All she knew was rage.
But she was dangerously not herself. The last few days sat like a weight on her chest, making it hard for her to breathe. Her strength and mobility were shit. Her vision blurred randomly, and her head pounded in time with her rapid pulse. Even she could recognize it was futile. “Fuck you,” she snarled before putting as much space as she could create between them.
“That would be one way to warm up,” Kedar said.
She almost bit back, almost let the animalistic need to tear him limb from limb win. Instead, logic prevailed. “How did you find me? How did you know I was here?” It didn’t make sense. Unless he’d been tracking her since she’d touched down on Nevida for a supply fill? No, she hadn’t spent millions of credits making her ship untraceable from even the gods themselves for him to track her so easily. She was missing something.
He lifted her plasma dirk. “All of my weapons are linked to my armor’s system.”
She narrowed her eyes.
“When I made your plasma dirk”—she could feel his gaze run down her body, stopping on its sheath—“I made part of it from the ixom of my battle armor.”
Why hadn’t she known of this? If she hadn’t already felt the full weight of betrayal from him, such a violation of her privacy would have done it. “You wanted to be able to track me? As if I didn’t give you all my time anyway, you needed to know where I was at every second?”
Was that a slight shift of his weight? “Making a weapon from one’s armor is…” He trailed off and shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. I didn’t want to track you. Not then.”
She snorted. “I see. Justafteryou took everything from me. Then why did it take you seven years to find me? Lose your touch?”
“The signal should be trackable anytime and anywhere in the known galaxy. Yet, the first and only time it pinged was six settings ago.”
When she’d taken the cursed blade off her ship for the first time.
“Was it not clear when last we parted that I never wanted to see you again? Or did you fly across the universe to reclaim a gift once given?”
Kedar took a heavy breath, his broad chest expanding. He was larger than she remembered. Or maybe it had just been long enough to forget how much space and oxygen his presence took up. It wassuffocating.
“It is good to see it again,” he said, “but much too small for my grip.” Vessa’s gaze caught on his huge hands briefly. “And while I’ve always enjoyed your venom, l’m not here for that, either.”
“Then what? What do you want from me?” she snapped. By the gods, she was exhausted and freezing and hungry, and if at least one of those weren't fixed in the next few minutes, she was likely to kill them both.
“What I want is for you to warm up, tend your wounds, and eat.”
It felt like she’d just been punched in the face. Her lips parted, so caught off guard that no response came to her for long enough that the bastard was probably smiling beneath his mask. Crossing her arms over herself as she cocked a brow, she finally said, “And how do you suggest I go about that?”
Kedar unclasped his cloak and shrugged it off. It revealed a strip of deep blue flesh at his throat—and how the seven years had done him a service. In his black fight suit, against a wall of ice, he looked almost ethereal. His thick muscles shiftedbeneath the light armor, leaving nothing about his form to the imagination. He’d always been large and powerful, but he was even more menacing now.
Vessa had never expected to see him again. One of the many reasons she never stayed on a planet for too long was to ensure just that. The universe was expansive, and even that wasn’t enough to make her feel at ease. But when she imagined what he must look like now, it wasn’t like this. Guilt should have torn him to shreds, wasted him until he was nothing but bone. Yet he stood before her exactly like the god of war, Kraton, returning to his three brides after his millennia-long battle—somehow stronger, more resolved, unweathered by time.
He crouched down and opened a sleek bag that had been hidden beneath his cloak. She sniffed derisively. “You’re awfully prepared.”
“Here.” He held a bundle of goods out to her.
As her numb fingers wrapped around it, she realized what it was. “How did you get these?”
“From your ship.”
“Impossible. It can’t be boarded without my authorization. Liv would never let you on.”
Kedar had the audacity to rumble out a laugh. “Liv wanted me to tell you not to be late for your mission. She gave an exact date, but I wasn’t paying attention.”
Traitor.
Though, that was the least of her problems. He’d been on her ship. In her space.Touching her things.“Have a good time sniffing all my undergarments, then?”
“I took my favorites to go,” he said dryly.
“Is it secure from anyone else? Or do I need to be concerned about Orcru rummaging through my underthings, too?” she asked, trying to keep her tone neutral as she sat the towel and warming blanket down. When she unfolded the other thermalsuit he’d brought, the tiniest set of underwear fell out. She’d bought it for a job that required her to go to one of the seedier pleasure planets in the galaxy and blend in. The set definitely hadn’t been on top. Images of his gloveless fingers picking up the silky pieces flitted through her mind.
