Chapter 9
Later that night, after settling into their luxurious quarters that echoed the sculpted, formal lines of the courtyard, Trixie refused to go to the Black Hole Ball, and Lishelle backed her up.
“Something’s not right,” Lishelle said. “They’re playing us. Not just as pawns, but fools. Like they think we were born yesterday.”
Rayna grimaced. “Not yesterday, but just last week, basically.”Had it only been that long since she broke out of the glass coffin? It seemed like a whirlwind of forever.
She knew that their troubles had been drafted into a wider disagreement of some sort that had nothing to do with them. But now that they were mixed up in it, she wasn’t inclined to let others decide their fate while they were trapped in their pretty, passive rooms at the estate.
She’d hadenough of that under Blackworm.
So when the dowager arrived the next morning with a small army of staff, Rayna sequestered her friends in the back bedroom, blocked the door, and told the old woman only she would be going to the ball.
The dowager eyed her. “You are not as appealing as the little one nor as striking as the tall one.” Her lips pursed disapprovingly, and Rayna wondered if all mothersacross the universe made that same face. She wouldn’t know, since her own had walked off before she’d been old enough to really understand disappointment, regret, and sorrow.
Although she’d learned those quick enough afterward.
She raised her chin. “Maybe, but I’m all you’re going to get.”
The dowager snorted. “You are very forward for a pawn.”
“If you studied the Earth chess set as you saidyou did, you’d know the pawn always starts in front.”
A few short, sharp inhalations from the staff sucked a bunch of the air out of the room, but Rayna just stood there with one eyebrow raised.
After a moment, the dowager waved her people forward. “This one, then. But don’t thwart me anymore, girl. I’ve a solar system to manage, a space station to maneuver, and a son to marry off.”
Raynastiffened. Marry off a son? Meaning Raz?
No wonder he’d been off touring the far edges of his inheritance with this old woman managing and maneuvering behind him. He’d come home to the tragedy of his father’s death and now his mother was marrying him off.
Not that it was any of her business. Even if hehadkissed her with a power that would’ve awakened her from any enchanted sleep.
She forcedherself to focus on the dowager. Letting her attention wander around this one was probably a good way to find herself in trouble. Maybe not trapped in a glass coffin kind of trouble, but still.
“I’ll be a perfect Black Hole Bride,” she assured the woman, “for whatever your schemes demand. Meanwhile, you swear to keep my friends safe until the Earth envoy arrives to make this all go away. Deal?”
The dowager stalked a quarter way around her, forcing Rayna to twist her head to keep her in sight. “The God of Oaths is my son’s patron, not mine, but I will pledge on his behalf.”
On the god’s behalf, or Raz’s? Rayna wanted to push but she was keenly aware that pawns didn’t have much power except taking one step at a time. “Okay then. Show me this ballgown.”
The army of staffers rushed forward,not with pins and fabric samples but with handheld scanners. They consulted in whispers among themselves and with the dowager before whisking away, leaving Rayna a little bewildered.
The dowager lingered at the door. “We don’t know why Blackworm was lurking around the singularity. But he brought you here for some reason, and we’ll find out what it was.”
Rayna considered the other woman thoughtfully.How much of the dowager’s resolve had Raz inherited along with those blue eyes and black hair? “I don’t really care what the reason was,” she said at last. “I’m done with that.”
She spent that night with Lishelle and Trixie, the three of them in the sitting room with the stasis chambers containing Carmen and Anne.
“This is unacceptably creepy,” Lishelle said, peering at the sleeping women.
Trixie shook her head. “We need to stick together.” Then she grimaced. “Except we’re sending Rayna off on her own.” She blinked hard, her eyes welling. “I’m sorry I panicked, Ray. Maybe—”
“Stop right there, sweetie.” Rayna hugged the younger woman. “We all do what we can, yeah? You keep an eye on Carmen and Anne—”
“Not like they’re going anywhere,” Lishelle muttered.
“—And make sure Lishelledoesn’t get into a fight with Captain Nor or anyone else.” Rayna shot a grin at the other woman, who snorted back. “And we’ll get out of this, get out of here soon enough.”
