“I don’t know what to do.” My voice is barely audible.
He puts a hand over mine. “Then let me help.”
I meet his eyes, and for the first time in days, I feel something close to solid.
But fear still chews at the back of my skull.
Because all it takes is one slip.
One glitch.
One mistake.
And I loseeverything.
CHAPTER 6
VAEL
The file’s wrong.
I know it the second I read it.
Medical history scrubbed clean, deployment records like swissed rations — all holes and no meat.
They left the shape of her, sure, but not the truth.
And the Alliance thinks I won’t notice?
They must think the damage scrambled me worse than I let on.
I scroll through the logs again, jaw clenched. Every timestamp’s too neat. Every commendation reads like it was lifted from a recruitment brochure. There’s no dirt. No blood. No mention of Luria.
And yet…
She’shere.
Rooted.
The staff move around her like moons to a planet — familiar, constant, deferential. She walks these halls like they’re home.
And you don’t get that from a four-year posting.
You get that frombuildingsomething.
Or hiding in it.
I slam the datapad against my thigh. Pain flares where synthetic meets skin.
Good.
Keeps me sharp.
The damn rehab unit’s colder than usual. Or maybe it’s just me. Either way, I’m on edge by the time she walks in.
Rynn.
In that slate-gray medcoat with her hair pulled back too tight, like it might hold her together.
