Renegade Magic (Star Renegades Book 1) Read online

The door slid back open. Ty and Espinoza reentered.

  “How are the repairs going?” the murderer asked.

  Alanna dragged her fingers through her straight-cut bangs. “I think I have all the supplies I need, but it’s going to be a few more hours.”

  “Okay, good. Keep it up.”

  Espinoza and Ty turned to Dania. They both folded their arms.

  The captain was older than Ty by at least three years, she’d gather. Espinoza dwarfed Ty in both height and muscular definition, probably a result of the murder’s background as a miner. Ty didn’t show up in any of her memory scans, so he must have been skating in Espinoza’s shadow for however long they’d been accomplices.

  The younger man pushed his shoulders back, trying to seem taller. Espinoza simply glared, flexing his large arms.

  Any other day, she might have considered breaking his humerus bones for the impertinence.

  “Are you ready to give yourselves up?” she asked.

  Espinoza puffed out a laugh, turning to Ty. “See?”

  “Hold on.” Ty walked toward her. “Listen, I told you I wasn’t going to hurt you, and we haven’t.”

  Her wrists tingled beneath the bindings. She wasn’t really sure if these miscreants could hurt her or not, at this point. Dania could still use her power, but how much, and how long she’d still have control were the questions.

  She could kill them all, but she’d probably pass out from the pain, and when she woke, she’d still be stuck in the shackles. And it was only a matter of time before the steel sapped what remained of her strength. Her best option was to trick them into taking them off.

  “Things aren’t what they seem,” Ty said.

  Dania tried not to laugh, and failed. “Then what exactly are they?”

  He pointed at Espinoza. “Cal didn’t kill anyone.”

  Cal? Short for ‘Calvin,’ apparently. It had always annoyed her how humans had the tendency to shorten their names. “He’s already been convicted.”

  Espinoza narrowed his eyes. “So you do know who I am?”

  “You’re the man who killed Filluck Palogivan.”

  The murderer held out his hands. “Why would I kill him?”

  She lifted her chin. “Because he refused to give you money.”

  “That’s not true,” Ty said.

  Espinoza shook his head. “I’m telling you, you’re wasting your breath. She isn’t capable of hearing the truth.”

  What was he implying? “The truth has already been decided.”

  Espinoza leaned toward her. “Can you hear what you’re saying? The truth has already been decided. Even the way you phrased that shows that there might be another version of the truth.”

  “Impossible.”

  Ty crouched beside her. “Would you at least hear us out?”

  Dania pulled on her bindings. “It’s not like I have a choice.”

  A dull ache simmered just beneath the metal. They were still draining her power, although not as much as when Ty and the copper-haired man had first put them on her. Still, she needed to get them off. Soon.

  She checked their hips. Neither man wore a sidearm. There had to be weapons somewhere, though. The med bay might be a better place to look. If they had a doctor, they might have surgeon’s tools as well.

  “Tell her what really happened,” Ty said to Espinoza. “We’ve got nothing to lose at this point.”

  Espinoza sighed and looked at the floor. “It was a drug deal, from the looks of it. Your precious Filluck Palogivan seemed to be the money man.”

  Dania cocked her head. “Are you saying he was involved?”

  “I’m saying he was more than involved. It looked like he was running the damn thing.”

  “Impossible.”

  “Anyway.” Espinoza turned from her. “There was a kid there, at the wrong place at the wrong time. He tried to get away, ended up with a gun, and accidentally shot your friend.”

  Interesting, how he took for granted Filluck Palogivan was her friend. She’d only met the man once, and while he’d seemed afraid of her, a telltale sign of a criminal, she’d disregarded it. Filluck Palogivan was Geron’s friend, and her prince would never associate with someone who’d break a law.

  “What I do know,” Espinoza continued, “is that Filluck Palogivan was not an innocent bystander like everyone said.”

  “If a child committed the crime, why would you have been accused? You ran from the scene.”

  The murderer slipped his fingers into his pockets. “I knew that kid would never get out of that situation alive. When the guards came, they accused me, and I didn’t argue.” He lowered his gaze. Somehow, it made him appear smaller. “I was already wanted for other crimes. One more wasn’t going to make my death sentence any worse.”

  That part, at least, was true

  Espinoza started pacing like a feral lion. “Not only that, I had a knack for getting out of bad situations. That kid didn’t have a chance of leaving that station alive.”

  Dania narrowed her eyes. “I find it hard to believe anyone, even a known criminal like yourself, would want to add homicide to your repertoire of crimes. Murderers rank higher on the king’s target list.”

  “Like I said, I had a way to escape, and I’m good at disappearing.”

  As so many criminals were, but Espinoza wasn’t going to fade into the stars this time. She’d see him punished for his crimes. “There is no possible way that Filluck Palogivan was involved in an illegal activity. You are a murderer and a liar.”

  “You’re wrong,” Ty said. “This is one of the most giving, generous men I’ve ever met. There’s no way he would have killed someone.”

  “Then I suppose he has you fooled. His list of crimes is long.”

  “That’s true,” Espinoza said. “And since I do run around in those circles, I see and hear a lot.” A vein in his right biceps bulged as he folded his arms again. “Filluck Palogivan had his hands in everything from drugs to slavery to prostitution.”

  “Impossible.”

  “You need a new word,” the murderer said. “That one is getting old.”

  She glanced between the two of them. “You are both criminals and would say anything to save yourselves.”

  Ty held up his pointed finger. “The Hitus Four drug explosion. Filluck Palogivan was there.”

  What was this fool getting at? “He left two days before that happened.”

  Ty held up a second finger. “The hydro-influxed heroin on Neptune Nine.”

  “What about it?”

  “Filluck Palogivan was also there.”

  Dania searched her memory but couldn’t recall.

  Ty held up a third finger. “The trafficking of children from the Aravai colony.”

  Dania shuddered. Filluck Palogivan had frequented that colony seven times that year. Geron had mentioned that to his friend, who’d just talked around the subject. She’d never had a good feeling about that.

  “And there are more examples,” Ty said. “It’s more than a coincidence, you have to admit.”

  Dania frowned. This was troubling, but she wasn’t about to condemn a dead man. There was no reason to soil his name, especially if he was Geron’s friend.

  “I didn’t kill him,” Espinoza repeated.

  But he’d already been convicted. The law stated he had to die. Her own prince had asked for his head.

  Her stomach twisted.

  “Can you at least admit that there is a possibility that Cal is telling the truth?” Ty asked.

  Maybe not, but Dania was intrigued by Filluck Palogivan’s association with so many crimes. This, at a bare minimum, piqued her interest. “Let me make you a deal. Free me so I can research your claims.”

  “You think I’m an idiot?” Espinoza asked.

  If he were an idiot, he would have been caught years ago. “I make you a promise, on the honor of my prince, that I will not kill you today.”

  “What about tomorrow?”

  “You have already admitted t
o a list of crimes. I can make no guarantees about tomorrow.”

  Ty shrugged. “Hey, it’s something.”

  “There’s no way I’m letting her loose. She thinks she can solve all the problems in the galaxy by murdering people.”

  “But she said she’d look into it, and she won’t kill you today. Lock her back up tomorrow.”

  Dania kept her expression placid. This simpleton actually thought he’d be able to get these shackles back on her if she didn’t comply?

  Espinoza reached past Dania and unclipped her bindings from the bolt she’d been fastened to. He unhooked one, and before she was able to register that she was partially free, he’d refastened them in front of her. An interesting skill, but maybe not so surprising, knowing the depths of his criminal dealings.

  He released her, and Dania’s bound wrists fell to her waist before he walked over to the captain’s station centered in front of the large viewscreen. “I’m keeping those cuffs on because there are four people other than me that you could kill, and I’m a bit protective of my crew.” He hit a few buttons. “What I’ll let you do is search the archives. Gather as much information about large-scale crimes as you want and then crossmatch them against travel records for Filluck Palogivan. I think you’ll be very interested in what you find.”

  Dania walked toward the computer station. “I expect to find that you are just as guilty as the law states.”

  She sat in Espinoza’s soft recliner chair and called up the screen. The bands tugged at her wrists. It would be difficult to research with her hands bound, but not impossible.

  Sliding her hand over the keys, she checked the communication module, but the ship was running dark. No messages could be received, or sent.

  Espinoza leaned over her shoulder and swiped the screen, closing off the already useless access to the ship’s communications. “I’m not that dumb.”

  She never said he was, which made the thought of removing his head all the more satisfying. “I promised not to kill you today, and I will make good on that.”

  He straightened. “Hopefully, when you’re done here, you’ll be nice enough to give me tomorrow, too.”

  10

  Dania

  Smoke rose out of the panel Ty worked on. He shouted an expletive before Alanna leaned over and tapped on a button. The smoke stopped.

  Dania hoped they knew what they were doing, or she might have to use the last of her strength to create a containment field so the ship didn’t blow up before she could execute them all. It would be hard to present Geron with Espinoza’s head if it were frozen in a vacuum of space—or if she, herself, were dead.

  Dania sifted through a download of the royal databases. Since the information wasn’t live, it was entirely possible these people had manipulated the data for their own gain. When she checked a few of Espinoza’s known smuggling runs, though, the information all showed correct to her recollections. Why would they manipulate data concerning Filluck Palogivan’s business dealings while leaving clear evidence of guilt for their own offenses?

  She breezed over the information: travel schedules, flight patterns, criminal movements, arrests…

  The Hitus Four drug explosion, the hydro-influxed heroin epidemic on Neptune Nine, and the many times before the breakup of the child trafficking cartel targeting the Aravai colony. Filluck Palogivan had been on record in all these places, and many more entries with red hazes over the records, showing the intensity of criminal activity. Once or twice she could overlook as coincidence, but this many times?

  “How is the wiring coming?” Espinoza asked his crew.

  “It would be better if Ty would stop frying things,” Alanna said.

  Ty jumped as sparks shot out of his panel. “Hey, that wasn’t my fault.”

  This was an odd crew of miscreants. Dania couldn’t imagine how they’d eluded capture for so long.

  A file popped up on her screen that had been flagged red by Espinoza. Each member of the crew had tried to access it but had apparently failed.

  “What is this?” Dania asked.

  Espinoza leaned over her shoulder. He smelled of machine parts and a hint of a spicy scent that was oddly reminiscent of Alexander. “We pulled that file from Europa Nine.”

  Europa Nine, the Jupitorian moon station where Espinoza had killed Filluck Palogivan. “Why?”

  “Doc thinks it’s a camera feed, but it’s encrypted. We’ve all tried to break through, but whoever locked that thing sealed it iron tight.”

  Interesting. Dania’s fingers flew over the keys, only partially encumbered by the bindings. The file beeped twice and then opened.

  Espinoza cursed under his breath. “How did you do that?”

  “Royal passcode.” The screen scrolled before her, men mulling through the hallways.

  “There.” Espinoza pointed. “That’s Filluck Palogivan.”

  Dania blinked. He was correct. Filluck Palogivan’s blue Kever skin stood out as he moved down a stark white hallway, flanked by two armed human men.

  “You got it open.” Ty watched over her other shoulder, while Alanna moved to Espinoza’s other side.

  Filluck Palogivan met with another human, and they spoke.

  “Can you get any sound?” Espinoza asked.

  Dania shook her head. “The recording doesn’t appear to have any audio.”

  The conversation turned heated, before one of the men to Filluck Palogivan’s side raised his gun and shot the other man. Alanna gasped, covering her mouth.

  Dania stared at the screen, waiting for Filluck Palogivan to protest, but he simply stepped over the body and continued on his way. She clenched and unclenched her hands, her skin itching to kill something. Filluck hadn’t pulled the trigger, but ignoring the crime made him guilty by association.

  Her stomach clenched. This would make her prince very unhappy. He and Filluck had been close, which was one of the reasons Espinoza was such a wanted man.

  The last thing Dania wanted was to crush Filluck’s memory, but this was information the royal family needed to know.

  The screen flashed to the next camera in the hallway and then to a third in a larger, dimly lit room. Commoners walked about, unaware that a crime had just been committed.

  Hadn’t anyone been monitoring these feeds? Where was the local law enforcement?

  The two men with Filluck Palogivan raised their guns and fired. But at what? A child of maybe ten years ducked his head, and Filluck Palogivan seized the boy, holding the child in front of him like a shield as people scattered and more guns fired in his direction.

  Dania’s skin heated, wishing cowardice was a crime. Palogivan was knowingly placing that child in harm’s way.

  “There you are, Cal.” Ty pointed at the screen, where Espinoza screamed something at Palogivan before ducking his own head down.

  “They started shooting out of nowhere,” Espinoza said. “That kid just got caught in the crossfire.”

  One of Filluck Palogivan’s guards fell, and the child squirmed away, picking up the man’s gun. Espinoza ran for the child, but the boy turned toward Palogivan.

  Dania cringed as Palogivan took the gun, and he and the child spun before a flash erupted between them. The child backed away, dropping the gun as Palogivan slipped to the ground. A dark pool spread over the white floor beneath the aristocrat’s body.

  Dania’s veins chilled as Espinoza grabbed the child and pointed at the door. The unheard word on his lips was unmistakable. Run.

  The child complied as three local law enforcement soldiers ran into the room. They skidded to a stop, several yards from where Espinoza stood over the body.

  They called to him, shouting, but Espinoza darted out the opposite door he’d sent the child through. Two of the officers chased Espinoza out of the frame, while the others worked on crowd control. The other one of Filluck Palogivan’s guards was nowhere to be seen.

  The feed faded to black, and Dania took in the dark screen of nothing. She’d always wondered how in a high s
ecurity compound, that no cameras had captured anything but Calvin Espinoza running down a hallway and evading capture.

  She’d been over all of the evidence from this case twice since her prince had called for Espinoza’s head, yet she had never seen the actual footage of the murder until now. How was that possible?

  She turned to see all attention had centered on her. Ty’s brows lifted expectantly.

  Dania took a deep breath. “It would seem that your captain didn’t kill Filluck Palogivan.”

  Ty straightened, smiling. “Damn straight.”

  Espinoza rubbed his chin. “Does anyone else find it odd that the only file with a hundred percent irrefutable evidence was sealed, and only she could open it?”

  Dania nodded. “That is troubling. There is an additional crime here. The crime of hiding evidence.” She looked back to the dark screen. “Whoever has done this will be executed for it.”

  Ty leaned away. “You are way too into all this execution stuff.”

  “Shut up, Ty.” Alanna smacked his shoulder before turning to Dania. “Since you were able to open it, do you know who sealed it to begin with? I mean, that was a crazy seal. I’ve seen Doc break into government databases, and even he couldn’t get through.”

  “Alanna,” Espinoza hissed.

  The woman widened her eyes. “Oh! I mean completely legally, of course. They, umm, hired him to try to hack in as part of a security protocol.”

  Alanna’s temperature elevated point zero zero seven nine points with each word she said, but she didn’t need that confirmation to know a lie when she heard one. Still, Dania reviewed the inscription on the lock: an intricate flower burst inside a rounded-edged star.

  “Do you recognize that?” Espinoza asked.

  “Yes.” Though she hated admitting it. “It’s royal.” Meaning someone in the royal family, or extremely close to them, had seen this file and chosen to seal it. But if they’d wanted to hide something, why not just destroy it?

  Ty leaned against the wall beside a series of flashing red lights. “Well, I guess this is a perfect time to point out that things are not always so black and white. You thought you knew the truth, but now you’ve seen the real truth.”