her. Purple. Then red. Then purple again. Until all of it drained away.
Tameka. Fury. Sovereign Ambassador of the Two Worlds just fed a star on her power. A star with a nacre at its heart.
“Like Celindria…” Abresson muttered while gazing at her with a sneer.
Fuck that bitch. Tameka’s power was unique, and she refused to let someone compare it to that evil, skanky—
Abresson held up his hand to stave her. “You wouldn’t want to hurt your son, now would you?”
Tameka still couldn’t talk after serving up a planet’s worth of power to a sun, but she didn’t need words to beat Abresson’s ass.
Tumu barked, “What kind of threat is that—”
“I’m not a monster!” The darker Tritan looked genuinely offended. He even shot a glance at John. Kneeling in the red soil, their human friend looked like shit. The troll helped the one-legged man up. “I thought to warn you before you accidentally harm your own child.”
A cry carried from the pit’s entrance. Caedes’ voice cut through the noise, “Slow down, kiddo.”
Pax. On Cinder.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Tameka broke into pieces and flew up the ramp.
“Mommy!” Her son cried as he entered the space with Caedes behind him.
The tiny Xelan lookalike jumped into her arms and clung with the strength of his races. A life she almost snuffed out without realizing her own strength. A warm hand pressed against her back, making her flinch. Caedes, with so much concern on his face, blocked Abresson’s view of Tameka’s reunion with her son.
“Thank. You,” she mouthed, meaning it.
Pax muffled against her a few times before she let go enough for him to talk. “I know this place, mommy. I see it in my dreams.”
He jerked until Tameka let him go, and then he ran down the ramp. With a wave to Tumu as Pax ran by, the boy took the skid to the center. Everyone watched as he approached the Martyr Complex. Except Abresson. He stared intently at Tameka.
“Hi, Auntie Ray. I bwought Uncle Caeda like you asked. Safer together, right?”
From the top of the ramp, Tameka gazed down into the glass box. Her heart stopped. Rayne smiled, warm and alive through the illuminated blood. With Abresson present, it wasn’t likely she’d send a more obvious message.
“That’s right, Pax.” Caedes flew down to the boy and muttered to him about the girl named Callahan in the box.
Tameka finally looked Abresson in the voids. He took that as permission to speak, “As I said. I’m not a monster. I wouldn’t separate you from your son. I pulled a lot of strings to arrange this against Bol’s initial protests. Consider yourself owing me a favor.”
John muttered, “Thank you, Eminent.”
“Of course, John, you’re welcome to return, being human. You and Caedes are not a part of the embargo.”
“After a night, we’ll return,” Caedes answered for the other man. He spared a wink at Tameka.
Was that amazing Icarus onto something in Enki?
Since Pax’s arrival, Tumu remained silent. But Tameka caught glimpses of him glaring upside Abresson’s head. As if the Tritan imagined his colleague’s skull as a statement piece for his office. It was the most naked violence she’d seen from the Officer of the Third.
Eventually, Tumu broke in, “What about the mandatory guard?”
“Ahh.” Abresson turned back to Tumu as if he forgot his presence altogether. “You can select the guard as long as Earth remains your jurisdiction.”
Definitely a hint of a threat in there.
“Lamassu.”
Who?
Abresson recoiled with a full step back and everything. “The Chef?”
Tameka looked at John, who shook his head in confusion. In all her time on Enki, they never heard of anyone referred to by that moniker.
Tumu nodded without backing down. “He’s qualified.”
The not-brow raised so high on Abresson’s face that it bordered on his bald lack of a hairline. “Very well. Now, is there anywhere I can find accommodations and entertainment on Earth without risking poison in my food? I’ll stay until John and Caedes leave.”
The aforementioned Icarus took the skid back across the lake, to Pax’s delight. The boy glided his fingers across the black water with glee, blissfully unaware of the surrounding diplomacy.
“Iona Medical Ecology,” Tameka blurted out. In Nox’s Verse, Abresson seemed pretty chummy with the unnamed Primary. Ultimately marking him as an Imminent suspect. Maybe housing him with the current suspect in custody could help with their investigation. Not to mention, Tameka needed to share with the rest of the group that Li contained a nacre, for fuck’s sake.
Abresson looked shocked. “Oh, really?”
Tumu shot her an “are you sure about this” look. John gave a thumbs up behind Abresson. Caedes, in his usual tough-guy facade, nodded as if he feared nothing either way.
Tameka stood straighter and held her chin higher. “Yes. We’ll ask Bones and Para to guard Rayne, and then we’ll all head to the Ecology. Maybe we can demonstrate the measures we’re taking with the virus there and assail any fears regarding the embargo.”
And keep this creep away from Rayne’s unconscious body in the process.