It takes every ounce of duty and training engrained in me to will myself away from Talie. My mind knows this message brings important news, but my traitorous heart wants a few more minutes under the stars with her.
I clench my jaw. She’s the one who made it clear there can be nothing between us, but the way she looked at me. Touched me.
I slam a mental fist down. My mission is bigger than the distraction of a beautiful girl. The fate of the galaxy is in the encrypted files I carry, and their safe delivery to the High Council is the only thing that matters. I must turn the tide from the toxic direction our galaxy has chosen.
My hands squeeze into fists as I step into a crew trav-tube to the bridge. I focus forward, willing myself not to look back at Talie, but only Delmar joins me. Neither one of us speaks.
Soon the door whooshes open, and I push the clutter of my thoughts aside. I’ll deal with them when I have time—or I’ll let them collect mental dust. Either way, I’ve got a message to decode and a plan to put into motion.
“Captain.” My rigid shoulders and commanding presence must assure the man that I belong on the bridge of a ship.
“You must be the Car-Tai they’re asking about.”
I send a sharp look at Delmar, but he remains impassive. “Yes.”
The trav-tube door opens again, and Talie steps out. I was just with her, and she still takes my breath away in her curve-hugging onesuit the color of deep burgundy ming berries. The dark suit sets off her silver-gray hair and pale complexion. I can’t read her expression.
“Captain.” She inclines her head.
“Miss Zarna.” He acknowledges her as if it’s the most natural thing to see her on the bridge and then turns back to me.
“Here is the message.” He hands me a datapad. “I believe it’s encrypted.”
“Naturally.” I accept the datapad and assess the lines of text. I type in the decryption code.
The message is from my friend, Lieutenant Skye Van-Tai. A warning. He tells me Jas is on his way to find me and that he will soon intercept me on Web13.
Clearly this took its sweet time getting to me, but I read between the lines. Jas was acting alone but, in connection with my direct messages from Lè Fayrin, he’s convinced the king to send other Elites to come after me. I still have a friend in Skye, but he won’t have much opportunity to help from here on out.
“Thank you.” I offer the datapad back.
There’s not much else for me to say here, so I send an awkward look to Delmar and then brace myself to walk past Talie. She’s not going to take my silence easily.
“Well?” she says as I come closer.
“Tube.”
Her brow furrows, but she follows me into the trav-tube, and I direct us to her floor.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting my armor.”
“Because?”
I shake my head. She knows there’s danger coming. What does she expect me to do, wait for it?
“Because I’m leaving, Talie. You get your wish.” I can’t meet her gaze, so I stare straight ahead as decks fly past, my stance a mirror to parade rest with my feet shoulder width apart and hands behind my back. Once a soldier, always a soldier.
“My wish?”
The warmth of her hand on my arm is my undoing, and I look down.
“You wanted me gone.” Her look darkens and, like a drowning man, I toss out a lifeline of humor. “It’s a shame. I was getting used to these sparkly onesuits. Even if they are a little tight.” I squirm for good measure, but she doesn’t shift away.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
“I think you should leave the mind reading to Elixa.”
We slow to a stop. “Hold door,” she commands.
“Talie.”
“You’re just going to leave?” She looks…sad? Incredulous? Angry? Emotions play tug-of-war on her soft features, and I can’t separate them.
“I was never going to stay.” The words feel like the lie they are, bitter on my tongue.
“Stars, Renner.” She lets go and steps back. I immediately miss the warmth of her closeness. “You are so…”
“Devastatingly charming?” I waggle my eyebrows.
“Infuriating.”
I shrug.
“After everything you told me, you’re just going run away? Do you honestly think you can outrun a cohort of soldiers in—” She shakes her head. “Computer, where are we?”
<<We are approximately 6.73459 lightacres from the nearest established colony, 2-9.8 Perchou Settlement on Delanus. At our current speed and course, we will arrive at our destination in approximately—
“That’s enough.” The digital voice stops immediately, and Talie turns. “Where will you go? What will you do? Hide among the stars?”
“I’m skilled at navigating spacecraft. If I can just get a ship...”
“Like the captain will let you take one of his ships.”
She has a point, but I don’t think she realizes I wasn’t going to ask.
“It’s madness. It’s suicide,” she emphasizes. “And then what will become of your information?”
“What would you have me do?” It’s time to pull on the strings of her emotions. I feel like a jerk doing it, but a soldier has to do what he has to do. “Endanger the lives of everyone on this ship? Your friends?” I think back to one of our first conversations and how she threatened me to protect them. “These soldiers will not stop until they have me in custody, no matter what’s in their way.”
“We’ll hide you.”
“Because that has worked so well.”
She spins toward me. While there’s not much space in these tubes, she’s gone as far from me as she can, but now she rushes back, the look in her eyes fiery blue.
“How do you think I’ve managed to exist for so long undetected?”
She has a point. She, of all people, would be a tempting target for bounty hunters and trackers, but she’s managed to stay under the radar.
“I…don’t know.”
“Maxon, Gemma, Freyda, Roper, Sover, Elixa, and Delmar are all part of my protection. Freyda was sent to me from Meloran and Elixa just knew, but Doyua recruited Maxon, Gemma, Roper, and Sover to hide me. Delmar took over from his father, Doyua’s brother, my third year with Phenomena, but his past is rooted in security. We are not without resources.”
I have to admit, I didn’t expect this. I knew that some on the Midway had to know, but to realize it’s only so few, and yet they’ve hidden her so thoroughly is impressive. Still, it’s not enough.
“No. I won’t endanger the Midway.”
“Let us help you.”
“Why would you want to?” The honesty flows now. I can’t stop it from leeching out of my words, my gaze.
“Because,” her smile brightens the tube by several degrees, “when you join the circus, you join a family. Door open.”
The door slides open, and I’m met with a sea of faces. Freyda, Roper, Maxon, Gemma, and even Elixa, though she stands at the back. I’ve never talked with the Teller—to be honest the rumors of her ability to see futures scares me a little—but she’s there nonetheless.
Talie pulls me out into the hall. She doesn’t let go, and the touch feels like an anchor.
“Delmar told us some of what’s going on,” Maxon says. “Called a meeting so we can come up with a plan.”
“I can’t ask you to do this.” I’m not even sure they know what they’re agreeing to.
“We can help.” His cat eyes flash.
I don’t trust him—how can you trust a man who can walk through walls?—but I’m starting to realize the circus may not be what I thought it was. A group of traveling wonders, yes. But a hand-picked team focused on hiding a princess? Also yes.
“You can trust us, Renner.” Gemma holds Maxon’s hand, and I catch sight of a piks scurrying up her arm to hide in her hair.
Emotion, hot and sharp, wraps around my throat. I can’t answer. I cannot doom these good people to pain and death on my behalf.
“Thank you, but I can’t...” I step back from Talie and into the trav-tube. I’ll get my armor another time. “I’ll be gone before they get here.”
The door slides shut, and I descend to the stables while her question rings in my mind. What will happen to the information I must get to the High Council? It’s important—crucial—and if I was the only one at risk, I wouldn’t think twice, but I can’t be responsible for bringing the Drawxian Elite to the Midway. To Talie.
I’ll find another way to deliver it, even if it means hopping ships until I reach a galaxy-wide port.
For now, the solution to the initial problem is simple—take myself out of the equation.