He sighs, slumping down on the bed. It isn’t like him. He’s normally so graceful, even the way his shoulders relax feels strange. “When Lamia first brought you on as a pilot, I was so curious about you,” he says. “I think, if you hadn’t been under her control, I would’ve fallen for you a long time ago.”
“I’m a lot more forward with women,” I say.
He laughs. “Yes, I gathered that,”he says, then sighs again. “Kye, I know I can’t make you forgive Fiona. I know that she’s been…we’ve both been rash, and worse than that, frequently wrong. All my life, I have been educated in the ways of ameliorating losses and making impossible decisions. You…”
“Grew up poor?” I offer when he trails off, like he’s not sure what to say. “For me, the most important thing has always been to protect my family. When I was growing up, that was my mom and my little brother. Now it’s the two of you, but I just…”
“Say it,” Nereus says. “Whatever it is you’ve been needing to say for this long, it’s time. Don’t keep it to yourself anymore. I’m here, I’m listening.”
I sigh, trying to blink away the tears in my eyes. I didn’t expect to cry. Being stone cold sober while talking about this is way harder than I expected. “I don’t feel like she wants to protect me,” I say. “I love her, okay? I love her so much, and I feel like she would put everything above me.”
The admission seems to break something in him, because his expression crumbles as he looks at me.
“Fiona would do anything to keep you safe,” he says. “She would trade thousands of lives to make sure you’re never enslaved again.”
I laugh, a little bitterly. “Is that a good thing?” I ask.
“Fiona wants to be there for you,” he says. “We both want to be there for you. We just can’t do it in the way that you expected, Kye. And I’m sorry, since I know this must be difficult. I can see it in your eyes whenever you look at her—truly, also when you look at me. I will nevernotbe prince of Homeworld, no matter where we are. Fiona will nevernotbe queen.”
I blink.I hadn’t thought of it that way before.
“But you,” he says. “You can be so much more than our pilot. You can be the missing piece that brings us all together. We can give you everything—you just have to understand that it won’t look how you always thought, and that has to be okay.”
“That’s a lot to put on my shoulders.”
He smirks. “I know,” he says. “Try being royalty.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
TALN
If it weren’t for my training as a warrior—and of course, Orion’s cautionary glance up toward the tree line—I wouldn’t have ever noticed the creature looming over us. It clicks steadily, but that doesn’t give me any indication as to if it sees us or not.
I can only hope that it doesn’t.
“Is this the kind of thing we were looking for?” I murmur to Orion, my eyes darting to his. He’s staring up at the creature, cool and calculated.
“In a manner of speaking,” he says. “We may need to move the Wrath.”
I gawk at him. “It’s not a tiny little stealth ship like the Spectre. We can’t justmoveit.”
“Hush,” he says. “Do you hear that?”
I follow his line of sight upward, above the tree line and the creature concealed amongst the leaves. Something is shimmering behind the clouds, bolting across the sky like a shooting star.
“That’s a stealth ship,” Orion mutters.
“Gods above,” I curse. “Do you think it’s Xanthos?”
“Of course I do,” he says.
He doesn’t look remotely disturbed. I wish I had that level of calm, but my heart is already pounding. Iusedto be more composed. Now I’ve got a bad leg and a family to protect.
“I presume you have a plan?” I ask. “And that it doesn’t require running.”
“I didn’t ask you to come because I think you’re a fast runner, I asked because you know how to keep a level head and because your priorities are in the right place,” Orion says. He holds up his hand, his eyes sliding shut for a moment, then regards me coolly.
“I’d like to tell you a story,” he says.