Ignoring the signs that warned against straying from marked paths, Gus mounted a low hanging branch and followed it up into the tree. Thankfully, she was an old hand at navigating the Lord of Titan or she’d be like those tourists. Hopelessly lost. The tree’s interior was a maze. The interwoven trunks that allowed it…
Gus jerked her hood up as she stepped out of Natalie’s, rejoining the throng of humanity and letting it carry her along the causeway. In the short time she’d spent talking to Kyle, the flow of foot traffic had increased significantly. A sign of the impending shift change. The food carts along the edges were…
Gus swallowed hard, wishing she could see their faces. She wanted to know which of her siblings had decided she was expendable. With an effort of will, she pulled her gaze away from the cloaked figures to focus on the Tuann Kyle had found. “Recognize him?” Gus asked Caius. The camera had caught the Tuann…
“Dearie, your friends are here,” Kyle’s mom called, sounding far away as Gus stepped through the hatch into a back room that must have served as the restaurant’s kitchen at one point. The appliances and counters around the space seemed to support that assessment. To Gus’s relief, there was evidence of vegetables being cut up,…
The restaurant’s interior was as humble and unassuming as its exterior. The only thing declaring it as a place where people could get food were the tables scattered randomly throughout the space. Most of which looked like they’d been sourced from the local scrap heap. Sheets of metal served as table tops. Some of the…
Another explosion from the direction of her living quarters showed the intruders had breached Gus’s last defense. “Don’t look back,” Gus ordered as Anandra’s hand pulled against hers, his focus on what was behind rather than what was ahead. Seeing his hood had slid down, Gus adjusted it for him. “You never look back.” That…
Something brushed the periphery of Gus’s senses. A murmur disguised as an omen. Easily ignored by someone else. Someone bolder and more assured. Gus, though, was none of those things. She was cautious and had learned to pay attention when the universe spoke. “What is it? What’s wrong?” Anandra asked, tensing as he noticed her…
Gus let that sink in. Someone wanted her dead. Whether because of a grudge or because they saw her as easy pickings. Weak. There for the destroying. They’d declared war on her and everything she’d built. Belladonna and its crimes would trace back to her. The plant obsessed hermit stupid enough to name her organization…
Gus rubbed her forehead, trying not to panic. Of all times for Ryan to stage an impromptu visit. His first ever. Just when she’d offered safe harbor to Caius and Anandra. A coincidence? If only Gus believed in those. The forty three didn’t get involved. It was a directive they’d all agreed to follow. Even…
“What are Tuann doing here?” Gus mumbled. For that matter, who were they? House Roake? Had Kira already found her way here? Gus needed to find out. If Kira was here, she could offload Caius and Anandra before she’d even finished her chai. If it wasn’t Kira, she had bigger problems. The forty three knew…
