“There’s that.” He eased closer. “But the true purpose of Zephra Viya, the heart of the market, is for lovers.”
“Trystan…” She didn’t like where this was going. “Don’t.”
“You made me a promise, Delaney.”
“Back when the Rex approved, and I had no other choice.” Finally she realized that she’d been touching him, and pulled back, straightening some in her seat. The renewed distance did nothing to help clear her head, however, and she could tell by the clenching of his jaw that she’d annoyed him. “Admit it: Things are different now.”
“Not that.”
“Everything is,” she insisted.
He paused, canted his head. “Including us?”
“Of course.” Hadn’t she just said that? “Your father never really approved of you marrying a human anyway, and Tilda—”
“That isn’t what I mean,” he cut her off, and she wasn’t sure he’d even been listening to her anyway. “We’ve been different since the cave. I can’t be the only who’s noticed. I’m not the only one. The Ander—”
This time she stopped him. “I don’t want to talk about Ruckus with you.”
“Because you know I’m right.” He waved a hand at her throat. “You just returned from the most romantic location Vakar has to offer, your boyfriend is just downstairs, and yet you’re here. With me.”
“I’m giving him space to grieve his dead friend,” she said. “But yeah, he is my boyfriend.”
“Aren’t you lucky, then? You have a boyfriend and a betrothed.” Trystan grunted, pulling away and returning his attention to the console. His fingers moved across it, undoing the autopilot feature as swiftly as he’d set it. Once he’d taken hold of the controls again, he glanced her way, catching her gaze.
“Last I checked, Delaney, only one of those is a person you promise to spend the rest of your life with.”
CHAPTER 11
Ruckus hadn’t meant to stumble upon her; he’d just wanted a moment alone with his friend before they reached the palace. But Sanzie was in the lower-level cargo hold when he got there, standing directly between two tables that held what he assumed to be Pettus’s and Olena’s bodies.
Pausing in the doorway, he debated whether or not to turn back. He’d already tried to talk to her, and she’d made it clear she wasn’t interested. While he still wanted to settle things between them, if only for history’s sake, now probably wasn’t the best time to get into it.
“Are you going to stand there all day, Ander?” Sanzie called, forcing him out of his contemplation. As soon as he entered the room, she pointed at the body closest to the door. “This is Pettus.”
Pettus and Olena were wrapped securely in body bags, and strapped down on the tables. He moved to Pettus’s side but didn’t open the bag. He’d gotten a good enough look when they’d found him outside in Inkwell, not far from where Olena had fallen.
“You and he aren’t that different, you know?” Sanzie said a moment later. At his frown, she continued. “You and the Zane, and I’m not just referring to the fact that you’re in love with the same woman. He cares about his people, too. Actually, probably more than you do. He’s not a bad person.”
Ruckus shook his head. “You want to do this now?”
“I don’t want to do anything,” she stated. “I was merely making conversation.”
“Liar.” He took an angry step forward before thinking better of it, glad the table was between them, at least. Calming himself, he stilled, inhaling slowly. Once he’d settled some, he said, “You hate me, I get it. It makes sense, considering what you believe happened—”
“I know what happened,” she growled.
“No.” He forced himself to ease his tone, to not give in to the urge to yell at her. “You don’t.”
“You left me there!” Apparently she didn’t feel the need to do the same. She even went so far as to slap a hand down on the table.
“That’s not what happened,” he disagreed. “I went looking.”
“And broke protocol?” She snorted. “Don’t lie to me. You wouldn’t have done anything to risk your position, and the big promotion it was going to lead to. You left me there. To die. If it weren’t for the Zane, I would have.”
“Sanzie.” He held her gaze pointedly, hoping after all this time she’d still be able to read the truth in his eyes. “I came looking. I broke off from the rest of the squad, but I didn’t stand a chance of finding you alone. I tried, but there was too much ground to cover, and by the time I even caught sight of your ship, it’d been too long.”
He could picture it now, the smoke billowing up from the hull, the way it’d been tipped and half-buried already in deep snow. Remembered thinking there was no way she’d survived the crash, and the feeling of hopelessness and loss that had swept through him when he had.
“I was at risk of dying out there, too. If Fawna hadn’t found me when she had, I probably would have. I was too frozen to say anything to her, so she didn’t know to look for you. It happened so quickly, and I passed out as soon as she had me in the ship.”
“I didn’t hear from you for weeks,” she reminded him, but he caught the inkling of uncertainty in her eyes.
This was something they should have talked about six years ago, but she’d never given him the chance. He’d tried, on multiple occasions. Once she’d joined the Kint army, it’d been nearly impossible to get in touch with her, especially without one of them getting caught. He hadn’t wanted to risk the Zane finding out and accusing her of being a spy. Then the war ended and he’d tried again, only to be refused communication.
“It took me eight days to recover,” he admitted.
“I never heard anything about that.”
“Fawna helped me cover it up. She knew if my commanding officer found out what I’d been up to, that I’d gone on an independent rescue mission against orders, I’d be cut. She staged the whole thing, told him we were on a secret job. As soon as I’d healed and come to, explained to her what had happened, she’d already gotten word that you’d made it out alive. And that you’d defected and joined the enemy.
“That’s how she became my pilot. How we became a team. Neither of us meant to hurt you, Sanzie. Her, especially. You’ve got to know that. Every time you refused one of her calls, or sent back her communications unopened, you wounded her.”
The two of them had been best friends practically their entire lives, even before Ruckus had met them and joined in on their friendship. Before he and Sanzie had become something more, however brief it’d been.
“I thought you’d betrayed me,” she said.
“We both tried to explain.” He took a breath, allowed some of his own hurt to slip through. “You’re the one who wouldn’t listen. You left us.”
For a moment he thought she was going to let it go, that they’d slip back into the icy silence. The next thing he knew, she was standing at his side.
“Do you have any proof?” she asked, the twinge of continued accusation there clearly forced.
“Why would I lie?”
“To get me to turn on the Zane, perhaps?”
He waited until she met his gaze. “You know me better than that.”
She hesitated. “Do I?”
“Yes.”
“We weren’t together long,” she said, “but you meant a lot to me, and I’ve spent years believing I didn’t mean as much to you.”
“You did.” He rested a hand on her shoulder before he could think better.
She fiddled with the zipper of her uniform, lost in thought for a moment. “This can’t change things for me.”
“I understand.”
“Do you?”
“Yes,” he said. “You’re a Sworn, and a Kint. You admire and respect the Zane. I didn’t tell you any of this to try to get you to return to Vakar. I’ve wanted to tell you the truth for years, and now I have. What you do with it, that’s up to you. But I understand, Sanzie. I’ve always understood.”
“We�
��re about to land,” Delaney’s cool voice sounded from the doorway, shocking them both. It was pretty clear by the closed-off expression on her face that she’d been there long enough to overhear.
Guiltily, Ruckus dropped his hand from Sanzie and opened his mouth to explain, but Delaney stopped him.
“Trystan is waiting for you in the cockpit, Sanzie.”
The plan was that the Zane and his Sworn would exit the ship first, and if Tilda was alone with only a handful of Tellers, then he’d lead them on board and insist she enter the room in which they were currently standing—alone. That was when they’d tell her the truth.
Sanzie kept her head ducked, bowing slightly to Delaney as she passed. Once she was out in the hall, she turned and quickly glanced at Ruckus before disappearing out of sight.
“That’s funny. I could have sworn we just had a conversation about being honest. Why didn’t you just tell me that you two dated?” Delaney asked. “That you were on the team she thought abandoned her all those years ago? She told me about that. It’s half the reason she’s Kint now.”
“I didn’t—”
“I heard.” Even though she’d come to inform him it was time to get ready, she made no moves, remaining still across the room, staring him down.
The last thing he’d intended was to hurt her, especially when the goal had been to ease the tension between him and Sanzie, not form a wedge between him and someone else—especially Delaney, of all people. He could have told her before, but the timing had never felt right, and she’d had enough going on already.
“I was going to say something once we’d figured out what to do about the Rex,” he said. “My past relationship didn’t seem important, in comparison.”
“It is to me. Especially when I find you two touching in a secluded room.”
“I had my hand on her shoulder,” he pointed out, unable to help the slight bite to his words. “Last I checked that was a lot more appropriate than holding hands or hugging. What’s more, I don’t do those things with someone else when I think you aren’t looking.”
She bristled, but he saw her pale slightly, despite her defensive posture. “I’ve never kept anything from you. Trystan—”
“Is in love with you!” She flinched at his outburst, but he was too distracted to contain himself. “Yeah, he told me. The real question is, why didn’t you? See? I’m not the only one keeping things to myself after all. At least what I had with Sanzie is in the past.”
“There’s nothing going on between Trystan and me,” she told him, her voice dropping.
“I want to believe you.”
“So believe me.” Almost as soon as she said the words, she tilted her head, and he gave a humorless chuckle. She was clearly receiving a communication through her fitting, and seeing as how he wasn’t the one sending it.…
“Trystan says we’re landing now,” she confirmed.
He sighed, suddenly exhausted with this whole situation. All he wanted was to get on a ship and head back home, to Earth. To their cruddy apartment with her hilarious best friend and their room with the lock on the door. He’d taken his denzeration to be with Delaney, and he loved her, but he’d also developed a fondness for her home world. There, he didn’t have to worry about organizing Tellers, or putting a spoiled royal family first.
He didn’t want to be an Ander anymore, he realized with a start. He just wanted to be Ruckus Wux. Boyfriend of Delaney Grace.
Ruckus turned, prepared to tell her as much, but at that very moment they felt the ship slow and lower. There was still so much to say, about Trystan and about Sanzie, but he bit his tongue and silently motioned toward the other side of the room. They’d decided earlier they’d wait here, out of sight.
Delaney opened her mouth, but must have thought better of it. Then she settled more comfortably across from the door to wait in silence.
* * *
DESPITE WHAT HAD happened between Trystan and his father, Kint still held control over Vakar. Therefore, there was no real reason for Tilda not to simply board at Trystan’s insistence.
That was the hope, in any case.
Delaney tried not to look at Ruckus as the two of them waited, keeping a slight distance from the tables housing Olena’s and Pettus’s bodies. They’d only been there for about five minutes before they heard someone approach. She needed to stay on task, focus on what was most important here. Ruckus and Sanzie having once dated several years prior was not it.
Though, she couldn’t help but feel a tad bit betrayed—again—by it all. First she finds out he kept information about the Uprising from her, and now this? She understood the need to keep a secret, and logically, sure, she could see how their past relationship might not have seemed very important to him.
Except what she’d just walked in on had been intimate, much more than just a basic apology.
The Basilissa’s voice reached them first. “What is it exactly you need to show me, Zane?”
“You’ll see,” came Trystan’s steady reply, a moment before his frame came into view.
Tilda and two Tellers, both Vakar, accompanied him, and Delaney frowned. The plan had been to get Tilda here alone so no one else would know about her or Ruckus. On the one hand, she understood why the Basilissa would refuse to go anywhere alone with the Zane, would insist on bringing protection of some sort, but … Delaney couldn’t help but feel suspicious. And for good reason.
Because she was watching so closely, she noticed the moment the Tellers shifted their armed wrists.
“Trystan!” Delaney shouted in warning before she’d fully processed what was going on.
Trusting her, the Zane leaped to the side, spinning around to face the small group. Doing so allowed him to just avoid being shot with the Teller’s fritz.
She and Ruckus were so distracted watching the Zane, neither of them noticed the other Teller raising his weapon.
Ruckus didn’t have enough time to evade, taking the hit and slamming back against the wall. A flash of blue flickered over his body, and he momentarily convulsed before stilling.
“It’s a stun round,” Trystan quickly assured Delaney, at her side in a matter of seconds, stopping her from dropping down to touch the Ander. “He’s just unconscious. He’s all right, Delaney. He’s fine.”
“For now,” Tilda said, drawing their attention back her way. At either side, the two Vakar Tellers still had their fritzes aimed on them, but neither attempted to fire again. She was staring at Delaney with wide eyes, then seemed to notice the two body bags. “I was told you would be in one of those.”
Trystan stiffened at her side, and then practically growled through their fittings, “My father.”
They should have expected the Rex to blow it and alert Tilda of Delaney’s “death” before his son could make it to Vakar. They’d stupidly believed he was really going to allow them to tell the Basilissa in person.
“She refused to board unless she could bring Vakar guards with her,” Trystan stated. “I should have realized something was amiss, but I saw no other way than to allow it.”
They’d needed her on the ship. How was he supposed to guess she was onto them already?
“I’m sorry,” Delaney said to Tilda, hoping to convey how truthful she was being with the tone of her voice. Now that this meeting was finally happening, things were escalating much more quickly than she’d hoped. Even knowing he was okay, she was struggling against the urge to check on Ruckus, forcing all of her focus onto the Basilissa.
“Open it.” Tilda flicked a wrist toward the body bag closest to them. Then, when neither of them immediately leaped into action, she motioned for the Tellers to take a threatening step closer. “Open it!”
“Let us explain what happened,” Delaney urged, though she walked toward the bag as she did. “This is the Rex’s fault. All of it. You know that. Olena tried to kill me on the Rex’s order.”
“Don’t say her name,” she snapped, already focused on the bag before Delaney had even reached for the zipp
er.
Olena’s body was exposed bit by bit. Delaney tried not to prolong it, opening the bag as quickly as she could while avoiding coming off disrespectful. The Lissa’s face was pale, her lips a slightly off shade. She did not look like she was taking a long nap. She looked dead. There was no mistaking it.
Seeing her again caused Delaney to shiver, memories of standing out there in the snow, of thinking she was going to die, flooding through her mind against her will. Her eyes trailed over to the other table, where Pettus was, and her heart clenched as bile rose up the back of her throat. No part of her wanted to mourn Olena; she’d gotten what she deserved. But if they wanted to gain Tilda’s alliance, they couldn’t exactly show distaste for her deceased daughter.
A strangled sound slipped past the Basilissa’s lips then, and Delaney looked up just in time to see her point a finger toward the Zane, a clear order for the Tellers.
Without even realizing what she was doing, Delaney activated her own fritz and stepped back, blocking Trystan with her smaller form. Even when the two Tellers at the door set their weapons on her, Delaney didn’t waver, keeping hers aimed directly at the Basilissa’s heart.
“Get out of the way, Miss Grace,” Tilda practically growled, the tears flowing freely now. “Or I will let them shoot you.”
“They do that and I take you out with me.”
Tilda’s eyes widened a fraction. “You’re defending him now? I entered this ship with the full intention of avenging my heirs. If you’re to be believed, his father is the reason my daughter is lying there on a table. Move so that I can take from him what he has so callously stolen from me.”
“We need Trystan.” She felt the Zane shifting behind her, and stepped farther back so she could press herself to his front in silent warning. If he moved, she’d just move with him. He didn’t have to say anything for her to know he wasn’t liking the fact that she’d put herself in front of him like this.
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