Sagan broke the silence which filled the room. "When Korac told me this part of his Verse—The part where Nox stole your nacre—I wanted to ask you so badly how you felt."

I wiped a hand down my face before I restated, "Even after reading it and understanding it, I can't forgive it. Maybe if I was the only one affected or if he'd handed me my nacre the way he did with you, but Merit..."

Korac surprised me by saying, "I understand." We all looked at him, prompting him to add, "None of Nox's crimes are easy to forgive. Fuck, neither were mine. But... Merit was a bright star, fallen too soon."

In the Divine Booth, I glance over at you on the couch. A heavy tear rolls down your cheek as you stare elsewhere in the study.

Please, Rayne, tell me what you're thinking.

You swallow your heart to say, "I will. When you finish. Try not to worry. I'm not upset with you. Like Korac said, I understand."

Thank you.

Tameka gave me a squeeze before pushing us along. "What next?"

"The Vacating."

Andrew asked, "Were you in on that plan? And how did you not get sucked back into Cinder with all the other Icari?"

Lamassau frowned and pointed at me. "Hey, yeah. How?"

I looked around the room at the puzzled faces before confessing, "I don't know. Maybe Celindria factored in my Tritan blood. I have no idea. She only assured me it wouldn't take me, and I trusted her. As for the plan, yes, I knew.

"One note regarding Celindria's second pregnancy..."

We worked side-by-side to establish this rebellion for the sake of humanity and Earth. So, when Celindria started showing, I took notice and made my own assumptions. She invited no conversation about it, prompting me to leave it alone.

Until the day Celindria returned from a supply run with a flat stomach.

I followed her into my stronghold, and she rushed into it, avoiding me. Yet I couldn't leave it alone. "Did Nox—"

"Father, please. Not right now." Celindria headed for the bath.

I gently took her elbow. "Please. I have to know."

When she whirled on me, there were tears in her usually empty eyes. Fresh ones, and they spilled down her cheeks.

Celindria's duress and the smell of blood left me growling. "I will kill him, myself!"

I spun and stormed out to put an end to Nox's abuse and hatred for someone not even a fraction of his age—

Her icy hand on my arm stopped me. I'd never heard Celindria's voice so sad. "I ended the pregnancy."

I took her hand in mine to warm it and brushed a loc from her face. "Please. Tell me."

Celindria swallowed before shaking her head. "I may not feel as you do or as much, but this will kill me if I let it. I must release it. Forget it. Please."

I asked what I couldn't keep to myself anymore. "Was it Nox's child?"

I'll never know if Celindria lowered her head in genuine shame or faked it, but the pain... I felt it in the squeeze of her hand. "It was mine, and now it is not. This is no world to welcome another child of mine. Now please... I wish to wash this away and never think of it again."

With a kiss on Celindria's forehead, I let her go.

"After I heard Celindria had confronted Nox when she terminated the pregnancy, I questioned her sanity and emotional stability. It was chaos, and I sought meaning. Moments before the Vacating, she asked me to eliminate an Icarean soldier. Instead, I left a message with him for Korac."

The room looked at the Iona General, and Korac made a point of looking at the floor. Once she noticed, Sagan took his arm and snuggled against him.

This was the moment Korac couldn't tell in his Verse, because this was when we said goodbye. Not to see each other again for eight thousand years.

I paced in the same spot for the last half hour. I examined the rut I wore into the sand. Not much longer. I peered up at the stars and imagined them through Nox's Sphere. Shuddering, I couldn't even think of it without grimacing. Everything had went so wrong, so fast. Korac alighted from the sky. He approached from the East. Good. The gust blew back my hair and clothes. Show off.

"You summoned me." Korac's voice dripped with suspicion.

Distract him for ten minutes. Only ten minutes. Enough time to let Celindria close the conduit. Hopefully, this conversation was enough of a distraction. I said, "I never thought you would come."

Korac raked his gaze over me. A compliment—A testament to the remnants of our relationship. He looked back up with mercury in his stare. "I always came for you."

I closed my eyes. Memories washed over me and so much regret. The memories threatened to swallow me. Sand crunched beneath Korac's feet as he closed the distance between us. When I opened my eyes, a breath separated us. The stars above glittered across the constellations, waiting with the patience of immortals for the show to start. Despite the proximity and the loss pouring from my heart, I resisted the temptation Korac offered. Instead I warned, "Please, listen to me. I wish I had more time—"

"Before your unstable daughter draws me into Cinder?"

I recoiled, staggering back. "What—How?!" The plan. The plan we'd protected for a decade. How could Korac know? I never told Colita. If Korac knew, then surely Nox must know—

"Do not insult my intelligence. I am General of the Icarean army. Military strategy and affairs of the court are my business. Your treachery is no different." Korac remained as cool as ever. Despite the frost in his overall demeanor, fire sparked in his eyes.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

I scoffed. "Treachery?! Nox kills and takes and cannot see he will destroy this planet as much as Li destroyed Cinder. Earth cannot replace Cinder if we turn it into another barren rock!"

"That bitch has poisoned you!" Korac cut me off from responding with a gesture, swallowed, and said, "Time grows short. If you called me here to make amends, I am prepared to accept your surrender and take you home with us. Serve your sentence."

"Nox..." I opened my wings. If his council knew the Progeny's plans, then the Icari had prepared for this.

No.

Could I make it to the fortress in time? "I must warn Celindria." Electricity traveled up my arm where Korac gripped me at the elbow. I peered down at the contact. "Unhand. Me." The three syllables were spoken in ice.

"The ego of you. Can you not see it?! You are a traitor. Your title stripped, your research seized—You made yourself an enemy of your people. For her!" Korac jerked my elbow until we faced one another.

Short of death, nothing would stop me from warning Celindria. I said, "Let me go before I lose my reason."

"Celindria is the monster. Not your brother. I know it went wrong, and Merit paid the price. I cared—"

I punched Korac in the jaw hard enough to bleed my knuckles.

He spat blue blood onto the sand, but didn't retaliate. The shake of his head was full of disgust and disappointment. Tired and done, I went to fly again. Once more, Korac pulled my arm.

I whirled and spat out, "Merit was capable of more love than you will ever hope to see. You understand nothing of sacrifice."

Korac recoiled with hurt in his eyes. "These are my last minutes on Earth, and I chose to spend them with you. How could you say I know nothing of sacrifice?" Some knowledge dawned in his eyes, and he said, "You never intended to say goodbye. You asked me here to keep me from stopping Celindria." Korac's eyes hardened as he added, "While you try to distract me here, she is alone with my King at her summons. Do you not see it? The game she plays?" He let go of my arm.

I looked down at where his hand had been. It burned. I said, "You are wrong. I wanted to see you one last time, but now I must keep Nox from harming her." Although, if Korac was right and Celindria had summoned Nox...

What was her aim?

"You broke your promise." Korac's voice sounded tight, squeezed out. When I met his eyes, he continued, "You said you would teach me to fight and to fuck in the sky. Then you left me with this misery for your misguided children."

I squeezed my eyes shut. The wind picked up around us, and a sharp keening sound grew ever louder in the night. "I cannot—"

"I will miss you," Korac confessed, making me open my eyes. With tears streaming down his face, he said, "I will be alone without you. We have no way of knowing for how long. I weep for you being separated from your people for maybe thousands of years." His hair picked up on the spiraling gusts increasing around us.

The Vacating was coming. I wanted to reach out and touch Korac's face, to take his tears away. I still cared for him, but in the eye of this hurricane I could only say, "I hope in the time it takes, you will learn how to weep. Then we can speak as friends again." I flew into the night, all too aware the next time we'd meet, it would be across the front line of a battlefield.

I didn't want this for us. For any of us. I wanted the Icari to stay on Earth, but not as Nox's personal army.

"The Army of Night." Your words make me peer at you.

Rayne, I never referred to the army by the name the humans called them. How...

You shrug, looking off. "Maybe I read it in your journals."

Maybe.

In my study, I met the sad eyes of my closest friends. When I glimpsed Bones and Twenty-One, I thought to say, "I am so sorry."

Bones shrugged. "We had already evacuated back to Cinder, but we missed the desert and the stars."

Twenty-One admitted, "I had a family on Earth."

I winced. "Did they evacuate with you?"

The enormous Icarus said, "My wife was human and my daughter stayed with her."

Lucas offered, "The Brethren kept close records of all hybrids. We can trace down their lineage, if you'd like?"

Miy peered up at Twenty-One, who shook his head. "Thank you, but there's no point in it now. They're gone. It's one way Nox motivated the soldiers. To avenge those broken connections. Through Dr. Suarez—"

Pablo waved.

"—I learned not all the people on the other side were heartless. Since reading the Verses, I understand it was all ugly business and confusion. Not a good enough crusade to lose my family to, but I could understand the reasons at least."

Tucked between Chris and Para while cooing at Echo, Karter asked, "What about the Valkyrie?"

Andrew added, "Yes. And Lucas and Caedes? The Brethren?"

Devis said, "Celindria could program it using samples of blood from anyone she liked. All The Brethren had signed up for this exclusive privilege. As for the Valkyrie..."

I said, "Once I'd annexed onto my stronghold, I migrated the Valkyrie to Earth in their suspension beds. I assumed the Pretiosum Cruor didn't take them for this reason, but perhaps Celindria had programmed them like The Brethren."

Korac ticked off the next few events on his fingers. "So the Vacating took us, Nox and I discovered Imminent had infiltrated the Castle and he slid into madness, and Colita raided the remnants of your old lab in Umbra's Spire."

Where they delighted in finding the plans for the Martyr Complex.

I kept this to myself because I believed Korac's shame was genuine.

"What about Nox's shame?"

I want you to always feel free to ask me any question—Ever. But I wish so many of them didn't revolve around him. I believe Nox told the truth in his Verse. Both men do not regret building the monstrosity which I'd designed. They only regret ever putting you in it. However, Korac and Nox admitted they would give anything to confine Celindria to it.

Head nuzzled into the pillow, you stare at me across the room and state, "The distinction bothers you."

The Complex is a nightmarish amalgamation of my desire to save our species and their desire to hurt another being. Why would I revel in either man's need to inflict the agony you they'd subjected you to, Rayne? Do you think anyone—even Celindria—deserves the Complex?

Little you says, "No." Proud, I ruffle your hair until you add, "But I think Celindria deserves to feel what it's like, the same as you think Nox deserved his madness." Pulling you in for a hug, I kiss your pig tails.

I know I'm a monster for it. It's something I need you to know—

"No." You wiggle away to stare up at me. "I understand you. You're not a monster, and you're not wrong. Not entirely. Nox deserved some form of punishment in the end, but doesn't it bother you that you wished it on him when you know better now? That he wasn't lesser until later? And Korac?"

They thought so, too.

Into the sad quiet which settled in my study, Sagan professed, "It was so tragic."

Korac spurred, "Well, your imperial majesty. This is where we part in the Verses. Is there anything you want to say?"

There's only one thing I wanted to say to him. "I missed you." I include a smirk for good measure because it was so very true.

Earth was lonely after Celindria banished the Icari.

"Tell them."

I cleared my throat and added, "I missed all of you. You were my people, and I barely got on without you. If not for Lucas' company, I don't think I would've survived."

Lucas gave a little wave, accepting the credit.

"As Korac said, this was where our journeys split until we return for the end of this Verse." Behind me, I retrieve a folded bundle of cloth. Shaking it loose, I threw on my frock and whirled. "Let the space pirating begin."

The room burst into laughter and whistles, but over it all I heard Korac groan, "I am so glad I missed this phase."

Tameka confessed, "I'm glad it's making its way back."

The little version of you beams. "Me, too."

Me, too, Rayne.