Zenith Part 1

Dex had taught her well, and now he would pay.

I enjoy flirting with death.

She had always loved the stars. But tonight, she felt as if they were watching her, waiting for her to fail.

He had always looked at the world and seen it in a thousand different colors, his fingers itching to paint each turn of light, each curl of the wind sweeping through the silver streets. Every shade was unique in Valen's eyes. And yet... he was losing colors, too.

He could Andi" Andi's heart turned to ice. It wasn't possible. He was dead, cast away into some deep, dark hell where he'd never be able to claw his way out.

Dex crouched down next to her, lips level with her ear. "You know, you were a lot more fun three years ago." It was like he wanted her to kill him. She turned, unfazed that their faces were separated by mere centimeters. So close she could see the pores in his caramel skin, the deep brown of his eyes, and the raised scar that rested near his temple. She'd given him that scar. What she also noticed was how her heart no longer fluttered like it used to when he looked at her. She used to love his eyes, their unspoken words. The feel of his skin against hers during their passionate nights, but now those thoughts made her cringe. She guarded herself against those details scrounged from distant memories. They were no longer part of a blissful reality but a hurtful past. "A lot has changed in three years, Dextro," Andi said calmly. "Now if you don't move, I'll give you a new scar, and this time," she said, pointing to his right temple, "it will be across your neck." He put his arms up in defense before rising, distancing himself from her.

I'm always fine," Andi snapped. But she knew that Lira sensed the lie the moment it left her lips. She sighed. "I'm just in shock. Seeing Dex again after I thought her was gone for good... I stuck a knife through him, Lira. And now he's come back to haunt me.

She was exhausted, both mentally and physically. It was an exhaustion Andi doubted sleep could fix.

You can't?" Cyprian barked out a laugh. "The Bloody Baroness does whatever she wants. Even if it means stealing a starship in the middle of the night, crashing it into the side of a mountain, and slaughtering an innocent girl in the process.

Andi went rigid. For the first time today, despite everything Dex had thrown at her, she actually looked stricken. Shocked. Pained. "Hello, Androma," the man on the screen said. "I've been searching for you a very, very long time." Dex smiled. This was worth more than all the Krevs in the galaxy.

This was the man who'd bested her. This was the man she'd have to kill today.

Androma was good at what she did. But so was Dex. Besides, a prodigy could only outrun her master for so long.

The expanse of space stretched out before them, causing Andi's eyelids to droop against her will. Before she knew it, darkness had claimed her.

Each line she etched into the metal was another life cut off, another heart stopped at the slice of this very blade. A hundred lives to cover up the pain of the very first. A hundred more to shovel away the hurt into a place that was dark and deep.

But names no longer meant anything. On Lunamere, everyone became a number in the end. Deep in the belly of hell incarnate Valen became 377.

He wondered, as her blades crackled in the too quiet room, and waves of electricity spiraled around them, if he'd made a mistake. He hadn't seen her in years, but he'd heard the rumors. He hadn't truly known if she could wield those weapons with the glory and grace that drew blood and split bones. But now, as Androma hissed, "I'm going to kill you," and her words sent a slice of fear charging through Dex's heart, he knew. Gone was the girl he'd once known, that shivering thing he;d found bruised and broken in the wilderness of Adhira. In her place stood the warrior he'd trained and hardened and turned into something devilishly delicious. He reached for his gun as the Bloody Baroness attacked.

But there was no plan. For the first time in her pirating life, someone had bested her. It's not him, Andi's mind whispered. It can't be him. And yet, the Marauder was a corpse. It was already growing cold in the cabin, Andi's breath appearing before her in the white clouds. Do something, Andi's mind screamed. Get us out of this. You can't go back, Andi, you can never go back. Fear spiked through her, in and around, trying to still her like the ship. But she was the Bloody Baroness. She was the captain of the Marauder, the greatest starship in Mirabel, and she had a crew waiting on her word.