Born of Silence by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Ture leaned forward to whisper in her ear. "Should you be able to get in?"
"No," she whispered back, trying not to be too rude. It was sad when a civ knew more about military protocol than the current Resistance leader. "Whoever Hector is, he's an idiot."
For one thing, especially if they really thought she was being held against her will and tortured, their offices should have been moved. That would have been her first action after they were attacked by the Sentella. Then all of her codes should have been blocked, not just her online access.
Who would have ever thought she'd be grateful for stupid?
The doors opened to a hallway that was even more familiar to her than the one in her apartment flat.
A weird feeling tickled her stomach as she stepped out and glanced around. This building... this light gray hall had once been her home. In fact, she'd spent most of the last eight years right here. Night and day. This had been her life.
She'd never thought to leave it.
And as she stood there, ghosts from her past haunted her. She heard the voices of her dead friends. Saw images of Darling dressed in the full black battle gear of Kere, walking by her side as they discussed how best to irritate his uncle.
It was just down the hall from here that he'd first made love to her...
Gods, how she missed him.
But the one memory that burned brightest and hardest was the one of Darling being dragged away from the hangar...
In that moment, she felt like a stranger here. Like she didn't belong anymore.
She was no longer the woman who'd been so determined to bring down the Cruel family. Yes, she still wanted to save and protect her people. She still wanted them to be free of those who would exploit or harm them.
But now she knew that the best way to achieve that would be with Darling as their governor.
Ture placed his hand on her shoulder. "Are you all right?"
Not really. But she didn't want him to know that. "Yeah. I'm just a little concerned that we've made it this far and no one's greeted us. We should have been swarmed the moment we came in."
No sooner had the words left her lips than a shout rang out, followed by a red-tinged blast that narrowly missed her face.
"Stop!"
She froze instantly and held her hands out so that the man could see she wasn't a threat. Ture followed suit.
"Put your weapons down!"
Zarya smiled as she finally recognized the angry voice snarling orders at her. "Ferin? Is that you?"
He hesitated before he answered. "Zarya?"
"Yeah. It's me."
Still he didn't come out from his cover. "What are you doing here? And who is that with you?"
"It's Ture. A friend of mine. And I thought you guys wanted me back. Was I wrong?"
"You can't trust her. She's been brainwashed by our enemies."
She didn't recognize the second man's voice. It was a deep, guttural tone--the accent native to the western part of the empire. Was he the mysterious Hector?
"No one's brainwashed me." She took a step forward.
Another blast came within inches of her face.
She stopped moving instantly, but what her attacker didn't know was that his shots weren't scaring her. They were pissing her off.
"You shoot to kill. Not to warn." Her father's voice was loud and clear in her head. But today, she couldn't listen to him. Instead, she had a psycho to disarm.
"Are you Hector?"
"I'm the Resistance leader now," he said without answering her question directly. "You abandoned us." The venom in that tone had to come from personal betrayal. Nothing else made sense. A stranger shouldn't be so hostile toward her.
And yet, she still couldn't place his voice.
"Who are you?" she tried again, holding her arms up over her head to let them know that she posed them no threat.
At first she didn't think she'd get an answer.
Then, out of the darkness emerged the last person she'd ever expected to see again.
Pip.
For a full minute, her emotions paralyzed her. Shock. Anger. And a hatred so bitter, she could taste it. She wanted to claw his eyes out over what he'd put Darling through.
But all that being said, he looked like someone had already tried to kill him.
No. Rather he looked like they'd succeeded.
A vicious scar ran over his left cheekbone and the jagged, horrific one across his throat must be why his voice sounded the way it did. It appeared Darling had stabbed him right below the Adam's apple, then ripped the knife across his entire neck. How Pip had survived such a savage attack, she couldn't imagine.
Had she not seen what he'd done to Darling, she'd feel sorry for him. But there was nothing inside her except contempt. "Why are you calling yourself Hector?"
He narrowed his eyes on her. "It's my real name. But you never bothered to learn that, did you? No. I was too far beneath you for you to notice me."
Now that really made her mad. While she lacked Darling's impressive recall with people's names and background, it didn't mean she didn't care. "That's not true. I never treated you that way. Ever."
"Didn't you? Clarion told me how you reamed him for taking the royal prick prisoner. You were siding with them from the very beginning. First chance you had, you went running right back to your inheritance, didn't you, Princess? Once an aristo, always an aristo. None of you care about anyone but yourselves." He gestured at his face. "Look what the bastard did to me!"
Zarya had to struggle to keep herself calm, but it wasn't easy. Not when she really wanted to gut him where he stood. Lowering her hands very slowly, she took a second to turn on the tricom... just in case Pip was as insane as she thought him to be. "What happened to you is awful. I admit that. But what was done to Darling--"
"Look at the way you use his name," he sneered at the others who were still hidden by their cover. "You sicken me, you sorry fag whore!"
Oh that was it! How dare an animal like him judge her. "Then we're even, Pip. The sight of you makes my skin crawl and it has nothing to do with your scars or your classification. You make a mockery of the uniform you wear. You're the one who doesn't believe in our cause. Instead, you use our colors so that you can practice your depravity under the guise of being normal when you're not. No human being could do to another what you did to Darling."
With a cry of outrage, he leveled his blaster at her. "That's it, bitch. You're dead." He pulled the trigger.
The blast headed straight for her. Out of reflex, she jerked her hands up and cringed in expectation of being blasted. But just as it would have struck her, it hit the tricom's force field. The shot broke apart and rebounded through the hallway, seeking out all the men in hiding.
It caught Pip straight in the chest and sent him flying into the wall behind him.
Whoa...
No wonder Darling had been so pissed off about his attack. It looked extremely painful to be hit by whatever it was the tricom generated.
Yet none of her soldiers moved or cried out. They were absolutely frozen.
"What did you do to them?" Ture asked in an awed tone.
"I didn't. It's a device that was made for me." How fitting that it would be used against the ones who'd trapped Darling with it.
Ture let out a low whistle. "Well color me impressed, and please, don't ever use that device against me. I'll be a good boy, I promise."
Not even Ture's attempt at humor could quell her anger. Rather it mounted with every step she took closer to Pip and the others. They lay on the ground, eyes open. The only clue she had that they were still alive was the faint rise and fall of their chests as they breathed.
That made her think of Darling lying like that on the ground and what Pip and the others had done to him while he'd been helpless against them...
Wanting blood, she went to stand over Pip. "Now, if I were you standing over Darling after I'd paralyzed him, I'd be calling your beloved little sister a bitch, and I'd start braggi
She ground her teeth to staunch the bitter pain those words welled in her throat. With every syllable, she wanted vengeance for Lise and the agony that poor girl would have to cope with for the rest of her life because of Pip.
But most of all, it was Darling's misery that drove her on. "And while you lay there helpless, staring at your sister, I'd cut your finger off and make you eat it. Then I'd put a torture device in your mouth and carve my name into your cheek." She sneered at him. "You talk to me about your hatred. You don't even know the meaning of that word. But I do. And I will not apologize for being on the right side of this fight. And to clarify that for you, the right side is not yours, Pip. At no time has the Resistance ever been about cruelty."
She glanced around at the others on the ground. "This organization was founded to stop a tyrant from abusing his power. Now let me reiterate that last bit slowly so that you can understand it. The Resistance was founded to stop a tyrant from abusing his power. We weren't founded to become the tyrant who abuses others. How dare you do such a thing in my name. You have dishonored my father, and you have awakened the ugly side of me. Do not mistake my kindness for weakness. I assure you, I don't have a weakness."
More soldiers came running, arms at ready.
As they neared her, they slowed, then stopped. The sight of their comrades on the ground while she and Ture stood over them, unarmed, confused them.
"Zarya?" Someone shouted her name in relief while others questioned her identity.
She focused her attention on the one who knew her... Titon. He'd been one of her younger members, and because of that, she'd doted on him.
"It's me, sweetie," she said with a calmness she didn't feel. "I'm here to stop this madness before it's too late."
His face ashen, Titon shook his head. "It's already too late."
"What do you mean?"
Before anyone could answer, an explosion knocked all of them off their feet.
Sighing in irritation, Darling held another cloth to his nose while he listened to reports of Resistance rebellion as they set fire to more businesses. He'd been trying to negotiate with their current leadership, but none of them would talk to him.
This has to stop.
Maris had already warned him that the League was moving in at the request of the CDS. Stupid bastards... Once the League declared martial law, the Caronese were screwed. He didn't even want to contemplate what it would take to get their empire back from Kyr.
How stupid could the gerents be?
Oh wait, he'd known many of them most of his life. That single question in and of itself was moronic.
See what happens when you hang out with them? They suck out your IQ and leave you stupid, too. Yeah, Giran alone could reduce his intelligence by thirty points in under two minutes.
"My lord?"
Lowering the cloth to hide how saturated it was in blood, Darling glanced over to the door of his office where Gera stood, fretting in the doorway.
He forced the irritation out of his voice and smiled at her. "Yes, Dame. What can I do for you?"
She hesitated before she entered the room. "I'm not sure if I should be mentioning this, but do you know where her ladyship is?"
Gods, what had the bitch done now? Did he even want to know? "My mother's at--"
"Not the dowager, my lord," Gera said, cutting him off. "Lady Starska."
It took Darling a second to realize who Gera was talking about. How could he have forgotten Zarya's title?
Because he didn't think of her that way. She was much more intimate to him than her title made it sound. But then Gera was nothing if not formal.
Darling wiped at his nose to make sure it wasn't bleeding anymore. "She said she wasn't feeling well, and went to her room."
Gera swallowed audibly. "She told me the same, but when I went to her room to check on her, she wasn't there."
That wasn't unusual. Zarya didn't like being alone. He suspected it was from the same kind of ghosts that haunted him--old memories that refused to let him rest. "She's probably with Lord Maris."
"I already asked him, Majesty, and he hasn't seen her either."
Okay, that concerned him. Zarya very seldom ventured away from both of them. "Did you check with her sister?"
"Yes, Majesty. Lady Sorche said that the last time she spoke to her was at dinner last night."
His throat went dry as he noticed Gera nervously clutching something in her left palm. "What's in your hand?"
Biting her lip, she approached him slowly. "I went to her room to see if maybe she was in her bathing chambers. While there, I started picking up a few things she had scattered about and..."
She placed her hand on his desk. "I found this in a drawer."
Don't panic.
It was hard not to. And when Gera pulled her hand back and he saw Zarya's engagement ring, he felt like someone had kicked his stones straight into his throat.
Don't jump to any conclusions.
"She must have forgotten to put it back on after her bath this morning."
Yeah, that must be it. Zarya didn't forget her ring often. Just every now and again. It did happen. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
Just a forgetful one.
"Perhaps... but still I'm worried about her, Majesty. Given all the madness that's going on... you don't think someone's kidnapped her, do you?"
Okay, the panic beast was no longer stalking. It now had him on the ground and was stabbing him hard. Where was she? "Let me check with my sister. Maybe Lise--"
"I already called her, my lord. She said that she hadn't talked to Lady Starska since day before yesterday. The same was said by both Lord Drake and your friends Hauk and Fain."
And he hadn't seen her since early that morning...
His heart racing, Darling rose to check it out himself, but before he could take a single step, his office door flew open.
It was Giran.
Nothing could have shocked or appalled him more than to see that noxious bastard in his home. "What?" Darling asked drily as he tried to keep the contempt he felt from showing on his face. "Did hell freeze over?"
It must have for the gerent to be here alone.
Now armed with a guard to attack and dethrone him--that would have made sense. But for the gerent to be here as he was...
Yeah, this could not be good.
Giran grimaced as he stepped into the room and ignored Gera completely. "This isn't funny," he said to Darling with a note of hysteria in his voice. "We have a bad situation here."
No, shit. Most of it caused by him.
What? Did the genius just wake up and realize that calling in the League was a blunder of epic proportions? It ranked up there with inviting a pack of mountain lions in to kill the mouse in your basement.
Not that it mattered to him right now. Giran was the last person Darling wanted to deal with. The bastard was lucky he was still upright and not gutted.
Disgusted by the gerent, Darling started past him. "I'm a little busy with something else."
Giran stopped him. "Your Majesty, please..."
Those words and the sincere pleading beneath them stunned him into complete shock.
Hell really had frozen over.
"What's happened?" Darling asked, dreading the answer. It had to be extremely bad for Giran to address him with respect.
Giran's eyes teared up. "The League... they've declared martial law on us. As a result, they've moved a large number of their troops into Taranyse."
Great. He needed that like another body part that spasmed out of his control. He ground his teeth. "Are you happy now?"
An actual tear fell down the man's face. "Majesty... the League overran Resistance headquarters and then went for the council building where they've set up their own people
No surprise there since that was League SOP. Darling had tried to warn them that this would happen.
Their response? They'd laughed in his face and publicly insulted him through the media. With this particular asshole being their ringleader.
He'd started to remind Giran of that, when Giran spoke again. "Every gerent who was inside the CDS building on Taranyse was arrested and taken into custody..." His voice cracked from emotion. He locked gazes with Darling. "They have my son, my lord. And my younger brother."
Even though Giran's brother had been one of Darling's worst critics, he winced at what was most likely being done to both of them while Giran was here. A Caronese noble in League custody ranked right up there with Darling Cruel being held by the Resistance.
"Did you contact the League?" he asked Giran.
"I tried. But the agent I spoke to said that they were all considered radicals who are being held to secure the peace, and that so long as the League was here, they would remain in custody. She also intimated that if I persisted or protested, I'd be viewed as such and seized, too."
Darling gave him a droll stare. "Did you not know this?"
Giran sniffed back his tears as he ignored Darling's question. "My son was only there so that he could go home with my brother after the meeting and visit with his cousins. He's barely fifteen, my lord. Just a baby."
Darling ground his teeth. A kid that age wouldn't do well in a League prison. Especially not with an uncle who most likely had never been in so much as a fistfight to protect himself...
Gods have mercy on that kid.
"I don't understand why they did this. The League was supposed to help us."
Darling wanted to ask him what form of hallucinogen he'd consumed. Please tell me you're on something. The thought that he'd be sober and do this...
Honestly, it had to hurt to be that stupid.
Giran cleared his throat. "Did you know that when the League is invited in by the ruling body of a planet or empire, they are allowed to take over all facets of the government, and place all of the reigning aristocracy, not just the ruler, in League prisons?"
Again, no shit...
"Yes, I did. What? Did you sleep through your government classes?"
Giran raked his hand through his hair. "There were so many laws to read and remember. And they were ever changing. I never could keep half of them straight. And honestly, they were so boring that I usually cheated to pass the classes."