“Go ahead,” Doran said to Kane. “Tell them.” His voice went hollow as all the fight inside him died. Since he’d quit struggling, Renny released him. “Tell them how you sold me out for the reward.”
Something in Kane’s expression hardened, almost as if he was proud of what he’d done. Folding both arms, he admitted, “Yeah, it was me. I did it for the money. And I’m not sorry, either.”
While jaws dropped and silence blanketed the galley, Cassia stepped in front of Kane, shaking her head at him. “Stop it,” she ordered, and then faced Doran. “He didn’t turn you in. I was the one who made the call.”
“Don’t listen to her,” Kane said, nudging her aside. “I did it.”
Cassia whirled on him, curling her tiny hands into fists. “Shut up, Kane! I don’t need you to protect me!”
“You don’t think so? Because my busted lip says otherwise!”
The captain put a stop to the nonsense by slamming his crutch on the floor and bellowing, “What in damnation is going on?”
“That’s what I want to know,” Doran said. “It wasn’t an accident when the Enforcers found me on Obsidian. Someone told them I’d be there.”
“That someone was me,” Cassia said. “Kane had nothing to do with it. I didn’t tell him at first, but as soon as he found out, he tried to help you by—”
“Piloting the shuttle,” Solara finished. “That’s why he volunteered. I practically had to arm-wrestle the job away from him.”
Cassia nodded, keeping her eyes fixed on Doran. “He was going to take you somewhere safe and pretend the shuttle was broken until the Enforcers left.”
“But why?” Doran asked. “What did I ever do to you?” He knew it shouldn’t matter—either way he had a knife in his back—but he needed to know. “Do you hate me that much?”
“I don’t hate you at all.”
“You have a funny way of showing it.”
“Believe it or not, I had good intentions,” Cassia said. “I thought you were soft, that you were just a pampered rich boy who didn’t understand how dangerous life is out here.” She glanced down at her feet. “Because that’s exactly how I was when I left home. I thought it would be best if the Enforcers took you back to Earth. So you’d be out of harm’s way.”
Doran scoffed. He didn’t believe for one second that her reasons were so pure. “You were doing me a favor? I can’t wait to repay you.”
Kane placed a hand on Cassia’s shoulder. “Give her a break. There was more to it than that.”
“Of course there was,” Doran said. “I’m not an idiot.”
“You don’t know what’s at stake,” Cassia told him. “If the Daeva catch you—”
“They’ll torture me to death,” Doran interrupted. “I already know that.”
“No, they won’t.” She peeked up, her eyes full of fear. “They’ll torture you until you tell them where I am.”
Doran cocked his head to make sure he’d heard her right.
“It’s my name on the contract,” Cassia went on. “Mine and Kane’s. But he didn’t do anything wrong, except stand by me. If the Daeva catch us, they’ll kill him, and then they’ll take me home for something even worse.”
“Why?” asked Solara. “What did you do?”
For a few beats, Cassia seemed to struggle for her next words. It wasn’t until Kane took her hand that she told them, “I ran away from Eturia and started a war.”
“It wasn’t her fault,” Kane said. “Two of the ruling families have been at each other’s throats for ages. The war is way overdue.”
“But my marriage was supposed to stop it,” Cassia muttered, her gaze fixed on the floor. “My parents called a meeting with the enemy house. They agreed to join our families by promising me to a prince named Marius.” Her upper lip hitched. “I wanted nothing to do with him. I threw a dozen fits, but my parents wouldn’t budge. They said I was being selfish—that it was my duty to bring an end to all the fighting. We argued about it for months. At one point, we quit talking. Then the week before the wedding, my parents hosted a banquet for Marius, and I overheard him telling one of his men that he didn’t want anything to do with me, either. And his family’s goal wasn’t peace. He was supposed to marry me, then kill my father so he’d rule both kingdoms.”
“Not to mention,” Kane added, “scoop out Cassy’s melon and turn her into a puppet.”
Cassia nodded. “His family invented the same technology the Daeva use to block their prefrontal cortex. They had it all figured out—the perfect takeover. But when I told my father, he didn’t believe me. I guess after all the tantrums, he thought I was pulling another stunt to delay the wedding.” Her eyes met Kane’s, and she gave him a weary smile. “So I went to my best friend and asked for help. He dropped everything and followed me out the door, even though his clerk’s apprenticeship was almost finished.”
Kane squeezed her hand. “Palace life was overrated anyway.”