Sword of Dreams (The Reforged Trilogy) by Erica Lindquist, Aron Christensen

shirt and answered. In the hall, a gangly girl held a covered tray and squinted into the darkness. Her freckles stood out starkly against her skin in the bright light of the hallway.
    "Having a nice night, sir?" she asked.
    Coldhand took the tray and tapped the glowing lock. The door slid shut in her face.
    Through the window, red and amber light filtered up from the city. It was beautiful but illuminated little in the shadowed hotel room. Coldhand carried the food back to his desk. His legs were stiff and prickled unpleasantly as blood flowed back into them after sitting for so long.
    Dinner turned out to be some sort of white fish on a pillow of rice and drenched in a pale wine sauce. Coldhand picked at the unfamiliar meat. Fish was never a common food on mountainous Prianus. There were fish in the fast-flowing rivers, but not enough to ever become a major staple of Prian diet. Even after five years away from his homeworld, Logan still found meals in the rest of the core ridiculously extravagant. How many kinds of food could one man need? Whether it came from fish or cloned algae, it all ended up in the same place and served the same purpose.
    Coldhand began eating and returned to his work. It seemed unlikely that Gavriel would have chosen Axis as his church's new home. While the lower levels might make for excellent – if dangerous – hiding, it was still the capital world of the Central World Alliance. Transporting that many wanted criminals onto the planet would be difficult, but far more problematic would be the proximity of the CWA Armed Forces, who were positioned in force on Axis. If the Alliance learned of Nihilists on their precious planet, a single Lyceum dictum would flood even the dankest, darkest recesses of Axis with soldiers.
    Prianus had a much lower population, but with less habitable surface area than the gleaming globe of Axis, suffered even worse overcrowding. Still, there were Arcadians everywhere. The fairies on Prianus never met with the same hatred that they had on other worlds. But in spite of their long wings, the Arcadians who appeared a century ago were no more able to leave Prianus than the native humans. Most of them were still there, living in the same poverty and desperation as the Prians themselves.
    Coldhand was not done eating, but the fish no longer looked appetizing. He replaced the cover and pushed it to the corner of his desk.
    ________
     
    "Miss Carmine, there's a call coming in for you. Miss Carmine?"
    Alexa Carmine sat up with a groan. The previous night's dose of Frag had left a thick, sweet taste at the back of her throat. She coughed and gagged, certain that she was about to be sick. Alexa tried to rise, but the lean masculine shape lay draped across her, holding her down. She picked up the boy's wrist and let go. His arm flopped bonelessly into the tangled sheets. He would not wake for hours yet. Frag always hit men harder. Alexa scratched her head. The boy looked familiar.
    "Miss Carmine?"
    Another man stood in the doorway of her small but lavish bedroom. This one was human, too, but older. Much older and much uglier. A cave-in three years back had broken his cheekbone and ripped most of the scalp from that side of his skull. The entire right half of his face was twisted and scarred, crumpled and hairless as a discarded wrapper. For some ridiculous reason, he would never let Alexa send him to her favorite surgeon to repair the damage.
    "God, you're enough to give any woman nightmares, Harrell," she groaned.
    "Very sorry, Miss Carmine. There's a call waiting for you."
    Alexa fell back into the soft, inviting warmth of her bed and comatose boy. Her dark hair fanned out around her head. "I don't care, Harrell. Take a message. I'll deal with it later." She gave her bedmate a half-hearted prod. "Who the seven hundred hells is this, anyway?"
    "That's your new secretary," Harrell said. "Miss Carmine, you really should take this call. It's Coldhand."
    Alexa jerked upright. The color