Chapter 7 Lyra #3
Iathos’s words play over and over in my head—an endless, looping record of the selfsame doubts and fears I’ve harbored for years. Brill won’t let you go. Freedom’s the kind of promise men like Brill sell to girls like me. And stars help me, I keep buying it.
I knew it was only a matter of time before Brill sent me after the Dark Star, but I thought I’d kept my father’s connection to it and pursuit of it well guarded. How would he know what my father only confided in the margins of his journals?
I can’t think about that now. I just have to deal with whatever challenge lies in front of me at the moment. And getting to Minaris—getting Orion safely in front of the Triumvirate there…well, that’s the next challenge.
“So…your friend back there. Iathos.” Orion makes a show of staring at the hologram chart in the cockpit that shows our route to Minaris. He studiously avoids my eyes.
“Tread carefully, Ranger,” I warn.
He rubs a hand over the stubble sprouting on his chiseled jawline. “He mentioned Brill. Should we be worried?”
A bitter chuckle trips from my lips. “I’m always worried about Brill. Whether you have the good sense to be worried about him is up to you and your gods. As to the ‘we’? Well, I guess you can be glad our arrangement has an expiration date.”
The gravity of his frustration pulls his brows and his lips down.
“You know what I mean, Lyra.”
“I’m sure Kraxis has already told Brill we left Xylothia together and I’m sure Brill has figured out we have the idol on us.
He probably thinks we’re trying to sell it, so I’m betting he’ll send someone to Epsilon-6 since he knows I was negotiating with another interested party.
Iathos is a lying, cheating, thieving, selfish fuck but he’s not a lackey like Kraxis.
He’ll only offer Brill information if the price is right or if he’s sufficiently pissed off to want more than a revenge fuck,” I utter darkly.
Orion’s head snaps up at that. “A revenge fuck? You slept with him?”
“Hey, I told you—space can get pretty lonely,” I reply, strangely defensive.
“Was it my finest moment? No. Did it end up costing me more than I ever would have paid for a few hours of pleasure? Big time.” The truth cuts sharper than I mean it to.
I can still see the blue of his skin in the starlight, the curve of his grin right before he walked out with my payday—and my future.
I’d thought he wanted me. Turns out he wanted what I’d stolen.
I don’t tell Orion that part. I don’t tell him that Iathos knew things about my father no one should’ve known—or that maybe that’s why he was really on Amphitreas.
Not for me, but for the Dark Star. If I admit that, I’d have to admit how close I came to trusting him, how stupid that makes me, and how scared I am that Brill knows more than I do.
“Will I do it again? I don’t know. We run in the same circles and we both like to drink until we don’t feel sad, which takes an extraordinary amount of alcohol. As Ada would say, the probability is high.”
“He hurt you,” Orion insists, his temper rising. “But you would let him touch you again?”
I shrug. Because what else can I do? If Iathos is mixed up with Brill or the hunt for the Dark Star, then he’s not just a threat—he’s a lead. And if sleeping with him will get me closer to freedom, well…maybe I’m not done making bad decisions.
“I’m certainly not keen on any drunken booty calls right now, no.
I’m just saying, we all make mistakes. Haven’t you ever sent a late-night message to an ex?
Or had a little too much to drink and screwed someone you shouldn’t?
Oh, who am I kidding, of course you haven’t.
You probably have one true love back on Xylothia and your people probably mate for life and you all have worshipful, sexually fulfilling partnerships that never go stale. ”
“Not exactly, but Xylothian men aren’t often in a habit of bruising their women,” he grits out, his gaze landing on the mark on my arm that’s darkening to a bluish purple.
“And you forget, Lyra, my people aren’t exactly thriving.
We mate for life, but it doesn’t happen often.
Regardless of binding matehood, women are honored and respected. ”
“Of course they are,” I huff, not at all surprised that the honorable ranger comes from such honorable people.
“But I’ll tell you, Xylothians are in the minority there.
I’ve met a lot of different species and genders and I can tell you one thing: it is a cruel quirk of fate for Velusians to have desire and pleasure in their veins like a born addiction, and to end up using sex as currency in the pursuit of power.
Because power always comes with violence. ”
Finally, Orion’s eyes meet mine in the dim light of the cockpit—with only the glittering stars and the vastness of space sprawling before us.
I set our course and engage Ada’s autopilot, and now I need a long shower, something to eat, and to find my comfiest pair of clean sweatpants.
I rise from the captain’s chair and Orion follows the movement.
“Power can come from many places, Lyra,” he said softly. “Too often, violence is an expression of weakness, not strength.”
“Oh, really?” I tease. “So, throwing Iathos into the Amphitrean sea was a show of weakness for you?”
He crosses over to me, his expression serious. Slowly—impossibly slowly—he lifts a hand to the bedraggled updo on top of my head and unpins the clip fastening it together. My long hair falls over my shoulders and he lifts a lock of it, rubbing the silken strands between his fingers.
The small, deliberate motion steals the air from my lungs.
I know why he’s doing it—it’s not dominance or possession.
It’s curiosity. Reverence, maybe. His fingers graze my scalp and my whole body goes still, heat blooming low and fierce.
He smells like gnuberry pie and spices, a trace of saltwater from Amphitreas still clinging to him.
I can feel the warmth of his chest just inches away, the thrum of restrained energy radiating off him like a live current.
He’s too close. I should step back, but… I don’t.
My heart can’t decide if it wants to beat out of my chest or stop beating altogether.
Eyes gone dark, he utters one word that turns my insides topsy-turvy.
“Yes.”