Page 225 of The Space Between Stars

“You work for Limtush, no? You tell me why you send it and what you want with me.”

Thyatira puffed his cheeks and ran a hand through his hair. “That I ever doubted you for even a moment—”

He moved closer, but she stopped him with a prod to the chest. “You manipulate me. Withhold information. Toy with me and I no—”

“You’re so intent on being angry, you haven’t realized how happy I am to see you alive.”

“Alive? You tried to kill me!”

Roskaad raised a finger as though she’d suggested they eat date cakes before dinner. “Everyone else tried to kill you. I ensured it wouldn’t work out in their favor.”

She sucked in a breath and held it. She’d known she was on someone’s—and maybe multiple someones’—list for a long time. Roskaad had a hard-earned reputation to protect. It was possible that underhanded interactions were the only way to help her.

“How close was I…? To…”

Roskaad looked away.

It was as she’d suspected. He was the only thing keeping her and Thedexemore alive any more. Every other precaution, every ploy hidden up her sleeve, had all been for nothing.

“I had no idea how to tell you any of this,” he said, voice low, stepping closer to her again. “And I wasn’t sure you would believe me if I did. So I let you figure it out yourself.”

“Figure out how supremely fucked I am?” she managed through bared teeth.

“No, Atti, they won’t hurt you. Not anymore.”

“What about Limtush? You obviously work for—”

“Limtush is no longer a threat to you.”

His tone was not difficult to translate: Limtush was no longer a threat to anyone—permanently—and Roskaad had made it so. She didn’t know whether to throw herself into his arms or run in the opposite direction. Neither seemed proper, so she clutched at her elbows instead. She couldn't really trust him. Could she?

“You do something to my technology. I know. Make me look like criminal.”

“And I prepared an alibi for you—not that you needed it.”

“I no under—why?”

Through the darkness of the moonlit floor, something broke in Roskaad’s expression, like a chink in otherwise flawless glass. He was holding himself back—like he didn’t want to scare her away. Nothing could have further glued her to the spot. She didn’t want him to hold back. She wanted him to—

“Everything that I am is because of you,” he said.

Not that.

She had thought melodramatic romantic advances beneath him. Her arms crossed. “Really? You are a lot more than a trivial distortion shield which failed to function when you needed it most.”

“Atti… you’ve uncovered Limtush’s crimes but still haven’t caught on? You’ve influenced me for far longer than my involvement with Aetech.”

The air seemed suddenly cold. She hadn’t known him before Aetech. Her eyes darted between his, perfect and earnest, if not a little weary.

“I never expected you to remember me. But I never forgot about you.”

Roskaad Thyatira had written her an encryption in Tera’thian. Because he knew she spoke Tera’thian.

Because he’d spoken it to her before.

She took a step backward again. And another.

“You…”