Domasc was found guilty.
He was sentenced to ten years in prison for conspiring with Tatiana Zander and passing on classified information. They released him from his function as chief general, effective immediately. His wife had even publicly distanced herself from his activities, announcing an impending divorce.
We had tried to get him convicted for being complicit in attempted murder, but there hadn’t been enough evidence to prove he knew about any of Tatiana’s actual plans for me.
Domasc’s career was officially in the gutter, and it had been long overdue. Ever since the wall had fallen at 3B, and he had sent no help our way… He had been making his own bed. And now he had to lie in it.
After the sentencing, and my injuries healing to where I was completely self-sufficient again, my father returned home. He had to pick up Benji and get back to his own life. And I was ready for mine to return to normal. Whatever normal was, nowadays.
I looked at myself in the mirror. With only a towel wrapped around my body and my hair semi-dried, I looked years younger, but felt stronger than ever.
My fingers trailed the thin silver scars on my face. They suited me.
I took a little oil from a jar and ran my hands through my curls. But before I could start styling my hair, my pager went off, and I reluctantly put it back down on the sink and walked into the living room.
“Yes?” I answered my main line.
“Raven,” Jordan said, and my heart skipped a beat.
“Jordan,” I replied, my voice not as affected as I was.
“I was thinking,” he drawled, “since we’re both invited to the Jameson-Zaregova household...”
I bit my lip. “Yes. Pick me up at six.”
His chuckle made the butterflies in my chest fidget. “Mission base?”
“Yes, General.”
“Lieutenant General,” he corrected.
I rolled my eyes. “See you soon, Jordan.”
“See you soon, Renée.”
* * *
I could hear Jordan coming from a distance. His metallic grey sports car was allowed past the sentry at the mission base, and the soldiers standing watch whistled after him.
Jordan sat in the front, his lips curving as he spotted me. His smile and dimples had always been infectious, so naturally, my lips joined in.
He stopped in front of the curb where I was waiting.
“Looks good, Locke,” someone shouted from an open window a few floors above us from the giant building. Jordan got out, put two fingers to his eyebrow and extended it to the person in a mock salute.
“Yes,” I said. “Looks good, Locke.”
Because holy hell, he looked fucking edible. He wore dark gray dress pants paired with a white shirt, the top buttons undone—his staple look. His ash blonde hair was unruly, and a pair of green-glassed tortoise sunglasses lounged on his perfectly straight nose.
Jordan stalked closer and grabbed my hand, which he held high in the air. He took off his sunglasses and looked me down from head to toe. “Damn it, Raven,” he muttered softly. “You look stunning.”
I had to admit that I had done my absolute best to look like this. I had chosen a black satin dress with a waterfall collar, which ended just above my knees—and revealed my newly brace-less legs. All healed.
Our dynamic had changed now, and our relationship progressed to… whatever we now were. Together. We were invited over for dinner at Hunter and Nikolai’s, but it also felt like our first proper date.
“You too, Brigadier General Renée!” someone else called out from the same window. A girl I recognized from the infantry winked at me.
Jordan looked up, dimples still visible. “Sorry to disappoint. I don’t share.”
My heart fluttered at his words.
Then Jordan put his hand—gods, his hand—on my back and opened the car for me. I oversexualized everything about him. Is this what happened when I pined after a guy and hadn’t slept with one in a while?
“Wait, I’m not driving?” I pouted.
“Another time, perhaps,” he said, looking down at my legs as he put his sunglasses back on. “When you're not wearing those heels.”
“Those heels can come off.”
He cleared his throat and looked at me as I sat down. “Oh, I know. They will. Tonight,” he said, closing the door.
Walking around the car, he hopped into the driver’s seat and started the engine. The motor’s loud growl sounded like a beast, and I couldn’t help but feel a little euphoric as we raced through the city.
Jordan started speeding on the highway in the middle of nowhere, and I threw up my hands, whooping from the top of my lungs. Jordan laughed at the road in front of us, his face accentuated by the fabricated orange light of the sunrise.
After some time, we finally arrived at the big white house.
We walked up to the front door, which was already unlocked, and entered the house. Nobody would be crazy enough to enter the Zaregova-Jameson household without an invitation, anyway.
Jordan walked beside me into the kitchen, where our hosts were preparing dinner.
“Raven! Jordan!” Hunter exclaimed, beaming, as she walked over and hugged both of us. Nikolai had a pan in his hand, so he just welcomed us from there. He wasn’t a big hugger.
Hunter guided us to the dinner table and we sat down. “Wine?”
“Yes, please,” I said, and Jordan, in front of me, nodded at the same time.
She walked back into the kitchen, filling two glasses. Jordan winked at me.
The dining space was ample, open, and white. The spacious room looked out onto the land, stretching far and wide, barely visible in the fading light. It was breathtaking.
I trailed a finger over the wooden table as I felt Jordan’s leg against mine.
“What did you think about Domasc’s sentencing?” Hunter asked me, handing us the glasses. She sat down across from Jordan.
I tapped my nails against the wineglass and swirled it around in my hands. “I guess he had it coming.”
“He did,” Hunter agreed. “But you don’t think he should have gotten longer?”
“Because he was an ‘accomplice’ in my attempted murder?” My fingers made quotation marks in the air.
Hunter nodded as Nikolai walked to the table with some bread and spreads. He sat down next to Hunter and poured a glass of wine of his own.
“I don’t think he knew she wanted to kill me. But I guess it wouldn’t have mattered to him if he had known.”
None of my friends had talked about me being a princess or the fact that my mother had died from a mutation. I don’t know whether they wanted to give me space to make sense of it on my own or if they were genuinely unsure of how to tackle the subject. I didn’t even know if I was ready to talk about it yet.
Jordan was the exception, though. He had been with me through it all.
I caught Jordan’s eyes over the table and smiled at him. They were assessing me, inquiring to see whether I was okay. I smiled to show him I was, and everywhere his eyes went, I felt a phantom caress.
His gaze turned hungry.
Just like mine, I imagined.
“Okay!” Hunter announced, breaking the spell.
Jordan cleared his throat as Hunter glanced nervously at Nikolai and then at me. “We invited you here because we wanted to tell you something.”
Next to me, Jordan shifted in his seat. “You brought us here to tell us something?” He looked at me, brows raised, and I chuckled.
“Yes, Jordan,” she answered impatiently. “Are you going to repeat everything I say, or will you shut up now?”
He raised his brows at me again. I smiled from him to Hunter and inclined my head, telling her she could continue. With a breath of impatience, she locked her hands together on the table in front of her.
“Tell them, Hunt,” Nikolai said to her, all patience, and draped an arm over the back of her chair, his fingers caressing her bare shoulder.
She looked at us with a certain glint in her eye. “We’re pregnant,” she said, a grin blossoming on her face.
My mouth popped open. For a second, I just sat there, staring at my friend. Even Jordan was too dumbfounded to speak.
“Earth to Raven and Jordan,” she said, waving a hand in front of our faces.
“For real?” I gasped.
When she nodded, I quickly stood, my eyes wide with feigned realization. “No way!”
“Yes way!” she answered, and I immediately walked over to her.
“Wait a minute,” Jordan said, hands raised as if he could freeze the situation. “You’re pregnant?” It was clearly not what he had been expecting.
I all but jumped her as I hugged her tightly and said into her hair, “I’m so happy for you!”
Nikolai chuckled as Jordan finally stood and opened his arms to hug him. “You’re going to be a dad, Zaregova?”
“It appears so,” he said proudly, accepting the hug, which meant he had to be thrilled.
I let go of Hunter and walked over to Nikolai. He gave me a little smile, his eyes lined with glee from more than just the news that they were expecting a baby. I winked at him before hugging him, too. “Congrats, Nik.”
“Thanks.”
I squeezed his arms before letting go of him.
Hunter let her hands travel over her stomach, pulling the skirt of her dress taut—revealing an already growing bump. Nikolai rested his eyes on her protectively. He looked at her like she was a goddess carrying his heart.
I imagined it wasn’t far from the truth.
We all sat down again, and I couldn’t help but grin at the couple. They were going to do so well.
Hunter glanced between Jordan and me. “And because Nik and I both have no siblings of our own, we want to ask both of you to be their uncle and aunt.”
“You mean only uncle and aunt,” Jordan commented.
“Well,” Hunter said. “I haven’t told Kelian yet, but he has made so many baby jokes already that I believe he will stake a claim, too.”
“We will become the favorites,” I said. “We will bribe him or her with toys and candy.”
Jordan smiled. “I’m sure Sev will also be thrilled at having another child in the house.”
We all smiled. Basking in happiness for a moment. And then—
“Nikolai was so pissed that I had gone to the Sewers with you,” Hunter said.
My eyes widened in shock. “Gods, Hunter. You knew you were pregnant?”
Nikolai inhaled deeply. “We found out a few days before.”
“Hunter!” I almost yelled. “Why the hell would you go to the Sewers when you knew you were pregnant? Are you out of your godsdamned mind?”
Hunter rolled her eyes. “You sound just like Nikolai.”
My eyes met Nikolai’s, and I knew I reflected his desperation in them.
“There are some really fucked up people there, Hunt,” Jordan murmured.
“I can handle my own, thank you very much,” Hunter chirped. “Besides, I was with all of you.”
“On another note,” Nikolai said, clearly not wanting to think about it for a moment longer. “I’ll be running for chief general.”
“Holy shit, Zaregova,” Jordan replied. “Thank the gods.”
He’d told me how much he hoped Nik would go for the chief general position on the way over.
Were they going to announce they would go for world domination next? That was a lot for one night. I looked from Hunter to him as I processed all the good news. “You’re sure? That’ll probably be a lot.” It was exhausting even thinking about it.
Hunter nodded. “We’ve talked about it extensively, and we think we can make it work.”
“We know,” Nikolai corrected, conviction lacing the words.
“Well,” I said. “That is amazing news. And if you ever need a babysitter, know you can always knock on my door.”
“Our door,” Jordan agreed, and the blood rushed to my face. I bit my cheeks as he caught my eyes.
“That means a lot,” Hunter said, and I had to force myself to look away from him. I smiled at her, and she winked.
* * *
The dinner they had prepared had been delicious. Every time Nikolai cooked, I fell more in love with his food. I had to get better excuses for coming over; my niece or nephew being a very good one once he or she was born.
As Jordan and I stepped into the car, silence filled the air. Neither of us spoke for a long time, both of us not knowing what to say and not daring to speak our minds as he started the engine and drove off.
“So, children?” I joked, breaking the silence.
Jordan chuckled. “They sure as hell make people do crazy shit.”
Then he dropped a hand from the steering wheel to grab my bare knee.
The lights of the city showed up in the distance, Barak’s skyline cutting through the darkness. It was a beautiful city compared to Damruin—my birthplace. Even before its fall, it hadn’t been a city like this. And somehow, I just knew I would have found my way to Barak regardless of what would have happened.
I belonged here.
Jordan pulled his hand back and drove into the city, taking a couple of turns, passing familiar streets, buildings, and places, until—
“Where are we going?” I asked Jordan as he took a different turn than I had expected, driving away from the main base.
His hand moved over his steering wheel, knuckles flexing beneath his skin. “My place.”
I swallowed, nerves clogging my throat, and my heart increased its rhythm. His place? As in his apartment? As in, we were going to spend the night there? Together?
His stormy blue eyes caught mine as he glanced at me sideways, and I smiled at him.
“Is that okay?” he asked me.
I bit my cheek as I nodded and whispered, “It is.”