Back to the planet. Back to the shipyard. Back to whatever was waiting.
Kolt moved before I could spiral further. In the cramped darkness he turned, and I heard the soft sound of fabric as he reached into his cloak. He pressed something into my hands, and I didn’t need to see it to know what it was. The weight and grip of the blaster were unmistakable.
“We need to take the ship,” he said.
My pulse didn’t just quicken, it jangled.
“Don’t fire it.” His hands closed over mine, both of them, warm and steady in a way that mine absolutely were not. I was trembling. “Follow my lead. Look like you would not hesitate to shoot.”
I stifled a laugh that threatened to bubble forth. “How do I—what does that look like, exactly?”
Even in the dark, I could sense the slight shift in his expression. Not quite a smile, but close. “Think about the Zagrath and what they’ve done.”
I thought about Imperial soldiers. The ones who’d abducted me. The ones who’d held Gollun Prime and Lexxona and so many other planets under their boot. My jaw tightened.
Hostile, it turned out, would not be a problem.
Kolt turned toward the door.
Then he stopped, turned back, and kissed me.
It wasn’t tentative. It was warm and insistent and entirely unfair, considering where we were. My free hand found the front of his cloak, and I held on to him. For a moment, the siren and the reversing engines and the Imperial soldiers between us and survival seemed very far away.
He pulled back, but his forehead stayed close to mine.
“For luck,” he murmured.
I was left trying to remember how to breathe and whether my legs still functioned properly. Maddeningly, Kolt seemed to have already moved on to our plan.
He eased the door open a crack, put one eye to the gap, and held there. Then a slow nod, and he slipped out fully, a silhouette in the dim corridor, and waved for me to follow.
I held the blaster down at my side, barrel toward the floor, and deliberately angled away from Kolt’s back as I followed him. The corridor was bathed in shadow, emergency lighting strips casting everything in a blue glow.
Then the sirens stopped. The silence was worse. In the sudden quiet, I could hear my heartbeat, the rumbling engines, and two voices carrying from the cockpit.
Kolt glanced back at me. I raised the blaster and gripped it with both hands, which made me look ready and hid my trembling. He turned forward again, and we moved.
I’ve been on Imperial ships before, I reminded myself. More than a few. I’d spent forty minutes hiding inside a Zagrath transport with my cheek pressed against cold metal, waiting for a guard rotation to change. I’d sabotaged fuel lines on two Zagrath fighters while Kaya had flirted with the pilots twenty meters away.
But those ships had been stationary. Those missions had an exit strategy and took place on my home world. This felt different in a way that made my previous experience feel almost quaint.
The voices sharpened as we crept closer to the cockpit.
“It was probably whoever was playing soldier at the east gate. Their job was to refuel the ship, and they failed.”
Kolt slowed for half a step and cast a look back at me. I read it immediately. Lettie’s brother. Eager, guard-uniform-wearing Vern, who had been so thrilled about helping real fugitives escape that he’d apparently forgotten about completing his actual duties. I would have laughed under almost any other circumstances.
“He will be dealt with as soon as we return.”
The voice that answered the pilot sent ice down the back of my neck. My hands tightened on the blaster. It couldn’t be…
Kolt stepped into the cockpit doorway. “Hands up. Both of you. Now.”
I came in behind him, holding my breath. The cockpit was exactly as small as I’d expected, two seats, two sets of controls, a viewport full of sky still showing a view of the planet. The pilot was already lifting his hands, his expression shocked. The other Zagrath was slower.
He turned in his seat, and he was exactly who I’d known he would be.
The Zagrath who’d been there when I’d regained consciousness. The one who told me I could seduce Kolt or be tortured.
