"I prefer 'deep cover operative,' but yes." He tucked the stone away carefully, treating it with more respect than he'd shown Hewes's corpse. "Hewes was a problem. The Alliance wanted him eliminated, but they couldn't do it officially without causing a diplomatic incident. The politics were too delicate."
He looked at me, then at Merrilee, his expression unreadable.
"Hewes had embedded himself within several royal families across the galaxy. Had leverage on beings who couldn't afford to have their secrets exposed. Princes, ambassadors, military commanders—all of them compromised. If we'd moved against him openly, the fallout would have destabilized half the Alliance."
Persico's eyes went distant, calculating. "So we waited. Watched. Let him think he was winning. And when you two showed up—" He gestured at us with something that might have been respect. "Well it was as good excuse as any to end him."
"You used us," I said, and there was no heat in it. Just recognition.
"I gave you the opportunity to do what you came here to do." His voice hardened slightly. "Don't pretend you didn't want this, Ahrick. Don't pretend you weren't planning to kill him from the moment you set foot in Fange City."
He was right. I had wanted this.
"This way, when news of Hewes death gets out it will be attributed to his former spy and the Vaktaire warrior who had taken her under his protection." Persico appeared pleased. "Case closed."
But something in his tone, in the way he was looking at us, made me uneasy.
"There's more," I said. "Something you're not telling us."
Persico was silent for a long moment, his dark eyes studying us with an intensity that made my skin crawl.
"Hewes was a symptom," he said finally. "Not the disease. He was one player in a much larger game."
The warehouse suddenly felt colder.
"Who?" Merrilee asked.
"We don't know." Persico's admission carried weight. "The Prime needs to know that the threat isn't over. That Hewes was just the beginning."
"Why are you telling us this?" Merrilee asked. Persico paused, something almost like regret crossing his features. "Because I've been doing this for twenty-three years, and I'm tired. Tired of playing the monster. Tired of watching good people die while I maintain my cover. Tired of knowing that no matter how many Hewes I help eliminate, there will always be another one waiting in the shadows."
The admission hung in the air between us, raw and honest.
"Get out of here," he said finally, his voice returning to its usual cold efficiency. "Both of you. There's an Alliance ship en route—they'll be here by morning. Go home. Live your lives. Let someone else fight this war for a while."
I shook my head, the old guilt rising up like bile in my throat. "I'm not leaving Palaydium. I have penance—"
"You have a death wish." He cut me off, his eyes sharp and knowing, seeing too much. "I know why you came here. I know what you've been punishing yourself for. And I'm telling you it's done. Whatever debt you think you owe, you've paid it a thousand times over."
"You don't understand—" My voice came out broken, raw.
"I understand perfectly." His expression softened, just slightly, just enough to show the male beneath the facade. "I've been here a long time. I've seen what guilt does. It eats you alive from the inside out, consumes everything you are until there's nothing left but the guilt itself." He paused, his eyes boring into mine. "You're one of the good ones, Ahrick. I've seen enough bad ones to know the difference. Don't waste that here. Don't let this place have what's left of you."
His gaze dropped to Merrilee, his expression softening almost imperceptibly.
"You have a mate now. A future. Don't throw that away because you're too stubborn to forgive yourself."
The words hit harder than the blaster shot had.
Merrilee's hand found mine, her fingers threading through my blood-slicked ones, holding on tight.
"He's right," she whispered. "Ahrick, please."
Maybe Persico was right. Maybe it was time to stop punishing myself. Time to start living instead of just surviving.
"Okay," I said, the word barely audible. "Okay."
Persico nodded once, satisfied, then turned toward the ship.
