all this is… I don’t know anything. That’s about it. I can’t know if Cryo Queen is mine. Even if I woke her up, I wouldn’t be able to tell. I don’t even know the woman. I have no clue who she is.
Hell, I don’t know who I am, or what I’m supposed to do, or what I’m capable of, for that matter. I’ve been secluded on this station, with very few off-station trips, for twenty-one years.
I have been… hidden.
But from who?
And why?
“Fucking ALCOR,” I mutter out loud. “What the hell is he up to?”
“I think you should try it,” Baby says.
“Go turn that thing on and walk through it?” I laugh.
“I think you should try all of it.”
“All of what?”
Flicka flies up off my shoulder and hovers right in front of my face. Not so close that I have to cross my eyes to focus on her, but very close. “Serpint and Draden can hunt things down. Jimmy can liberate things. Luck can walk through spin nodes. Tray can make new worlds. Valor can stop time, and if my predictions are correct, he can see through it, too.”
“Well, I feel so much better now that you’ve pointed out how powerful they are compared to me.”
“You’re the glue, Crux. You hold them all together. Everything they can do, you can do better.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Neither do you.”
“What is she saying?” Baby asks.
“She says I can do everything my brothers can, but better.”
“Well.” He chuckles. “That’s a relief.”
“Was that sarcasm? Or…”
“Will you just go turn it on, for fuck’s sake?” Baby snaps. “We’re wasting time.”
“Technically, we’re not.”
“Valor and Veila won’t stay on her ship for long. They’re going to be down here soon. And Veila cannot go through that node. We have no idea what her agenda is. You are the only pure one left, Crux. The only one without an ulterior motive.”
“Not true,” I say. “I want to leave to go find Draden.”
“To save Draden. Not use him. Everyone else has conflicting loyalties. They have their soulmate to think about. You don’t.”
I should object. Because that’s not really true. That Corla in the beacon is my conflicting loyalty. But… is she?
No. Not after these new thoughts.
I turn away and walk into the spin node room. I expect them to call out after me. Start barking orders, at the very least. But they don’t.
And when I look back, I see why.
The door is gone. The wall is gone. There is nothing there. The place where I just entered is now nothing but bare, ragged rock.
I don’t know what to think about that. And I have no clue if the doorway will reappear when I’m ready to go back, or if I’ll just be stuck in here forever.
I sigh, rubbing a hand down my face, frustrated, and angry, and sad, and… tired. I’m tired.
I turn back to the spin node. It doesn’t need to be turned on. It’s on. Kind of.
Delphi is inside it, stuck half in and half out. Her arms are outstretched like the group of them were holding hands as they walked through.
The spin node itself looks like a shadow of a spin node. Like it’s only half there. Almost transparent. And it reminds me of that trip we took through the ALCOR gate. That… left-behind feeling of in-between-ness.
Which is kind of the perfect word to describe my life since Corla got off that Cygnian ship and stepped on to Wayward Station.
I’ve been hovering in between this whole time.
And that’s about to end.
I walk over to the controls. A whole panel of them that I’ve never seen before. Ever. And I have no clue what to do with them.
But then again, the fucker is already on, right? Maybe I don’t have to do anything with them?
I turn back to the spin node and give it a good, hard once-over. It almost looks like it’s made of some kind of gel-like substance.
Doesn’t look like a spin node, that’s for sure. At least any that I’ve ever seen.
But it does go somewhere.
Where though?
The codes. That’s where. Those codes we came here with as kids. Those were all spin node coordinates.
Except I wasn’t given one. Always and forever the outside man.
The code that’s been programmed was either Jimmy’s or Luck’s. I would assume Jimmy’s, since he was the one who was always fascinated with Earth. His had to lead to Earth. And the whole reason Luck was taking Nyleena through the node was to get her to Earth so she could have