The overseer let out an exasperated breath. “Nothing for you to worry about, miss. Just hurry along now.”
Andi shrugged and was just turning away when a white, round object caught her eye.
She gasped. “Alfie.”
One of the maids dumped his dismembered head into the waste bin with a sickening thump.
“What happened to him?” Andi asked, surprised to feel a twist in her gut. The AI had been annoying at times, but he’d been loyal to the crew. He’d saved her life on Adhira, and he’d even remembered to bring Havoc for Gilly’s sake.
The maid shook her head sadly as she said, “We’re looking into it. The AI served the general well all these years. It’s likely he got in the way of a cleaning machine, or ran into some of the kitchen droids who didn’t appreciate his cooking tips. Now, if you would excuse us, please,” she said, ushering Andi along.
Andi wasn’t sure if she believed the woman, but the cleanup was nearly done, and she couldn’t do anything to help Alfie now.
As she turned to leave, a small, shiny object on the floor caught her eye. Quickly, Andi reached down and palmed it while the maid wasn’t looking. She didn’t know much about AIs, but the object in her grasp looked like a memory chip.
“What are you going to do with him?” Andi asked casually.
The woman shrugged. “We’ll replace him with another. They’ve developed newer models since he was created.”
The maid turned, clearly done with the conversation.
Like it or not, Alfie had become a part of her crew after what he’d done on Adhira. As she stood to leave, Andi slipped the smooth metal chip into a compartment inside her cuffs.
It could be nothing, a useless memento, but her gut told her something different. She’d look into it later.
She passed several other workers as she walked, all of them averting their gazes as if she were a ghost haunting the halls. One they would rather not bother, for fear that she’d soon come to haunt them personally, too.
She came upon the fork in the hallway that marked the halfway point of Averia.
Left would lead her to the guest wing.
Right would lead her toward the residential quarters.
Her old room was in that direction. She knew the path, could already see it in her mind, the hand-painted portraits from Valen that she’d pass, the smell of Kalee’s perfume wafting from her always-open door.
Something changed in Andi as she stood there.
Go right, her mind whispered. Go and face your own ghosts.
Before she could decide otherwise, Andi turned right and headed down the hall.
Chapter Seventy-Five
* * *
DEX
DEX PRIDED HIMSELF on the fact that he hadn’t lost his ability to become one with the shadows.
He’d been following Andi from afar ever since he’d seen her walking back from the gardens with Valen, both of them silent and looking content.
Dex had to talk to her before it was too late.
He’d almost approached her in the hall, but he’d been distracted by the mess the workers were cleaning up. When he’d discovered it was Alfie, he’d stayed behind to ask his own questions after Andi moved along.
A few minutes later, as he caught back up, he’d just barely seen her turn the corner into the residential wing of the estate, walking confidently as if she knew the route.
This place had once been her home. Of course she knew where she was going. He’d followed her, curious about what she was doing, until she’d stopped before an unlocked wooden door at the end of the hall. Glancing quickly over her shoulder, she’d slipped inside and shut the door behind her.
Dex had spent half the day imagining how this conversation with Andi would go.
There were plenty of potential outcomes, few of them good.
Whether he liked it or not, their time together was coming to an end. He had to talk to her, put his feelings on the line before she soared away from here when the job was done, never to be seen or heard from again.
With a deep breath, Dex opened the door and slipped inside.
The room was massive.
Moonlight danced through two towering windows on the opposite end, casting the rows of shelves in strange shadows. Books filled each shelf, the ancient kind with pages that could be flipped through, containing entire worlds that one could fall into if they weren’t careful enough.
Dex had never been a reader, and he knew Andi wasn’t much of one, either.
But he remembered her saying that Kalee was.
“The general scoured the galaxy for this collection,” Andi said suddenly.
Dex turned. She stood near him in the dark room, softly lit by a beam of moonlight. The sadness in her eyes could almost be felt, like a tangible thing.
“You said Kalee was a reader,” Dex said. He laughed softly. “I didn’t know she was this much of a reader.”
“She loved exploring,” Andi said. “The general loved keeping her close. And so she turned to books for her adventures.”
She turned and walked past the first row of shelves, running her fingertips across the old spines.
Dust swirled into the air at her touch.
“I guess no one’s used this room since...” Andi said.
She stopped talking then and continued to gaze at the books. Dex gazed at her, his mind telling him to talk, his lips choosing silence instead.
“What is it about memories,” Andi said suddenly, walking back toward him, “that gives them the ability to hurt us so badly?”
Dex shook his head. “The past is powerful. I think you and I both know that.”
She finally looked into his eyes. “I’m tired of letting the past control me, Dextro,” she whispered. “Aren’t you?”
“It’s easier said than done,” he said back.
She was standing close to him. Close enough that he could see the scar on her neck from an old sparring accident between the two of them. Close enough that, if he closed his eyes, he could almost imagine her heart was beating as quickly as his was now.
There was a deep, brutal scar on his chest, stretching toward his neck, and it had come from her.
She reached up, slowly, and placed her hand over it.
“I never thought I’d see you again,” she said. “That night, on the moon... And yet somehow, you survived.”
His body felt like melted wax. Useless beneath her touch.
“Andi,” Dex started, but she shook her head.
“Don’t say anything. Not yet.” She swallowed and pulled her hand away. “I’ve never felt so wounded, Dex, as the night you betrayed me.”
He closed his eyes. He felt the pain in her voice as if it were his own.
“I deserved what you did to me. Many times after that night, I wished I had died by your blade.” She wasn’t looking at him anymore. He stepped closer. “Andi.”
She glanced up.
“I’m sorry,” he said. And though he’d already told her back on the Marauder, it felt like he was apologizing for the very first time. “I’m so sorry for betraying you. I’m so sorry for choosing...”
“Dex.”
She touched his chest with both hands now. His heart threatened to burst from within.
“I’m sorry, too,” she said.