I could have told him that was the wrong way to go about it. She let him bring her arm down, then grabbed one of his pant legs and heaved up, sending him into a surprise somersault onto the floor. He lay there, gaping at her, as Eton moved in and attempted to simply pick her up. Maybe he thought he could carry both of us out on his shoulders.
She moved faster than he did, ducking out of his grasp and stepping aside, with fluidity befitting a level of training she didn’t have. He ignored her, diving for me, and that was when her eyes went completely black.
Her arm snaked out and she grabbed his shoulder, pulling him back. As Arjan came up behind her and attempted to put her into a hug, she punched Eton so hard he landed sprawling on the floor next to me. He groaned and didn’t get back up, which meant he was approaching what I felt like.
“Qole, listen to me—” Arjan began.
She didn’t. She whipped her arm up over her shoulder and smacked him in the face. He staggered backward, then fell into a sitting position.
She whirled around and knelt near him, grabbing his shirt and pulling him close. “No, brother, you listen to me. I may be young. I may not know what I’m doing. But those are not choices you get to make for me. Not now, not ever. I don’t make your choices, and you don’t make mine. Do you want off this ship? Then get off. I would never stop you. But do not pay lip service to me and my life one minute, and then decide I don’t have the right to take the risks you wouldn’t. Risks that, if not taken, would have us both working in the cannery in Gamut for scat to eat.”
She looked back at me, where I had finally staggered to my feet.
“Qole, it’s okay, I—” I started, but she cut me off.
“You, shut up.” I did. She turned back to Arjan. “I expect outsiders to try to control us. But you’re my brother, and you would make a slave out of me by taking away my choices.” She stood. “How could you?”
Arjan looked up at her, blood running from a cracked lip, and his eyes welled up with tears.
For once, I couldn’t think of anything to say.
“Now,” Qole said, her eyes blacker than ever. “What am I going to do with all of you?”
I should have felt satisfied at how easy it was to reach down and seize the collars of both Arjan’s and Eton’s jackets as if they were unruly children and not men who were twice the size of me—or three times the size, in Eton’s case.
Instead, under the cold anger that encrusted my emotions like the darkness coating my vision, I felt a tremor of fear, as if I were standing on the surface of a frozen lake that had just shuddered beneath my feet.
I couldn’t keep this up. Using Shadow this much would kill me faster than being outside without a coat in an Alaxak winter. I’d only gotten a few more hours of sleep since using it on the destroyer, and I’d nearly died then, I was almost sure of it. I wasn’t doing nearly as much this time, not reaching beyond what already dwelled inside my body, but I could still feel the toll it was already taking on me.
I was also nearly as sick from the betrayal. I had to do something with these two quickly, either before my strength ran out or before I used that strength to throw them out into space.
Out into space…That gave me an idea. Probably the same one they’d had for Nev.
Nev braced himself as if he thought I was about to grab him too, but he didn’t try to run. He looked too exhausted to move, and just stood there, shirtless and panting, over the bag they’d tried to put him in. But I only passed him in the hallway, dragging Eton and Arjan behind me as if they were now the sacks of garbage or laundry headed off the ship.
For once, Nev hadn’t done anything.
Arjan didn’t struggle, probably out of shame, and neither did Eton, probably because he was still dazed from the less-than-gentle tap I had given him. Actually, I’d tried to be gentle so I wouldn’t kill him. The blow had still gotten the message across, apparently.
Hefting them up two flights of stairs to the bridge was nearly as easy as dragging them down the hall, except for maneuverability. I didn’t take as much care as I could have to keep from bashing limbs or heads against the metal railings.
“Qole, where are you…You’re not crazy, are you?” It was Arjan, fear in his voice, but I didn’t care if he was afraid. In fact, so much the better.
“Not yet,” I said through gritted teeth. “Now shut up.”
Groaning, Eton reached up to try to grab my hand at his collar, but I shook him off as I crested the last set of stairs and hauled them onto the bridge. Halfway across the room, I hurled them the rest of the way. They landed and tumbled with a clatter over the metal grating of the floor…right onto the solid paneling of the airlock’s base.
I mashed the button, sealing them in with a whooshing hiss.
“Qole!” Arjan shouted, pressing his hands against the windows of the inner doors. His cry tore at me, but I ignored it. Even Eton mustered the strength to roll to his feet and pound once in frustration.
I pushed the button that silenced their end of the comm. But they could still hear me, for now.
“I never thought you would pull something like this,” I snarled. “I told you that you would both be off this ship if you didn’t listen.”
There was something heartbroken in both of their eyes at that moment. Arjan had the humility to look like he deserved everything I was doing to him, but Eton stared at me like I’d gutted him.
But I was the one they’d gutted.
My anger went out of me like Shadow from an open maglock. I sagged against the wall and blinked as my vision brightened. It was still dim on the bridge with the lights at their night setting, but less dim now. I also blinked tears from my eyes that I quickly wiped away with my forearm.
“I can’t believe either of you,” I said, growling through the quaver in my voice. “Consider this your holding cell. Until further notice, you are off the Kaitan, as soon as I can get you off. Make yourselves comfortable in there.”
I silenced my end of the comm too, and turned away from them.
…And I nearly jumped to find Nev leaning against the wall in the shadows behind me. It wasn’t a relaxed pose, more of a depleted one, but he still managed to slide out of it gracefully.
“Sorry, I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop,” he said, his voice low. “I just wanted to make sure…”
I glared at him with all the anger I could muster, which wasn’t much. “That I wasn’t going to kill them? Of course I wouldn’t. But if you’re going to try to tell me what I should or shouldn’t do too, there’s still room in there.” I tossed my head over my shoulder at the airlock.
Nev didn’t say anything, and I glanced behind me.