Page 28 of Only Hard Problems

How did she slip into Jorge’s lab? Had she been playing the corporate-espionage game and hoping to steal some proprietary tech to deliver to her parents? Or did Asterin have her own agenda, independent from her Erzton responsibilities and commitments?

I had always loved a good puzzle—and especially the satisfaction that came from figuring out a particularly complicated one—and I had a feeling that Asterin would be the most challenging problem I had ever attempted to solve.

“You’re different from what I thought you would be,” Asterin said.

I arched an eyebrow. “Different good or different bad?”

Another thoughtful look filled her face. “Too soon to tell.”

“Well, you’re also different from what I thought you would be,” I countered.

“How so?”

“For starters, I didn’t think you would be a spy—or that you would break into Jorge’s lab tonight. Care to tell me what you were doing in there? What you were hoping to find or steal?”

Asterin crossed her arms over her chest. “Perhaps I was wrong before. Perhaps you are an idiot after all. You certainly have the most ridiculous ideas. Me? A spy? A thief? Hardly.”

“Deny it all you want, but only a thief would break into an R&D lab in the middle of a solstice party.” I gestured at the blaster still in her hand. “And only a spy would smuggle a pocket-size weapon into a Regal ball.”

She huffed, but she quickly slid the blaster into her gown pocket. Then she jerked her chin at my hand. “Says the man carrying a stormsword.”

“Touché.” I tipped my head to her, then slid my sword into the slot on my weapons belt.

We stared at each other. Asterin’s black hair was a tangled mess, her silver eye shadow and liner were severely smudged, and her gray gown was ripped and torn in a dozen places. But somehow she was even lovelier now than she had been on the dance floor, and I found myself easing toward her, like a high tide inevitably drawn to a moonlit shore . . .

“Asterin! Lady Asterin!” a voice bellowed.

I stopped and looked in that direction. Lights appeared in the distance, bobbing back and forth along the edge of the lawn.

Asterin let out another tired sigh. “That’s Rigel. He must be worried sick.”

“Of course,” I murmured. “We should return to the castle. I need to check on my father and my grandmother, as well as everyone else.”

Asterin nodded, then strode toward the trees.

I watched her go, feeling as though something monumental had shifted between us. I wasn’t quite sure what it was, but somehow I was certain that it was only going to cause me more trouble in the end.

CHAPTER NINE

ZANE

WelefttheTechwaveblitzer behind and made our way back through the woods, along the lakeshore, and up to the lawn.

Rigel was there, clutching a blaster, a hoverglobe bobbing up and down over his right shoulder like a flying flashlight. He rushed over to us. “Asterin! Are you injured?”

“I’m fine,” she said, waving him away the same way she had done to me earlier. “Just a few bumps and bruises. I hardly noticed them.”

My gaze strayed to the reddish bruise on the side of her head. I didn’t see how she didn’t notice that, especially given the way the goose egg on my own head was still pounding, but I kept quiet.

Beatrice, Wendell, and Fergus crossed the lawn and stopped, hovering beside Rigel. My gaze roamed over my grandmother, my father, and my friend, but other than their rumpled clothes and dirty, sweaty faces, they looked fine. A tight knot of tension unwound in my chest.

Rigel spun around to me, his eyes burning like brown suns in his tight, angry face. “How did you let this happen, Lord Zane? I thought you were supposed to be the leader of the Arrows. One of the strongest psions and best warriors in all the Imperium. If you can’t protect Asterin and keep her from getting kidnapped during a simple celebration, then we need to seriously rethink our potential alliance with the Zimmer family.”

My grandmother sucked in a breath and opened her mouth, but my father laid a warning hand on her arm, and she reluctantly remained quiet.

Equal parts hope and annoyance spurted through me at Rigel’s harsh words, but my annoyance quickly won out, the way it usually did. “Are you insinuating it’smyfault that the Techwave attacked the solstice celebration?”

Rigel’s continued glower was answer enough, but even more worrisome was the soft chime of confirmation that rippled through my mind at my own words. My psion power was muttering that there was a nugget of truth in my flippant statement. The Techwave might have come here to steal House Rojillo technology, but the attack also had something to do withme.

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