hoping for a miracle, but it was still empty. “About that. There’s a problem. The other half of your business partnership died before I could collect the payment.”
Bonebreak straightened. “Roshian is dead?”
“Yeah, but not before I peeked into that black bag of his. You know what you’ve been supplying him with, right? The makeup and stuff? That creep was human.”
Bonebreak took another step over the body of his former second in command, giving a flick of his fingers. “It is not my job to care which species my clients are. And I do not appreciate not getting paid for my shipments.”
“He was dead. What was I supposed to do?”
“That’s your problem,” Bonebreak said, and then crunched the second in command’s foot. “We’re just full of problems today, aren’t we, crew?”
The other Mosca, in the shadow of the ship, did not answer. Bonebreak stooped down and pulled out the knife from the second in command’s back. He slowly wiped the blood on his jumpsuit.
Leon held up his hands. “I can get the payment. I swear.”
Bonebreak cocked his head. “You already owe me for that safe room. Your credit is running thin. Too thin, I think.” Leon couldn’t tell what expression Bonebreak was making behind the mask, but he didn’t like the way the knife was aimed toward him. But then Bonebreak holstered it and signaled to his underlings. “Roadag. Silverquake. Show the boy what he gets for sneaking around.”
Before Leon could turn, a plank of something hard smashed into his face.
He staggered backward.
Blackness. Sparks. Pain.
He knew he shouldn’t fight back. The dead second in command had probably fought back too, which was why he was in his current condition. But damned if he had ever let anyone best him in a fight. He let out a bellow and tried to slam into them, but they already had him on the ground. Hitting him with the stiff plank again and again. Pain burst across his face, then his left shoulder, then his kidney, until he was staring up at Bonebreak’s ugly mask.
“Now,” Bonebreak said. “What exactly did you see in this flight room?”
“Uhng. Nothing.”
“And what are you going to tell your friends about the ship?”
“What ship?”
Bonebreak cackled in delight, or maybe he was just envisioning all the ways he’d stomp on Leon’s cracking bones. “Good. Keep not seeing any ships.”
Leon pressed a hand against his face. He stumbled back to his room, where he collapsed on his bed. At least the deal was still on. Nok and Rolf and that baby of theirs would be safe. But as soon as he closed his eyes, his thoughts returned to what he’d seen.
A ship, he thought. A goddamn ship.
Or rather, a goddamn useless ship that would never take him anywhere.
But what if it could?
And what if Cora was right about Earth still being there? He could drink a beer. Preferably while watching rugby on his sister Ellie’s crappy old television set, preferably millions of miles away from hunchbacked murderers.
He briefly wondered how much it would cost for Bonebreak to give him a seat on that ship. For all the Mosca’s threats, Bonebreak could always be swayed with the right price.
But no. Cora and Mali and the others were his family now. Kin. He had left them behind once and he still felt the shame of that written on his face as plainly as the tattoos.
He groaned and fell back on the bed.
He really missed beer.
31
Cora
CORA WOKE TO THE sound of a door opening. For a second, she was surprised to find herself in a strange bed, in a room where the lights never went off. Cassian’s room. It all came back in a rush that made her head throb. She touched beneath her nose, but there was no blood this time. Just bad memories.
A sharp stick. A bleeding eye socket.
She sank back onto the bed. It still held a trace of Cassian’s scent, and faint sparks of the sensation she felt at his touch—or maybe that was just in her imagination. She swung her legs off and sat up. There was no clock to tell how long she’d been asleep, nothing besides the tears that had crusted under her eyes.
Sounds of movement came from the main room—Cassian was back. She went to the doorway to watch him bend over to unlace his boots. He looked as flawless as always, robotic in his perfection, but he tugged too hard at the knots.
“Did you take care of the body?” she asked softly.
He looked up, eyes falling