“Will you be pulled back into the military if there’s another war?” I asked.
His expression grew pensive. “I don’t know. I’ve served my time, and I’ve seen enough death, but I can’t stand by and watch our people be overrun, either. I would much rather stop the war before it starts.”
I sucked in a breath, connecting the dots. “You intend to go after Morten and the telekinetic, with or without the empress’s blessing.”
He nodded, watching me closely. “They are instigating war. I want to know why. It’ll be harder if Empress Nepru decides to try me for treason, but I’ll still do what I can.”
“Does the empress know that you have Cien? And that you’re on my ship?”
“Yes.”
“Was she happy about it?”
One corner of his mouth lifted. “No.”
That wasn’t the answer I’d hoped for, but it wasn’t unexpected. “Will she really try you for treason?”
“That remains to be seen,” he said, his voice grim. “After we found Cien, she ordered me to bring him to the palace and remain with him while you returned to FHP space. I refused on the grounds that my life debt overrode the order, but she let us go only because we launched with him on board. She has a few reasons to keep me alive, but that won’t stop her forever.”
“Well, if she declares you a traitor, you’re welcome to bounce around the galaxy with us.” I grinned, trying to lighten the mood. “We could charge a lot more with a telekinetic on board.”
Torran stilled, his eyes on my face. “Do you mean it?”
The comment had been spur of the moment, but I wouldn’t have offered, even teasingly, if I didn’t mean it. I nodded. “You risked your life and position to get us out. And while it was your fault that we were on Valovia in the first place, I believe that you didn’t know we’d be in mortal danger from the empress. So, yeah, if you need a place to crash, you’ll always have one with us.”
He put his left arm over his bruised chest and bowed from the waist.
Once he straightened, I said, “I would like to help you chase Morten, too, but I can’t make the decision on my own. The FHP has already fucked us over, and I won’t put my crew back in their sights without permission.”
Torran cupped my cheek, his thumb brushing a burning path across my skin. “I understand. I’m glad that you would consider it at all.”
I stared at him for a long moment, then made my decision. “I need you to swear that you will never repeat what I’m about to tell you, to anyone, for any reason.”
He once again crossed his chest with his left arm. “I swear it, on my honor.”
“The FHP invaded Rodeni with too few troops and too much ambition,” I started, voice rough. “Rather than fortifying a forward base, Command spread us too thin. We kept fighting a losing battle while we waited for backup that never arrived. Then we received intel about an inbound Valovian strike group.”
Torran’s jaw clenched before he nodded. “Those were my troops.”
“There was no time to retreat. All of the FHP forces were going to be slaughtered. I volunteered for a last-ditch attack on what I thought was the Valovian command center, and despite my protests, my squad came with me.”
Dread and anger and grief churned in my stomach as the memories rose, but I forced the words out. “A transport got us to the edge of the small city, then we worked our way closer on foot. We didn’t see a single person, so we thought that everyone had been evacuated.”
“They were all hiding in the strongest central building, waiting for rescue.”
I nodded, throat tight. “We planted the charges, amazed that we’d made it, that it had been so easy. Then I saw the little boy.” My night-vision helmet had washed the color from his Valovian eyes, but his face was burned into my memory.
“I contacted Command and called off the attack. I told them about the civilians. They didn’t care. They ordered us to leave.” I swallowed down a fresh wave of rage and pain. “I gave my squad a choice, and they chose to stay with me. We tried to disable the explosives before they could be detonated, but we failed. Three of my squad died in the blast. Another died from her injuries as we fled.”
Torran’s expression didn’t change, and I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. Perhaps this would be the thing that caused him to renounce the life debt and leave Starlight—and me. But now that I’d started, the story spilled out, an unstoppable torrent of words.
“We dragged ourselves back to where the transport was supposed to be waiting, but it wasn’t there. After I disobeyed orders, Command removed our escape route without telling me. It took us ten brutal hours to find another way off-planet.”
“How did you do it?”
“We stole a Valovian ship. The Feds nearly shot us down before they realized I had the correct FHP protocols. I went to Command—to Commodore Frank Morten, as a matter of fact—and turned in my resignation on the spot. Eli, Kee, and Lexi did the same.
“But Morten isn’t stupid, and he used the expedited discharge to secure our silence, with the understanding that if any of us spoke about what really happened, we’d quietly disappear, along with everyone else on the team. Then the Feds paraded me around as a hero to really rub salt in the wound, knowing that I had to grin and bear it.”
Torran’s power hummed against my skin and his eyes glowed silver and teal. I stood my ground, but remembered fear whispered at the edges of my mind. Had I made a mistake in trusting him?
“Frank Morten is dead,” Torran growled, dark promise in his tone. “I will see it done, you have my word.”
Before I could protest, Torran wrapped his arms around me in a gentle hug, tucking my face against his shoulder. “Thank you for telling me,” he whispered into my hair.
I tried for a casual shrug even as my tears dripped onto his skin. “You deserved to know, but I’ve put the safety of my team in your hands. Please don’t break my trust.”
His arms tightened around me. “Never,” he vowed quietly.
The next two days passed in increasingly stressful increments. We’d passed through the first wormhole without being challenged, but I decided to wait until we were safely in Fed space before talking to my team about continuing the hunt for Morten and the telekinetic. We were already under enough stress, and there would be time to talk later.
Assuming we made it.
Lotkez once again escorted us, allowing Starlight to skip the checkpoints, but I wasn’t sure if they were more protection or threat. With Cien on board, perhaps they were some of both. I hadn’t seen any other ships stalking us, but a battleship waited at the final wormhole that would send us back to human space.
A battleship we were nearly within range of.