I waited until I was sure he was several yards away, stalking down the softly lit corridor that ran the exterior of the atrium’s receiving dock to look his way. He trudged off, his broad shoulders sagging and his head bowed slightly, his hands in his pockets and the sleekly cut tails of his formal coat fluttering behind him. That aching pain rose in my body again and, much too late, I realized what it meant. Why it only seemed to get worse when we were closer. And why, right now, it hurt more than ever.
I missed that doofus.
I couldn’t imagine what he was thinking. Did he miss me, too? Had he even noticed the weird distance between us now? Maybe what seemed like an insurmountable gulf to me was just a few off days to him?
I sighed and rubbed at my bare arms and shoulders. The night was almost over and I still hadn’t found the right moment to try to talk to him about it. I’d sat up all night thinking of how to begin, of what I could say. Now … I couldn’t remember any of it.
“You are making a grave mistake.”
I whirled around at the sound of an unfamiliar female voice approaching me from behind. My mouth fell open. My heartbeat skipped. Cold, tingly chills swept over me as I stood face-to-face with Sienne.
The last time I’d seen her, I hadn’t spent much time sizing her up. Now, alone in the weakly lit corridor, I had a much greater appreciation for my would-be rival. She looked like she might have been close to my age, although possibly a few years older. Early twenties at most. We were about the same height, although her build was much more heavily muscled. Not surprising, considering her … occupation. And while all my training kept me fit, too much extra muscle weight was not a desirable trait in a runner.
Her cold, dark eyes tracked over me, such a deep shade of brown, they looked entirely black in the dim light. One corner of her bowed, heart-shaped lips twitched down disapprovingly. Almost as though she were disappointed.
Okay, that stung. Maybe I wasn’t G.I. Jane material like she was, but I’d obviously held my own well enough to make it this far.
“A mistake by doing what, exactly?” I fired back, pulling no punches. No way was I going to let her see me sweat. “Daring to race against you again?”
“Don’t be stupid,” she scolded, wrinkling her nose as her fair, oval face wrinkled with a scowl. “What happens within the boundaries of the Renegade Run is only the beginning. It’s the pebble striking the surface of the pond, and you can’t see where the ripples go. You can’t see the effects of what you’re doing.” Her eyes narrowed dangerously. “But you’ll feel them soon enough.”
My fingers curled into fists. “Is that a threat?”
“Yes.” Her expression smoothed as she reached into a pocket on the outer thigh of her suit, taking out a single sliver of a hauntingly familiar purple mineral.
I sucked in a sharp breath. Was that … a piece of her scythe?
She held it out toward me. “Do you know what this is?”
“Archilex,” I answered quickly, inching just close enough that I could pluck the piece of the mineral out of her open palm. That strange heat buzzed and hummed at the back of my mind as I held it up, watching my own reflection glimmer in its surface. I hadn’t expected it to be so light. Or so beautiful.
“Why are you showing me this?” I dared to question. “Isn’t Archilex extremely valuable?”
Sienne’s lips thinned and her gaze went cold again, like someone had sucked every last drop of joy out of her soul until there was nothing left except a hollow shell. “You’re going to need it. He’s going to come for you again,” she warned, her tone as sharp as it was cryptic. “And this time, he won’t accept failure—not even from me. If you race again, Brinna of Earth, I will kill you.”
“You mean Faulbender, right?” I studied her, trying to pick out any trace of emotion that might ghost over her features. When our gazes locked, a strange chill shivered up my spine all the way to my scalp.
She didn’t answer. She didn’t have to. I could see it like a cold, dark abyss in her eyes: Faulbender would be coming for me again.
“Who is he?” I demanded, my voice a broken whisper as panic squeezed my throat until I could barely breathe. “I don’t even know him! Why does he want me dead?”
Sienne turned, flashing me one last hard look before she pulled that strange breathing mask up over her nose and mouth. “If you value your life and that of your … large, noisy pet, then I urge you to reconsider your current path.” Then she turned on a heel and strode away, disappearing down the corridor without another word.
41
BIG ALIEN JERKFACE
Sienne’s threat still sizzled through my thoughts, replaying over and over as I fiddled with the sliver of Archilex she’d given me. It wasn’t much bigger than a pen cap, slender and sparkling in the light like a chip of amethyst. Glancing across the aisle of plush, white seats, my gaze stuck on where Phox had positioned himself directly across the aisle and was already unbuttoning his long, formal coat. I couldn’t tell him I had it or that I’d even talked to Sienne. We’d only talked about Archilex once, and his reaction to that topic didn’t give me the vibe that he’d be super thrilled I was carrying around a piece of it now. He’d said he didn’t want anything to do with it. That it was freaky. Possibly dangerous.
But
