Stormbreak (Seafire #3) - Natalie C. Parker Page 0,10

that, and he’d asserted his dominance and removed them from play.

She could picture him commanding Donnally to do it as a twisted test of loyalty. Donnally had almost been a Fiveson himself. Had he killed the others to show he was no threat to Lir? To his brother?

Caledonia closed her eyes as the freezing waters of memory swept over her. The moment she’d seen Donnally on the deck of the Titan rushed through her mind; the strong surge of her relief breaking against the firm edge of his resistance; the fluttering panic as her brother looked into her eyes and said, “I can’t abandon my brother.” The slow pain that had seeped in after and never left.

Her brother. Was he even that anymore? It was the word he’d used for Lir, and if he had truly done what Remi claimed, then perhaps he was more Lir’s than Caledonia had ever wanted to believe. Once, she’d had hope that she could win him back, but now, knowing this, that hope was all but gone. In its place, her anger burned like the sun.

A hand twisted softly in the back of her shirt, Pisces pulling Caledonia back to the task before her. “Your orders, Captain?” she prompted.

With a deep breath, Caledonia cleared the anger from her thoughts. Without Fivesons, there was no one to divide Lir’s power. No one to challenge him. He was consolidating his forces. Making sure there was no one left to stand against him.

No one except Caledonia.

She’d been determined to take him down before, when he was only responsible for the death of her family. Now that he was remaking himself in Aric’s image, Caledonia had no choice but to destroy him. And the only way to do so was to take all his power away from him. Then with it, create a world that wasn’t ruled by fear.

“You each have a choice.” Caledonia’s mind relaxed as she stepped into the increasingly familiar words. “You can come with us, or you can stay here. If you stay, we’ll leave you the bow boats and you can go wherever you like. If you come with us, you’ll have everything you need: food, shelter, a new life.”

Remi’s face twisted into a mask of disgust. “We know what you do to Bullets, Caledonia Styx. Give us an impossible choice, take our Silt and watch us die, or send us crawling back with nothing but failure to report. We see you exactly as you are: a killer in the guise of a savior.”

Caledonia knew from experience that every Bullet before her believed the lie they’d been fed their entire lives: from Silt comes strength. There was nothing she could do or say in a few short minutes that would convince them otherwise, and Lir had done a brilliant job of disseminating fear of withdrawal. Every Bullet she encountered said the same thing: she was a killer in the guise of a savior.

“You’re going to kill us one way or the other,” another Bullet said, eyes dull and fearless, emboldened by the drug in his veins. “And there’s no glory in a slow death.”

The Bullet was on his feet before Caledonia registered movement, but not before Pisces did. She spun around Caledonia, striking the man’s throat before he’d gone two steps. He dropped to his knees with his hands on his neck, his mouth stretched wide as he attempted and failed to draw a breath. Pisces stood over him, ready to strike again, but as air slowly filled his lungs, he made no move to continue the fight.

“There is no glory in any death,” Caledonia said. “It’s true that if you choose to come with us, you may die. It is not easy to recover from Silt.”

“Silt gives us strength,” Remi countered.

The words were now as familiar to Caledonia as her response: “You were strong before Silt. You can be strong again, but it is your choice.”

“Why should we choose you?” Remi asked, suspicion painted across her face. “When you want to take away the thing Lir gives freely?”

Every Bullet she encountered used the same language: glory, strength, family, service. They believed their lives were caught up in the web of lies started by Aric and continued by Lir. It was never enough to tell them they were wrong. All she could do was be honest. Show them that her words meant something different. Even if that meant sending Bullets back to Lir’s ranks.

“Lir murdered his brothers. That’s what you’re choosing if you