Samael's Fire by L. K. Rigel

added, “I was using the subnet. It’s ultra-encrypted.   Tesla   developed it to communicate outside the hearing of their corporate monitors. Not even Garrick knows about the subnet.” He scoffed. “I might be the only one left who does. And now you.”
    He sat down beside her. A worry line she’d never seen before made a groove between his eyebrows. His eyes were red. She was sure he’d been crying.
    “I was scanning the chatter on the surface.” He reached for her hand. “Char, the Emperor is dead. The DOGs blew his shuttle out of the air before it even broke atmosphere.”
    Did it matter? In a day or two, there might be no empire.
    “The entire official family was on board.” His voice cracked, and like a forlorn child he wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his head on her shoulder.
    “Oh, Mike. I’m sorry.” She patted his back, embarrassed by her lack of sympathy. “There must have been people you cared about on that flight.”
    Mike seemed to truly care about the Emperor, though Jake detested the guy.
    “It’s worse than that, Char. The V has gone down just like the Imperial station.”
    Jake.   Char’s heart turned to stone.
    “It went down over China. I haven’t been able to find Jake or Rani. No signal from the   Space Junque .”
    Jake and Rani gone. And the   Space Junque.   They truly were alone and quite possibly marooned. Mike shuddered in her arms.
    “You told me you all grew up together,” she said.
    “Their mothers were Imperial concubines in New Melbourne. They lived in the same compound and hired my mother to tutor Jake and Rani. They were my only real family.”
    “Was Rani born … like that?”
    “No. It happened when she was twelve. Her hair fell out and her eyes changed. We all tried to protect her, tried to keep the Emperor from learning that he’d fathered a mutant. But at court secrets are worth more than pure water. Someone told, hoping to gain favor.”
    “Politics.”
    “Of course then the rumors flew. Rani’s mother must have slept with another man. She was a traitor. When the assassins came, Jake saved Rani, but…”
    “But what?”
    “They murdered Rani’s mother. And mine.”
    “Oh, Mike. I never knew.” The hint of cold malice in Mike’s voice was so faint, Char wondered if she imagined it. She smoothed the worry line between his eyebrows. “That’s horrible.”
    “She was in the wrong place at the wrong time. A peasant in a knight’s path.”
    “Rani went into hiding?”
    “In Reynaldo’s household, if you can believe it. His wife was alive then. Years later, when the Emperor was in Corcovado, he saw that Rani hadn’t gone ghost and she was gorgeous. I arranged for him to acknowledge her.”
    “Mike, that’s wonderful.”
    “It was something I could do. I’m not a brave man, Char, but I’m great with a legal clause. It solved two problems. First, the Emperor is— was   a petty man and afraid of his corporate masters. Especially Garrick. But he wasn’t cruel. He never wanted Rani killed—or anyone.”
    “I’m glad to hear it.”
    “Second, this was a great coup for him as far as mutant relations. For the first time, there was official acknowledgement that not all mutation ends in ghosting.”
    Mike looked up at Char with a mock sad expression. “I’m hurt that you don’t remember. Ah, that’s right. You don’t pay attention to politics. You thought I was a low-level clerk in Identifications.”
    “Oh, no. Mid-level, at least.”
    It felt good to laugh. Mike wasn’t so bad. He was a hero, in his way.
    He sat up. As they disentangled from each other, somehow his lips brushed against her cheek. She meant to turn her face the other away, but her lips accidentally touched his lips. They froze in that position for a moment, then he really kissed her.
    She didn’t stop him.
    He wrapped his arms around her. Char knew his muscles were enhanced, but the massive embrace felt wonderful all the same. “Sky—“
    What? “Oh,