“Fine, fine,” Fiona said, holding up her hands in surrender. “It’s smut. But it’s educational smut! It taught me everything I know about certain subjects.”
This triggered another round of laughter, and I was grateful to no longer be the focus of their attention. But I could feel Ariana’s shrewd gaze on me, studying my face with the kind of intensity that had made her such a gifted pilot. She’d always been able to read me better than anyone else, and I could see in her eyes that she knew my protests about Deklyn were only half the truth.
Time for a strategic subject change.
“Enough about my nonexistent love life,” I said firmly. “I want to hear about how my little sister fell for a fellow pilot. And a Drexian, no less. Dad would have had a stroke.”
The effect was immediate and exactly what I’d hoped for. All attention turned to Ariana, whose face lit up with a radiance that transformed her from beautiful to absolutely luminous.
“Oh, you should see them together,” the dark-haired woman—Jess, I remembered now—said with a dreamy sigh. “It’s disgustingly romantic.”
“Volten’s so serious and stoic,” added Britta. “But around Ariana he just melts. It’s like watching an iceberg discover fire.”
Jess rolled her eyes. “Leave it to the engineer to describe love like a scientific process.”
Britta shrugged. “Attraction is chemical.”
“He’s not an iceberg,” Ariana protested, but she was smiling so hard it looked like it might hurt. “He’s just focused.”
“Right until you walk into a room,” Fiona said. “Then he becomes completely useless. Yesterday I watched him walk into a wall because he was staring at you instead of where he was going.”
The stories came fast and eager then, each woman contributing her own observations about Ariana and Volten’s relationship. How he’d watched her with barely concealed longing before they’d gotten together. How she’d been completely oblivious to his feelings until he’d finally worked up the nerve to say something. How he’d almost messed up everything but they’d finally gotten together after almost dying in the maze. How they’d been inseparable ever since, finishing each other’s sentences and communicating with looks across crowded rooms.
I genuinely enjoyed their tales, charmed by this glimpse into my sister’s happiness. Growing up, our father’s competitive nature and military expectations had pitted us against each other. Everything had been a contest—grades, achievements, who could fly better, who could shoot straighter. We’d been rivals more than sisters, and by the time I’d joined Earth Planetary Defense, we’d barely been speaking.
But listening to these women talk about Ariana with such obvious affection, seeing how she’d found her place among them, I felt something shift inside me. We weren’t children anymore. Our father wasn’t here to poison the well with hisexpectations and comparisons. For the first time in our lives, we had the chance to just be sisters.
“And what about when he tried to teach her those Drexian combat moves?” Jess was saying. “She kept getting distracted by his muscles and?—”
“Okay, okay,” Ariana laughed, holding up her hands in surrender. “That’s enough embarrassing stories for one night.”
“Are you kidding?” I grinned at her obvious discomfort. “I’m just getting started. There are years of big-sister privileges to catch up on.”
The look she gave me then was pure joy, bright and uncomplicated in a way I hadn’t seen from her since we were young. It hit me then just how much I’d missed, how much time we’d lost to stupid pride and family pettiness.
“I’d like that,” she said, and I heard years of hurt and hope wrapped up in those simple words.
“Me too,” I said, meaning it completely.
The conversation flowed around us then, easy and warm, full of laughter and gentle teasing. For the first time since my rescue, I felt something other than anger or determination. I felt peaceful, connected, and like maybe there was more to rebuilding my life than just hunting down the people who’d wronged me.
As Ariana and Fiona took turns sharing stories about the Drexians’ attempts to understand human dating customs, their laughter bright and infectious, I made myself a promise. Whatever happened with my quest for answers, whatever dangers lay ahead, I wouldn’t let revenge consume me. Not at the cost of the relationship Ariana and I were finally building.
Right now, being a sister was more important than anything. And for the first time since I’d left the alien prison cell, I felt like enough.
Chapter
Four
Tivek
The door hissed shut behind Deklyn, his departure leaving the room suddenly quiet. I stood there for a moment, still processing my brother’s blunt questions about the unauthorized rescue mission, before turning back to face Morgan.
She was sitting up in my bed, the gunmetal gray sheet pulled up to her collarbone, her pale hair tousled and catching the light from the artificial sunset streaming through the slit of a window. Her eyes were wide with a mixture of amusement and concern as she watched me standing there in nothing but a towel.
“I’m sorry about my brother,” I said, running a hand through my damp hair. “Deklyn has always been hot-headed. He charges into situations without thinking about subtlety or timing.”
Morgan’s laughter was rich and genuine. “It’s okay. He’s clearly obsessed with Sasha.”
