Free Wandering Star: A Zodiac Novel by Romina Russell

Hysan on his Ring, but he must have his Psy shield up, because I can’t get through. I can’t hail him by hologram either. He’s veiled and shielded; ’
Nox
must be flying through a dangerous pocket of Space.
    Ophiuchus destroyed Cancer—and nearly did away with Virgo and Gemini, too—so why in the Zodiac would he warn me about Sagittarius?
    Unless he’s really turned on his master.
    I sensed their battle in the Ephemeris just the other night. And even now, Ochus did seem different . . . more restrained. The violence had vanished from his voice, replaced by something else, something far too familiar to me.
Defeat
.
    And yet he’s played me this way before. I’ve always done everything he wanted, since the first time we met when he threatened my life if I spoke of his existence. That very day, he summoned all the Guardians to the Plenum so they could witness my humiliation firsthand. He knew I would defy him,so he and his master set me up to be a pawn for their schemes. I had a part in their plan. My whole journey was a diversion.
    Ophiuchus knows Cancrians, knows our greatest power—our unparalleled ability to love and forgive—can easily become our greatest flaw. Is that what he’s playing on now?
    What if he’s telling the truth?
    When I leave my room, I’m surprised to find Aryll flipping through newsfeeds on the couch. “Where’s Stanton?”
    “Surface. I wasn’t able to help much”—he holds up his hand, which boasts a bulky bandage over a new injury—“so he told me to hang out. I was checking the latest.”
    I slump beside him on the cushions. He smells like the earthy moisturizing lotion provided by the hotel.
    After being here a few weeks, Stanton’s and my sun-kissed tans are back, but Aryll’s skin has turned as red as his hair, and his nose looks like it might start peeling. He pulls away from the developing story on Sagittarius to stare at me. “Are you okay? You have a funny look on your face.”
    I shake my head, blowing out a hard breath. “I-I just saw Ophiuchus,” I blurt out quickly.
    Aryll’s face goes slack with horrified shock, his electric stare setting my hair on end. “He was—
here
?”
    “No, in the astral plane. He . . . he said the Marad’s true plan isn’t to attack Sagittarius but Capricorn.”
    “Capricorn?” Aryll furrows his brow thoughtfully, rubbing the bronze locket that hangs off a black strap of levlan around his neck. It’s his only possession, and I’ve never seen him take it off. “Rho . . . promise you won’t go off on me,” he says tentatively, not meeting my gaze, “if I say something you don’t like?”
    “Yeah. What is it?”
    “It’s just . . .” He’s still holding his locket and avoiding my eyes. “Evenafter everything that’s happened, you never actually proved Ophiuchus’s existence.”
    I suck in a gasp, a million angry thoughts jostling for first place in my mouth—
    “Just . . . don’t yell, okay?” he says quickly, raising both hands like a shield.
    Guilt clamps my mouth shut.
    “How did the master trick you last time?” he asks.
    I frown. “He used a feint—while we went after Ophiuchus, his army came after us.”
    “Exactly. Look, I believe you saw Ochus. But can I throw out another possibility?”
    He waits for my approval, and, grudgingly, I give a quick, sharp nod. “If Ochus has no body and can do things in the Psy no human can . . . and we’ve just seen proof that the Marad has technology that outmatches ours . . . don’t you think Ophiuchus could be an—an
invention
?”
    “
What?
” I blurt, caught between a laugh and an eye roll. “How? That’s—”
    “Just listen,” says Aryll, swinging his legs onto the couch and facing me, his expression openly eager. “The master is obviously a master at manipulating the Psy, right? So what if he invented Ophiuchus to distract you? People mess with their Psynergy signatures all the time—think of this as a more advanced form of