And today we’re all her punch line.
As Darling ran through his own checklist, he tried his best to not think about the first time Zarya had touched him. She’d been right here, in this very ship. If he closed his eyes, he could still see her with him in the darkness of space, feel her mouth on his body as she went down on him. It’d been the first time in his life that sex with someone else had given him pleasure. The first time anyone had made love to him…
I miss you so much…
How could I have let you die? Had he been the man she deserved, she would never have been in this situation. He should have run away with her when he had the chance.
To hell with Arturo and the empire and his duties.
She was the only thing that had really mattered. Why hadn’t he taken better care of her?
He should have just grabbed her and run to live on some colony somewhere else. Screw duty. Screw honor. The gods knew, he had enough money even without his inheritance, they could have had an extremely comfortable life together.
For that shortsighted stupidity, he now bled internally.
“You all right?”
Maris’s voice and his concern brought him back to what he was doing.
Darling pulled his helmet on so that he could respond. “All right would be a stretch. But I’m operable.”
And he wanted League blood. Enough that it washed over and through him until he saw nothing but red…
Firing his engines, he put in his request for launch.
Let the slaughter commence…
Zarya hissed as Ture pried the blood-soaked hair off her face and his fingers brushed against the bruise on her forehead. After they’d dumped her back in the cell with him, he’d pulled her into his arms to hold her like she was a small child.
She hated that he was here because of her. Ture wasn’t a soldier. He wasn’t a fighter. He was an innocent cook who had no business here. She’d only brought him with her so that the Resistance would trust her again.
And while they didn’t interrogate him daily like they did her, they hadn’t spared him either. His handsome face was bruised and swelling from his beatings, and she suspected his nose was broken.
Still, he continued to watch over her and protect her as best he could.
“What did they do to you, this time?” he asked, his voice cracking.
Too weak to move, she listened to his heart beating beneath her ear. “They killed me.”
His arms stiffened around her. “What?” he asked in disbelief.
She groaned as a sudden pain stabbed her body. “Obviously, they brought me back so that they could continue torturing me. I think I was only dead for a few minutes.”
And the machine they’d used to resuscitate her felt like it’d broken every rib in her chest.
But at least she was alive. Pip hadn’t been so fortunate. He’d died under their torture about an hour before she had, and when they’d gone to resuscitate him, his body had caught fire.
Panic seized her at the memory. His death had been both gruesome and excruciating. His screams would haunt her forever.
Don’t think about it…
Gods, how had Darling stood months of this? Every part of her ached more than she would have thought possible. How could anyone be in this much pain and not die?
But at least she hadn’t been raped. Thanks to Safir who’d reminded them that even though she was an outlaw captured in Resistance headquarters, she was still an aristo. As such, by their own laws, they couldn’t have her raped while in their custody.
How sad that they had to make what should be common decency a law. And sadder still was that such a law made them better than her Resistance brethren who hadn’t been so kind to Darling.
When would the cruelty stop?
Ture winced as he carefully turned her face to survey the latest damage. “You have got to think of your baby, sweetie. Give them something—anything—so that they’ll stop this before it’s too late.”
Tears stung her eyes. She feared that she’d already lost her baby. She’d been spotting earlier, before they’d pulled her out to interrogate her again. But there was nothing she could do now, not unless she told them she was pregnant and that was too big a risk, too. “I can’t.”
“You mean you won’t.”
She wouldn’t argue that. No matter what, she would never hurt Darling. It didn’t matter what they did to her. She would not betray him.
“He’ll come for me soon. I know he will,” she said with as much conviction as she could muster.