Phoebus descended into chaos.
Ollie lifted Ren and slung him over his shoulder, despite Ren’s protests.
“I can face her!”
“No,” Ollie said. He grabbed Darby’s hand and hauled her out of her seat. Frozen with fear, her face pale, her limbs locked, it took both Ollie’s and Rowan’s physical urging to get her to move.
“What’s going on?” Darby asked, voice small and terrified. She clutched Rowan’s arm and stumbled as the four of them moved through the crowd. “What’s happening? It’s not a blip. It’s too long to be a blip.”
“This drift is under attack,” Rowan said. “And we’re not staying around to find out by whom.”
“It’s her,” Ren said. He hung over Ollie’s broad back. Ollie’s shoulder dug into his stomach, aggravating his wound. He didn’t appreciate being carried around like a sack of parts, but he didn’t trust his ability to stay with them amid the frenzied crowds. Using so much power and exercising the amount of control needed to finesse the data had drained his atrophied body. Someone slammed into Ollie; pain sliced down Ren’s torso and robbed him of his breath.
People ran and screamed. They pounded on locked doors. They yelled for others in the dark. They bumped into each other, pushed through crowds, and ran from the lifts to the stairs and back attempting to find an exit.
Through it all, Ollie and Rowan strode with a purpose, heading to the access stairs that led to the docks.
“Put me down,” Ren said, tears gathering in his eyes at the sheer terror of the citizens. “I can fight her.”
“No,” Ollie said again.
Ren struggled in his grip, and Ollie’s grasp went tighter until it was painful.
“I can help these people. Please, let me help.”
Rowan paused long enough to turn and grab Ren’s face in one hand. Her thumb and fingers dug into his cheeks as she lifted his head. Her green eyes blazed.
“Do I need to remind you what happened? What she can do? She manipulated you. She made you a ghost. She betrayed you, and you almost died. The only people you’ll be helping is us to get off this drift before Millicent vents it.”
Rowan let go, and Ren sagged.
They maneuvered through the crowd. Rowan dragged Darby by the wrist as though she was a disobedient child. Ollie’s imposing figure cut a path through the masses, but the crowd became denser as they neared the exit that led to the docking platform.
A crowd had formed around the door to the access stairs. The mass swelled; the poor souls in the front were squished into the metal walls. The banged their hands and fought to pry the door open.
“Ren,” Rowan said.
“If I do it, she’ll know I’m here. She’ll know I’m alive. She won’t let me go.”
Rowan made a frustrated noise. “What do we do?”
“Get to the front and put me down, and I’ll tell you how to do it manually.”
Ollie shouldered through, shouting for people to move. Gently, he set Ren on his feet, and Ren leaned heavily against the wall with Darby tight to his side. If he fell, he’d be trampled, and the information about Asher and about his brother would be lost.
“The problem is a lack of energy source. Open the access panel,” Ren said.
Ollie gripped the metal and peeled it back to reveal the innards of the mechanism.
“Rowan, pull your pulse gun.”
“Are you serious?”
Someone jostled close, and Ren grunted. “Yes,” he said through gritted teeth.
Muttering under her breath, Rowan pulled her gun from the holster. “Now what?”
Ren had fixed weapons in the citadel’s courtyard long ago. He’d made Asher’s weapon fall to pieces in the snowstorm, and he’d disabled the weapons from the Corps. Rowan’s would have much the same layout.
“Pop open the handle and find the energy source. Ollie, there should be a clump of wires that lead into the wall. Pull them out.”
They worked quickly, and, after a moment, Rowan held a gleaming cube in her palm, and Ollie had several wires in his fist. Ren took the power source and found the connector he needed.
“Okay, so it’s not going to be enough power for the door to open all the way, but it should pop it free for us to squeeze through.”
Ren jammed the connector into the source. Sparks flew, and a shock sped through Ren’s hands into his skin and up through his body to his chest. His hair stood on end, and a hint of ozone wafted into the air. His heart stuttered, but the door opened wide enough for Ollie to slide through. Back against the frame, hands on the door itself, Ollie pushed. His muscles strained, and his face flushed, and his features twisted up in exertion, but, with a screech of metal, the door skated into the wall socket.
The crowd surged forward, and Ren was lucky that Ollie grabbed him and pulled him through with Darby following, her hands clasped tightly around Ren’s forearm. Rowan shoved herself through, then turned to face the swelling crowd.
“Get to the ships. Get your friends and family and get on a ship and hurry. Understand? You saw how we opened this door. Do the same for the others and clear the drift. That’s how you’re going to survive.”
“We should help them open other doors,” Darby said, breathless.
“We’ve done our good deed,” Rowan stalked by them. “We’re leaving.”
Clinging to Ollie’s strong arms, Ren didn’t argue. He focused on how they were going to get off the dock itself, especially since all systems were down. He’d have to use his power, and then Millicent would know he was there and so would whoever was with her, presumably Vos. They wouldn’t let him go. She’d never let him go if she thought she could convince him to join her and if she couldn’t, she’d see him dead. She’d tried to manipulate him for months and when she couldn’t, she’d left him to the nonexistent mercy of the Corps.
They made it to the Star Stream’s dock just as an announcement came over the drift-wide comm system.
“No need to be alarmed, citizens of Phoebus. Systems will all be restored once all Phoenix Corps soldiers and the local government have turned themselves over to the new regime.”
Ren’s eyebrows shot up. That wasn’t Vos’s voice. It wasn’t Abiathar’s either. Someone new? Someone else seduced by Vos’s schemes?
“We suggest that all the populace find a safe space to wait. And we suggest that any holdouts to our demands recognize that their resistance will only lend to the destruction of their own people. We’d like this to be as painless a process as possible, but we are prepared to take drastic measures if necessary. Thank you.”
“Friendly and threatening. Sounds like a politician.” Rowan threw open the door to the cargo bay and shoved Darby through.
Ren frowned. He looked over his shoulder to see the surge of people in the docking area running for ships. He didn’t know the voice on the comm, but that was Millicent in the systems. He couldn’t mistake the sickly caress of her signature in his mind and over his skin. He ached with betrayal and burned with revenge. His stomach turned at the thought of how she’d pulled him into the circuits on the ship and pushed him out of the communication tower on Crei, how she could control his star in a way he couldn’t.
She may be able to manipulate him, but he was more powerful. He didn’t have to touch an object to exert his will over it. She did. Which meant she had to be on the drift. She had to be there, among the crowd.
He could find her. He could find her and….
“Whatever you’re thinking, don’t.” Rowan jostled Ren into the Star Stream and closed the door after Ollie. “I know that look. It’s the ‘I have a stupid idea’ look.”
Ren’s legs gave out and he sank to the deck plate. Splayed on the cool surface, he rolled his head to stare at the other three. “Millicent has to touch whatever she’s controlling. That means she is on the drift. She’s there. Among the crowd. With whoever that is with her. We could find her. We could stop her. I could stop her.”
“No. And it doesn’t matter.” Rowan crouched and poked his cheek. Her hard stare pierced him. “Did you get the information about Asher? Do you know where he is?”
“He’s on Bara.”
“Then that’s where we are going. We’re not interfering here. We’ve learned our lesson about dealing with Vos and Millicent and becoming embroiled in their feud with the Corps.” Ren placed a hand protectively on the side of his stomach; his fingers spread over the fabric of his shirt. Her sharp gaze drifted to the wound. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” His side throbbed, but the stiches held, despite the unceremonious way Ollie had hauled him around.
“What about me?” Darby asked. She hovered by the airlock door, one hand on the locking mechanism as if she was going to flee to the drift. Face pale, obviously terrified, she looked from one of them to the other.
Rowan straightened. She put her hands on her hips. “Do you want to stay on Phoebus? Or do you want to come with us to Bara?”
Darby narrowed her eyes. “Neither. The deal was for you to take me to another drift.”
“And we will. After we’ve found my brother.”
“You’re kidnapping me?” Her voice went high, breaking on the last word.
Rowan rolled her eyes. “Hardly. We’re saving you. Or did you forget the power outage and the mass panic going on right outside the door? And the threat announced? Do you want to be here when a new regime takes over?” Rowan swept her hand toward the exit. “You’re more than welcome to leave.”
Eyes wide, Darby shook her head.
“Besides, we can’t really kidnap anyone.” Lucas appeared at the top of the stairs with Penelope close behind. “Docking is completely dark, and we can’t leave until someone lets us out.” Lucas crossed his arms and leaned on the railing. His goggles mussed his hair. “We’re stuck unless Ren here can do anything about it.”
“What’s going on out there?” Penelope asked. She looped her arm through Lucas’s.
“Millicent,” Ren said.
Penelope gasped, her hand flew to her mouth, and Lucas made a face. “Great.” Lucas scuffed his boot against the deck. “Return of the creepy lady with questionable understanding of personal space.”
Darby’s eyebrows raised. “You guys really have a problem with this person.”
“Understatement,” Ren muttered.
“We have to leave.” Penelope tugged Lucas closer. “She’ll recognize the ship. She’ll know we’re here, that Ren’s here. She could hurt him again.”
Ren pushed his body to sitting and grimaced at the pull on his injury and the weakness of his limbs. “We could fight.”
“No,” Rowan and Ollie said immediately in unison.
Ren sighed, but they were right. He was too weak. “We could wait it out. Hope that Millicent doesn’t realize we’re here and wait for systems to resume once the Corps and the government turn themselves over. If whoever that was on the comm system keeps their promise.”
Rowan cocked her hip to the side. “Or?”
“Or you let me open the docking bay, and we leave.”
Rowan shook her head so her braid swung behind her. “It’s too dangerous. We know what she can do to you, and, if she realizes you’re here, she’ll waste no time in trying to keep you here or kill you. No, we need a better option.”
Being reminded of his own inability began to wear on his nerves. Ren listed to the side. “There are no other options! Unless we try to pop the dock like we did the door!”
“That would mean we would have to manually access the docking system, which is more than likely housed in the control center, which would be in the middle of the drift.” Ollie stepped forward. He crossed his bulging arms. “I could do it. If Ren could talk me through it over the comms.”
“No!” This time it was Penelope and Rowan speaking together.
Rowan touched his arm. “We’ve lost Asher. We’re not losing you too.”
“Great, just great!” Darby threw up her hands. “We’re stuck here. I’m stuck here, apparently, since you are kidnapping me! Again, I might add! And there’s no way out unless we can magically transport out of this bay without being noticed by a creepy lady and her handler. Right? Am I right?”
Lucas’s head snapped up. “Say that again.”
“Kidnapping!”
“No! Magical transport.” Lucas whipped his head around to stare at Ren. “Can you do it? Would she feel it?”
“It wouldn’t matter if she felt it. We’d be long gone. Right?” Rowan asked, leaning on the stair railing.
“I can do it.” He wasn’t sure, but it was their only option. “She’d know I am alive. I think she’d feel the disturbance, but she might not, especially if she’s occupied with other things.”
“We don’t know if she knows you were dead in the first place. She had left before the…” Penelope waved her hands. “Shooting, right?”
“This is our chance. We’re taking it.” Ollie held out his hand. “Come on. Let’s get you to the bridge.” Hauling Ren to his feet, Ollie guided him to the stairs.
Ren gripped the railing and shook off Ollie’s help. “Everyone stay here. I’ll do it. I don’t want to… accidentally hurt anyone.”
“Better hurry.” Rowan jerked her head toward the airlock. “We have no idea what’s going on out there.”
Nodding, Ren climbed the stairs and, leaning hard against the bulkhead, stumbled to the bridge. His pulse raced. Sweat beaded along his hairline. The last time he’d done this, he’d been under extreme duress, pressed into the corner of the bridge, shaking and afraid. Abiathar’s tow lines had thunked into the hull, and he’d threatened Ren’s newfound friends. He’d wanted Ren as a weapon, and the terror of being captured again, of having whatever this power was used against innocent people, had been enough to push Ren over the edge. Panicking, Ren had tapped into something.
He’d once thought of his star as akin to water. He could navigate a stream, but not the river that raged inside him. His control was a dam and it had broken with his fear, and he’d flooded and transported the entire ship across the cluster.
He could do that again.
Ren’s body trembled just as last time, but not from fear. He slid to the floor, propped himself against the navigation controls, and closed his eyes.
It was never easy. There was always the anxiety of burning too brightly, filling up with too much, becoming something other than Ren. He didn’t have Asher to pull him back, to ground him in his humanity. But he was intimately connected to the ship now: her systems, her personality, her capabilities. He’d spent the last six weeks inhabiting the wires and switches, surviving in the circuits and systems, thriving in the ether between potential and kinetic energies. He could do this.
Palms pressed to the hull, Ren gritted his teeth and focused.
“Not to interrupt,” Lucas said, hopping into his pilot chair. It creaked beneath him. Ren startled and opened one eye to squint at Lucas. “But I’ve pulled up a chart for you on the navigation console. Bara is the green glob in the northeast quadrant. If you could get us close, there would be less time between now and Asher’s rescue.” He cleared his throat. “No pressure or anything.”
“No pressure.” No pressure but the possibility of another capture. No pressure except the fate of this crew, his family. No pressure except that Asher’s rescue lay beyond his reach unless he could save them first. No pressure. Ren’s anxiety ticked up. His heart beat in his ears.
Ren clenched his eyes shut and listened for Lucas’s retreating footsteps. Once they’d faded, he dove into the ship’s systems and pulled the stopper that held back the full force of his power. His star flooded through him, filled him with warmth and light, and electricity crackled through his veins, played over his skin, dripped from his fingers in torrents of white and blue light. Energy flowed from him to the ship and from the ship into him. He poured into the nav system and followed the directions Lucas had left behind.
Ren’s hair stood on end. The air sizzled. Blue frizzles of power gathered in the corners of the bridge. Ren pushed and pushed. He grunted and gritted his teeth. Willing the coordinates, he overwhelmed the system, bent the physics of travel and space and time. The star pulsed under his skin and slammed into the ship, into the circuits. Ren’s bones creaked. His muscles burned. His throat scorched on a yell.
A blast of light and sound rocketed from the Star Stream, and everything dissolved into blinding white.
_
Ren woke to the sound of water lapping gently at the shore. Water tickled the bottom of his feet and dampened the cuffs of his trousers. Cracking his eyes open, Ren turned his head and was greeted by the sight of waves bleeding up the smooth bank of the beach. His fingers curled into the wet sand; particles dug under his fingernails. His clothes stuck uncomfortably to his skin in the humidity.
Ren sat up. The low-slung sun cast sparkles on the water, and he squinted against the riotous orange and pink hemorrhaging across the horizon. His head pounded. His mouth was dry. His body ached. He pulled his knees to his chest and hunched forward, dug his toes into the beach, and sighed as cold foam washed over them.
“What the weeds happened to you?”
Ren straightened and craned his neck. “Liam?”
A boy stood next to Ren’s shoulder. It sounded like Liam, but it didn’t look like him. The Liam he knew had a full face and red hair and freckles. This person who sat down next to him had hollow cheeks free of baby fat, and was pale, as if he had never seen the sun. His red hair sat limply on his forehead, and the once-vibrant fire color had faded to resemble a dying leaf. He wore a beige outfit, like the medical scrubs Ren had awakened in, and they swallowed his frame.
Ren inhaled sharply, then coughed. “Liam?”
Knees bent to his chest, arms loosely wrapped around them in a mirror of Ren’s pose, the person beside him turned his head and blinked.
“Who else would it be?”
Ren moved quickly, and his head spun, but that didn’t stop him from tackling Liam to the sand. He hugged his brother as they tumbled over each other and laughed. Liam thumped him on the back and chuckled in Ren’s ear; his voice was lower than Ren remembered.
They stopped rolling, and Ren shoved Liam off. He pulled away and held Liam by the shoulders at arm’s length. His grin split his face; his cheeks hurt. “You look so different.”
“So do you.” Liam grinned. He ran his hand over Ren’s head. “I like it.”
Ren pushed Liam’s shoulder, and Liam playfully smacked his hand away.
Settling next to his brother so their shoulders touched, Ren stared out over the water. “Is this a dream?”
Liam snorted. “Obviously.”
“Good, I wasn’t sure.”
Eyebrows raised, Liam frowned. “Why?”
“I think I may have just done something stupid. I can’t really remember what happened but… I don’t remember falling asleep.”
“Well, you are. If you were anything else, you couldn’t be here.”
Ren pushed his fingers into the sand. The grains, warm from the sun, rubbed over his skin. “I always dream about this lake.” Ren frowned, remembering his visit to Erden. “I hate this lake.”
Chuckling, Liam knocked shoulders. “I’m doing this. Not you. And stop it. You love this lake.”
“I did. Not now.”
“Ah, too good for us dusters now that you’re on a spaceship? Have you become a full spacer?”
Ren huffed a laugh. “Not quite.”
“Good.” Liam slung his arm over Ren’s shoulders. “Just because you’ve changed doesn’t mean you can’t look back at your past with a little fondness.”
That sounded parroted. Not like Liam at all. Unease pricked at Ren’s nape. “How mature.”
“I talked with Mom,” Liam said, expression sheepish. “She told me about your visit and how things ended.”
Ren stiffened. “You can enter her dreams?”
“It’s easier with other star hosts. And I get it. You’re mad because she didn’t tell us. Especially you. They set you up for a life you didn’t want. I’m sorry about that.”
Rubbing his brow, Ren relaxed under Liam’s arm. “I would’ve told you I saw them, but I didn’t think you’d understand.”
“I’m your brother. I’ve known you my whole life. Of course, I understand. It weeding sucks.”
“Then you understand why I’m never going back, right?”
Liam’s mouth tightened. “Yeah.”
Ren hid his wince. Liam wanted to go back. He had never wanted to leave. Was he thinking about how he might not step on soil again? Was he thinking about how he might not hug his parents? Or dunk his brother in the lake again? Even if Ren could find him, he might not be able to rescue him.
Liam cleared his throat. He unwound his arm from Ren’s shoulders and picked up a stray shell. He shook off the clinging sand. “I’ve been trying to reach you for weeks. I thought… well…” He furrowed his brow, and his throat bobbed. “It doesn’t matter what I thought. I guess I was wrong.”
Ren grimaced. “I was… incapacitated.” He squinted against the bright sun and noticed how it had stalled on the horizon. “I was injured.”
“Understatement. Was it her? That other one?”
“Yes. You warned me about her. I should’ve known.”
Liam shrugged. “I wasn’t sure. This power thing is still new. I’m learning the nuances. But your dreams always seemed… off… when she was near you.”
“She was influencing me. I didn’t know. I didn’t know she could do that.”
Liam nodded. “I don’t know the depths of what I am capable of. Do you?”
That was a sobering question. “No. I don’t. And I don’t know if I want to.” Ren met Liam’s gaze. “Do you know where you are? Are they still monitoring you?”
Liam’s mouth twitched into a smile. “I don’t know where I am. And no, they can’t monitor me. They never could.” He sighed; his gaze dropped to his hands where he played with the shell. “When I woke up here, I was scared. I was scared they would kill me if I wasn’t useful. They heavily implied it. So, I did what they told me to. I went into people’s dreams and drew out information and fed it to the guys that brought me food. I thought they would know if I lied or if I couldn’t reach the people they wanted. But after being here a while, I’ve realized, they can’t follow me here.” He swept his hand toward the lake. “If those weeds knew how to dream-walk, then they wouldn’t need me. They’re not going to kill me. They don’t know if what I tell them is true or not. I keep it vague and give them kernels of truth, but never the whole.” He squinted, his green eyes narrowing against the suspended setting sun. “I don’t know who they are, but I know I’m not helping them anymore.” He threw the shell into the lake. It skipped once, twice, three times, but instead of plunging into the water, it kept bobbing across the surface, disappearing into the infinite.
Ren swallowed. “It’s the Phoenix Corps. I saw your name in their files.”
Liam’s eyebrows ticked up. “Do you know where I am?”
“No.” Ren shook his head. “I didn’t get a chance to find out. But I won’t stop looking. I promise.”
Liam smiled fully. “I have to go.” Liam stood and wiped the sand from his pants. “You’re going to wake up soon.”
Ren hopped to his feet. The lake wavered. The sky thinned. The trees flicked out of existence one by one. Sand disappeared from his fingers. “I’ll see you again?”
“Yeah. Of course.”
They hugged, and Ren squeezed Liam tightly. “I miss you.”
“I miss you, too, big brother.” Liam pulled away. And it was his turn to hold Ren at arm’s length and look him over. “Promise me, Ren. If you have a chance to run away, to be safe, to live a life. Take it. Don’t put yourself in danger for me.”
“I can’t promise that.”
Liam shook his head. “It was worth a try.” He punched Ren in the arm before walking away. “Don’t be a weed,” he called over his shoulder. His body slowly became transparent.
“Take care,” Ren called back.
Liam waved, and the dream fizzled out.