Chapter 35 Star-Crossed
Star-Crossed
A man who is good enough to shed his blood for the country is good enough to be given a square deal afterward.
— THEODORE ROOSEVELT
Days passed, and the only updates I received about Lucas were from Zara. Theo had permitted her clearance to treat his wounds, and she was the only one besides himself and his guards allowed entrance to the stockade. She spent half an hour with Lucas every day, but she never had much to report.
“He doesn’t say a lot,” Zara said after the third day. “But his gunshot wound is healing well.”
A sigh of relief escaped me, and I relaxed into our shared bed. “Did you tell him what I said?”
Zara’s mouth tensed, almost as if she was trying not to smile. “He said, Tell her love isn’t an excuse to act like an idiot.”
I rolled my eyes. That was his response to me saying I wouldn’t give up?
Zara perched on the bed beside me. “He’s…”
“A dick?”
“A little irreverent.”
“He wears cynicism like cologne.”
With a smile, she moved toward a pile of medical books I’d been sorting through earlier, straightening them back into a line on the bookshelf.
I watched her for a time, wallowing in the jealousy that she’d just seen and spoken to the man I loved while I wasn’t sure if I’d ever receive that privilege again.
“I’m so scared I’ll lose him,” I whispered.
She paused to look at me. “Don’t give up hope, Sophia. If he truly is anything like the man you’ve described, then the two of you together are a formidable force. You may find a way through this yet.”
I shoved the covers off my legs and stood, pacing the small space.
I was so tired of hiding in this room, but every time I stepped out, I received death glares and catcalls.
Theo had ordered a twenty-four-hour guard at my door, which meant even if Lucas was willing to see me, I’d be unable to sneak out.
I was no longer assigned shifts in the hospital wing.
Dr. Grayson explained it was for my own safety, but really, soldiers didn’t want to be treated by hands that had willingly touched a Blood Colonel.
My only respite was my friends, who continued to visit Zara’s quarters nightly.
Even Isaac eased his discomfort after a few shifts guarding Lucas’s cell.
“What changed your mind?” I asked him quietly while the others chatted about something else.
“I was thinking about what he said to you the other night,” he said, attention focused on Dev. “He’s sacrificing himself for you. When you told us the story, I thought he must have duped you, but…he’s really planning to die to protect you.”
My head fell back to rest against the wall. “He loves me.”
He nodded in agreement. “It’s something I understand. Something I respect.”
I watched his profile, his gaze never straying from Dev, a desperate kind of fear in his eyes.
“It makes him human,” he murmured.
I took his hand, and we spoke nothing more of it.
A few days later, Adam escorted Zara and me to the hospital wing so Dr. Grayson could peel the glue from my back.
“Hello, Sophia,” he said with his usual smile. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine,” I said, but at his skeptical face, I added, “Just nervous.”
He gestured toward the cot.
While I lay face down, Adam stood guard just past the curtain. None of my fellow medics had greeted me, but I hadn’t made eye contact with anyone.
As Dr. Grayson worked, I clutched Zara’s hand—more from fear than pain. Whatever the scars looked like under the glue, that’s how they’d be forever.
I met Zara’s eyes and whispered, “Distract me.”
She forced a smile onto her pretty lips and told an inane story about a patient she’d had long before the war started who gave her one ripe banana every single day because he felt potassium was the key to eternal life.
We then lamented for long minutes about how much we missed fresh fruit while I pretended the burning in my back didn’t exist.
“If the war ever ends, the first thing I’ll do is bake a banana cream pie,” Zara said, and I giggled.
“I’m finished, Sophia,” Dr. Grayson said. “Would you like to see it?”
Butterflies tickled my insides as I stood, and Dr. Grayson led me to a mirror hanging in his office. He gave me a hand mirror. Taking a deep breath, I angled it to see my back.
The lines glowed pink and shiny, thinner than I imagined, but standing out stark against my skin. Miller cut the emblem large enough to be seen from a distance. Crude and uneven, it spoke of pain and hatred.
After several minutes of staring at my back, I let my shirt drop. I forced down the memories crowding my mind. When I looked up, I met the sad gazes of all three. Adam was the first to speak. “One day, I’ll pay for a massive tattoo to cover it, okay?”
I managed a weak smile.
“Sophia!” a voice shouted from the entrance to the hospital wing.
I poked my head outside Dr. Grayson’s office to find Devon hurrying my way.
“What is it?”
“The Prime Delegate is here,” he said, breathless. “They’re interviewing him.”
A fresh shot of adrenaline killed the residual sting in my back, and I darted for the door.
“Wait, Sophia!” Adam called, his heavier steps following me.
My shoes squeaked across the marble, drawing all eyes my way, but I didn’t care. I skidded to the main stairs and pounded down them, only to stop short at the open door to the stockade.
The guard there rolled his eyes at me. “They took Limpdick upstairs an hour ago.”
Adam caught up to me. “You’re supposed to wait for me.”
I ignored him to address the guard. “Did they go to Theo’s office?”
“How the hell am I supposed to know? I’m just glad he’s gone.”
I spun, and Adam hustled with me back up the stairs.
“What are you going to do?” he asked. “You can’t just barge in.”
But that was exactly what I planned to do. We rounded the decorative stairs again and again until we reached the top floor, and I froze at the large guard unit blocking the hallway to Theo’s office.
“Holy shit,” Adam muttered.
I scowled. “Do they really need this many guards? He’s just one man.”
“One man who speaks knife as his native language,” Adam muttered under his breath.
I approached the unfamiliar guards. They stood at attention, fully outfitted with ballistic helmets, tactical vests, and rifles that reminded me of scorpions—black and sharp and deadly.
They looked like the kind of soldiers who had opinions—unfriendly ones—like they didn’t just expect to kill, but wanted to. Something in their eyes recalled unwanted memories of Jack Miller.
“I’m trying to see Harrison,” I said, wishing my voice was stronger.
“No one in or out,” a soldier said. “Prime Delegate’s orders.”
I looked past them to the abandoned hallway, wondering what was happening to Lucas beyond Theo’s closed door.
Adam took my arm. “Come on, Sophia.”
Despite the guards’ menacing presence, I refused to go far. I strode to the opposite hall and paced, shooting far too many glances toward Theo’s door.
“You’re giving me a headache,” Adam said after ten minutes.
“What do you think they’re talking about?”
“The weather.”
I glared at him.
He threw his hands up. “How am I supposed to know?”
“You know everything.”
He sighed and lowered his voice. “I think Williams will want to bleed him dry of information. If he’s smart, he’ll bargain his life for anything he has.”
Alarmed, I shot my gaze to Theo’s door again. Lucas wouldn’t bargain for his life, but he would bargain for mine. He’d give them everything if he could guarantee my safety, including a glamorized execution for the Defiance.
He’d waste his only shot protecting me.
As I fought the powerful urge to charge through the wall of soldiers to reach him, Theo’s door cracked. My heart stuttered, and I craned my neck to see. It looked as if someone was speaking to the guard just outside. Then it closed again, and my spirits sank.
The guard marched down the hall. The line of soldiers parted to let him through, and he stopped not five feet from where I stood. He met my gaze, face expressionless. “Reeves. General wants to see you.”
I snuck a glance at Adam. His mouth had turned down into a rare, worried frown, but he tried to screw it into a smile for me. “See? Your patience paid off. I’ll wait right here, okay?”
Swallowing against a desert-dry throat, I followed the guard to Theo’s office. I’d been there dozens of times, but this was the first time I’d faced such existential dread.
What would I find on the other side of that door?
The guard let me in, then shut the door behind me. Three pairs of eyes landed on me. The only ones I cared about looked away just as quickly. Lucas sat in the chair before Theo’s desk, his hands cuffed behind his back. The bruise beneath his eye had faded to a morbid rainbow of pink and green.
It was the first time I’d really seen him in more than a week, and my heart went haywire. I tripped toward him, pulled by his magnet, and set gentle hands against his jaw so he’d be forced to look at me.
“I’m so mad at you,” I said.
His ocean eyes darted back and forth between my own. “You’re just mad I’m the first person who has battled your stubbornness and won.”
“Miss Reeves,” came a smooth feminine voice. “Please have a seat.”
I obeyed at once, meeting Nia Williams’ dark gaze with what I hoped was at least a measure of deference. Sitting at Theo’s desk, she looked from me to Lucas and back. Seated behind her was Theo, his gaze downcast.
“This is interesting,” she said.
Lucas’s voice took a sharp edge. “Is it?”
Williams flashed her dazzling white teeth. “I thought the rumors would be exaggerated. Seems I was wrong.”
Theo shifted in his seat, declining to grace any of us with his attention.
“Miss Reeves, we were just discussing Colonel Scott’s future with us.”
I chanced a quick look at Lucas. His mouth was set in a hard line.
“Does that mean he has a future with us?” I asked.
Williams tilted her head back and forth. “It depends.”
“On what?”
“Many things,” she said, “but we have some items to discuss.”