Page 266 of Reaper Said Mine

Naturally, the first image in my mind is every available fighter tearing away from civilian corridors to retrieve her by force, the dark between systems filled with Reaper engines and my rage given wings.

The thought is immediate.

Violent.

Almost comforting.

Then I look at the map.

Ybessa corridor. Bravax med-route. Guyver shelters. Evacuation barges. Thousands of lives held together by ships I do not have enough of.

Ursa would know. She already knows. That is why she wrote it.

Do not send ships unless I request.

She has built the command into the message because she understands me too well and trusts me enough to warn me against the worst version of my love.

Skahar watches my face change.

“What is it?”

“Ursa is moving through Ceres routing. Her path is compromised.”

Vakka turns sharply. “How compromised?”

“Tracked. Possibly intercepted.”

Krell’s hands freeze above his console. “We can send⁠—”

“No.”

The word tears out of me, but I force it steady. “No ships leave civilian cover without her request.”

Vakka stares at me as if I have spoken a language she does not know.

Skahar does not.

He only watches.

I send a reply with fingers that want to become claws around someone’s throat.

Then be harder to kill than they expect.

It is too little.

It is what I can give without stealing protection from people who cannot survive my panic.

Skahar steps closer. “You chose.”

“I chose nothing.”

“You chose not to spend a corridor full of civilians on your own heart.”

I look at him, fury and terror moving through me together. “Do not make that sound noble.”

“I was going to make it sound painful.”

“It is.”