I pounded on the door, my thoughts not yet fully formed around what I might say.
When the door slid open and Skye was standing on the other side, I still didn’t know what I wanted to say or why I’d run there. I only knew that I was furious.
“You’re leaving?” I spat out, the words sharp and accusatory, and not at all how I’d imagined them to sound.
Her eyes narrowed, and she crossed her arms over her chest. “Of course, I’m leaving. Why do you care?”
I didn’t wait for her to invite me inside. I stomped right past her and into the compact room, spinning to face her with my tail slashing. “You didn’t think you should tell me? You didn’t think you owed me that much?”
Her green eyes flashed something dangerous. “Owed you? You think I owe you? You’ve barely spoken to me since we arrived on the warbird. I don’t think I’m the one who owes anything.”
Her words were like body blows, and I recoiled from them. “I haven’t spoken to you because you told me you wanted to forget everything that happened on Kashara. What did you expect me to say when you told me you wanted to pretend we never happened?”
She threw her arms wide. “Oh, I don’t know, but I guess I expected you to say something. Maybe I hoped you’d disagree with me. Maybe I was praying that you’d tell me that my idea was stupid and you didn’t want to pretend it didn’t happen.”
I gaped at her. “You wanted me to tell you that your idea was stupid?”
“I wanted one of us to be brave enough to embrace stupidity,” she screamed. “Everything we did on Kashara was risky and pretty stupid, but suddenly you’re this cold, calculating battle chief. I guess I figured you were so different from the guy I fell for on Kashara that you wouldn’t care.” Her voice splintered. “Because that guy? That guy wouldn’t have let me walk away. He wouldn’t have agreed to forget shit.”
Fury roiled hot inside me, prickling the skin on my chest and arms, but I wasn’t angry at her. I was furious with myself. The Vandar I’d become when I’d returned to the warbird wasn’t the true me. The true me had been the one on Kashara. That was who I was when everything was stripped away. That was me when I wasn’t preoccupied with duty and old prejudices that prevented me from seeing the truth.
“Fine,” I barked. “Your idea was stupid!”
She choked back a startled laugh as she scratched absently at her throat. “What?”
I stepped closer, as her eyes flashed a warning I refused to heed. “You heard me. Your idea is the worst I’ve ever heard. I have no intention of pretending that what happened between us never happened. As a matter of fact, I have no intention of letting you go.”
A muscle ticked in her jaw. “I’d like to see you stop me.”
I closed the remaining distance between us and wrapped one arm around her waist, jerking her flush against me. “You are mine, Skye. You’ve been mine since Kashara, and there’s no point trying to deny it.”
Her breathing was heavy and her pupils were molten as she stared up at me. “You’re just as cocky as you were when we were thrown in that cell together, and even more infuriating if you think you can run my life.”
I shrugged. “You won’t stay here? Fine. Then I’ll give up being battle chief and go live on your forsaken ice planet.”
Her breath caught. “You what? You’d give up being battle chief for me?”
“I would give up everything for you,” I husked, bending low and nipping the soft skin at her throat. Skin that was unnaturally warm. “I told you I have no intention of letting go of you, so if that means going to Lexxona, so be it.”
“I thought…you never…” she stammered, her eyes glassy.
“Every word I said to you on Kashara was the truth, but what I say to you now is from my soul.” I pulled back and locked my eyes on her. “I love you with every fiber of my being,Skye. You consume my waking thoughts. You inhabit my dreams. You are the missing part of myself I never knew I was searching for, but now that I’ve found you, I cannot live without you.”
I tugged the neckline of her shirt down just enough to reveal the dark markings burning into her pale skin. “You are mine.” I then leaned back so she could see the marks expanding across my chest and arms. “And I am forever yours.”
She sucked in a breath, touching her own matching marks and glancing down at them. Then tears rolled down her cheeks as her eyes widened. “We need to get the Raas.”
I tilted my head, confused. “Now?”
She nodded, smiling through her tears. “We need to tell him to change course. I’m not going back to Lexxona. I’m staying right here with you.”
A growl vibrated my chest as I backed her toward the bed. “We can tell him later.”
Chapter
Fifty-Three
Skye
