"I think," I said, letting my gaze linger just long enough to unnerve her, "that you're far more interesting when you're furious." I tilted my head, "Do you really think I'm sexy?"
"You!" She mumbled something unintelligible that I didn't quite catch before she shoved at my chest. Hard. I didn't move.
"Do you really think I'm going to just—what—accept this?" she demanded. "That I'll follow you because you decided it wasnecessary?"
"No," I admitted. "I think you'll fight me every step of the way."
Her eyes flashed. "You got that right."
I felt the pull tighten, dangerous and intoxicating, the urge to close the distance, to pin her there, press her against thewall, kiss, and silence the fire with force. It took every shred of discipline I had not to give in to it.
This wasn't going anywhere. I knew that. She was too enraged to argue logically right now. There was only one thing for me to do. With a sigh, I picked her up and hoisted her over my shoulder. Her protests echoed down the corridor as she landed blow after blow against me wherever she could reach. She pulled my hair, hit me in the kidney, basically anything she could reach without remorse.
"You're enjoying this!" she accused.
"Immensely," I admitted. I knew it was wrong, but feeling her soft flesh pressed against me did things to me I'd rather not analyze right now. I'm not proud of manhandling her the way I did, but our argument wasn't going anywhere, and I still had a ship I needed to get out into space.
I carried her into the nearest cabin and set her down just long enough to guide her inside, sealing the door with a command pulse that locked it instantly.
"This isn't over," she yelled through the closed door.
"No," I agreed. "It isn't."
I turned away before the pull convinced me to do something irrevocable and irresponsible, like kiss her.
The emperor had told me to leave at first light. I left immediately.
On the Pandraxian bridge, minds bent easily, crews already inclined to obey nudged just enough to smooth the departure. The ship disengaged, and engines hummed as we slipped free of the dock without ceremony.
I had faced the fall of the Khar'eth Veil alone. Walked unseen through the Abyss itself. Dismantled empires from the inside out. None of it compares to this.
Behind a sealed door, Nadine Phillips burned with defiance.
Ahead of me lay Nythor, the Abyss, and truths best left buried.
This was the most dangerous mission of my existence.
Yet all I could think about was conquering Nadine. The most challenging of all of them.
The door sealedbehind him with a sound far too soft for something so final. I stood there, staring at it, half-expecting it to slide open again, like this was all some grotesque misunderstanding that could still be corrected if I just waited long enough.
It didn't.
The cabin was… comfortable. It almost felt like an insult. Clean lines, muted lighting that adjusted to my breathing, surfaces that looked like they'd been designed to soothe rather than restrain. Not a cell. Not a prison. A room. That realization scraped something raw inside me. The Cryons hadn't bothered with comfort. They hadn't pretended. Their ships had been all sharp edges and restraint fields, cold efficiency and the constant, gnawing terror of not knowing what would happen next.
This was worse.
Because it was designed to feel safe.
I crossed the room on unsteady legs and stopped at the window. Outside, the emperor's massive ship dominated the stars for one last heartbeat, then began to recede. Its vast hull slipped away with agonizing slowness, until it was just another shape swallowed by distance, by darkness. By inevitability.
My chest tightened, my breath caught in a way that felt disturbingly familiar at the realization that I was all alone again. Worse. I had felt safe aboard the emperor's ship. Safe! Among aliens. What a joke.
Now I was alone withhim.
The realization hit harder than fear ever could. I'd been kidnapped before. By the Cryons. That had been violence and noise and terror. Detached, dehumanizing. Panic layered on panic, my mind scrambling to catalog threats faster than my body could react.
This, I admitted, was different. This was quiet and controlled. Personal.
