Deus growls under his breath. “Like that was going to make up for all I’d lost.”
“We tried to do what was right and you tried to kill us!”
Deus growls and shrugs.
“With a spoon.”
He wrinkles his nose. “You’d have preferred a knife?”
“I’d have preferred you not roaming our sectors attacking everything you could, even your own reflection.”
Deus wrinkles his nose and sniffs. “I was not myself.”
I dip my head but don’t break eye contact.
“I cannot condone what Darax did. If you were my flesh and blood, it would not have been so.”
“I know about your brother,” Deus says. “He was a good warrior.”
“I would not have left him behind, but I am glad he did not suffer the same fate as us.” This time I close my eyes and send a silent thanks to my ancestors.
Drekkan might not have liked missing the fleet. In fact he would have hated it, the grumpy nevver, but to have condemned him to our fate would have been worse.
When I open my eyes again, Deus is still there. Without a spoon.
I should be grateful for small mercies.
“The Nostenii have three camps,” he says rapidly. “But they keep their prisoners separate in order to avoid any cross-contamination.”
“Dyana is their leader, of all the camps?”
“She is, and she is not to be underestimated. She was my chief science officer and about to be promoted to my second,” Deus says with a grimace. “She would have had her own command within the nova-year before we ended up here.”
“A warrior worthy of my respect.” I nod.
“She would have been if the situation here didn’t send her down the same path as me.” Deus taps the side of his head.
Nev it all to the ancestors. I thought I saw something familiar in her eyes. It was the madness Deus had, and still has on occasion. And she has my Gillian.
“She lost her daughter to the sickness,” Deus says. “She never recovered.”
“We all had losses.” I fix Deus with a look. “But we persevered.”
“Some of us had losses. Some carried on. No one is immune from how they react.”
I bare my teeth. “If she hurts my mate, she will not be immune from how I react,” I snarl. “No one touches her.”
“Good thing I’ve found you again, then, Dalox,” Dyana booms from behind Deus. “And the traitor, Deus.” She laughs. “Now I have two males.”
“Give me my mate,” I growl at her.
“I made it perfectly clear earlier.” Dyana puts her hand on her hip as she levels the pulsar disruptor at my head. “Do as I say and your mate will be injury free. Cross me and she will not be so lucky.”
“What about him?” I jerk my head at Deus who is staring at the females as if he’s never seen them before. “What hold do you have over him?”
Dyana looks Deus up and down and lifts her lip in a sneer.
“Guilt,” she says. “Deus will do anything I say because he knows what he did,” she snarls. “And now you will all pay for it.”
