He left me with the last of the lore, and I inhaled it deep until there was nothing left.

“Come back to me,” I willed softly, murmuring the words to the stars overhead. “Come back to me, and I will give you every reason to never leave again.”

A prayer.

A prayer to the stars meant for one soul alone.

Not for Raazos or Alaire or Gaara or Zor.

But for Gemma.

I had so many regrets when it came to her.

I needed to right them. If only she’d let me.

Just as I was about to push up from the roof, to retreat to my bed, where I could still smell Gemma deep in my pillows, I heard the alert come through on my Halo orb.

I nearly tore a hole through my clothes trying to reach it.

A message.

From Setlan. A close friend who seemingly knew everything about everyone. He was how I’d found Rye Hara to begin with, and it was Setlan who’d made contact with Mr. Cross with the marriage proposal. He’d grown up in Laras but now lived on a planet named Dumera.

Setlan’s recorded message popped up on my orb, the floating colored pixels forming the contours of his face perfectly.

“I’ve just heard it come through my sources, Azur,” Setlan said. “Officers have already been dispatched to the Collis. Rye Hara will be arrested by the High Quadrant Council soon, if not within the hour. Com me when you can and we can discuss our next steps.”

The message went dark.

I replayed it.

Then again.

And again.

Everything we’ve wanted, I thought, staring unseeing over Alaire’s sea and beyond to the stretches of the mountains in the north.

So why did it feel so empty? A hollow victory?

Because I knew how much Gemma was hurting right now.

Her whole world had changed in the last week.

Again, I forced myself to add. Coming to Krynn hadn’t been easy for her either. I had made it less so.

And instead of being with her, instead of comforting her and assuring her that I would take care of her and her sisters, that she had nothing to fear of the future, I was here. In the Kaalium. When I should’ve been with my wife, helping her through this.

My kyrana.

My laraya.

My heart’s blood.

“Vaan,” I cursed.

Rye Hara would be arrested for Aina’s murder. Charged and prosecuted by the highest council in the Four Quadrants, and he would likely spend the rest of his life on a prison planet, deep in the cosmos, with the rest of his unit.

Instead of relief, all I felt was determination to reach Gemma. Instead of victory, all I felt was a desperate ache in my chest because I knew how much pain she was in, even at this very moment.

On my Halo orb, I connected to Zaale, who looked startled since I’d avoided him nearly all day.

“Have a ship outfitted and get a crew onboard. Something small and fast. I need to leave for the Collis immediately.”

Chapter 46

Gemma

It had been five days since my father’s arrest.

And nothing would have ever prepared me for the aftermath of it.

Every day, it was waking to a fresh hell. Whether it was my sisters’ sobs behind the closed doors of their room. Or the United Alliance messengers who had arrived on our doorstep the following evening, threatening us to keep silent about the circumstances of the arrest. Or the news breaking across the Quadrants, a scandal that others could gawk at and whisper about, snickering and lapping up every detail as speculation had run rampant. Or the crowds that had begun to gather outside our gates. Residents of the Collis who had come to offer their sympathies to the Hara daughters, though they’d just wanted to pry the truth from our lips.

We’d begun locking the gates. Keeping others out.

The news shocked New Earth and its colonies. That much was clear. And it was only the beginning of a long road ahead.

“They’ll stop coming to the gates. They’ll move on eventually,” Fran assured us on the fifth night when we were all sitting around the—mostly empty—dining room. Sorj was here too. Mira’s friend, who looked like something more now. The Killup male was holding her close, her face tucked into the gills on his gray neck. I was thankful for him. I was thankful he could offer Mira comfort and support.

Watching them made me miss Azur. It made me miss him so much that sometimes it felt like I couldn’t breathe.

Piper…Piper, on the other hand, had surprised me.

My youngest sister had jumped into action.

“What do you need?” she’d asked me the morning after Father had been taken off planet. “What do you need me to do?”

She’d contacted our grandparents on New Inverness without me telling her to. My mother’s parents, who had, truthfully, been pulling away from our family since her death. Secretly, I’d thought they’d always blamed my father for it in some way. And I couldn’t help but wonder if my father had asked them for money in the later years, because they’d stopped taking his calls entirely.

But they’d answered Piper’s without question, and they were traveling to the Collis even now. To help us.

“I’m so sorry, Gem,” Piper had whispered raggedly one night as we’d been standing at a darkened window, looking at the crowd beyond our gates. “I never knew how bad it truly was. What you must’ve had to deal with all these years. And I was…I was such a spoiled bitch to you. When you were only trying to help us.”

I’d finally come clean. About everything. The loans. The collectors. The debts.

It had felt like a giant weight off my shoulders, being honest with my sisters.

Only, that burden had been replaced with a new one. Guilt. Guilt that I’d pushed my father into his confession, causing this turmoil within our family, causing this grief and uncertainty for our futures, even though I logically knew that it had been the right thing to do. It had been the only thing to do.

“Don’t blame yourself,” Piper had told me, her tone harsh but sad. “He did this. Him alone. You just held him accountable. I…I don’t even know if Mother had the strength to do that. But you did.”

I’d left a Halo message for Azur the night of my father’s arrest, speaking into the orb he’d gifted to me. I’d told him what my father had told me: the location of where they’d buried Aina’s body on Pe’ji. In a dense jungle to the northeast of the town, at the base of an ancient black tree about one mile down the road where she’d been killed. I’d told him that my father had been arrested, that he was being transported to the High Quadrant Council.

“I…” I’d trailed off when I’d recorded the message, blinking back tears. I miss you, I’d wanted to say. I need you. Instead, I’d said, “I’m sorry. I truly am, Azur.”

I hadn’t heard from him. I assumed he’d immediately gone to Pe’ji, or perhaps one of his brothers or even Kalia had, or he’d sent a team there to recover Aina.

We were all sitting at the dining room table this night. Fran. Sorj and Mira. Piper. My grandparents would likely be here tomorrow.

And there was still so much to do. It was like a death in our family. I had to make sure my father had no other outstanding debts he was hiding, no other collectors waiting in the wings to swoop in. I had to find the deed for ownership of the house or if the property could be claimed by the United Alliance or the Earth Council. I had to organize the management of the blue salt mines—the manager I’d hired on, I’d learned, had stepped away from the position. The workers needed their wages, and I’d already dipped into the 200 vron I had in my account to pay them in full. Most of them had decided to look for work elsewhere in the Collis, and truthfully, I couldn’t blame them.

I had to figure out what the hell to do with the estate. I felt restless in its hall. An aching wound and memory. A disgusting reward for a tragedy. I didn’t want to be here, but I had to be. I needed to be strong for my sisters. For Fran, who had nowhere else to go too.