SAM

  “Too many secrets,” I muttered, remembering Nayth Carmidee deciding to forget he knew anything about his best friend shaping stone with his mind.

  I didn’t have that luxury. Nayth lived 100 years ago, and the due date for the Ayela Arcana Sanctuary opening was approaching fast. And with it, secrets were coming outta the woodwork.

  In the short time we’d been on the hover train back to Nineton, Cora and I learned that Talented built Uru two decades ago using their mental powers.

  Jax helped.

  At the age of seven.

  The balcony where we dined? Owned by Jax’s family.

  The chef? Radic Loaner, friend of the Sloans.

  Ree and Jax had their first date on that balcony. And when they decided to get married there, Jax sculpted the bannister into fantasy characters for es wife. You know, ‘coz everyone makes wedding gifts with miraculous mental powers.

  Jax hadn’t been joking when ee’d said, “You could say we imagined it into existence.” Uru was a shining example of what people could create when they had the freedom to truly be themselves.

  Cora asked Jax if ee could cause earthquakes, but got a scoff in reply, “Who’d wanna make the world shake on purpose?”

  Puzzle pieces assembled in my mind.

  Cities like Uru. People like Jax and Ree.

  And one solid truth: the cyber mafia had everything to lose when we knew how powerful we were.

  My own creativity? In crisis.

  A blank page appeared in my mind, and I tried to shove it away. Cora and I were practicing keeping our thoughts to ourselves, but Jax saw it anyway. Eyes darting to Ree, Jax nodded almost imperceptibly to me.

  Pitch Joon wanted to fill the blank pages of his ivory book with my adventures. But my story wasn’t my own anymore, was it?

  How did I broach this subject?

  “Ree?” I started awkwardly.

  I bit my lip. She studied my face.

  I got an idea.

  Flicking open my pad, I asked her excitedly, “Will you read something for me?”

  Her eyebrows rose, “Sure! A poem? New story?”

  “A short,” I told her, handing over “Mafia Moms.”

  I watched her eyes flicking across the screen, small smile slowly lighting her face. Then she looked at Jax, brows raised, “It’s happening.”

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  Jax nodded.

  My eyes darted between them, taking in the scene.

  “You wanted this?” I asked softly.

  Ree quirked one brow.

  “You’re calling their bluff,” Cora guessed.

  “You want me to smoke them out,” I whispered in awe.

  Ree leaned forward, metal arms on her knees. “This shadow war has been going on long enou—“

  “War? Between who?” I demanded.

  Her eyes narrowed. “Your parents and hundreds of innocents died in an exploding starliner, Sam. That. Sounds. Like. War. To. Me. Do you think they’re the only ones? The civilians of the Known Cosmos are battling the technocracy, and they don’t even know it.”

  Technocracy.

  The word landed like a bomb.

  She was right, wasn’t she? They told us there was no government anymore. Just trade and prosperity.

  But people were at the top, and everyone else was on the bottom.

  The map from Sorchen’s book appeared in my mind. They hid our history from us.

  A starliner exploded. They took out people who challenged them.

  Janelynn’s disdain burned my eyelids. We were expendable.

  They ruled us.

  And we had no idea there were kings.

  “So Sam exposes the cyber mafia. Which also exposes YOU,” Cora pointed out.

  Ree shrugged, expression cocky. “They come after me, they show their hand. I’m ready. Bring it,” she glared.

  Oh my god. She was insane.

  And it was catching.

  Gone was the timid Sam cowering in my apartment. I wasn’t running barefoot and braless down the street in a panic anymore. Looking at Ree, remembering Brill Sloan, Galactic Minister of Tech, was on our side, I was ready.

  “So you’re soldiers in shadow war, eh?” I asked. “Then what exactly does that make me?”

  “The Queen,” Jax said.

  “The Oracle,” Ree nodded.

  “Goddess,” Cora replied.

  I laughed at my girlfriend. “What? Am I Athena now? Plotting wars?”

  She feigned thoughtfulness, then said breathily, “No, Boudicca!”

  My face opened in a wide smile, “I love it! A vengeful Celt. Who do you get to be?” I waggled my brows.

  She paused, considering.

  “Valkyrie,” she leered.

  “Do we get to go full cosplay?” An image of Cora in sexy feathers and fur flitted through my mind.

  Jax chuckled.

  “Oh, the possibilities,” Cora smirked.

  Well, when planning a war. . .

  I shifted gears, not wanting Jax to see the scene playing out in my mind.

  “Alright, compatriots,” I started. “We’ve got details to add to my books. Just how much of your identities do you want me to write?”

  Ree shrugged. “I’m tired of playing in the dark. Let’s turn the fucking lights on.”

  Hot damn. They wanted me to go full nuclear.

  Was I being maneuvered? So much of this seemed pre-planned. Like I’d been lured—like being in the Ayela Sanctuary all over again. I looked at Jax, letting em pick up my thoughts.

  Jax shrugged, “The rivers of time all flow one direction, Sam.”

  What was that supposed to mean?

  I glanced from Jax to Ree, putting it together. A hacker married to a telepath. Descendant of Borden Sloan. They knew my friends and I went to Shurwinn with Bitsy and Pitch.

  How much did the Joon and Sloan families work together? Were they really separated into distinct camps?

  “Did you and Pitch coordinate all of this?”

  Ree and Jax looked at each other and died laughing.

  Okaaaay. What was I supposed to do with that?

  “You already know all about Sibsil Creed, don’t you?” Cora tried.

  Jax shrugged, pulling emself together. “We haven’t read the books, but we don’t really need to, do we? It’s family history.”

  Right. So they knew the books would go out across the galaxy, and they wanted it. They were practically bloodthirsty for me to click the lights on so the public could see the shadow war.

  I leaned back in my seat. “And the Sloan family? Everyone’s on board with outing you all by name, SassySword? Jax Sloan? On. The. Galactic. Stage?”

  “Someone needs to light the fuze,” Jax said lightly.

  Cora whistled.

  Yeah, babe. Maybe it wasn’t all a grand scheme. Maybe it was the rivers of time coalescing here on Uno, and Cora and I were just one of the streams.

  But it sure felt like one hell of a fire was about to blaze.

  I turned to Cora. “You remember that dream I had?” I asked airily. “Where HC and I were in a classroom, and I got accelerant all over my hands, then pulled the trigger?”

  She grinned, “I always knew you were a firecracker, Sam.”