Page 125 of Only Cold Depths
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
VESPER
Acrossthecavern,thesounds of weapons crashing together rang out, and the echoes of magic reverberated through the air. As much as I wanted to turn around and see how Kyrion and Zane were doing against Pollux, I had my own battle to fight.
By this point, Esmina had killed most of the mercenaries on this side of the chasm. Only one man was left, and he raised his shock baton high and charged straight at her. Idiot. He was already dead. He just didn’t know it yet.
Esmina flicked her fingers, using her telekinesis to send the merc flying through the air. He dropped into the chasm, his screams becoming fainter and more frantic the farther he fell. I scrambled away from the edge of the chasm, still clutching my stormsword. She wasn’t going to kill me that easily.
I looked around, but there was nothing useful on this side of the cavern, just dead mercenaries, piles of rubble, and the permaglass bridge that ran by the waterfall. Despite Pollux cracking open the cavern floor, the water was still tumbling down the rocks in a steady, frothy stream.
Esmina advanced on me, and I ran across the bridge. I sprinted into the next chamber, but it was more of the same, and another permaglass bridge ran past this side of the waterfall before ending in a circular balcony.
I bit back a curse and whirled around. I had to make a stand, and I had to figure out how to kill Esmina—or I was dead.
Footsteps scraped across the stone, and Esmina stepped into the chamber. She walked toward me, her pace steady and unhurried, as though she had all the time in the galaxy. Given her precog abilities, she probably already knew exactly how long it would take to kill me.
She stepped onto the bridge and trailed her fingers across the glass. Her short, dark purple nails scraped out a shrill, screeching tone.
Esmina stopped and gestured over at the waterfall. “Do you know why I bought this place? Why I decided to use Stardrop Falls as my base? Because of all the memories it holds.”
“What memories?” I asked in a wary voice.
“This is where Micah and I formed our truebond the day I fell exploring the waterfall. Later on, he proposed to me in this very spot.” Esmina’s fingers stroked the railing, almost as if she was petting the permaglass. “And this is where I took control of my own future and pushed him over the side.”
A chill swept down my spine. I knew she’d killed Micah in the cavern, close to the waterfall, but I hadn’t realized she’d done it in this very chamber.
My magic surged to life, and suddenly, I could see it all playing out. Micah dropping to one knee, a ring in his hand, looking at Esmina with such love, hope, and devotion. Her letting him slide the ring onto her finger, then rise to his feet. Esmina planting her hands against Micah’s chest and shoving him back, making him flip up and over the side of the bridge. His screams ringing out, followed by the loudcrackof his body hitting the rocks below. Then Esmina quickly descending a rope to the bottom of the cavern, her dagger in one hand. The lunarium blade glowing as she leaned over, cut Micah’s throat, and took his power for her own . . .
“Do you believe in destiny, Vesper?” Esmina asked.
Her voice broke the spell of my magic, and the images vanished. She took a few more steps toward me, and I backed away, matching her move for move, as though we were doing an elaborate Regal dance.
“No, I didn’t believe in destiny—until I met Kyrion.”
Her eyebrows shot up, and she let out a mocking laugh. “You thinkhe’syour destiny? How very quaint.”
“Then what would you call it? Kyrion and me finding each other out of all the billions of people in the galaxy? Us forming a connection, a truebond?”
“Random chance? Luck of the draw? An unfortunate accident? Anything butdestiny.” A fierce light flared in Esmina’s eyes. “No matter how strong or weak they are, people make their own destinies, whether they realize it or not. After all, what is choice if not a part of destiny?”
Maybe it was strange, but in a way, she was right. I wouldn’t be here right now without choices. All the grim choices Beatrice had made to exile Nerezza from Corios. All the easy choices Nerezza had made to abandon me to climb the Regal ladder. All the complicated choices Kyrion and I had made about our truebond.
Grim, easy, complicated. Some of them were mine, and some of them belonged to others, but all those choices, all those actions, had led me here, to this moment, and I still couldn’t help but feel like some of them were destiny too.
“What choice are you going to make now?” I asked. “Nerezza betrayed you and Pollux, your own mercs turned against you, and it’s only a matter of time before the House Collier Hammers show up.”
Esmina shrugged. “Nerezza betraying us was always a strong possibility. You were right about one thing, Vesper. Your mother doesn’t like to get her hands dirty. Nerezza fled from the cavern as soon as the fighting started. I’m sure she’s already on her way to a spaceport, planning to get off-planet as fast as possible. I’m counting on it.”
A chill swept down my spine. “What did you do?”
“Pollux and I planted bombs on Nerezza’s ship,” Esmina replied. “It will explode a minute after takeoff.”
My heart squeezed at her words. Nerezza might deserve such a vicious death, but I couldn’t say the same about other passengers on her ship, and people on the ground might get hurt by the falling debris. And even though Nerezza had never been my mother in any way that truly mattered, I still couldn’t stop mourning the loss of something I’d never had.
“You were counting on Nerezza betraying you? Why?” But as soon as I asked the question, the answer came to me. “You werealwaysplanning to double-cross Nerezza. You and Pollux were going to kill her and keep the Techwave cannon for yourselves.”
“Of course we were. We were also going to turn you and Kyrion over to Callus Holloway to collect the bounty. I could see it all playing out so clearly, but things haven’t happened the way I expected.” Esmina’s lips puckered in thought. “I’m not quite sure when or how things went wrong. You’ve done something no one has in a long time, Vesper. You managed to surprise me. Perhaps you’re not as weak as I thought.”
