Dark Star ❈ Dark Nine Universe Bk2 ❈

Opposite-charge. Enta Kors. Shadow Kors. They don’t absorb light, they scatter it.

They live on an Elion planet called Neastron. There’s a constant fog in the air so you can only see 10 ft in front of you, dark plains of endless black salt and rivers of acid. That’s the ground. If they let you in, the dimensions will change. The Sky Palace will pull you up with gravity. In that space, it’ll appear like a Kor Hold. Something more familiar.

However, they’ve got a thing for bones. And they’ve got a thing about fountains of blood. So I have to keep that in mind too. Apparently it stinks of iron. There is no water on Neastron.

It’s hostile to sub-species. It’s truly Elion, completely fine for Enta. They like the acid, the salt, the rivers and fountains of horror.

I can’t believe my baby girl is growing in a Shadow womb in that Elion hell. My daughter.

“Diana.”

I’ve frozen again in my training on Dark Ninth. I always freeze when I’m thinking about her. I feel a Shadow connection to my baby girl. I feel her kicking, even though she isn’t inside me. Even though she’s with the Enta –

“Diana. Come back to me. You are a Dark Nine – my Estoria. My Star. My Dark Star.”

I come back to the present, my eyes focusing on Ninth’s trails of moss, low brush and a creek tainted by my blood. I had fallen earlier and cut my leg badly. I had bled into the water and my Kors had wanted to heal me. I refused, yelling at them to let it bleed.

I knew the Enta might really hurt me when I hunted them down, and I needed to get used to the pain.

I feel the King of Kors, my Estori, standing at my side, turning off his invisibility, his Stealth drops and his giant dark blue physique takes up half my vision as he pivots in front of me.

“Did you say something?” I ask, blinking with dry eyes, as I only swim with tears on the inside.

“Diana, you’re not well,” Alpha Centauri tries to engage with me, I see his Star Squad shimmering to visibility to my right and Ninth Squad, on my left. Mars stands with them, his dark eyes are haunted by our stolen daughter, although he hides it well. They had been training our sons, Maelstrom and Diasphora, Entrpy and Ephereum, to get better at hunting. Because the Enta were a threat to them too.

I had been learning to dance with Star Squad as they Stealthed, going invisible. I had been dodging them and launching off their shoulders, pouncing around them, using my own invisibility with theirs. I had been practicing with my balance, my speed, my strength. Until I started to fall and hurt myself.

But I wouldn’t stop and I wouldn’t let my Kors heal me. I needed to train and feel pain. I needed to hunt the Enta Kors. I could only do that with my Kors’ help. But now? I’m losing my mind to my grief. It’s harder to focus. I need to go. I need to go now. I can’t wait any longer, I can’t delay her rescue any further.

“Of course, I’m not well,” I look up at Alpha Centauri.

“You’re cut,” Alpha Centauri starts to snarl his displeasure quietly over me, as he takes a step closer, “You’re wasting blood.”

I smile at his obvious displeasure, feeling the warmth of the wound in my left shoulder and my right thigh and the bruise on my hip, “I’m making my demand. You need to take me to Neastron, Estori. The Enta are calling me closer. I’m not meant to be here. I’m meant to be Hunting them. You must answer my desire. I am the Empress. Tell me how to win their trust and take me there.”

“They have no honour, Diana, they won’t pity you either,” Alpha Centauri catches me as I sway off my feet, I had been standing on a slippery rock, the moss started to slide with me, and I have no more strength to stop my slip. It’s okay though because Alpha Centauri holds my waist and lifts me right up off the ground, holding me like a child while I try to stop the dizzy-spell washing over me.

“Enough training,” Mars walks over, looking down at my pale face and then catching the Estori’s steel eyes, “…she’s not herself...”

“She’s exactly herself, the sickness has set in, exactly as the Enta designed the pull,” Alpha Centauri drawls cold logic, and I can’t even acknowledge it, my heart is too torn, “They know she’s a Dark Nine. They’ve opened up every Instinct to pain. All she feels is her daughter’s heartbeat, yearning and alone.”

I look to Mars as I feebly reach for his hand, giving into vulnerability for a moment.

Mars. My mate.

I am grounded for a moment with his concern, radiating out of his Kor eyes, as his green skin has lost it’s sheen, a dull colour because I hadn’t been feeding them properly.

My friends, Jitters and Orlai were still recovering from the effects of the Fey-making herbal tea I gave them 3 days ago. It hadn’t been as smooth as I’d hoped. Orlai had fallen into a coma. Jitters had been throwing up everything for the same amount of time. They were meant to feed my Kors with me, to share our light to their dark souls. I hope they survive and heal up soon. I can’t deal with more loss right now.

“It’s time. Release me from your protection,” I demand of Mars, “Take me to Neastron. I am only growing more unwell, the longer I wait to go, I can barely remember to breathe.”

Mars looks at Alpha Centauri as a silence befalls them.

They had honour, and they owed me everything I could ever ask for. They must obey their Empress, because I had promised my life to them. They were my Elion lovers and one day they’d be my Death.

But I had no idea my female children would be targeted by Enta Kors.

Those Shadow Kors were using my own child to bait me closer to them.

All Kors hunted female light.

But the Enta laid traps.

And according to my Kors, the Enta were demonic compared to them. My own Kors weren’t heroes, they were handsome monsters indebted to me, but they’d be my enemy in any other scenario. I’m only alive because I am the Kor Empress. I can only imagine how that made the Enta more of a foe. If my life was at stake – and it had been, time and time again, I could run, hide, fight and seduce my way out of a sticky situation. But everything changed when my latest Kor baby was taken. I was dealing with a different kind of enemy now.

“One more day. Heal first,” Alpha Centauri growls out, through grit teeth, “Estoria. Don’t go to them injured. Think for me.”

“I am thinking. I want my blood to draw them out,” I laugh lightly and hysterically, only stopping when Alpha Centauri’s growing snarl silences me. He drops me to my feet and he holds my chin instead, looking down at my glazed eyes.

“You’re losing it. Take some of my venom for strength,” Alpha Centauri demands it.

“No, I don’t want you, I need room for the Entary’s venom, so I can feel his mind, so I can understand the Shadow Kors,” saying it seems to make the Estori snap, because he Stealths before me in a violent rise of emotion, disappearing from my vision as Mars takes my arm in his hand, pulling me around to face him.

“Diana. We don’t want you to die,” Mars speaks – almost sounding human. His dark eyes are heavy, “This may be the last time we meet,” when he says that, it wakes me out of my delirium for a moment.

“My children, my sons,” I blink and I look around for them, “Let me say goodbye.”

“They’re under our protection now, besides, you need extra motive to survive the Enta at all costs,” Mars is cruel but true, “Don’t say goodbye to them, say hello when you return.”

“I want to tell them that I love them,” I whisper anyway, “Please.”

Mars shakes his head, “I can’t give you that, Empress. You’re leaving us –”

“Why do you have such little faith in your Empress to survive?” I ask, coming closer to Mars, leaning up to his lips as I hold one hand to his cheek, “I will live. You liked me. Why would they disapprove of me? I’ll work my magic.”

Mars gulps but remains silent, just looking down at me as I lean up on my tip toes and he lowers his mouth to mine. We kiss. I taste a slither of his venom and it’s charged with doubt and extreme turmoil.

“Believe me,” I beg him as I drop to the balls of my feet, “I know what I’m doing,” I close my eyes as I feel my emotions completely, “This is how an Empress wins.”

“I don’t understand the light, my love,” Mars murmurs while his hand leaves my arm, “But I understand the dark. Just expect anything from the Enta.”

“Diana,” Alpha Centauri appears behind me in a burst of a star’s heat, his arm snaking over my shoulders, “It’s time. I’ve gained you a quick passage to Neastron. Keep in mind, we cannot help you, because if we fight them, we risk new singularities. Black holes are no one’s friends, Empress, they take all.”

“I’ll be fine, Estori. I’m ready.”

“I know,” Alpha Centauri leans down and grins next to my ear, “Fellow Dark Nine. May we meet again, Dark Star. Venom whore. Return. Don’t be fooled by them.”

Space folds around the Estori and I.

On the other side of the universe, Alpha Centauri let’s me go.

I land on a plane of black salt.

The heat at my back evaporates and when I look behind me, Alpha Centauri is gone.

I’m finally on Neastron.

And I’m alone.