The bridge door slid open with a hiss, and Lon entered cautiously, a wary expression on his blue face. Andi raised an eyebrow at him and turned back to the holoscreen, which was flashing with an error message. She swiped it away and brought up a diagram of the Mirabel Galaxy, projecting it into the air around them.
“We’re in the Xintra Nebula,” Lon said, pointing to the dusty pink cloud that hovered in space between the Olen and Tavina systems.
“Yes, I’d gathered that already,” Andi remarked dryly. “And why, exactly, are we here, when my crew—when your sister—is on the other side of the galaxy?”
Lon looked weary as he sank down into the seat that was usually Breck’s. “We’re here because Queen Nor is also on the other side of the galaxy. Along with her army of mind-controlled minions.”
She blinked. “Excuse me? Mind control?” Even saying those two words sounded ridiculous. “What the hell are you talking about?”
He sighed in exasperation. “Seriously, Andi? Didn’t you let Dex explain anything before you knocked him out?”
Andi felt her temper rising as heat flooded her cheeks. “He left my girls behind, Lon. I wasn’t exactly in the mood to listen to anything he had to say.”
“He didn’t have much of a choice. If he’d tried to rescue them, too, we’d probably all be dead or under Nor’s control now.” Lon shook his head and rose to his feet, holding a hand out to Andi. “Come on. Let’s head back to the med bay. You’re bleeding all over the place, and we can try to wake Dex up. He was there—he can tell you what happened much better than I can.”
* * *
For years, Andi hadn’t allowed herself to rely on anyone but herself and her crew. No one else had proved worthy of her trust, and even when it came to Lira, Breck and Gilly, Andi vastly preferred being the one guarding their backs.
So as she and Lon made their slow trek to the med bay, Andi was mortified to find herself leaning on him more and more, unable to stand upright on her own. She gritted her teeth in frustration and tried to will some strength into her legs, but the effort was useless.
“There’s no shame in accepting help, Andi,” Lon said gently. “You nearly died, and you’ve been heavily sedated for almost a week now. I’m surprised you were even able to make it to the bridge in the first place.”
Andi stumbled to a halt as a wave of shock washed over her. She could feel the blood draining from her face as she turned to look up at Lon. “I’ve been out for a week?”
He caught her as she swayed, then guided her the last few steps toward the med bay. “Andi, I don’t think you realize how badly you were hurt, how much blood you lost before Dex managed to get you and General Cortas onto the ship.”
“Wait,” Andi said, her mind reeling with confusion as Lon raised a hand to the access panel beside the med bay door. “The general is here? Cyprian Cortas is on my ship?”
The mere thought of that man here, aboard her ship when her girls were not, made Andi’s blood boil.
“Was,” Lon said. The door slid open, revealing Dex’s muscular frame sprawled out on the floor. Lon entered the med bay swiftly, kneeling down and shaking his shoulder roughly. “He died shortly after we left Arcardius.”
Andi braced herself on the door frame, trying to gauge how she felt about the general’s passing. Cyprian Cortas had been a cruel, ambitious man, but he’d also been one of the greatest generals in the history of Arcardius. And he was the father of the girl she’d once loved like a sister—the girl she’d failed to protect.
Kalee.
The sound of Dex’s groan pulled her away from her dark thoughts. She watched, feeling slightly guilty, as he stirred and raised a hand to his neck, wincing when he touched the spot where she’d stabbed him with the syringe.
As Lon helped him sit up, Dex’s dazed brown eyes slowly rose to meet Andi’s. She held his gaze for a moment, hesitating, wondering what he was thinking. Then his lips quirked up into a half smile, and he said, “I know I needed the sleep, Baroness, but you could have just suggested I take a nap.”
His tone was teasing, but Andi could see the underlying sadness and worry in his eyes. She tried to keep her voice light as she asked, “And would you have actually listened?”
Dex ducked his head, but not quickly enough to mask his pained expression. “Probably not. You know I’ve never been very good at that.”
A pang of remorse filled her chest, adding to the gradually worsening ache from her wound. “Me neither,” Andi admitted.
He looked up at her incredulously, hope filling his face. Andi tried to smile at him, but it turned into a grimace as a stabbing pain coursed through her. She sucked in a breath through her teeth as Lon stood and hurried to her side.
“You both need to rest,” he said sternly, steering her back toward the bed she’d woken up in. “And you likely need some new stitches. But I think you might try to stab us with something worse than a dose of soduum if you don’t get some answers soon.”
“You’re not wrong,” Andi replied weakly, easing herself onto the mattress with Lon’s help. Dex clambered to his feet and made his way to her bedside while Lon peeled away the blood-soaked bandage on her chest. Andi glanced down and hissed at the sight of the angry-looking gash.
“Another scar to add to my collection, courtesy of that bastard Valen Cortas,” she said darkly.
“That description of him is truer than you might imagine,” Dex said, settling into a chair next to Andi’s bed as Lon hurried to fetch the supplies he needed to tend her wound. “Considering he’s not the son of Merella and Cyprian Cortas.”
Andi stared at him, certain she’d misunderstood. “Come again?”
“Well, Cyprian is—or rather, was—his father,” Dex clarified. “But his mother...his mother was Klaren Solis.”
Andi’s jaw dropped. “What?” she yelped. “But...that means...”
Dex nodded. “That he’s Queen Nor’s half brother, yes.”
Before she could fully process the horror of that thought, Lon returned with a needle, some surgical thread and bandages. He coaxed Andi back onto the pillows and began repairing the damage she’d done to her wound as Dex filled in the rest of the story, telling her what the general had revealed during his dying moments.
How Klaren had somehow bewitched him during the years she’d lived on the Cortas estate as his prisoner. How she’d become pregnant with his child—a son he’d always feared would someday inherit his mother’s strange abilities. A son he could never trust, could never name as his heir.
A son who was half–Xen Pterran—or perhaps something else entirely.