“Will you be brave for me, mellkia?” Dravka asked, his eyespained. “For us?”
“What?” she whispered, staring at Dravka.
“You love me, Val,” he continued. “And I love you. Deeply. Always. I want us to start a new life. Together. On Dumera. Like we always talked about,pax?”
Her heartbeat tripled.
“Yes, I remember,” she said, her eyes going glassy again.
“You want that?”
She swallowed, her throat tight. Her voice was ragged when she said, “More than anything.”
She began to cry, fat tears dripping down her cheeks, her breaths coming quick.
His nostrils flared again and his back straightened. He came to her, wiping the tears away. Gently, he said, “Then tell me one thing,mellkia…”
“Yes?”
“Where is it in your shoulder exactly?”
Ravu cursed this time. Blood started to rush in Valerie’s ears.
“And will you be brave for us?” Dravka went on, his own voice dropping, his tone strained. “This will hurt you, even with a sedative. And I wish to thedemavsthat I could take the pain for you, but I can’t. I do, however, have very steady hands.”
He…
He wanted to cut the tracker out of her?
Valerie’s eyes darted back and forth between his own. Trying to think. Trying to read him.
That was when she felt it.
Hope.
Fuckinghope.
For the first time…
That…they might actually have a chance at this. That she might actually get to be with Dravka, to live beside him, for the rest of their lives.
Valerie had looked into the surgery that would remove the tracker once. Not that she’d ever be able to afford it, given that Madame Allegria had never paid her a single credit…but she’d still looked. She’d stillhopedthat maybe one day, she would be rid of it. She’d hoped that one day she’d leave and never worry again about her aunt finding her.
Back then, she knew it was foolish. She had no credits. Even then, she had nowhere to go, not that she’d ever leave Dravka behind.
She froze with understanding.
So why had she expectedhimto leaveherbehind?
“Dravka,” she whispered, realizing that she’d asked him an impossible and selfish thing.
Well, now she hadsomewhereto go. She had a vessel, fueled and ready. She had credits.
She had Dravka.
And the price to have all of it?
Some pain, fleeting and temporary.
