What did that mean? Good news, maybe? Well, it was good for this secret meet-up, although Ari still wasn’t going to flash her face around. She used the controls to drop the pod through the pinhole in the thermal shades. Then she docked and brought the drape of her shirt over her head and tucked her long hair in.
Setting off across the colony, Ari noted that Dodge had a brand-new dome, even if the town didn’t seem to have changed an iota otherwise. There was still the loud market full of incessant peddling of used Mercer goods at slashed prices. Still the flicker of caustic neon signs. The air was too slim on oxygen, while the gravel was too ashy to be any kind of soil. All the same. Apart from one thing.
Instead of Mercer patrols there were Mercer protests.
A clutch of people on a variety of street corners had scrolling digital signs and harsh chants. One carried a replica of Excalibur that made Ari ache for her sword. For once she’d left it behind on the pod. Excalibur was too easy to spot, too impossible to conceal.
Plus, Ari knew how good she was at not using the sword.
“No impulsive moves,” she murmured, turning down the alley where she’d first met Morgana. The ancient enchantress hadn’t reappeared since she’d talked with Merlin. Pouting, no doubt. Ari didn’t know if Morgana had followed her to Dodge, although she would have put quite a few credits on that wager.
Ari ducked through the back door of Dark Matter. The place hadn’t changed, and it transported Ari to the beginning of her King Arthur journey, to begging the bartender for a whiff of oxygen. When he refused, she’d stabbed her funny new toy in the middle of the dance floor as a Thanks, asshole. And then shortly after, Merlin had gyrated over to her.
Ari swept her eyes through the crowded, dark place. The pulse of the music pulled on her growing nerves. If her friends were here, they were being discreet for once. Imagine that. Maybe Ari wasn’t the only one who’d had to grow up in the last year.
Ari leaned on the counter and pressed a coin down without making eye contact. She took a deep, steadying breath from the mask the bartender held out and it felt like her starving brain was getting more than it could handle.
When she turned back to the dance floor, Ari saw her.
Dressed down in a baby-blue flight suit that had once belonged to Kay’s mom, Gwen danced in a way that was anything but era-appropriate. Her head was thrown back, long neck exposed, while her curls were braided to the side and wound tightly into a knot. Ari had never seen that style on her before. She’d never seen Gwen in a flight suit.
And, shit, she’d never seen Gwen dancing.
Gwen gave her entire body to the swollen music. Her full hips were a fluid swing, her hands not afraid to slide over every curve on her frame. Stomach, breasts, lips… although Ari could still pinpoint the exact spot where Gwen gave herself away. Her eyes were closed, her expression deeply tense in a way that passed as exertion amidst the other dancers.
But Gwen wasn’t tired; she was terrified.
So she was dancing.
Oh, lady.
Ari used the heel of her hand to secure her heart and gave in to Gwen’s riptide. The flash burn of oxygen in Ari’s veins abetted her confidence as she crossed the dance floor and met the back of Gwen’s body with her front. Gwen froze for the tiniest moment as Ari’s touch slid down Gwen’s arms, sealing the tops of Gwen’s soft hands with Ari’s callused palms. Their fingers wove, matching rings clinking in a way that made Ari slip on a relieved sigh. Gwen was still wearing her wedding ring. That had to mean something, didn’t it?
They danced for the rest of the song, Ari’s hold on Gwen unyielding, Gwen’s body pressing into Ari’s with a kind of urgency that reminded Ari how long it had been since she’d been this close to another person… and lit up in this way. She was nearly dizzy, at the mercy of the rhythmic bass, and Gwen’s feverishly intense hold on her fingers.
And still, they hadn’t even faced each other.
As the song ended, and a new one began, the music dwindled to nothing in Ari’s mind. Gwen turned around in Ari’s arms. Her eyes were bright, her tears barely masked. Ari felt herself blinking back her own overwhelming feelings. For so long, this kind of moment had seemed impossibly far away. Unreachable. A star that Ari would only ever stare at… and wish upon.
“If you’re one of the Administrator’s monsters, he’s made a huge mistake,” Gwen said, her icy voice cutting across the music, surprising Ari. “And you better not be a ghost.”
“What?” Ari asked just as Gwen jabbed a needle in Ari’s hip.
The shadows of Dark Matter rose like a mouth and bit down on her all at once.
Lights out.
“She’s waking up.”
Ari reached a stiff hand over her shoulder for Excalibur, but the sword was absent, left in that escape pod. Her stomach was folded hard over someone’s shoulder. She recognized the scent of their dreads and the bass of their heaving breaths. Lam was carrying her—had been for a while by the way they flagged. “Lam?” she said, her mouth cottony.
“I’ve got you, girl.” They shifted her weight. “Although you are a lot heavier than you used to be. Been working out?”
“She looks too different.” Gwen’s voice… or was Ari dreaming?
“If she looked the same, that’d be more suspicious. People change after a year, Gweneviere.”
“I know that,” Gwen said, mild panic in her tone. Ari managed to lift her head, her long hair falling over her eyes and framing the view of Gwen trailing behind Lam through the docking bay. Gwen stared at her guiltily for a moment, and then looked away, crossing around Lam so that Ari couldn’t see her.
“What is… happening?” Ari managed.
“Mutiny,” Lam said. “At least that’s what it feels like.”
Ari recognized the sound of Error’s door opening, and Lam walked in and dropped her to the ground. They weren’t trying to be so harsh, but she landed hard all the same. In a flash of tight jeans and sassy hair, Ari was leveled backward by a hug. She gripped her friend, although when she sat up, she was surprised to find Merlin in her arms, not Val.
“I knew it,” he said, an adorable haircut showing off his cherubic ears. “I knew it, but some days it felt downright cruel to hope.”
“King Arthur always returns when he’s needed. Doesn’t he, old man?” she said, rubbing the lag out of her eyes. “Although I don’t remember the part when his knights fucking drug him!”
Merlin snapped a look at Gwen. “You didn’t. You said you wouldn’t!”
“She made me nervous. And she doesn’t have Excalibur, so how could it be her?”
“Excalibur is in the escape pod. Too recognizable.” Ari pressed her feet under her, trying to stand. “Why don’t you believe that I’m Ari? Why did you attack me?”
“Because you are dead,” Val’s voice cut in. Ari raised her head to look at her oldest friend, only to find him standing next to a Mercer casket. He pointed down, and she stumbled toward it, knocking into the plastic container.
The dead person inside was Ari, vacuum sealed like space food. Ari’s shock of nerves helped clear her head, although not fast enough. “Oh, gods…”
“Who are you? What happened to Ari? Are you a Mercer clone? A human droid?” Val fired off so fast that Ari’s head spun. Jordan stood behind Val in full armor, looking very much like a palace guard about to cut her in two.
“I’m Ari. I don’t know who… or what this is.” She pointed at the body in the Mercer-stamped coffin. “Except…” Slowly—too slowly—Morgana’s nagging words from Ketch filtered back through her mind. “Morgana!”
Merlin jumped as Morgana materialized with a sincerely annoyed look on her face.
“Explain,” Ari barked.
“I killed you, or really, I turned one of the corpses on Urite into an exact replica of you. It was an astounding bit of magic, to be honest. Merlin’s blood is delightful and—”
“What?” Ari and Merlin yelled together.
“Your friends think you died on the prison planet a year ago.” Morgana spoke quickly, eyeing her fingernails as if she were debating their length. “I needed them to not come looking for you.”
Ari blinked. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I thought maybe it wouldn’t come up.”