Page 41 of Only Hard Problems
“The truebond has nothing to do with how I feel about Kyrion—or you,” she snarled.
“And howdoyou feel about me?” I kept my voice light, but my chest tightened with an odd mixture of dread and the smallest spark of hope.
Some of the fury trickled out of Vesper’s face, and her lips puckered in thought. “Out of all the people in the galaxy, I never thought I would have any connection toyou. But I suppose that’s just irony working its magic.”
“You didn’t answer my question. How do you feel about me?”
Vesper’s gaze darted from my face to the scorched hole in my coat to the stormsword dangling from my belt. After a few seconds, she raised her gaze to mine again. The silver flecks in her eyes were more pronounced now, like tiny icebergs floating in her dark blue irises. “I don’t feel anything for you, Zane—just like you don’t feel anything for me. We are two strangers who happen to share some DNA. Nothing more, nothing less.”
Her voice was cold, calm, and steady, but I could have sworn the faintest bit of longing flickered off her, tickling my own heart like a nagging finger. Or perhaps that was just my own emotion. Either way, it hardened my resolve, and I walked over and stopped right in front of her.
Vesper tilted her head up, a wary look on her face. I opened my mouth to tell her that we had far more in common than she thought, including all our conflicted feelings about each other.
Vesper turned her head to the side, and her eyes grew distant, as though she was looking at something far, far away. After a few seconds, she looked at me again.
“Do us both a favor. Don’t come after me and Kyrion. Don’t make us kill you.”
“Ah, but that’s the one thing I can’t do. Holloway has made it crystal clear that if I don’t bring at least one of you back to Corios, then he’ll take his wrath out on me, along with my father and my grandmother and the rest of House Zimmer.” I held my hands out wide. “So you can see my predicament.”
Sadness filled her face, and the emotion tweaked my own heart. “I’ll warn you again. If you come after Kyrion and me, wewillkill you, Zane.”
“Perhaps.” I grinned. “Or maybe I’ll surprise the both of you.”
Vesper frowned. Her eyes darkened, and she once again seemed to be looking at something far, far away.
“Vesper?” In the distance, a voice called out. I recognized Kyrion’s crisp tone.
Vesper looked back at me. Her image flickered again and started to fade away. Our talk was over, and her astral presence was going back to wherever her physical body was.
I held up a clenched fist, then lifted my fingers one by one. I said five words aloud with the motion, mimicking what Kyrion had done when he’d told me that Vesper was my sister the night of the midnight ball.
Vesper flinched. She stared at me a moment longer, then vanished altogether.
She might be gone, but my words echoed through the library. Five little words, seven simple syllables, twenty-two common letters.
See you soon, little sister.
EPILOGUE
VESPER
“Vesper?”Ahandtouchedmy shoulder, startling me awake.
I sucked in a breath and sat bolt upright. My head snapped left and right, but instead of Zane’s cluttered library, I was in a maintenance-room-turned-workshop on board theDream World, Kyrion’s blitzer.
“Vesper?”
Kyrion loomed over me, the way he so often did. My gaze traced over his longish black hair, dark blue eyes, and pale skin. He looked the same as always, right down to the Arrow uniform he was wearing, and some of the tension in my chest eased. I was here with him, and not stuck half a galaxy away with Zane.
I blew out a breath and sat back in my chair. “I must have fallen asleep.”
“Obviously.” Kyrion gave me an amused look, then reached down, took hold of the edge of a piece of plastipaper, and gently peeled it off my cheek.
He tossed the clear reusable paper down onto the table in front of me, causing the gossipcast still playing over the holoscreen to flicker. On the feed, Zane was holding his hands out wide, calling for silence as he answered one question after another about the latest Techwave attack.
“Vesper?” Kyrion frowned. “What’s wrong?”
“I saw Zane,” I confessed in a low voice. “Through a door in my mindscape.”