Page 142 of Shadows of Stardust

I pull back and take her by the shoulders, still searching for some sign this isn’t real, that she’s just a hallucination my brain created to keep me from slipping into total despondency.

The longer I look, though, the initial rush of seeing her fades away.

“You can’t be here.”

I glance around Savvie, back to the front door, which is still open wide. Quickly crossing the room to close it, I secure the locks before turning to face her with my heart in my throat.

“How did you get on-world? And did anyone follow you here? You know the landlord doesn’t give two shits about keeping this building secured against—”

“Whoa.” Savvie rests her hands on my shoulders. “I wouldn’t have come here if I thought I was going to be offed, or if I thought it was going to put you in any danger.”

“Then what—”

“I’ve been cleared of any wrongdoing in Xelan’s death. And what’s left of his crew’s been busted.”

“What?”

I can’t have heard her right. There’s never any justice on Severin. At least not unless it’s secured at the business end of a blaster.

“All of them. Every single one. And I’m off free and clear. They even threw in a residency permit for Eritin.”

“Savvie, I… there’s no way this can be…how?”

Savvie smiles. “You’ll have to ask Zandrel about that.”

Beneath my feet, the world tilts. Constellations rearrange themselves in the sky, and something shifts in the fabric of my universe. “What?”

“Zandrel,” Savvie repeats. “The Aux guy you were with on Eritin. He must have pulled some strings or something, because the message I got said the case was cleared after an Aux investigation. They’re cleaning house here on Severin, breaking up some of the criminal rings and cracking down on illegal trade. You haven’t heard about it?”

I’ve heard rumblings of raids happening in the seedier corners of the port colony over the past couple months, arrests being made, but between preparing for the move and being lost in my own personal cavern of grief, I hadn’t paid it much mind.

I shake my head slowly. “No. I… I’ve been a little distracted.”

Savvie’s face softens in understanding. “Yeah, I bet. But Zandrel, he had something to do with it. I’m not exactly sure what, and I’m honestly not all that interested in questioning a good thing, but the notice I got had a post-script from him with port clearance documentation to come here and see you.”

That topsy-turvy, world-bending lurch still hasn’t gone away, and I wobble a couple of steps to sit in one of the rickety chairs at the table.

Zan.

Zan did this.

Somehow, he brought Savvie back to me.

Unable to fully comprehend it, I collapse into myself. Elbows on the table, head resting in my hands, I drag in a deep breath.

“Ros,” Savvie breathes. “What the hell is that?”

I glance over my shoulder to find her eyes wide as she stares at the scars and ink on full display in the tanktop I’m wearing.

For a moment, the old instinct to hide claws its way to the surface.

Hide where exactly, I don’t know, but I angle my body away from her and run a hand over my shoulder.

But beneath my fingers, the familiar topography of my injury reminds me there’s nothing to hide from.

There’s never been anything to hide from.

What happened happened, and pretending it didn’t won’t fix a damn thing for me or Savvie.

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