Age of Deception (The Firebird Chronicles Book 2) Read online

  It would make a deceptively useful tactic. More so when it was used like it was now, as a bludgeon to try to force the outcome he wanted.

  It might have worked had these people been human. Not so much with Tuann, who could do quietly-stubborn better than even Kira. She could already see the mood in the room shifting. Any gains Jace and the Curs, an elite squad who had accompanied her to Ta Da’an, had won during their actions against the Tsavitee invasion were rapidly disappearing.

  The Tuann appreciated the fine art of subtlety. They were the sleek snake in the grass, not the boar driving its head mindlessly against the nearest obstacle.

  Kira briefly considered interfering and saving Kent from himself, but why do that when he was being the perfect distraction.

  "What are our options?" Kira stuck to Japanese as she lowered her voice so only Jin would hear.

  Raider shifted beside her, leaning closer.

  She'd prefer to have this conversation in private, but she doubted she would be afforded that privilege.

  "Not many," Jin admitted. "They have you over a barrel. There is precedent. It's rare, but it's there."

  Kira refocused. When they'd arrived on this planet—ostensibly to meet her mother’s people, House Luatha—Jin had gone through the Tuann laws—those he could get his hands on. An informed Kira was a smart Kira. They'd thought getting Liara to give up her family claim to Kira would be the end of things. Turned out that assumption was wrong because Kira was uncommon in the Tuann community.

  Her parents weren't from one House but two, a marriage meant to cement an alliance between two foes. It left Kira in the rare position of being dual House. Since she’d been kidnapped before her parents could designate her as one House or the other, it meant both Houses had a claim. And lucky Kira, she'd convinced Liara to rescind her claim, clearing the field nicely for Roake.

  Kira rubbed her forehead. What a clusterfuck.

  It wasn't Jin's fault he'd missed this. Neither one of them was familiar enough with Tuann culture to understand all of its nuances. It placed them in the unenviable position of having to feel their way through half-blind.

  "We could run, but—" Jin trailed off.

  Yes, but.

  The Tsavitee were back. Humans would need all their allies.

  She might have pulled away from humanity, needing the distance to heal while putting her long-term plans in motion, but she had no desire to see the Consortium fall. She cared for too many of them.

  Kira stared at the table, hating she'd been pushed to this point. Options were limited. There was no easy path forward; whichever way she turned, something would be lost.

  Since she'd never formalized her retirement, it left her open to the military’s will. A will Himoto had already exercised once by ordering her to Ta Da'an, House Luatha’s planet.

  As soon as Kent figured out what the Tuann really wanted, it'd happen again.

  The only thing she was surprised about was that Himoto hadn't already acted. She lifted her eyes to meet his impenetrable stare. He'd never been easy to read with that stoic face. Age hadn't changed that much.

  "I don't think you have a choice," Jin said, knowing where her mind had gone.

  "I think you're right." She hated that it had come to this. Hated that she was going to have to shut a door she'd kept deliberately cracked.

  "What are you about to do?" Raider asked, the lazy amusement on his face disappearing.

  He'd known her long enough to know she wasn't going to let herself be caged. Not unless it was her will.

  "Nothing I don't have to," Kira assured him.

  Raider appeared less than reassured. But then, he knew her better than any of those present, except for Jin. Their history was long. Even if it was fraught with tension and soured with dislike toward the end, there had been a time where they'd been as close as siblings.

  "I don't care if you have to tow the damn things," Kent was saying, his eyes snapping fire as he glared at Jace. "Just find a way to get them here."

  "Admiral, we are happy to provide the people required to fly our ships to a human station of your choosing," Silas offered.

  Silence reigned. Kent's gaze flicked from Silas to Jace to Kira and back again. "What are we talking about then?"

  "There's a price for their cooperation," Kira said, finally stirring.

  Kent stared at her. "Don't leave us in suspense."

  "In exchange for our cooperation, we would like the Lady Kira to accompany us to our home," Silas said, inclining his head showing respect to Kira.

  Kent was quiet for several seconds, his forehead furrowed as if he was trying to decipher whether there was a hidden message in there. "Let me see if I have this straight. You’ll give us the ships, people to operate the ships, and all you want is her?"

  "We would like the opportunity for her to get to know us. This seems to be the only way to make it happen." Silas's smile was genial.

  "More like keep her indefinitely," Jin muttered.

  "Is that a drone?" Kent asked, squinting at her friend. "What is a drone doing giving its opinion in a situation like this? Is that even possible?"

  Kira's hands tightened into fists, no longer finding the brash admiral quite so amusing.

  Kent didn't wait for an answer, flicking his hand dismissively. "It doesn't matter. This problem is easily solved. Take her. Rear Admiral Skarsdale, please accompany those ships home."

  "No." Kira's words ripped through the air, forestalling the admiral from flicking off his screen.

  He frowned at her. "What do you mean no?"

  Kira ignored him, focusing on Himoto. "You asked for ships. I got you ships. You asked me to free myself. I did. My debt is paid."

  Himoto didn't speak as he regarded her thoughtfully.

  "You don't get to say no," Kent said disdainfully. "You're a member of the Space Force. You serve at our needs, just like every other soldier."

  "Jin."

  "Already done," Jin said.

  "What are you doing?" Jace asked, his attention swinging to Kira.

  "What I have to," Kira said, not second-guessing herself. She focused on Kent again. "Regulation 5.63—any service member who has served their first two tours can put in a packet to end their service if they have not been called to a combat rotation for the preceding three years."

  Raider made a choked sound.

  Kira took a deep breath. Was she really doing this? Yes. Yes, she was. She wouldn't bow to the dictates of someone like Kent.

  This move was drastic, but it would give her room to maneuver. More importantly, it meant none of her actions beyond this point could be used against the Consortium.

  "I won't be trapped again. I've defended humanity above and beyond what most ever hope to commit. I've sacrificed again and again. This was the last time."

  "This won't work. That packet has to be hand-delivered," Kent warned.

  "Nothing in those regulations says it has to be done by the person submitting the packet."

  Kira and Kent were locked in a staring match. Each daring the other to blink. Only this time, Kira didn't plan for it to be her.

  "You're bluffing," he said finally.

  "Tell me again how you order me to give up my freedom for a few ships that won't even protect you when the Tsavitee come," Kira dared.

  Fury and stubbornness lit Kent's eyes. He was going to do it. He was going to force her hand.

  "Kira, think. You can't take this back," Raider said urgently.

  "It should have been done a long time ago," she said softly. "There's no going back. Only forward."

  It hurt to break Kent's gaze and look at her longtime friend, sometimes enemy.

  Jace was silent, frozen disbelief on his face.

  "You wouldn't dare," Kent said. He didn't realize she was a wolf whose leg was caught in a trap, willing to chew it off.

  A knock sounded from out of sight.

  Himoto met her gaze, his lips twitching. "This is unexpected. Quite the element of surprise."
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br />   "I learned from the best."

  His head dipped in a nod. "Come in."

  Kira thought she saw momentary surprise flash across his face before he composed his expression.

  Graydon shifted, the tension rolling off him drawing Kira's attention like a bee to honey. His eyes were fierce, his shoulders tense.

  That's right. Breathe it in. She'd outmaneuvered him.

  "I win," she mouthed.

  His eyebrows snapped together.

  "That doesn't mean anything," Kent tried.

  "For someone of your position, you're not particularly smart," Jin said. "The Tuann are sitting right here. What kind of people do you want them to think you are? The kind who would sacrifice your own people? The kind who lies for your own self-interests? You're not really presenting humans in a sympathetic light here."

  "J1N, shut down," Kent snapped. "That's an order."

  A chuckle rolled from Jin. "I don't take orders from you, meat sack."

  Kira ignored the exchange.

  Himoto looked considering before he speared her with a gaze. "Well done, dear, but I still have one move left. You really shouldn't have wasted time gloating."

  Kira's lips parted.

  Himoto didn't wait, reaching forward and tapping a button out of sight. There was a brief tone as Himoto's hologram snapped out of existence, leaving them staring at empty air.

  Kira shook her head and blinked. She stood slowly.

  He couldn't have.

  A smile broadened on Kent's face. "Remember—last order given."

  Then Kent's feed snapped off too.

  Kira shook her head again. No. This wasn't happening.

  "I'll be damned. That old fox outsmarted you," Jin said with awe.

  Kira's teeth clenched; her gaze still focused on the spot where Himoto had been.

  "The regulation you cited only works if you can confirm receipt of your resignation," Raider said thoughtfully. "Until you do, you're still considered active."

  "Which means you have to obey the last order given," Jace finished.

  And that was to accompany the Roake home.

  Graydon's smirk caught her eye. He mouthed, "I guess it's still my win, coli."

  Kira inhaled deeply. Strangling the Emperor's Face wouldn't help her situation—even if it would make her feel better.

  Kira slapped her hands on the table and shoved her seat back. "No, I'll find him and cram that resignation down his throat."

  Himoto wasn't winning like this.

  "That would be considered leaving your post without orders. You'd be considered AWOL," Raider said, studying his fingernails. "They still court-martial for that."

  "I don't care," Kira hissed, too far gone to care about the ramifications of her actions any longer.

  "Oh, boy," Jin said. "She's snapped. Someone needs to do something before she does something drastic."

  "You're dying," Shandry said, her words cutting through the drama.

  TWO

  Kira froze, her chest tight as her gaze locked on where Luatha’s healer had been sitting quietly until now.

  Raider stiffened as soft realization stole into his expression.

  Jin snorted. "No, she's not. Right, Kira?"

  Raider held her gaze, reading the truth there before she could even think of denying it. Her silence was answer enough.

  "But then, I think you know that," Shandry continued.

  That drew the barest flinch from Kira.

  Jin made a broken sound of denial.

  "How long have you known?" Shandry inquired.

  Kira placed her hands flat on the table as she urged herself to stay calm. She breathed in then out slowly, doing it again and again.

  "Since Rothchild." Jin's voice held grim realization as he put the pieces together.

  "Is this why you cornered me?" Kira asked, her voice deadly calm as she glanced at Graydon.

  Graydon's expression was hard to read, but she caught a thread of irritation in the look he threw the healer. So—he hadn't planned to use this information against her.

  That had been all Shandry's doing. Good to know.

  Kira lifted her head and faced her oldest friend, reading the emotional turbulence in him as clearly as if he'd been human.

  "Before," Kira admitted softly.

  There was a choked sound from Jace as he sat hard. Raider's expression closed down, a stoic mask descending.

  "Why didn't you tell us?" Jace asked. "We could have helped."

  "How?" Her voice sounded dead. She'd never wanted anyone to know this. It had been her burden to bear.

  "I don't know. Someone else could have taken your place."

  Kira scoffed. "It was war, Jace. Every one of us faced death each time we suited up. Mine was simply a little more inescapable."

  "You didn't always have to be on the front lines," he argued. "There would have been options if you'd simply told somebody."

  "Who would you have had me send in my place?" she challenged. "Who should I have chosen? Elise? Raider? You? I knew the risks. Everyone did. That didn't change because there was something inside tearing me apart."

  He shook his head. He folded his arms across his chest, his jaw clenching as if he were biting back more words.

  "No doubt whatever you were doing to help the humans made things worse," Shandry said crisply.

  Kira fixed a look on her, that monstrous creature inside that took over when times were dark fixated on Shandry. It longed to break the healer's neck. It would be so easy.

  The healer looked soft. Zero combat ability.

  Two seconds and Kira could be across the table. A second after that and crack, no more annoying healer.

  Finn shifted, correctly interpreting Kira’s precarious mood. Her control right now was gossamer thin.

  "The Tuann pay a price for our power," Silas said into the silence. "Left unchecked the effects of unbalanced ki kill."

  Jace's gaze sharpened. "What are you saying?"

  "We can heal you," Silas promised, his eyes never leaving Kira's.

  "And all you want in exchange is everything I am," she said bitterly.

  "You would be alive."

  Her smile was brief and didn't reach her eyes. "There are things worse than death."

  Shandry slapped the table. "You're making this more difficult than it has to be. We're offering you a way to survive. Don't you want to live?"

  Of course, she did. Almost more than anything else in the world.

  But that was the sticking point—almost. There were important things she needed to do. Things that no one else could.

  Kira touched a spot on the inside of her elbow. One such thing suddenly felt unbearably heavy.

  She was at a crossroads. Go with Roake and let them fix her. But then, who knew how long it would take her to get the data she'd downloaded from the Nexus to Odin.

  Or don't go with them and seal her fate.

  What a choice to make.

  "How long does she have?" Jace asked.

  Shandry shrugged. "It's difficult to say. Five to ten years maybe. Less if she keeps abusing her ki the way she is."

  Raider made a derisive sound. "Your notion of immediacy needs work."

  He wasn't wrong. The Tuann life span hadn't been definitively confirmed but she knew they lived for hundreds of years, perhaps longer. To them, ten years would feel like a blink of an eye.

  Kira lifted her chin. "I've been beating impossible odds my whole life. Nothing says I can't do it again."

  Shandry made a scornful sound. "Your ignorance is going to see you dead."

  Kira bared her teeth at the healer and leaned forward. Satisfaction filled her as the other woman flinched. "It's my life to risk."

  "You're going to do this," Jin said calmly.

  Kira sent a hard glance at him. "You don't speak for me. I don't care what our history is."

  No one had that right.

  "You're going to give them a chance," he continued as if she hadn't spoken.

  "Y
ou overstep." There was a threat in Kira's voice.

  Jin swung around to face her, pointing his eye at her. "They're giving you a chance the rest of the forty-three didn't have."

  Graydon shifted, interest in his expression.

  "And you're going to throw it away because you're afraid they'll make you care again," Jin accused.

  "This isn't the time for this conversation." Never would be Kira's preference.

  "You lied. You said there wasn't anything to worry about." Grief and rage boiled in his voice, enough so the Tuann across from them looked at him with interest.

  Most saw Jin as a machine; he wasn't. He had been a person once. A boy like her who, after being mortally wounded, had somehow attached his soul to a military-grade combat drone.

  Kira's mouth clicked shut as she stared at her friend, guilt a boulder in her chest. Her gaze dropped, and she rubbed her forehead. Her reasons had been sound, but that didn't change the fact she'd lied. Something she'd said she'd never do with him.

  "You're going to do this for me. You're going to give them a chance," he said in a calm voice that belied the upheaval she could sense through their bond.

  Kira started to protest. She'd do a lot for him, die if necessary, but this was asking a bit much.

  "Elise isn't the only one you made promises to," he hissed.

  Kira flinched. Her mouth snapped closed on what she'd been about to say. The resulting silence had a weight, awkward and horrible, as she forced herself to keep her eyes up and her attention on her friend.

  Next to her, Raider had stilled as he watched the two of them with barely veiled interest.

  "You promised me things too," Jin told her, his voice grave. "You don't get to leave because you're afraid. I know you better than you know yourself. You're going with them, and you're going to let them help you."

  "And if I don't?" she forced herself to ask. She had to know.

  "We're done, and I never want to see you again."

  Kira inhaled deeply, not letting herself outwardly react. Of any threat he could have made, he knew this one would hit home. Worse, she could tell he meant it. This wasn't one of those times where he'd get angry and then forgive her a few hours later. If she walked away now, she was doing it alone.

  She folded her arms across her chest, resisting the urge to hunch in on herself. She'd never been separated from Jin for any length of time. The prospect of losing him—it was too terrible to contemplate.