But I couldn’t. Not yet.
The betrayal I felt at my captivity was too deep, too raw. Someone in Earth’s command structure had decided to abandon me, to write me off as an acceptable loss. They’d condemned me to months of torture and interrogation, had left me to rot in an alien prison while they played their political games.
I’d devoted my life to protecting Earth, to serving something greater than myself. And they’d thrown me away like I was nothing.
Swinging my feet over the edge of the bed, I stood carefully, my body protesting the movement. Months of sleeping on stone had left me with aches and stiffness that might never fully go away. My left shoulder sent a sharp spike of pain down my arm that I attempted to massage away.
The attached bathroom was small but functional, all clean lines, more black stone, and modern fixtures that felt impossibly luxurious after my captivity. I turned on the shower without bothering to wait for the water to warm, stepping under the spray as it was still running cold.
The temperature didn’t bother me. After months of bathing with ice-cold water when they’d even bothered to let me bathe at all, tepid water felt warm by comparison. I let it gradually heat as I stood there, my face turned up to the spray, letting it wash away the lingering remnants of the dream and the sweat it had left behind.
As the water grew hotter, pounding against my shoulders and working at the knots of tension that lived there permanently now, I forced myself to focus. Deklyn or his sexy scruff, or theway he’d looked at me in that shipyard like I was something precious and dangerous all at once couldn’t distract me.
I couldn’t even be distracted by Ariana, as much as I wanted to stay here forever and pretend that bonding with my sister was enough to heal the wounds carved into my soul.
It wasn’t enough. Not yet. Not if I were being honest with myself.
I needed to know who had betrayed me. Who had decided my life was expendable. Who had stolen months of my existence and left me to suffer in ways that would probably haunt my dreams for the rest of my life.
More than that, I needed them to pay.
I knew myself well enough to understand that I wouldn’t be able to move forward, wouldn’t be able to build any kind of future, until I had answers. Until justice had been served. The hunger for it burned in my chest like acid, consuming everything else.
The soap I slid from the groove in the shower wall smelled like lavender and something fresh that made me want to weep with relief. Even now, months later, I sometimes caught a whiff of the fetid, reptilian scent of the Kronock guards and had to fight not to gag. Would I ever be able to forget that smell? Or the sound of their claws clicking against stone as they approached my cell?
I scrubbed my skin until it was pink and raw, as if I could wash away the memories along with the grime. The shampoo felt like silk between my fingers, and I worked it through my hair until every strand was coated, until the scent of it overwhelmed everything else.
When I finally turned off the water, my skin was flushed, and the bathroom was thick with steam. But my resolve was clearer than ever.
I needed information. Real intelligence about who had decided to abandon me and why. And there was only one place at the academy where I would be sure to find it.
Admiral Zoran’s office.
The problem was figuring out how to get inside. The admiral’s office was in the most secure section of the academy. I’d need a plan, resources, and probably some inside help.
I’d also need to be very careful. If I were caught breaking into the admiral’s office, no amount of sympathy for my situation would save me from charges.
But as I toweled myself dry and stared at my reflection in the steamed mirror, I felt no hesitation. Only cold, calculating determination.
Whoever had betrayed me was going to learn that writing off Sasha Bowman had been the biggest mistake of their lives.
I just had to figure out how to prove it.
The reflection staring back at me was leaner than it had been before my capture, my cheekbones sharper, my eyes holding shadows that hadn’t been there before. But there was steel there too, forged in the fires of betrayal and pain.
Let them try to stop me. Let them try to hide. I was coming for them.
Chapter
Six
Deklyn
The morning air in the academy corridors carried the lingering scents of breakfast—yeasty bread and the savory aroma of Drexian padwump that could wake the dead. My stomach was pleasantly full for the first time in months, the staff dining room having provided a meal that actually tasted like food instead of the processed rations I’d grown accustomed to during my time on Inferno Force missions.
Tivek walked beside me, his stride matching mine as we navigated the wide stone corridors that connected the various wings of the academy. Sunlight streamed through tall windows, casting geometric patterns on the polished floors.
“So what are your plans?” my brother asked, his tone carefully casual in the way that meant he was fishing for information.
