A Princess Made

By Odette C. Bell

Andalusia has been revealed. But there’s no way to stop her from running again. With Winters minutes away, she must flee.
Saz can’t let her go alone. He’s waited three years for this. With Andalusia within reach, he will stop at nothing to step up to her side once more.
A Princess Made continues the adventure, thrusting Andalusia and Saz deep into the battle against Winters. From mysterious pirate planets, to galactic insurgencies, they must discover the secrets at the heart of their empire before it’s too late.
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Rising Princess follows a runaway princess and the loyal guard who’ll do anything to find her fighting for the throne. If you love your space operas with action, heart, and a splash of romance, grab Rising Princess Book Three today and soar free with an Odette C. Bell series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Odette C. Bell
• Release date: Sep 8, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463615232

Book preview

Chapter 1

Crown Princess Andalusia

This was it. It was finally time to escape.

The mech had pulled her into its body, and now as Andalusia closed her eyes, she fully connected to it.

Even back on Xantos Prime before she’d fled, she had never ventured inside a mech. There’d been no point. She was the Crown Princess, not a soldier.

So she’d never felt this. This… this sense that raw power was at her fingertips.

It was completely different to the other Xantos tech she’d commanded before.

As she connected to the mech, her right arm began to pulse with this heavy, dense sensation. It was like a star burning inside her.

But even that sensation and the empowering fact of clambering inside the mech could not distract her from him.

Saz hadn’t moved. He was still down on his knees, his body crumpled in half as he stared up at her, his face slack with recognition.

That recognition tugged at her heartstrings, threatening to pull them right from her chest, wrap them around her wrists and legs, and hold her in place.

But she would not be held down any longer.

She kept telling herself that he’d made his decision. He’d made it clear in the brig that he would side with Winters.

So she pushed the mech forward. She didn’t need training; instantly something in her body reacted to the mech, instinctively knowing how to pilot it. As the mech took a massive step forward, pulling completely away from its dock and gouging a hole in the wall behind, the whole armory floor shuddered.

It was the strangest sensation to be aware of it and yet not directly experiencing it. She could see as the floor plating buckled and Saz had to struggle to keep seated. She could see as the loose scraps of metal she’d pulled from the mech’s dock danced over the ground. Yet, safely tucked up inside her robot, she couldn’t feel it. This mech could protect her from anything, and it would have too.

There was a holographic visor screen 30 centimeters from her face. Her gaze darted across it as it alerted her that the ship had picked up an incoming message from the Kronos.

Her lips tightened and her hands shifted harder into their piloting units as she waited to hear his voice.

This is the Kronos to Lady Veta’s vessel. We are coming within range. Do not fear, help is on its way.

For the first time in three years, Andalusia heard Winters’ voice. It had the same confident, charming tone, the same attractive accent, the same everything. And sure enough, the same undercurrent of control and desire that had always hidden under its surface.

As she heard it, her back stiffened, a cold sweat trailing between her shoulders and climbing up her neck.

She went to run.

She was starting to connect to the other 9 mechs. She’d turned them on. Or perhaps what was left of the Central AI had activated them; she was starting to have trouble discerning where her powers ended and its began.

That was not the point.

The point was, she was finally ready to flee with her army.

She went to shift toward the mech elevator in the center of the room that would feed her small army, one-by-one, out of the ship and into space.

Saz pushed to his feet and held a hand out to her. Though she’d turned the mech’s massive head away, for some inconceivable reason, the mech picked up footage of his face, zoomed in on it, and displayed it right in the center of the screen. That meant Saz’s distressed, crumpled face appeared close enough to touch.

Her stomach kicked.

Her heart skipped a beat.

But she still commanded the mech forward.

Though the AI had, in the end, decided to help her flee, it was still trying to force her to find allies. But just as she’d been right about leaving the ship, she knew she was right about Saz.

Despite everything, he’d never be able to pick her side. He’d never been truly loyal to her; he’d been loyal to her role.

That thought sent bitter disappointment twisting through her gut. It stiffened her muscles until she sat even straighter and forced her arms and legs further into the docking units, determined never to look back.

She piloted the mech toward the elevator. It was a massive construction – it had to be. It was designed to shift 40-foot robots through the heart of this vessel and out into space.

Above it, she could see the closed aperture in the ceiling that would open once a mech was ready for take-off. Though she’d never piloted a mech herself, she’d always been fascinated by them. She couldn’t count the number of times she’d come down to a Royal Armory like this in the hopes she could see one in action. Though her guards had never liked it, Vandel at least had always humored her.

… She shouldn’t have thought of him.

Thinking of him made her wonder if she’d tried hard enough. If… if she’d admitted who she was, would things have gone differently? If she’d given her people a chance to believe—

She stopped that thought as she spread her lips and clenched her teeth together. You did what you could, she promised herself out loud. They picked Winters—

Though the mech hadn’t been relaying the sounds of the armory, suddenly, it switched them on.

She could hear Saz’s heavy breathing.

… He… he sounded injured.

Though she’d forced the view screen to switch to a live feed of the lifts, his face appeared once more.

She pressed her lips together as concern rose through her like a wave. Then she shook her head wildly. Turn that off. I don’t need to see him, she commanded the mech.

It didn’t comply.

I said switch it off! she screamed.

It still didn’t comply.

The sound of Saz’s labored breathing filled her ears as he forced himself up.

Her eyes widened, her gaze transfixed on the screen as he staggered toward her, that hand still held out.

His sleeve was torn. So too was the skin beneath it. Blood splattered his once trim uniform, and bruises marked all visible skin.

He looked like he’d been through hell, and yet he still staggered toward her. His mouth opened. On the viewscreen, she could see every single muscle down his cheeks and jaw tighten to allow the move.

Andalusia, he whispered in a labored, choked wheeze. Please don’t leave.

She shook her head, this time the move sending tears sliding off her cheeks and splashing through the holographic screen. She watched them sail through the image, the pixels accommodating them as if they were gates that would let anyone pass.

She hadn’t even known she’d been crying. Now she felt the tears wash down her cheeks like monsoonal rain.

Andalusia, please, just stay.

I can’t stay, she said.

She didn’t expect the mech to relay her voice to him. She didn’t command it to do that, but it still took it upon itself to allow her embittered words to echo through the armory.

Saz’s cheeks slackened at her response, his eyes widening as he took another faster step toward her.

She tried to divert her gaze from him. It was impossible when his face was right there, right in front of her.

Just get me out of here, she spat at the mech.

Andalusia, you have to stay. We didn’t know who you were. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Saz begged. I made a mistake. I broke your trust. I’m so sorry.

She still felt her tears. They still slid down her cheeks, wetting her torn collar and moistening her neck.

Load me onto the lift, Andalusia commanded the mech in a weak voice.

You must be the last to leave. We must load the others first, the AI responded.

Why? she spat back.

For you must give him one last chance, the mech said in a tone that at once lacked emotion and yet seemed to have transcended it.

Andalusia dragged her lips over her teeth as anger billowed within her.

Before she could start screaming at the mech, Saz pushed right up toward her.

He showed no fear whatsoever as he locked a hand on the massive foot unit of the mech.

Her eyes widened.

He started to climb it.

His body looked broken and weary, and now he’d physically touched the mech, it gave her a live feed of his flagging physiological condition. When he’d saved her from that assassin and the alien had kicked him out of the way, it had broken two of Saz’s ribs. His wrist was fractured, and there was internal bleeding.

Yet he still climbed.

She shook her head once, the move little more than a muscular jerk.

One-by-one the other nine mechs approached the elevator and lined up, ready to take their turn.

The first one was jettisoned, the aperture in the ceiling opening for a split second as the robot powered out of the room at 10-meters a second.

Andalusia’s body froze as Saz continued to climb. She knew the controls to push him off. She could simply activate the intruder counter-measures, and Saz’s unprotected body would be disintegrated with the ease of throwing a leaf into the center of the sun.

… She couldn’t do that. And she couldn’t stop him from climbing.

Andalusia, I’m sorry I did those things to you. I should have seen who you were. I should have trusted my intuition.

What?

Saz… Saz had suspected who she was?

I should have appreciated it the first time I saw you. It was in your eyes. I’m sorry. Just stay.

I… I can’t. Winters is coming for me. She didn’t want to speak to Saz; she couldn’t stop herself. For three damn years she’d closed her eyes at night and thought about him. She’d fantasized about what would happen if they met, if he found out what she was and what had happened to her.

Now, she was learning.

And her heart couldn’t take it.

She went to move. She stopped when Saz almost fell off.

Andalusia… whatever is happening, we’ll figure it out. Just stay.

… You don’t believe me, she said in a dead tone, this time instructing the mech to relay her voice.

Saz paused. He angled his head up just as another mech was jettisoned on the lift. Though the atmosphere and air pressure in the room were controlled during the operation of the lift, Saz’s short hair still ruffled, his clothes yanking hard to the side.

Despite the fact she knew his grip was slipping on the smooth side of the mech, he still tilted his head all the way up to stare at the cockpit. I—

Say it, Saz, she challenged. Do you believe me? Winters is not the man you think. He’s after the secret Royal Armory. He wants to use me to get to it.

Saz didn’t respond.

She went to push him off.

He brought his hands up, somehow standing despite the fact his legs were wobbling. I’ll help you—

The only help I need is for someone to damn well believe me, she shrieked, a wave of bitter emotion blasting into her, seemingly from nowhere.

This was what had seen her crumple in the brig. This was what had seen her begging the AI to let her leave. And this was what she’d struggled with her whole life.

She was a crown, not a person. She was a figure, not a body. She was a title, not a mind.

You keep objects of value safe. You protect people as equals. … The AI had said something like that to Veta back at the brig, and now Andalusia truly started to appreciate what it meant.

She went to grab Saz and set him back down, her mind made up. If he couldn’t even pretend to believe her, then she couldn’t take him with her.

Saz brought up his hands. His arms twisted to the side, and the move finally overbalanced him.

Before he could fall ten meters to the deck, she commanded the mech to push a hand out at its full speed, and she caught him.

Just as he’d done to her down on Phobius One, she grabbed him up.

She stared at him momentarily before shifting to put him down.

Behind her, the last of the mechs was loaded onto the elevator.

Saz’s features visibly slackened as he realized what would happen next. These were his last few seconds to regain her trust.

I want to help you, Andalusia. I don’t know how to do that right now. But that’s my promise. It was the promise I made the day you brought me back to Xantos. I will serve you. Just tell me how.

She stopped. She’d grabbed Saz up using the mech’s right arm. Her own right arm twitched violently at his words, but the mech didn’t let that unconscious move translate to her hand.

It cradled Saz and kept him safe.

You gave me a life, Andalusia, Saz said in the softest voice he’d used yet. I will do anything to keep yours safe.

Something pinged within the mech, warning her it was her turn to leave.

She paused.

She stared down at Saz as he shifted in the mech’s hand, directing his head up to her.

If you have to leave, take me with you, he asked once more.

Andalusia hesitated.

Until now, the mech hadn’t interfered directly in her decision. While it had bought Saz some time by insisting that the other mechs had to be jettisoned first, it hadn’t outright told her to bring him along.

Now she heard it rise in her mind. It seemed to combine with Veri’s voice until they both spoke at once with the combined force of true Xantos tech. Take him, Crown Princess. You can no longer be alone.

Outside in the rest of the ship, she heard the alarm change. It would be a proximity alert. Winters would be close.

She had to move.

But all she could do was stay still.

She stared at Saz once more.

He’d made her life fun, even though the stiffed-lipped guard wouldn’t have realized that. Of all her guards, he’d always been the most overprotective. Yet his presence had always injected a sense of excitement into her life. Whenever he’d reluctantly shared stories of his time as a pirate runner, she’d lived another life vicariously through him. Heck, the only reason she’d become a pirate runner herself and managed to survive this long was the wisdom he’d shared. More than that – the grit.

Saz had something no else did around Xantos Prime. He would continue even when all else failed. He would strive on even when he had no resources, no friends, and no hope.

Though Andalusia liked to think she’d learned that lesson herself now, had she?

… Or would she need him?

Andalusia, you must make your decision now, the AI and Veri spoke together once more, their thoughts echoing directly in her mind.

Andalusia closed her eyes.