Chapter Fourteen
Jack, with Madelaine directly behind him, did not slow as they followed their escort. They didn’t take one single leisurely step until they could see the Paladin Seeker ahead.
The guide stepped aside the moment his foot landed on the platform, letting the two of them pass by without further conversation, as if he couldn’t wait for them to leave. He was not alone in that.
The landing platform stretched ahead, just as stark and watchful as when they’d arrived. The same figures lingered—unmoving, uninterested.
Or pretending to be.
Madelaine kept her gaze forward, her steps measured. Silent. Still. Even now. Not much longer until she could speak. Until they were beyond the veil and the repressive atmosphere of this dark, foreboding planet.
He couldn’t wait to be free of this oppressive place.
Jack keyed the hatch without breaking stride. It opened with a quiet hiss, the sound somehow louder than it should have been in the open air of this oppressive place.
He stepped aside when he got to the ramp, waiting on the platform to let Madelaine go ahead of him.
She didn’t break her steady stride, marching up the incline without a single misstep.
He followed, slamming his hand on the switch to seal the hatch behind them the second he crossed the threshold into the waiting ship.
They were greeted by the familiar hum of their systems wrapping around them like something alive—something that knew they belonged in here.
Locks engaged. Systems cycled. Still, neither of them spoke.
Madelaine moved to the co-pilot’s seat, lowering herself into it with a slow exhale she didn’t quite let become sound.
The restraint of their journey into the bowels of Malvoraxis Veil had surely sunk deep, likely too deep to shake off instantly, but he wanted her free to talk as soon as possible. He moved quickly to get them in the air and out of what he considered a hellhole.
Jack powered up the ship, movements efficient, controlled—but there was something just beneath it. A tension he hadn’t let show, not yet.
The platform fell away beneath them as the ship lifted slow and steady upward on the same trajectory, only in reverse, as when they’d arrived.
There were no sudden moves or attention drawn to their departure, as far as he could tell. Madelaine kept her hands clasped in her lap and remained silent.
Even when he was certain every instinct told her she could speak, she didn’t.
Not yet.
The sky above Malvoraxis Veil didn’t brighten as they climbed.
It simply thinned out. The weight seemed to lessen. The pressure eased up, but it didn’t disappear entirely. Not until—
“Atmospheric boundary in three,” Jack said quietly. “Two. One.”
The ship broke through.
“And we are free of the cruel world that won’t let you talk or make a sound.” Jack smiled. The stars snapped back into existence. Clear. Sharp. Endless.
And just like that—the silence broke.
Madelaine inhaled sharply.
The sound was small. Hers.
She was likely trying to get as big a breath as she could to start talking in an endless stream. He couldn’t blame her. Not a bit.
Madelaine lifted her arms from her lap and said, “Oh, my Gosh. That was so hard!”
Her voice came out softer than usual, rough around the edges, like it had to remember how to exist after the fear she’d be struck down for making a noise. She inhaled deeply once more and let out a long breath that turned into a quiet, incredulous laugh. “I really, really hated that place.”
Jack huffed out a short breath—half laugh, half release.
“Yeah,” he said. “That makes two of us.”
Madelaine leaned back in her seat, tipping her head toward the ceiling, eyes closing for a second.
“I kept thinking—just one word. Just one slip.” She opened her eyes to glance at him. “One of us, or more likely both of us, would be dead because of their foolish philosophy.”
“I agree. And if we never have to go there again, it will be too soon.” He punched a few buttons on the console and set the autopilot. They didn’t have a destination yet, but it wouldn’t do to just hover out in space near Malvoraxis Veil as if they were dead in the water.
Best to keep moving even if they might have to backtrack later.
He climbed out of his seat as Madelaine lifted herself from the co-pilot’s chair to stand up and move, as if sitting wouldn’t let her express all the pent-up language she needed to expel. He understood completely.
She walked a circle around the small table and two chairs mounted to the floor in the center of her craft for strategic planning as well as meals.
Jack watched, amused at her sudden zest for movement. He felt his expression soften just looking at her practically dance around the table. He couldn’t have been prouder of her for what she’d just accomplished.
“You did amazingly well. You didn’t slip. I’m in awe. I likely wouldn’t have made it off the platform,” he joked.
She shrugged lightly and grinned. “I came close more than once,” she admitted.
“Even so.” His voice was quiet, steady. “You didn’t get us killed.” A beat went by and he added, “And neither did I, which was what I was more worried about during that whole crazy journey.”
Madelaine’s lips curved, just a little. “You also did very well. You were calm, forceful and very effective in your role as authoritative husband, speaking for the little woman who couldn’t.”
“I channeled my inner brother Cam, and pretended they represented a security threat that I had to quash by being forceful, calm and effective.”
She laughed. “Cam? Your super-serious brother?”
“Yep. That’s the one. I work for him.”
“Really? I thought you worked for Axel.”
Jack shook his head. “Nope. Axel is only filling in temporarily because Cam and his wife just had a baby boy.”
“Cam? Mr. Serious is a dad? That’s…unexpected.”
Jack grinned. “When they met, his wife, Ria, the former Alexandria Latham Bourne, was engaged to a Technician’s son against her wishes for an arranged marriage.
Apparently, Cam and Ria fell in love with each other at first sight, at least according to her.
She ditched the rich jerk for Cam, who is incredibly lucky to have her. They truly are perfect for each other.”
He paused and looked at Madelaine, thinking, We are perfect for each other, too.
They stared at each other for a long moment.
Jack moved at the same time she did and before either of them could think it through, they were hugging each other close, staring into each other’s eyes as if the world around them had fallen away in favor of this blissful moment.
He lowered his head and kissed her gently, joy radiating in his chest when she responded in kind, tightening her arms around his neck.
Madelaine abruptly stopped the kiss, even though her lips were buzzing with delight. When he’d said that Cam and his brother’s wife were perfect for each other, she’d thought how she and Jack were perfect for each other.
Madelaine quickly shook that thought right out of her head a nanosecond before Jack hugged her close and kissed her like he meant it.
Still, it didn’t matter if they were a match made in heaven. She didn’t get to keep him. She knew that.
And regardless of his attitude on the annulment she was sure to have to get, per the Paladin Cabal, she would love him until the day she died.
Though the kiss had stopped, Jack didn’t release his secure embrace. “Thank you for trusting me to get us through today, Madelaine. It means a lot to me.”
She looked into his intense gaze. “Of course,” she said. “You wouldn’t be here if I didn’t trust you, Jack. You’re the only man I do trust completely.”
Jack held her gaze.
Something unspoken passed between them—something deeper than the mission, deeper than the danger.
“You did more than that,” he said. “You let them obliterate you as a person. A lesser someone might not have been able to pull that off. You really are quite something.”
Madelaine’s emotions trembled. She did what she had to do. What she’d been trained to do. Don’t be soft. Remember what you had to do to get here. Who you need to protect.
“For the package,” she said, nodding toward the sealed container on the table beside them. “And the mission.”
A pause. Then, softer, “And for you.”
Jack’s jaw tightened, just for a second. Then eased.
“I’m proud of you,” he said.
No hesitation. No deflection. Just the absolute truth.
Madelaine blinked at that.
“Careful,” she said, a hint of a smile tugging at her mouth. “I might start thinking you’re getting sentimental on me.”
“Maybe I am, but it doesn’t make me soft, you know,” he shot back, but there was warmth there. Real warmth.
“Of course not. I would never say that about you.”
Her gaze dropped to the package.
Still untouched.
Still sealed.
“I’m supposed to open that. It likely has information about our next destination.”
“Yeah, ‘our’ next destination.” She smiled when he emphasized the word our. It wasn’t lost on her that she had begun to consider him a partner in his venture. They’d gotten married, for space potatoes’ sake!
She didn’t reach for the package or pull herself out of his comfortable arms. Not right away. Instead, she looked at him.
“I could,” she said slowly, “do it myself. That’s the rule, as you and I both well know.”
“Yep. But it’s your call. I say you get to decide. You’ve definitely earned it.”
Madelaine studied him for another beat. “As I said before, I trust you.”
Jack smiled at her words, but didn’t move to touch the matte black container. He held her loosely in his arms, as if he wasn’t quite ready to let her go. She wasn’t ready, either. Even as the weight of her mission tried to insert itself into her warm, calm, post-kiss moment with…her husband.
“We could open it together,” she suggested.
His eyes flicked to the package and back to her. Searching. “You sure? I would understand if you need to take it to another room and then possibly call the Secret Keeper, depending on what you find inside.”
A giggle escaped. It was not lost on her that she hadn’t smiled, laughed or giggled as much in the past five years as she had in the past few days with Jack.
She nodded.
“Yeah, we should open it together.”
A small smile.
“Besides, you did all the talking. Seems fair you get to at least participate in the opening.”
That earned a quiet huff of amusement from him. “Fair enough.”
As if reluctant to let her go, Jack dropped his arms and reached for the package, picking it up and turning it carefully in his hands.
The symbols flickered faintly across its surface, reacting to the movement.
Madelaine leaned in, watching.
Close enough that her shoulder brushed his, he said, “Let’s sit.”
“Good idea.”
They sat side by side, her leg resting against his beneath the table. She wanted the contact.
He set the package down.
Madelaine blinked. “Wait—aren’t you going to—?”
But he didn’t answer.
Not with words.
His hand came up, gentle, brushing a strand of her hair back from her face. He kissed her once more. Slow. Careful. Real in a way nothing on that terrible planet had been.
The gesture told Madelaine that she wasn’t silent. Wasn’t unseen. Wasn’t erased.
She was his. And he was hers. When they pulled back, it was slow. Reluctant.
“Okay,” she murmured. “Now we can open it.”
Jack let out a quiet laugh. “Yeah,” he said. “Now we can.”