Born of Ice

Devyn considered it, but knew he couldn’t. “Nothing good could come of that. Paden’s hurt him enough by rejecting him. To hear this . . . it would kill my father.”


She didn’t know about that, but she took him at his word. “Well, I can tell you this—your brother’s not a nice man.”

“No shit? I would have thought he was a sweetheart of a guy.”

His sarcasm amused her. Strange how he could make her smile no matter how dire the moment. “So what are you planning to do?”

“No offense, but I’m not going to confide that in you. I’m still not sure I can trust you.”

Those words hurt, but she understood them. He had no reason to trust her, especially given what he’d learned about her today. “All right. I’ll go back to my room, then, and sulk.”

Devyn didn’t speak as she left him. Part of him wanted to go after her, but why? Had his father not uncovered her deception, she’d still be after him.

To protect her family.

Yeah, but—

You would do the same and you know it.

He wanted to argue that he wouldn’t, but in the end he knew the truth.

And right now, he had another enemy to investigate.



Alix made her way to the galley to restock the water in her room. She paused as she found Omari in there, feeding Manashe. But that wasn’t what stunned her.

It was when he held his hand out and opened the door to the cooling unit without touching it. More than that, a bottle of soda lifted itself up and . . .

Slammed to the floor.

Omari cursed. “I’m never going to get the hang of this. It kills me that Nero makes it look so easy.”

Manashe barked in her direction, which made Omari look straight at her. The startled look on his face probably mirrored the same one on hers.

“You’re Trisani, too?”

A tic worked in his jaw as he went to the soda and picked it up with his cyber arm. She could see the panic in his eyes.

“It’s all right, Omari. I won’t tell anyone your secret. Does your father know about it?”

“Yeah.” He returned the soda to the cooler. “It’s why I stay with Dad instead of at home with my grandparents. It’s harder for the Chillers to find me.”

Chillers—a term for those who were trained to hunt, enslave and kill the Trisani. They were a part of The League that was second only to the assassins when it came to brutality.

“Did your father know that when he saved you?”

“No. I didn’t even know it when he saved me. My powers didn’t manifest until I hit puberty. I had no idea why my family was so transitory. My mom always said that my birth dad’s job kept us on the move. It wasn’t until I was older and looking back on it that I started piecing together why half of our moves were in the middle of the night, and that my mom was human while my dad wasn’t.”

They’d been running from those out to enslave them. Poor kid. She couldn’t imagine how hard that must have been for him.

“You miss your parents, don’t you?”

He shrugged as he fed Manashe a treat. “Not too much. My real dad was an angry asshole who hated the entire universe. He was eaten alive with resentment. But I do miss my mom . . . and my brother and sister. My mom was the kind of woman who could make the worst day better. No matter how bad things seemed, she could find something good in it.”

“I’m sorry, Omari.”

“It’s all right. I’m really lucky Dad threw his military career away for me, and I never forget that. It may have cost me an arm and a leg, but it was worth it. I really couldn’t ask for a better family than what I have now. I know Dad doesn’t like living out here in space all the time. Like my mom, he makes the most of it with our humanitarian runs, but I see the way he looks at pictures of home and I know how much he misses it.”

Her heart went out to both of them. “Doesn’t he visit?”

“Not really. He won’t stay stationary for more than a few hours because he doesn’t want the Chillers to find me. By the way, don’t tell Dad you know about my powers. He wigs whenever someone finds out.”

“I won’t. And you can trust me, Omari.”

“Believe me, this is the one crew that gets trust. There’s nothing we wouldn’t do for each other.”

Alix moved to grab water out of the cooling unit for her room. “Thanks, sweetie.”

He gave her a devilish grin. “You know, you’re really nothing like Clotilde. But it is weird to hear your voice coming out of her face.”

His words made her pause. “You knew her?”

“Yeah.” He pulled a box of sweets out of the cabinet beside her. “She was a nasty piece of work. She’d be all nice to me whenever Dad was around and then the moment he left, she’d go psycho. Her head would spin around and she’d turn into this insulting, domineering bitch.”

“Did you ever tell him that?”

“No. He loved her and she treated him all right. I figured it wasn’t my place to ruin what he had with her.”

“I don’t think your dad would want his happiness bought at the expense of yours.”

“I know that now, but as a kid . . . I was stupid.”