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  Trenton strode in, shooting us both a look as he did. “Yuck. Throw out that food. How did you let her eat that?”

  Kellan shrugged. “I’m an asshole.” He held up his hand before he winked at me. “Sorry, language.”

  He was so doing that on purpose. Someone as smart as Kellan could easily adjust to not using curse words. This was amusing to him. “Here’s a hint. I don’t care if you swear or not. Go ahead and do it. Doesn’t offend me.”

  His smile widened. “And she cuts off the game before it even starts.”

  Trenton rehydrated something, leaning on the counter. “You two look cozy.”

  Kellan jumped to his feet. “I have to go figure out what’s wrong with the alarm that didn’t go off. Thanks for the talk, Sienna. I’ll look forward to continuing it later.”

  He squeezed my shoulder as he passed, the sensation making me want to lean into him and never let go. Wow. One kiss, and I was ready to melt at his feet.

  Trenton walked over as Kellan left, setting some new food in front of me. It smelled much better. Some kind of pasta dish. He had one for himself, too, and sat across from me in Kellan’s original chair.

  “That was the most pleasant I’ve ever seen him. You’re like a miracle worker.”

  I shook my head. I had to get out of the kissing fog. “He’s perfectly nice. A little rough around the edges, I guess.”

  “To say the least. So you knew those people? The ones who were on the ship. They talked about you like you were a religious figure.”

  Well…we were going right for that. “I explained it to Wade. Some of the things I can do involve sensing emotion and helping to make people feel better. It makes them want to be with me. On my planet, the role is held with some significance. I suppose religion might be the word.”

  He stopped chewing. “For real?”

  “For real.” I let the smell of the pasta relight my appetite and took a long bite. “I’m sorry about your wife, about what happened.”

  He nodded, not looking up at me. “Thanks. It makes me…very intense when I encounter them.” Finally, Trenton lifted his gaze. “But don’t do anything about that or whatever with your abilities. I don’t want to feel better. I’m not sure how I’d get through the day without feeling really angry and hating what’s left of the Sandler Cartel.”

  I held up my hands. “I’d never do anything anyone didn’t want. And right now, I don’t want to do it at all. You can keep your hate. It’s yours. I promise.”

  This seemed to satisfy him. “Hey, am I crazy, or was there something going on in here with you and him when I got here?”

  Kissing was a private thing. That was what Kellan had said to me. He didn’t want to talk about it with others, even if nearly all of the rest of the ship could hear it happen. “I don’t know if you’re crazy or not. That’s the kind of thing you’d have to talk to Wade about.”

  Trenton’s smile shocked me. It was big, huge, and unexpected. “You shock me every so often. I’ll decide you’re sweet and kind, then you zap Kellan. I ask you a question you don’t want to answer, and you coat the words ‘fuck off’ in kinder rhetoric. I like you, Sienna. The ship is much more alive with you on it. So glad Wade figured out things well enough to wake you up.”

  I liked him, too. Trenton did speak his mind.

  “Kellan said you’re rich. I’ve been speculating on money. What I’m going to do to earn my passage home, how I’m going to support myself. What did you do to earn your credits?”

  He finished eating and wiped his mouth with a napkin on the table. It brought my attention to his lips. What would Trenton kiss like? Would it be like Kellan? I needed to stop. One kiss, and I was suddenly a kissing monster.

  Or something.

  “I didn’t do anything. Well, that’s not true. I’ve worked as a pilot for years. I used to fly for Earth. In their military. But my family is old Earth money. They were rich for an incredibly long time. I mean since before the bombs. I don’t even know in what anymore. Medicines. Or something to start. Then they sold weaponry after the bombs. We’re not as rich as some. Most of the people we’re going to see have a lot more money than me. I have enough to fund what these guys need, coupled with Wade, who is richer than me. We take care of things around here.”

  That was so interesting. “I’ve never given any thought to money. Feels really foolish now.”

  “Women don’t generally have to. The truth is that most women, even when they’re pseudo-religious figures, marry very wealthy men. They take care of it. I know it didn’t used to be that way, and I think that things may be changing. If you hadn’t had your abilities, I think you’d probably not been thinking about money then either.”

  I finished my pasta. “Truthfully, where I’m from, it’s not about money. It’s about resources. Women get married to farmers with big stockpiles or shopkeepers. No one as far out in the Dark Planets as we were had any money.”

  “Interesting.”

  His tablet beeped loudly. Corbin’s voice came over the speaker. “Trenton, it’s Evander.”

  “Oh shit.” He winced. “Sorry. We’re in the middle of nowhere space. This is the worst-case scenario to run into them. Strap in, your holiness, we have to go fly like the devil is chasing us.”

  I didn’t have time to hate that nickname. Where did he want me to strap in? I didn’t ask him because he ran from the room. Twice now, I’d seen Trenton run, and the last time had been a big problem, too. If Trenton was running, we all should be running.

  I didn’t belong in the command room. I couldn’t even use the light switches. The best thing I could do was stay out of the way. And yet…I wanted to see this Evander ship that chased me. Could I do that somewhere where I wouldn’t be a problem?

  I ran for sickbay. Wade pulled out all sorts of things, talking to himself. “Corbin is going to burn his arm again.”

  “Really?” He jumped when I spoke, obviously not having had any idea I was there. I winced. “Sorry. I’ll wear a bell around my neck or something.”

  He shook his head. “Or I could pay attention. It’s me, not you.”

  “Can I see the ship from here? The one chasing me?”

  Wade scratched his head. “Absolutely, you can. Sure. Hold on.” He grabbed his tablet. “We should get you one of these when next we can.”

  He fiddled with his, and I stared down at the picture. Sure enough, a sleek, silver ship rushed past us. Something red seemed to pour out of it, and our shift shot to the side, hard. Wade grabbed me, pulling me to him just in time to hold onto the med machine together.

  “What was that?” I was too confused to be as anxious as I was sure I should be.

  “Trenton saving our asses. They’re firing. He’s really good at this. That’s why they let him fly. Otherwise, I assure you, one of the others would be doing it. For a Super Soldier to say that someone is better than them at something, they have to be really, really good.”

  I think he was trying to be reassuring. “Well, I’m hardly in a position to judge. I’m very grateful to all of you and…”

  He interrupted me. “Strap in. Over here.” He pointed to some chairs he’d pulled down from the wall. I managed to get there without falling over and strapped in as he instructed.

  Wade didn’t strap himself in, instead, going back to pulling out his equipment. “Why are you safe running around, and I’m locked in?”

  He smiled. “Because I’m me and you’re you. I’m always going to want to take care of you, Sienna. I can promise you that.”

  That might have been the sweetest thing anyone had ever said to me. These men, who had kept me alive and were continuing to do so, came across so rough…until they didn’t.

  The lights flickered, and Wade sighed. “Something just blew up.”

  “How do you know?” I looked around. I hadn’t heard anything.

  He grimaced. “Experience.”

  9 What’s Next

  Strapped to the chair while Wade rushed collecting supplies around t
he room gave me too much time to think about things. Way too much time. “Wade…that ship is much bigger than ours.”

  He looked over his shoulder. “It’s not about the size of the ship.” His smile surprised me. What was he grinning about like he’d just made a joke? “It’s really about what you can do with the ship. They don’t have Trenton. They’ve yet to really get us. Don’t worry. They push this old lady of ours to the brink, but she never lets us down.”

  I leaned back. With no control over anything and not really understanding how any of this worked, I had nothing to do but sit with my anxiety. It sucked. I rubbed my eyes. When I was little, I used to worry about everything. Particularly because I was responsible for making people feel better. It felt very dishonest that I was supposed to do that when I couldn’t help but feel so completely lost to everything myself. Over the years, I learned to control the anxiousness.

  Right at that second, I wasn’t doing such a great job.

  With nothing else to do, I had to talk. Otherwise, I might implode from thinking about that huge ship that was out there, trying to fire at us in order to board and take me. “I…I guess you got more than you bargained for when you took me on. Couldn’t have known that Evander was coming. Now they’re your problem.”

  He stopped what he was doing and walked over to me, sitting down, just in time as it turned out, because the ship jerked in the other direction. He would probably have fallen over. Instead, he leaned back like nothing was happening.

  “I got to become your doctor in the middle of a battle on Earth. I took over your patient care. Although I’d been watching you before that, too. So I knew Evander wanted you.” He winced. “It wasn’t my first time with Evander either.”

  I looked at his handsome profile. Wade was beautiful, and I wished I could do something about the dark circles under his eyes. Strangely, I wished I had the right to reach out and touch his face, smoothing that wounded looking skin with my fingertips. I didn’t, and I wouldn’t. But for just a second, I wished I could.

  “How were you involved with them?”

  He scrunched up his face. “After my parents died, I was left in charge of my much younger brother and sister. I’d just finished Med School early. Things were going crazy in the world. I decided after a few years that we had to pick a side in the upcoming war. And it wasn’t going to be Sandler or Evander. I’d seen atrocities. Things I couldn’t fathom. I quit my job, and we were heading for this place we call The Farm. I wanted to help. There were kids there. I thought it would be okay. Evander stopped our ship. They were looking for me.”

  Wow. I leaned forward. “Why?”

  “There was a very high up person at Evander who they called Dr. Death. He wanted to find a way into the group. Infiltrate without being caught. They are very careful there with background checks. Anyone can get in and out with ships, but they don’t have access to the main areas, they’re not privy to conversations with the people in charge. He wanted in, and he knew that wasn’t going to happen on his own.”

  I still didn’t understand. “What did he do?”

  “He traded places with me. Kidnapped me and put me on a dark planet to mine for a while. Threatened my brother and sister. Then, arrived at the Farm as me. He pulled it off. My little siblings—Madison and Travis—were threatened to say nothing. If they didn’t want me to die, they had to stay quiet. Madi was thirteen, Travis was twelve. It was awful. Eventually, he got caught. Stopped. Waverly went through hell because of him.”

  There was that name again. Would I ever meet her? Would I like her? Would she not like me?

  “The group there rescued me. Came and found me, brought me home. I was finally where I’d wanted to be. But not the man I’d been when I left. Wrecked. You’ve gotten to meet what is left after that.”

  Since I hadn’t seen his brother and sister, they were obviously not here. Unless he kept them locked away. “Where are Madi and Travis?”

  “They live at a boarding school on Venus. I sent them there during the war. It’s better they’re not with me. Madi is almost eighteen. She’ll graduate soon, and then…I guess we’ll have to talk about what she’ll do then.”

  He sounded so sad that I had to reach out and take his hand. He stared at it for a second, but then squeezed it back. I found my voice. “Would you be with them if you weren’t running around saving a complete stranger?”

  “No. I’m not good for them. I think the best thing is for them to be where they are, safe, and away from me.”

  I hadn’t expected that answer. “Why aren’t you good for them?”

  “They got hurt because of me. Lived with that madman because of me. I decided we had to go and join the fight. Probably if I’d just stayed where we were, it would have sucked, but it wouldn’t have been that.”

  Wade… I couldn’t help it. I had to reach out to his mind.

  His smile was warm, like a greeting. “I love when you do that.”

  “Have you asked them what they want? I mean…do they blame you? Are they scared around you?”

  He shook his head. “I’m pretty bad with kids.”

  “Are they still kids?”

  His tablet pinged, and he looked down at it. “Blaze is dragging Kellan in. He’s hurt. Must be bad if he’s coming at all. They all hate the med machine.” The ship was relatively steady right now. I unhooked myself. Kellan was hurt? We’d just been together.

  I swung around just in time to see Blaze holding up Kellan as he strode fast into the med bay. “The stupid bomb unit blew up again.”

  Kellan shook his head. “I’m fine.”

  He was absolutely not fine. His leg…from the knee down. No, I looked away. I wasn’t a doctor, not great with blood. The thing to do was to get the heck out of the way. I backed into the wall, knocking a vial over when I did so. I hoped it wasn’t important.

  Seeing me, Kellan grinned. “Hey, there’s Sienna. She’s so pretty.” His voice slurred, and Wade nodded.

  “Into the machine, Blaze.”

  “I really don’t want to go in,” Kellan spoke to Blaze. “I bet if Sienna kissed me, I would feel better.”

  Wade snorted, and Blaze shook his head. “I’ve never seen him like this.”

  “Did he take a blow to the head?” Wade examined Kellan, who was now muttering to himself in the machine.

  Blaze stared intently at the scene in front of him. “No idea. I wasn’t watching.”

  Wade shined some kind of light into Kellan’s eyes, who winced. “Yep. He did.”

  I had to be brave. I’d been kissing the man maybe half an hour ago, and now he was very injured. I forced myself to walk over. “You’re going to be fine.”

  “Hate this thing,” Kellan murmured, barely audible. “But I really liked kissing you earlier.”

  I had to be so red then, I could light up the night sky. “Me, too. Feel better soon.”

  How he smiled at me I wasn’t sure, but that was what he did just as Wade shut the machine. He shot me a look I couldn’t decipher before he placed a strong hand on my back. The machine started to buzz. With his hand still firmly placed, he looked at Blaze. “Are we done? Or are we still being fired on?”

  “We lost them. I don’t know how he pulls this shit off, but he did.” Blaze shook his head, and I couldn’t help noticing he stared where Wade’s hand rested on my back. Was I doing something wrong?

  He dropped his gaze just as everyone else piled into the room. Anders first, followed by Trenton, and then Corbin. They all spoke at once. The general question seemed to be whether or not Kellan was okay.

  Blaze held up his hand. “Let’s let Wade talk.”

  “Thanks.” Wade sighed. “He isn’t currently, but he will be. The machine is going to have to do a lot of work. The bone was compromised. He’s clearly hit his head. Rambling on about stuff. And for a Super Soldier to show any symptoms means it’s bad. But he got in the machine. He didn’t fight it—”

  Anders interrupted him. “Another sign that it’s bad.”
<
br />   “Correct.” Wade nodded. “And he’s going to be fine. That machine has handled worse cases than that.”

  I let my gaze travel from the group, to the med machine, and then finally to the cryogenic chamber in the corner. My illnesses—I hated the plural—were so bad, that machine couldn’t even heal me. Thank goodness it could fix Kellan.

  Wade still hadn’t moved his hand. I liked how steady it felt, how warm. Blaze’s gaze was back on it. Was I missing something here?

  “Why were you guys messing with the equipment in the middle of a battle? If I’d needed those bombs, we’d have been fucked,” Trenton hollered at Anders, then he winced. “Sorry, Sienna.”

  I waved my hand. “Feel free to curse with impunity.”

  Corbin laughed, throwing his head back and then stopping abruptly, staring at the rest of us. “What? That was a funny way to put it.”

  Anders pointed at Trenton. “He was trying to fix it so if you needed it, then it might actually work. I don’t know why the bomb systems on Artemis have been messed with so much that they are so weird, but we have to figure it out, or we could find ourselves without them.”

  Trenton pounded the wall. “Sometimes, things are so broken they can’t be fixed, ever. Maybe it is. I don’t need those bombs. Not when I’m running and not firing. We can’t bomb Evander. They will win every time. They’re stronger than we are.”

  “For now.” All of Corbin’s joy was gone, and in its place was a serious lethality I hadn’t seen before but recognized in an instant, maybe in some leftover anthropological way that meant I could recognize a predator when I encountered it. Not that he was going to threaten me.

  He finally finished his thought. “But they have no backup. Evander is mostly on the other side of the galaxy. Whoever is on that ship, whichever soldiers they have piloting, chasing us, still going after Sienna, that’s just who’s left. Even if they got her, and they won’t, they have nowhere to go with her. No way to take her back through that black hole and bring her home to that side of the galaxy. They should just give up. They don’t. Fine. We keep doing this. But eventually, they’ll need supplies, they’ll need repair. They’ll need something, and their modern, flawless ship will break. Then they’re not stronger than Artemis. Then we have the advantage because this ship survives. I don’t know how or what has happened on her. But I know that. What’s more, is that so do you. That’s why you fly it the way you do. You know she can do it.”