Immediately, she flipped in his arms, heart pounding, but she tried to keep her hope tamped down.If she finally allowed hope to creep in, only to have it stomped out again, it would ruin her that time.
Cara’s eyes searched his own, but they were so damned unreadable.“What does this mean?”
“I am not taking you to Sarkon,” he told her, lips set in a straight line.
“Like…ever?”
Those lips quirked slightly.“Never.”
Cara sucked in a breath, hardly daring to believe it.
“When…when did you…?” she tried to ask, her thoughts racing a mile a minute.
“Two spans ago, I set an alternate course for Rozun.”
“Two days ago…” she said, trailing off.That was before they had ever been intimate.But it was right after she’d accused him of not being a villain he thought he was.
He’d changed, she remembered.Something about him had changed after that night.Had it been this?Had it been his decision to bring her to Rozun and not to Sarkon?
She’d always been right about him.
He said, although hesitantly, “Luxirian crystals are scarce, Cara.It may take some time to acquire one to take you to the Fourth Quadrant, but I vow to you that I will try to find you passage, so that you may return to the life you were stolen from if you wish.”
Cara expected elation to swarm her at his words.And shedidexperience an intense longing for Earth, for her home, her friends.What she hadn’t expected to feel was a sharp pang of loss at the thought of leaving him.
“But it will take a while,” she said, swallowing past the tightness in her throat.“And I’ll be with you on Rozun until then?”
“Tev, of course.”
Relief made her eyes shut for a brief moment, letting that thought settle deep inside, soothing the uncertainty that still lingered.
“I hardly know what to say,” she confessed, looking at him.
Devix frowned.“You are not upset by this,tev?”
“No,” she said, huffing out a brief laugh, and burrowing her face into his chest, her limbs trembling from the intense emotion coursing through her body.“I’m happy.Relieved.Overwhelmed.”She paused and glanced up at him, saying slowly, “But also a little sad, because I’ve felt trapped for so long that the possibility of freedom literally overwhelms me.And no one should ever feel that way.”
Devix sobered, his brow bone squeezing together tightly, the anguish on his features so apparent to her that it made her chest seize.
“I feel shame for the part I have played, female,” he murmured to her, stroking a hand over her forehead, pushing back a stray strand of hair.“I still have much to atone for with you, but I need you to know how sorry I am for what has happened to you, how I only added to your stress and worry.”
Cara bit her lip, touched by his apology.“I forgive you, Devix.You never lied to me about what this was.I know what was what at stake for you.”His features tightened and another realization made her stomach sink.“What is going to happen?With…Sarkon?”
Devix huffed out a breath.“He may try to find us.”
Cara processed the information, but kept her emotions steady in her breast.“And if he finds us?”
He turned his gaze to her and finally, she could read him.In his eyes, she saw his ferocity, an intensity that stole her breath and made her realize that…he would do anything to keep her safe.A strange realization, but she knew it was true.
“I will allow no harm to come to you,luxiva.Ever,” he rasped.“Believe me in this, if nothing else.”
Cara licked her lips, feeling something stir in her chest.
“I do believe that.”And it was the truth.
* * *
“Hiding your face will draw more attention, female,” Devix assured her, when she offered to wear the same cloak she’d worn when he’d first encountered her.
