Total pages in book: 44
Estimated words: 41151 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 206(@200wpm)___ 165(@250wpm)___ 137(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 41151 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 206(@200wpm)___ 165(@250wpm)___ 137(@300wpm)
“But she still found her way back to me.”
“It won’t happen again,” Zeki says. “And now that I’m miraculously alive, everyone will want you to be with me. Like it was supposed to be.”
I thought Zeki was high-spirited and intense. I did not know that she was outright crazy. She has been plotting against me for years, and if she was prepared to go out of her way to have Dreamy re-educated simply for looking at me, no wonder my other relationships have been fraught. This absolute psychopath has been doing her best to alienate me from every other female in the universe.
“Let me explain,” she says. “Because that stupid expression on your face is making you look about a thousand times less sexy than you are. I’ve been turning criminals in for years. I allowed you to become strong, Shah, because I needed a cover with true dominance. I was able to save my brother and keep you alive. You never appreciated what I did for you. You were arrogant and assumed all your victories were your own. You barely noticed the rest of us and what we brought to you.”
Her accusations are hurtful, but very possibly true. I did not see her betrayal coming. I did not feel it in my gut the way I should have. I was blinded by her relation to Malik and her desire for me. I assumed anybody who wanted me could be trusted. It was a foolish assumption.
Zeki has been playing at being an outlaw all this time, but she’s not really an outlaw. She’s a spy. She’s the darkness the Seer warned me about. I should kill her.
“What are you going to do, Shah? Malik will be so happy to see me. You’re not going to take his baby sister from him, are you?”
I can’t kill her.
But I can’t let her live, either. Not in this state of perpetual triumph. Not in my orbit. Not anywhere near me. Ever again.
“You are not coming back to my ship.”
“Malik will want to see me.”
“I’ll tell Malik what you did, and I’ll tell him where I’ve put you.”
“You can’t put me anywhere. I’m the one in charge, Shah. We’re on a Colony ship, if you haven’t noticed. I’m the one who executed this plan, flawlessly. You’ll do what I say now.”
I laugh in her face. It’s not the reaction she expected.
“Take this seriously, Shah. I have more power than you know. I’m linked into the Colony and the outlaw world.”
“One of those things is true,” I acknowledge. “You have no place in my world anymore. You deceived me. You got rid of Dreamy. You also got good people killed and made your brother mourn your death. You will never be welcome on my ship again. I am certain that everybody who hears this story will want you as dead as you should be. You got what you wanted, but you burned the rest of your life with it, Zeki. There’s no coming back even if I wanted you to. And I do not want you to.”
I almost feel sorry for her. At first, I was furious, of course. I wanted revenge, until I realized the depth of her misery and how truly she has fucked up. If news of her survival becomes widespread, she will be hunted to the ends of the universe by every criminal she has ever been in contact with, and they number in the thousands.
“What do you think will happen when the friends and family of Tolsten, Vortis, and Mhak discover they died so you could attempt to get revenge on me?”
She looks at me blankly. Zeki is not stupid, but she is the kind of supremely selfish that means she doesn’t consider the ramifications of other people’s emotions. It’s not that she doesn’t care. It’s that she’s nearly incapable of caring. That is why I did not pursue a relationship with her. What’s missing from Zeki can’t be put back. I never thought she’d be this dangerous, but here we are.
“What are you going to do with me then, Shah? Still can’t kill me?”
She’s smiling as her plan crumbles around her, so stuck on her triumph that she can’t even react properly to the fact that she’s destroyed everything she ever cared about in order to get back at me for what she thought was an unreasonable rejection on my part.
“I’ll find something to do with you,” I tell her. “Don’t worry about that. Get in the shuttle.”
She gets in the shuttle, because nobody is more stupid than the person who thinks they have already won.
Malik is still on the bridge when I return. I kept the comms off, not wanting Zeki to start squawking over them. She wants a scene and a big homecoming. She’s not going to get what she bargained for.