Page 112 of Only Cold Depths
“You’re a smart guy,” I said, focusing on Pollux again. “You know Esmina will eventually betray you.”
I didn’t believe for one second that I could sway Pollux to my side, but perhaps I could plant a small seed of doubt in his mind. Something that might make him hesitant later, even if it was only for a second. Holloway had waged similar psychological warfare on my parents for years, and right now, this was the only battle I could fight.
“Esminawillbetray you,” I repeated. “As soon as you’re not useful anymore, she’ll find someone else to take your place. Someone stronger, faster, younger, more powerful.”
Pollux shrugged. “Maybe she will, maybe she won’t. We’ve been together a long time, Esmina and me. We’ve been through a lot of shit together, and in some ways, we’re connected just as tightly as a truebonded couple.”
He glanced over at her, admiration filling his face. Pollux might be a stone-cold killer, the same as me, but he really did care about his partner. I just had to figure out how to use that concern against him, the way Holloway had used my parents’ love against them.
Pollux faced me again. “Esmina and I built Serpens Corp out ofnothing, taking any dumb, dangerous job that came our way. As soon as she heard about the Techwave’s new hand cannon, Esmina knew it could change everything for us. And thanks to her planning and precognition, we’re about to get everything we’ve ever wanted.”
“Whatdoyou want?”
“First, we’re going to finish tearing down House Collier. Once that happens, the other major Houses will have no choice but to officially recognize Serpens Corp as a new House.” Pollux’s shoulders squared, and his chest puffed up with pride. “It might take a few years, but eventually, Esmina and I will be running things on Sygnustern, and the rest of the Erzton will finally bow down to us.”
“So you want revenge,” I said. “How typical.”
Pollux’s nostrils flared with anger. “Not revenge—retribution. When Esmina and I decided to free ourselves from the shackles of our truebonds, we did something the Erzton nobles didn’t approve of, something they were too bloodyweakto do, and they exiled us for it. Well, fuck them and their stupid rules. Truebonds aren’t these wonderful, magical things the Erztonians make them out to be. House Collier and everyone who supported them is going to pay for what they did to me and Esmina all those years ago, more than they ever dreamed.”
A fervent light gleamed in his eyes. He truly believed every word he said, and he wanted to burn House Collier to ashes.
“Do you know how many people end up with truebonded partners who hurt them? Abuse them in terrible ways?” Pollux’s face darkened with fury. “When my sister Derissa and I were in a transport crash, we were trapped in the wreckage, and we were both unlucky enough to bond with two other survivors. I got saddled with a sickly old woman named Lorna, while Derissa was bonded with a guy our age named Haron. Derissa thought forming the bond was true love, destiny, and all that other shit, so she married him a few months later.”
“What happened?”
Even more fury darkened Pollux’s face. “Haron beat my sister—and worse. Derissa hid it from me for a long time, but eventually, I figured out what was going on.”
“And you killed him for it.”
“Damn right I did,” Pollux snarled. “Caved his skull in with one of my hammers. I didn’t even give Haron a chance to beg for his miserable life.”
“But killing him also killed your sister,” I guessed.
“I told Derissa everything Esmina had discovered about truebonds, and I even showed her how to take her husband’s power for her own, just like I had taken Lorna’s power. I gave my sister a chanceanda choice, which was more than Haron and their bloody truebond ever did.” Pollux’s nostrils flared with disgust. “But she didn’t want to do it. Despite all the times Haron had hit and burned and kicked her, Derissa still loved the cruel bastard, and she didn’t want to go on without him. She just gave up, shriveled up, and died like a cut flower.”
Even more fury blasted off him and scorched up against my telempathy, despite the chemicals still dampening my abilities. I understood his fury. I’d felt the same way when I’d realized what Holloway was doing to my parents, and just like Pollux, I’d been helpless to save my family.
“Nothing in the galaxy is perfect, especially not a bloody truebond,” Pollux continued. “I’m going to teach House Collier that very painful lesson, and they’re going to suffer just as much as my sister did.”
He glared at me a moment longer, then stalked over to the mobile command center. Pollux’s words echoed in my mind, and I thought of my parents again. He was right. Truebonds weren’t perfect, just as the people involved in them weren’t perfect.
When I’d first formed a truebond with Vesper, I’d been worried she would get herself killed and thus kill me too. Later I’d been worried Holloway would capture us both and turn us into his psionic batteries. Ever since we’d escaped from Crownpoint, I’d been worried about protecting Vesper from Zane, the other Arrows, and the bounty hunters. And now I was worried that I’d failed her by getting captured.
Determination surged through my body, and my inner monster roared in response. Vesper was coming here, and I was going to do everything in my power to help her, starting with figuring out how to escape my brick-and-plasticuff prison.
I jerked my arms, but the cuffs remained tight against my wrists, as did the one around my neck. I growled and flexed my fingers, trying again and again.
Something scraped up against my skin. What was that?
I glanced down. A tiny bit of stone was sticking out of the cavern wall beside my left wrist. Hope surged inside me, and I stretched my fingers out as far as they would go. I couldn’t quite grab the stone, but it bumped up against my cuff. I shoved my wrist forward, then started moving it up and down as much and as fast as I could. If I could use the stone to saw through the plasticuff, perhaps I could free myself from the rest of my prison—
“She’s here!” one of the mercs called out, and everyone in the cavern snapped to attention. “Vesper Quill is here!”
He swiped his fingers across a portable holoscreen, and a hologram popped into the air. The feed showed Vesper standing on a street outside a pair of closed, locked doors. Vesper looked up at the security camera and hefted the object in her hands—the Techwave cannon.
Esmina examined the hologram. “Let our guest inside, and escort her down here.”
The merc nodded and hurried away, as did several others.
