The woman froze at the voice, turned, then backed off. Others were backing off, too, while a few stood their ground, now on their guard.

  “You’re supposed to be locked up,” the woman said.

  “And yet, here I am.” Silencer was close enough to be visible, though he was still a silhouette. “Charm needed a welcoming committee, or so I thought. Seems she can take care of herself.”

  “I can,” I replied, eyeing the few who remained, daring them to test me. “And didn’t get a drop of this slime shit on me.”

  He chuckled in his raspy way. A friend of my sister, we’d actually not interacted much other than the few thieving missions we’d shared, and the one time I’d walked in on him going down on my sister—talk about awkward. She’d been the type to have multiple guys always doing everything for her, which wasn’t my style.

  In fact, I realized standing there thinking about it, maybe her ways with men had been one reason I had pretty much avoided all that stuff so far. Huh… I had to blame my ponderings on the charm, because otherwise standing there in darkness, surrounded by dangerous villains and rancid swampy shit-water, wasn’t exactly the type of situation that conjures up such thoughts.

  “This way,” Silencer said, motioning me to follow.

  I started to go after him and saw that the woman behind was coming with us.

  “This doesn’t concern you,” Silencer said, halting.

  “Way I see it,” she replied, “this is Charm, sister of Malina. She’s not the type to end up here, which tells me the two of you are up to something. I want in.”

  “I don’t know,” I blurted out, already not liking the idea of her coming along, even though I didn’t fully know the plan. All I knew was to get in here, and he’d do the rest.

  Silencer considered her, then glanced my way. “Charm, this is Maps.”

  “No shit?” I said, suddenly seeing this woman in a whole new way.

  The lady nodded, then spread her hands out in front of her, moving them apart so that light appeared, forming a map that I assumed was our current area of the station’s prison. “Useful in most situations requiring our unique skills.”

  “And we can trust you?” I asked, skeptical. Turning to Silencer, I added, “What’s she in here for?”

  “She’s a pirate,” Silencer replied. “And no, you can’t trust any pirates.”

  “True,” Maps interjected. “But that doesn’t mean you can’t use me in… whatever this is.”

  “We most definitely can,” Silencer admitted, and motioned her along, too.

  “Just like that?” I asked.

  He grunted and nodded, and Maps gave me a victorious sneer. This bitch needed to be slapped, but I’d give her a chance if Silencer said so. For now. This was his mission after all. He’d be the one with an escape plan.

  We moved through more darkness, past corpses and more cells. It was almost too much to believe, that this all existed beneath the levels of the station we lived on, but we’d all heard the stories. They made use of it as a scare tactic.

  Finally, we reached a small side passage with a slight green glow to it. Silencer stood, staring at me. Waiting.

  “Ah, I have something for you,” I said, and took the bracelet from where I’d hidden it in case they tried to search me—yeah, my ass crack, but I’d worn two pairs of panties so I could hide it in between the two. Overkill? Stupid? Shut up.

  He eyed it with skepticism, then took it with his thumb and forefinger. “I thought you might.”

  “What’s the significance?”

  “Our escape.” He analyzed the bracelet, then flicked one of three black stones on it. It was made from simple silver, with those black stones and one red. When he looked up at me, his eyes sparkled with excitement. “Ready?”

  “This is really going to get us out of here?” I asked, doubtfully. Then again, I trusted him, or at least wanted this bad enough that I’d convinced myself to trust him. He wanted to find my sister as much as I did, I imagined.

  “Watch and learn, princess.” He glanced at Maps, sighed, and said, “What’s funny is, I was considering asking you along at any rate. But the thing is, we don’t really need you.”

  “I thought—”

  Before she could get the words out, he had one of those black stones out of the bracelet and had slammed it against her forehead. A strange power emerged from his hand in the form of gold tendrils of light that froze her in place, her expression like a silent scream. The tendrils moved into her, then pulled back out, entering the stone. When he was done, she collapsed, unconscious.

  “Fuck,” I said, staring with confusion.

  “We needed her powers, not her.” He winked then turned to me, holding that bracelet.

  When he reached for me, I thought he was going to do the same as he’d done to her, but instead he slid the bracelet on and winked again as it seemed to meld with his skin. A second later he was grabbing my hand and pulling me with him, right for the wall.

  I started to protest, even pulling back, but then we were through, passing into a dimly lit red room where another man and woman waited.

  “These two, we will require.” Silencer nodded toward them. One quick glance was all I needed to recognize them. On the left was a petite lady, even younger than me, with a metallic look to her eyes and sometimes her skin as well. She was called Ice, even though she had no ice powers—it kind of worked with the way she manipulated metal like someone with ice powers could manipulate ice. Okay, it didn’t make a lot of sense, but supers got to pick their own super names, so whatever. The man was tall and built like a god, a super we’d come to refer to as Trance because of his ability to manipulate the mind. I’d always thought we had a shared connection based on that, or would have a connection if we’d ever gotten to know each other. Apparently, we were about to get that opportunity.

  It took me a second to process what had happened. Silencer had gotten his name because he had a way of silencing others in a move that left them as he’d left Maps. However, there’d always been more to it, a secret part of his powers that many didn’t know about. I’d always had my suspicions, though, and they’d been confirmed in that moment. Even more so when he spread his hands out exactly as Maps had done, and that same map appeared in the light that formed in the air.

  He must’ve taken her power, as he must also have done to a wraith, which is why he’d been able to walk us through a wall.

  Holy Oram, was I excited to see what else he’d be able to pull off with that bracelet of his.

  3

  “Looks like we’ll manage without her, as planned,” Silencer said to his two companions, then motioned me to follow. “Try and keep up.”

  “This is the sister?” Ice asked, glancing back at me skeptically. “Nobody ever said anything about bringing a fox.”

  I had to restrain myself to keep from hitting her, but then decided I didn’t give a shit. My fist connected with her jaw with a thud. She stumbled, eyes rolling with the impact as she tried to pull herself together. Damn, I hadn’t meant to hit her that hard.

  “Not smart,” Trance said, and when he turned to me his eyes seemed to swirl. A moment later I was on my knees, hands pressed to the sides of my head and about to scream. Everything was spinning, the pain from before having returned.

  “We don’t have time for this,” Silencer said, and it was gone. I looked up to see a stone pressed to Trance’s forehead. “See if I won’t do it.”

  “She’s a wildcard, you can’t—”

  “It’s over.”

  Trance nodded, while Ice glared at me but didn’t do a damn thing. Before I could get too smug, though, Silencer had a finger in my face, stone wrapped in his hands as if in reminder. “And you—keep your fucking cool.”

  “Let’s all,” I replied, breathing out white. The effect was instantaneous, leaving all of us looking like we hadn’t been about to tear each other apart.

  “No charms,” he said, scrunching his nose as if trying to fight off the euphoria. “From now on, let’s make this clear—the next one of us to use powers against anyone in our group gets left behind. Are we clear?”

  “Crystal,” Trance said, and Ice nodded.

  “Got it,” I said.

  “In that case, last chance.” He pulled up the map again, checking our route, and then let it fade. I noticed that the color had partially drained from his stone. Previously completely black, it now only had about three quarters of its color left. I guessed that meant he had limited uses with those things. “From here we’re leaving the guild behind. If you come with, they’ll not only never accept you back, it’s entirely likely that Council Amand will have you hunted down, possibly even conduct the hunt himself.”

  “You know where to find my sister?” I asked.

  “I do.”

  “Then I’m in, one hundred percent.”

  He didn’t need to ask the others, apparently, because they all three turned at once as he touched a blue stone on his bracelet. We faced the next wall out, and then there was a circle around us, a burst of blue light, and we were out, flashing through space.

  “NOW!” he shouted, and Ice had her hands outstretched, the metal moving out from the crates that I only now saw were rushing along with us, forming into walls, seats, and more—some had glass and wiring attached, but it wasn’t until my seat had me staring through a display window out into space and the red light had faded that I realized the insanity of what they’d just accomplished. She’d taken a disassembled fighter craft and put it back together with her powers in barely any time at all.

  “Holy—” I started, but a sudden lurch caught me off-guard as the fighter seemed to hit a snag.

  “Ice,” Silencer said, his raspy voice grinding at the ears as he spoke up. “What’s the problem?”

  “On it,” she replied, leaping out of her seat and going to the control panel, hands on it and eyes changing so that they looked to be liquid metal. Talk about creepy!

  “Message incoming,” Trance said, reaching over and flipping on a holo display from his seat.

  The face of one of Council Amand’s top women popped up, contorted with confusion as she apparently finished listening to a briefing to her left. “They’re on. Unidentified ship, you have—Oh?” She paused, glancing aside again, and then back at us, frowning. “You are clearly one of our ships, but seem to have suddenly popped up in the system. It’s suspicious, so I must demand you return immediately and explain yourself.”

  “Can you scramble them, Trance?” Silencer asked.

  Trance closed his eyes and the woman flinched, but then hissed. “We have reason to believe you’ve attempted an attack of the mental variety. We will no longer hesitate to blast you into oblivion.”

  With that, the message terminated.

  “Ice…” Silencer was actually starting to look nervous, glancing around, then back at his bracelet. One finger hung close to the black stone closest to him, and was actually starting to shake. “They have the power to obliterate us, please believe that.”

  “Not in this lifetime,” she replied, and then there was another lurch, followed by the fighter shooting forward. Silencer was at the controls, grinning, all worry gone from his face. Considering the fact that he still had my calming charm on him, his worry had been truly saying something.

  “Shots fired!” Trance said, and pulled up a display that showed us pulling out of range, earning a whoop from Ice.

  “Even if they send fighters after us now, we’re too far out,” Silencer said, and gave me a glance. “In case you doubted us, lo and behold.”

  “Fucking A.” I shook my head in disbelief. We’d all heard stories of people going rogue, trying to betray the guild, and nine times out of ten they didn’t have a happy ending for the escapees.

  This time, we were the one time. The one in ten. We were free, and were careening off into space.

  “Can I trust that we have a destination, too?” I asked.

  He nodded, still grinning, then pulled up his holo controls to manipulate the display. It showed space, zooming in as he input coordinates. Soon a planet popped up, along with the information about it.

  “Junos?” I blinked in confusion.

  Was this a trick? My sister had been the only one to ever know my secret, my wish that I could’ve had the opportunity to attend Supralines, the all-girl superhero academy on Junos. It was a stupid girl’s dream, or was for someone like me. With my looks, my social standing… the fact that I was a thief, only one step away from being a pirate, basically.

  I’d told her of it once, and she said to never mention it again.

  It seemed like too big of a coincidence that the planet we were going to in search of my sister happened to be the one that hosted Supralines and other superhero schools. I stared unblinking at the image as the screen showed our trajectory, along with such facts as famous Citadel supers who’d attended the various schools—most notably the former Citadel Elder and current Tier One super, Artemis.

  “All I had was the coordinates,” Silencer replied, pursing his lips in confusion. “Why there?”

  “Doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Trance chimed in. “Unless…”

  “Unless what?” I asked.

  He scowled at me, nearly spitting out the words, “Unless they’ve captured her and…”

  “Say it.”

  “I’ve heard they conduct tests there. As they would at a university, you know? Research on supers.”

  “Not Supralines,” I countered without a pause, earning me looks of surprise from the others.

  “Maybe, maybe not,” Silencer said. “Let’s hope for not.”

  “If they considered her a villain, what’s to stop them?” Trance added.

  My head was hurting, not wanting to think about this as an option. “Okay, fine. That or… or she’s infiltrated the schools, maybe playing double agent. Looking for the next big score?”

  “A great idea.” Silencer was looking at me, impressed. “We infiltrate the schools, look for answers, clues—or her, directly.”

  I gulped, barely able to comprehend this. “You want us to pretend we’re students there? To…”

  “To be students there,” he said. “We’ll set up a schedule for touching base, and… Oh, shit, I’m getting why this was all put together this way, now.”

  “Meaning?”

  “The timing of it.” Silencer turned to Trance. “Those coordinates, did your contact say anything else? Anything at all?”

  “How did you get the coordinates?” I asked, but Trance was ignoring me.

  “I used my powers to get them, but that’s all the mark had to give up.”

  Silencer leaned back, considering this. “But the timing of it, I’m telling you…”

  “Why?” I had to know.

  “School starts in two days—just enough time to fly there, get situated, and hack ourselves into the system.”

  “I’m going to say right now that I have no idea how to do that.”

  “No, but you have your charms that can make people more agreeable. Trance can affect minds in other ways, and Ice has her way with technology.”

  Ice grinned. “Get me in there, you bet your ass I can get it done.”

  “And by get it done, you mean making it look like we’re starting off as new students in the schools’ upper-level classes?”

  She nodded, but gave Silencer a curious glance.

  “The schools we’ll be looking into, yes. Supralines, for example, has two separate programs—one for lower education, another for adult. Naturally, we’ll be going for the latter, though that should grant us access to the lower as well. We’ll get in there, keep a low profile, and find out what we need to find out.” He turned to me, for the first time in this trip looking friendly as he added, “And Charm, don’t worry. We’re going to find your sister. We’re not leaving Junos without her.”

  For that brief moment, even the other two looked at me with compassion.

  Hell, this little team might work after all.

  4

  The first sign of pursuit came a few hours into the flight, waking me from a short nap. Upon seeing me alert, Silencer held up a hand and said, “Go back to sleep, it’s nothing.”

  I looked at the display, which indicated four fighters incoming along with a cruiser. “Nothing?”

  “Nothing we can’t handle, anyway.” He had Ice and Trance with him, ready, but Trance looked frustrated and shared a look with Ice that didn’t inspire confidence.

  “They have a blocker,” Trance said. “Whatever we try to send their way, they’re not letting through.”

  “Must’ve picked up on it after the first attack,” I pointed out. We’d all been with the guild long enough, as members or prisoners, to know their capabilities.

  “Here,” Silencer said, indicating another position on the display, where Junos would be. “If we wiggle into their comfort zone, the guild will have to back off.”

  He had a point. The guild didn’t want attention, and certainly wouldn’t fly into space claimed by Junos, due to that planet’s affiliation with the Citadel and its supers. They were too powerful, and aside from any spacecraft they might have, they had supers who could fly out into space and wreak havoc on us. Wait, not us anymore—on the guild. I had to get used to the idea that what I was doing by leaving with Silencer meant I was no longer a member.

  Oddly enough, this was my first space chase that I could remember. Even more interesting, I thought, was how utterly boring space chases proved to be. At least from this distance. If they got close enough to fire upon us, it meant we’d be taken out, but we weren’t letting that happen. Since the range was impressive, that meant we didn’t have any sight of them other than on our display. Before long we were passing through Junos-designated space. Ice and Trance used their combined power to set us as essentially invisible to Junos scanners. Unless, of course, they had any supers out scanning with blockers applied, but that was unlikely. At the Citadel, maybe, but not here.