“Protect me? Fortwo whole weeks?” I rolled my eyes. “What a trial!”
The lieutenant’s furious gaze blasted into me, ink-dark and wholly terrifying.
My uncle’s back stiffened. “I did just erase footage of you wreaking havoc on Korabon,” he quietly thundered. “Do you have any idea how difficult it is to sweep a major security incident on aparoledplanet under the rug without anyone asking questions? I had to pass it off as a surprise training exercise only I knew about—which is incredibly suspicious.”
My heart thumped in surprise and then constricted with sudden unexpected contrition.He’d done that? For me?“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” he grumbled.
An uncomfortable tension crackled between us, hot and prickly and too filled with negative energy for me to let him off the hook like I almost wanted. “What about the eighteen years before now? What about the eight years of my life when you had no idea where I was and didn’t give a shit?”
“Not knowing and not caring are two different things,” Bridgebane said gruffly. “What would searching for you have accomplished other than drawing unwanted attention your way?”
“I don’t know.” I shook my head at him, totally incapable of understanding how he functioned. I used to worship this man. Now, it was as if we were two lines on parallel trajectories. We wouldnevermeet in the middle. “Maybe I wouldn’t have thought you were such a huge bastard?” Sanaa growled. I growled back at her. To my uncle, I snapped, “Maybe you could have gotten me out of prison?”
Things I tried never to think about gripped my throat in a stranglehold I couldn’t breathe around. Fumes in my eyes, inmates crying, the crack of a whip, the dreaded shudder of an explosion. The raw taste of fear on the back of my tongue like stale food and contaminated water. I swallowed.
“Keep your voice down, Tess,” Shade warned. “People are watching.”
I looked to the side. A tour group had stopped just beyond the stand of kimmery trees and was setting up a late-lunch picnic. They slanted us curious glances.
I slipped my arm through Shade’s and smiled at him, his face a little blurry through the hot moisture gathering in my eyes. “You’re right.” I laughed—through clenched teeth. “Let’s pretend everything’s fantastic and that the second most powerful person in the galaxydidn’tleave his niece and only living family to rot in a hard-labor prison mine.”
Shade smiled back at me, handsome as hell despite his beat-up face and the seriousness in the one eye that still opened. “Forty-two percent of the people sent to Hourglass Mile die within the first year there. You’re a survivor. You don’t need him.”
I glanced at Bridgebane. He didn’t say anything. Nothing to excuse or defend himself. No apology for his actions. He’d turned into an emotionless statue again, which I was starting to hate more than anything. He blew hot and cold so much that I didn’t know where the fucking wind was coming from. I only knew that it was likely to slam into me hard enough to cause permanent damage.
“Of course she needs him,” Sanaa Mwende sliced in with authority. She scowled at me. “And your blinders make you no better than a robot. You only see what’s been programmed into you.”
I scowled back at her. “That’s bullshit. You don’t know me.”
“Then stop acting like we’re the enemy.”
“You are the enemy,” I sputtered.
Mwende stepped forward. We were about the same height, close to six feet, but somehow, I felt as though she towered over me. “I’ve half a mind to pin your eyelids open until yousee.”
My brows rose. “As far as threats go, that’s original.”
“You’ll find I’m full of surprises. You’ll get to discover some of them—while I’m your bodyguard.” She glared at my uncle. “I think we’ve stayed here long enough, don’t you, General?”
Bridgebane must have agreed because he ushered us down another pathway in the direction of the cruiser docks closest to the Grand Temple. He obviously wasn’t going to address the I-abandoned-my-niece-in-prison issue. I stomped along the garden road, disgusted. If there wasonething besides him turning all cold on Mom and me at the end that I wanted him to explain, it was how the hell he could have not known I’d been condemned to life in prison. Clearly, it only mattered to me. He must have figured I’d escaped, so who cared now?
“I’m going this way.” Bridgebane stopped by an on/off point to the moving walkway that funneled people into the vegetation-hung Rogo Docks. We were slightly farther away, because money didn’t buy everything. “Sanaa’s with you. If I have something useful, you’ll know in five days.”
Looking impressively awkward about it, he reached out and put his hand on my shoulder. I almost shook him off but then didn’t for some reason. He squeezed.
“Don’t expect a miracle, Qui—Tess,” he corrected. “Starbase 12 is heavily guarded.”
I sucked up all my hostility, confusion, and heartache and said, “I’d be grateful for anything.”
Bridgebane nodded. His whole body abruptly twitched forward, as though he wanted to hug me. I stiffened backward, my eyes widening. He froze, and we stared at each other. He was half my life, six brand-new bags of A1 blood, a chilling threat against Mareeka and Surral, and a bullet in Shade’s leg too late for this kind of affection. Didn’t he know that?
He dropped his hand and turned to Shade, suddenly asking, “How did you two even meet? It seems unlikely.”
“You blew holes in her ship. I’m a mechanic.” Shade shrugged. The rest was obvious.
“Of all the cities on all the planets?” Bridgebane said, incredulous.
