The Space Empress He Craved

Chapter 121

POV: Lyra

Greg, Christian transmitted.

Orion took a moment to digest that fact before responding, They all said that?

Yup.

Orion sighed. I hope they're arresting him, then?

Uh-huh. Teams have already been deployed when the Chief made the call to your suite. He just wanted to let you know, seeing that he's your other cousin.

I see. Thanks for letting me know, Christian.

No problem. Charge your communicator, cuz.

Yeah, I'll do that.

When his eyes cleared, he saw that both my small hands were wrapped around one of his large ones as I traced the lines on his palm and fingers. I didn't know that the mind-touch had ended, and I continued minding my own business with my match's rough and strong hands. But when Orion suddenly trapped both of mine in the one I was playing with, my eyes snapped up to his partially black orbs.

"It's Greg, star-heart," he uttered ominously.

I blinked in confusion. "Greg is what, darling?"

He hugged me close as he explained. "Greg is the leader of Wu Bi Corp. He ordered the silver compound that hurt you in the Jewel Station. He sent those rogues that killed so many of your kind. He was the one who came up with the scheme of siphoning funds. I don't know if he forced Cummings and the others to join his corrupted scheme, but he was definitely the one spearheading it. Odds are, he even had Tanner send that assassin after Russell which got you hurt, using her to cover his tracks."

My soft face turned serious as I pondered his words. Something seemed off to me. If it really were Greg, and if he really wanted to kill me with silver compound and cosmos knows whatever else he had access to with Wu Bi's resources, how was I still alive?

He could very well kill me whenever I was alone: on my morning training runs when Orion hadn't joined me yet; when I excused myself from the dining hall to use the refresher; whenever I was in my quarters alone; or even before Orion arrived at medical after I fell unconscious. Annie was there with me, but Greg wouldn't have been scared of the Duchess.

If he wanted me dead... why go after Russell? If Greg really wrote the note on the blade, why was it addressed to Ellia and not me? Ellia didn't even know Greg as far as Annie and I could gather from our conversations with her.

"Star-heart, a credit for your thoughts?" Orion said with obvious worry.

My doubtful expression met his when I asked with furrowed eyebrows, "Are you sure it's Greg?"

Orion blinked in surprise. "Their stories seem to match up. Cummings and the others, I mean. If it wasn't Greg, why would they all say it's him?"

"If it were Greg... why would he go after Russell? It makes no sense."

"I don't know, star-heart. Maybe it was a trap to get the Oleander into you. Maybe the note and Russell were just to mislead us." Orion scoffed darkly. "And he had the gall to come to medical that day."

"Wait, what?"

Orion's still-black eyes locked with my completely lost black orbs as he said in an anger-suppressed voice, "When they were doing the blood transfusion, Greg came. He wanted to know what happened. Hmph." Orion shook his head. "As if he didn't know. He was probably there to gloat."

I asked suspiciously, "What did he say?"

"He asked what happened to you. After Dr. Gina came out and told us there was a chance you may be alright, that you were healing yourself from Oleander, he blew up, blaming me that the Oleander got into your system." Orion shook his head. "What a convincing, manipulative hypocrite he is."

"Xand—" I was interrupted by the door chime.

Our sights glanced at the door and then back at each other before Orion asked, "Were you expecting someone, Lyra?"

"No," I said, as lost as my match was at the moment.

Before I could get it, Orion walked ahead of me and his hand subconsciously shielded my body from the front. As soon as Orion turned the control and saw it was just Chief Dalloway, his arm that was in front of me moved to my back, circling my waist and pulling me close to the side of his body. After exchanging bows, the Chief got to the point.

"The Duke told me you'd be here, Your Highnesses. I apologize for the intrusion, but this couldn't wait. The... other Duke was not in his residence. Our people are still searching. But we retrieved something from his home when we sought to arrest him. It was addressed to you..." He handed a beige data packet in his hand to me and continued, "My Queen."

"Me?" I asked in surprise.

The Chief nodded, and I hesitantly took the packet from his hand. Orion and I read the cover together, which showed 'H.R.H. Queen Lyra' on the holo-display. My future title was displayed almost illegibly, but my name 'Lyra' was rendered clearly, even beautifully. I turned it over and found it was sealed by the digital seal of a Duke. In the whole Empire, only the Emperor, Empress, Dukes, and Duchesses had their personal seals, but these were rarely used.

Before I could open it, Orion's fingers fell lightly on mine. "Star-heart, maybe I should do it. Just in case."

I narrowed my eyes at my worried match, retorting sarcastically, "In case of what? Poison nanobots?" Before Orion could say or do anything, I broke the seal and opened the packet that contained a folded data card. The outside was blank. I unfolded it and found a microchip attached with adhesive on the inside, and only one line in Greg's almost illegible script: this should get you a head start, my Queen.

Without glancing at the two males, I said, "Come in, Chief. Looks like this is something we should all see."

My tone gave no room for discussion, and the Chief obliged without another word. I got out my portable console and inserted the microchip into the data port. And we waited.

I accessed the only folder in the chip, and it expanded to a seemingly infinite list of all kinds of things, from communication records to credit transactions to names. The three of us were left speechless as I skimmed through one file after another.

When I found the one on audits, and realized the details matched with the ones we went through with Ellia and the others, I stared at the screen as I asked aloud, "If Greg really is behind this, why would he disappear and leave me this? Why didn't he just disappear without a trace?"