The two men went to the plush chairs across from the couch.
Mustering up her courage, she followed them to the sitting area.
She allowed herself a glance at Valen. Beneath his green tunic she could see he was frail; a mere shell of what he’d once been. Instead of paint-stained fingers, she saw bruises. Instead of eyes alight with curiosity, she saw dark circles that swallowed them whole. He looked as if he wanted to curl into himself the way he had when she and Dex had found him in his cell in Lunamere.
What horrors had he lived through?
“Valen Cortas.” Alfie shuffled over, stopping before Valen to bow deeply. “I am Alfie, personal Artificial Lifeform Intelligence Emissary to General Cyprian Cortas. It is my command to assist your father in returning his son home.”
Valen inclined his head at Alfie. “My deepest apologies that you’re programmed to work for my father.”
Alfie’s unblinking eyes stared at Valen. “I am detecting strong levels of distaste toward...”
“That’ll be enough, Alfie,” Dex interjected. “Why don’t you go check on the ship repairs? Memory could probably use some company.”
At the sound of Memory’s name, Alfie’s posture straightened. “I find my gears are warming at an alarming rate. Excuse me.” He turned, seeming all too eager to spend some time alone with the ruined ship. His footsteps hastened as he left the living quarters. Andi wondered briefly if all AIs could feel emotion like Alfie did, or if it was purely some quirk of his programming.
“Alfie helped stabilize you when we got you out of Lunamere,” Dex said, breaking the silence as he propped his boots up on the table. “Now that he’s gone...how about we have a completely calm, completely adult conversation?”
He raised his dark brows at Andi.
It was an effort to force herself to speak.
Andi knew she didn’t have a choice. Whether she liked it or not, she was the captain of this hellish mission. She’d allowed her pilot to fly her ship to the Olen System. And even if they weren’t on the Marauder, it was still her game to play. Her move to make.
Valen had always been a gentle soul, but things could have changed. He’d been a prisoner to Lunamere, on enemy ground, tortured to the point of death. Now that he was awake, she had to make sure her crew was safe in his presence.
She couldn’t believe she was about to do this. But they had to get him to talk.
She took a deep breath. “Hello, Valen.”
Chapter Fifty-Two
* * *
VALEN
AT THE SOUND of her voice, Valen froze.
Everyone did, as if they were watching the single moment in time before an explosion rocked the world. He could feel more than hear the sound get sucked from the room, and suddenly the silence was more than he could bear.
Her eyes were locked on him. Burning a hole into his skin.
She was just as he remembered...and yet somehow different, all at once, and it wasn’t just the metallic plates that shone from her cheekbones. It was something deeper. Her pale hair was braided back from her face, instead of the loose way she used to wear it. She’d added streaks of purple, a color that somehow brought out her eyes. Her skin was covered in cuts and bruises, but beneath it all, there was still that horrible, destructive beauty she’d always had.
She had been lethal then, and was something entirely more dangerous now.
While everyone else lounged on the plush seats, Androma stood. They all wore colorful, loose clothing, but she remained in a fitted bodysuit, reinforced in places with what looked like hardened armor.
She was the ice to her crew’s warm demeanor.
And she was staring right at him, unafraid.
He stared back.
“Ten seconds,” Dex said suddenly from Valen’s left.
Every head swung to look at the bounty hounter.
“It gives me hope,” Dex said, smiling sideways in a way that Valen took to be his trademark grin, “that Valen may not try to murder Androma as I had previously expected.” He held a hand out to the giantess sitting across from him. “Pay up.”
Andi’s jaw dropped, and she swiveled to glare at the New Vedan. “You made a bet on this, Breck?”
The young woman, who Valen assumed was Breck, looked down at her toes and grinned sheepishly. “Sorry, Andi. You know I can’t resist a good wager.” She reached into her pocket, pulled out a few golden Krevs and slapped them into Dex’s waiting hand.
“I’m beginning to think you two are becoming friends,” Andi said.
Breck’s cheeks reddened.
Dex chuckled as he pocketed his new Krevs.
A moment passed in awkward silence before Dex turned back to Valen.
He guessed it was his turn to be the show now.
“So, my newly freed friend,” Dex said, “it’s time for you to talk. What did they do to you in there?”
“Dex!” Andi hissed. She turned to Valen, her jaw working slightly back and forth. “What Dextro means is...”
“Why are you here?” Valen blurted out.
She paused midsentence, her mouth half open, her gray eyes suddenly wide.
For a strange moment, Valen almost thought she’d turn and run.
But that didn’t seem like the Androma he once knew, a Spectre who’d guarded his sister without fear, and certainly not like the young woman who’d rescued him from Lunamere. He still didn’t know how many guards she and Dex had dispatched in order to set him free or how they’d even made it inside in the first place.
“Your father hired me and my crew,” Andi explained matter-of-factly.
“I know that. Dex told me on the way over here,” Valen said, closing his eyes and shaking his head, still shocked that he’d opened up a line of communication with this...murderess. “What I want to know, Androma, is why you?”
She stared at him.
Her crew stared at them both.
The little girl’s strange creature purred from her lap, the only rescue from the world’s most uncomfortable silence. But Valen refused to break it until Andi answered him.
She owed him this much, even if she had already saved his life.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve seen each other,” Andi finally said. She spoke to him gently, as if he were a child who might burst into an angry fit. It made his insides roil. “Things have changed since then.” She took another deep breath. “I have changed.”
Back when Valen had known her, she hadn’t just been a trained shadow who was meant to protect Kalee and failed. She’d also been a dancer who moved like the music was part of her soul. She’d laughed so hard her voice could be heard throughout the halls of Averia. She’d been alive. Now she was a young woman with scars on her arms and fire burning in her eyes. She looked like she hadn’t stopped running since she’d escaped Arcardius.
“You’re a killer, Andi,” Valen said. He had to say it. For himself. For Kalee. “As far as I can tell, you haven’t changed a bit.”
He expected her to cringe, but she took it like someone who was used to taking hits.