I. STARCHATTER

***

Grace woke up feeling heavy. She groaned as she turned over, wanting nothing more than to sink into the bed beneath her and never come out.

A knock at the door flipped a switch somewhere in her brain. She jolted upright.

“You awake yet?” Jasper called.

Grace rubbed her eyes. “Yeah, I’m awake. What time is it?”

“Uh, you were out almost a full day. Come out when you’re ready. I’m making pancakes.”

Grace barely caught that last part. She’d been out for a day? She dragged herself out of bed and followed the sound of voices to the kitchen.

She’d caught a glimpse of the kitchen on the way in yesterday—it was just to the left of the front door, and the apartment’s open concept made it visible from the living room—but now she had a chance to fully take it in. The space was mostly sleek black surfaces, illuminated by strips of neon lights and the glow of the city outside the window.

Jasper was already dressed in a similar all-black outfit to what she’d worn the day before, and her hair was in its usual high ponytail. Everyone else appeared to have crawled out of bed not much earlier than Grace had. Dax wore simple blue pajama pants and a shirt, and Thea had similar clothes in yellow that were covered in tiny black lightning bolts.

Holly’s sweatpants and oversized purple sweater made Grace look twice. It was strange seeing her in clothes that weren’t menacing. Or a disguise. She was in the process of running a brush through her red hair.

“Told you she wasn’t dead,” Jasper said.

“Hurray,” Holly replied sarcastically.

The other two were much more polite. Thea offered a wave, anyway. Dax actually said, “Good morning.”

Grace returned the greeting as she slid onto a stool at the counter next to him. Jasper slid a plate of pancakes in front of her. “Once we get to Starchatter, the passwords will let Thea add us to the employee database and print fake badges with some names I made up. We’ll just need to snap some photos before we leave.”

“How do we avoid getting recognized?” Grace asked.

“People know us the way we present ourselves to them,” Jasper replied as she crossed the kitchen to the fridge. “With civilian clothing, a bit of makeup and some acting, they rarely give us a second look.”

Jasper pulled out a large bottle of Nova Cora and unscrewed the cap. “Once we’re in, we just have to avoid drawing attention while we look for a way to access the floor above,” she continued. “And keep an eye out for any signs of Ringmaster.”

Grace picked up a fork and began cutting into the pancakes Jasper had given her. “When’s the race?”

“We’ll have three full days to poke around Starchatter. Race is at the end of the last night. After that, we’ll follow Ringmaster to the next race location.”

“Which is?”

“We don’t know yet. He’s only announcing locations after the previous race ends. But it’ll be somewhere in the Janus System.” Jasper took a sip of the Nova Cora and walked to the coffee maker.

“If it’s off Kronos, we won’t have to deal with Red Blades, right?” Grace asked, unable to sound nonchalant despite her efforts. She doubted she’d be able to go anywhere in Kronos without looking over her shoulder for the gang members, even if she had Jasper at her side.

“Correct.” Jasper poured some coffee into a bedazzled mug, then held the pot out to Grace. “Fruit coffee? It’s good stuff. Imported from Hatu.”

“Uh, I’m good. Thanks.” Grace’s mind was far from the coffee, or the food on her plate. If she went with Jasper to another planet in the Janus System, she might be able to find a way from there to Earth without worrying about Red Blades or police catching her.

Jasper took another sip from the Nova Cora bottle before adding it to her mug.

“You’re going to stop your heart if you keep drinking that garbage,” Holly said.

Jasper shrugged as she opened an overhead cupboard and picked out a yellow can labeled ‘extreme energy.’ The highlighter-yellow liquid inside joined the mix. “Big day today.”

“You say that every day.”

“And you lecture me every day.” Jasper sipped the mixture without batting an eye. “If you’re done eating, go get clothes for everyone.”

Holly slid off her stool and disappeared into the hallway. Grace put a bite of pancake in her mouth and chewed contemplatively. It wasn’t bad, maybe a little bland. But she certainly wasn’t going to complain. She’d been given free room and board. And protection from the people who wanted to kill her. She could handle food that wasn’t prepared by the palace chefs.

Holly returned a minute later with a pile of clothes and dumped them on the counter. Jasper reached for a shimmery silver top. “Everyone get dressed. Dax, help Holly out with makeup.” When she saw Holly’s glare, she sighed and added, “Please and thank you.”

Grace sifted through the pile. As compact as her wings were, she didn’t want to wander around without a jacket to hide them. She settled for a sturdy black one, along with black pants and shoes, and a pale blue shirt that would be easy to cut slits in the back of.

Before Grace left to change, Jasper handed her one of the comm devices the team used and said it was hers to keep. She pointed out the small button that would allow Grace to mute herself when having a conversation the team didn’t need to hear.

“Are you sure no one will recognize me?” Grace asked when she returned to the kitchen after changing. The jacket gave her some confidence, but it wasn’t enough to shake the fear that anyone who saw her face wouldn’t hesitate to report her to the police.

“Starr had you presented a certain way to the public, when you made appearances at all,” Jasper said. “We just have to change up your look. Keep a low profile and no one will recognize you.” Her gaze moved to where Holly had started on Thea’s makeup. “Trust me. I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I’m one of the most wanted people in the galaxy.”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Holly said. “You’ve only been in the public eye for a starcycle.”

“Two years is plenty of time to establish my reputation.” Jasper sounded indignant, but there was the barest hint of a smirk at the corner of her mouth.

“But you’ve been doing this kind of stuff before people knew you as Van Terra?” Grace asked her. “How long?”

“Yeah, Jasper, good question,” Holly chimed in. “How long have you been a criminal?” Her tone was heavy with suspicion. Grace’s brow furrowed. What was that about?

“We don’t have time for this. Starchatter employees are going to start showing up to work soon.” Jasper grabbed a black coat off a chair at the nearby dining table.

Holly stepped back from Thea and glanced at Dax, who was working on his own makeup in a mirror. “When you’re done, could you finish up Thea’s eyes for me?”

“Sure thing,” Dax said.

Holly turned around and faced Grace. “Hold still,” she ordered as she grabbed a new makeup brush off the counter.

Grace’s mind wandered while Holly worked, taking her through memories of her lonely days at the Governor’s Palace, running through all the ways she could have died yesterday, and reminding her that she was working with criminals now. Villains.

Maybe if Grace were stronger, smarter, tougher, she could find some other way out. She wouldn’t need to work with Van Terra. Guilt tightened her hands into fists. Was her survival worth whatever terrible things she was about to get involved in?

Jasper left the room, prompting Grace to swallow her fear of Holly and ask, “You guys have been with Jasper since she became…famous, haven’t you?”

“Famous,” Holly muttered. “That’s one way to put it.” She leaned back and assessed her work. “Yeah, she found us well before that. Over a starcycle and a half ago. We did some jobs in secret, trying to take down Starr directly, but they all failed. He’s got too many people on his side.”

“That’s almost four years,” Grace realized. “You’re all around my age, aren’t you?” They would have barely been teens when Jasper found them, wouldn’t they?

“Just about,” Holly said. “I’m…eighteen, if you want to use Earth years. Thea’s seventeen. Dax is sixteen.”

Grace had guessed correctly. They were all younger than her, if only by a little. Jasper too, then, must have only been…

“Jasper should have been thirteen when she rescued us from—well, that’s not important.” Holly’s expression darkened as she brushed up the area around Grace’s nose.

“Only thirteen. Wow.”

“Note that I said, ‘should have.’” Holly added a few final touches with her makeup brush before tossing it back on the counter. “Jasper looks the same today as she did four years ago.”

“Is she lying about her age now? Maybe she’s older than seventeen.” It was a bit of a stretch, but Jasper could pass for early twenties.

“I don’t know, but she’s lying about something. Or, at the very least, hiding information from us.”