Page 31 of Rebels Rising

Xander’s face darkened as I recounted the harrowing details, his hands balling into fists at his sides. When I got to the part where Artemis and the guys ended up trapped inside with us, his eyes blazed with fury.

‘You’re leaving something out,’ he accused, his voice quiet but slicing through the space between us like the sharpest of blades despite his gentle tone. ‘Between the time they came to rescue you and the battle outside the facility.’

‘A few things happened, Xan,’ I hedged. ‘But those aren’t my stories to tell.’

‘Bullshit,’ he spat, and I held myself still to stop from flinching. I knew his anger wasn’t directed at me. ‘You were forced to witness it. Whatever happened, you were a part of it, too. Itisyour story to tell, Addy.’

I sighed, the breath leaving my lips on a slow, shaky exhale. ‘It’s really not.’ He opened his mouth to protest but I raised a hand to cut him off. ‘Yes, I witnessed it. That couldn’t be avoided. But it didn’t happen tome. That’s between Artemis and Bromm.’

His brows dipped in confusion while his eyes flashed with frustration. ‘What happened to them?’

My lips pursed in frustration, both at the situation and his persistence. He always liked to haveallthe information, even when it came with consequences. I wasn’t about to go behind their backs and gossip about what happened, though.

‘Seriously, it’s not my place to say. You weren’t there…’

‘I know I wasn’t, my love. That’s why I’m asking. How can I help if I don’t have all the information?’ he pushed, not unkindly.

‘If you’re that determined to find out then ask Arty yourself,’ I told him.

He frowned, unhappy with that solution. ‘I can’t just go up to Artemis and ask her about it,’ he argued.

I lifted a single eyebrow in response. ‘Why not?’

‘You might be friends with her, my love, but I’m not. She doesn’t owe me that.’

I scoffed, waving his comment away. ‘Arty’s not like that. She’d tell you if you asked. I’m more concerned about your reaction to what she has to say. It wasn’t… pleasant, and I’m not sure she fully grasped the severity of what was done to her. To Bromm, too.’

He physically deflated at the wave of my hand. ‘Okay, I’ll drop it for now. If you say you’re okay… what matters to me isyou, my love.’

Finally, I allowed myself to collapse into his warm embrace, using his strength since my own was so depleted. I didn’t cry, however. For some reason, the only emotion I could dredge up was numbness. It was too little too for that particular emotion, it’s cool embrace abandoning me when I had actually needed it, and I was irritated that my mind wasn’t allowing me to process the way I’d expected. Instead, I let my body fall into his as he lowered us onto the nest of blankets and pillows on the floor, the only part of my body that tensed were my hands as I fisted them in his shirt.

‘I’ve got you now, my love. I’ll never let you go again. You’re safe now,’ he whispered, his lips brushing against the top of my head as he spoke.

???

The sound of rustling roused me from my sleep, though it took me a tick to wrap my head around where it was coming from. My head was on an actual pillow and I was clutching at the blankets as if to replace the large, warm body that had recently vacated the space.

I blinked groggily up at Xander in time to catch him zipping up one of the jumpsuits that had been passed out when we’d first boarded the ship. Stretching my limps out as far as they could go, I arched my back and let out a little squeal as my muscles loosened from where they’d had a stranglehold on the blankets.

‘Hey,’ I said, my voice scratchy from sleep. ‘Where ya goin’?’

He bent down with a small smile playing on his lips to press them to my forehead in a sweet kiss. The smile didn’t reach his eyes, even if his love for me still shone through, and I was immediately on alert. I jolted upright, ready to throw on my own jumpsuit to stand with him against whatever it was that had come our way this time.

His hands came to rest on my shoulders and he gently pushed me back down into the nest, his eyes crinkling with concern. ‘Nothing’s wrong, my love. The captain called me to the cockpit for a meeting. It shouldn’t take too long,’ he told me, and I relaxed back into the pillows.

‘Oh, okay. You should really start calling her Artemis, though. I don’t think she’s that comfortable with titles,’ I lightly informed him.

‘Tough shit. She has the title and all the responsibility that comes with it. Even if she’s struggling with that, she needs to accept it sooner rather than later,’ he said firmly, but it wasn’t entirely unkind. He was right, but I wasn’t sure how Artemis would react to it. She was damn good at rolling with the punches, but we’d all witnessed what happened when she was overwhelmed, and a broken punching bag was probably the least of our worries when it came to her losing control from overwhelm. I didn’t want her to go off like a bomb again because of something as small as a moniker, so I told him as much.

‘You have a point, my love, but it doesn’t change the fact that this is the situation she’s now in.But,’he said, shooting me a pointed look when I opened my mouth to argue, ‘I’ll do my best to assist her so she doesn’t get overloaded. Would that ease your worries?’

I grinned up at him. ‘It would.’

He straightened back up to his full height and adjusted the sleeves at his wrists so they were neatly folded rather than hanging over his hands. It was a pleasant surprise that the ship had even stocked the jumpsuits in his size, let alone ones so large that rolling was necessary at all, but no one was about to take our luck for granted.

‘I’m heading out. Will you still be here when I get back or are you going to find something else to do, my love?’ he asked, stepping towards the door but pausing before opening it.

I mulled over the question for a tick but there was really only one thing I wanted to do today. It was something I’d been feeling the urge to do ever since we’d been separated and now seemed like the perfect chance.

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