Page 39 of Shadows of Stardust

But I’ll be damned if I can make the ache in the bottom of my gut believe that, and I can’t do anything to stop the promise that rumbles up, unbidden.

“You have nothing to fear from me, Roslyn. I’d never hurt you.”

She looks to the floor, hiding whatever she’s thinking from both Marva and I, and who could blame her? I wouldn’t believe me, either, if I were in her position.

But there’s no more time to discuss it, no more promises to give, nothing at all I can do to reassure her as Marva gestures toward the door.

“Now, if you don’t mind, I’ve got a meeting with my producers to decide how we’re going to handle the both of you and your… love story.”

11

Roslyn

The night air is charged with tension and humming with the incessant drone of the four hovercams that follow Zandrel and I back to my bungalow.

Ourbungalow.

I should have been quicker on my feet back there, able to sort through the jumbled mess of my thoughts and find some plausible excuse why he shouldn’t stay with me.

But my head still feels like it’s currently located at least three feet to the left of my body, and I’d have to be an idiot not to have noticed the way Marva was looking at us. Sharp, suspicious, like she didn’t buy our little act for a second.

Geeno’s got stars in his eyes and his head in the clouds, but it doesn’t take a genius to know who’s the real brains behind the operation. Marva’s not someone I want to fuck with, and pushing back any more seemed like it would have been a supremely stupid idea.

Yeah. Likeanyof this isn’t a supremely stupid idea.

None of it even feels real as we trudge silently through the sand, all the grains shifting beneath my feet, slipping so easily away like everything else in my life.

My plans. My sister. Any semblance of control I might have had here.

It’s all lost. Washed out to sea.

All of this has gotten so far away from me I might as well be a castaway floating in the open ocean, no sign of land anywhere on the horizon.

I’m still lost in the mire of those lovely thoughts when a touch from the mercenary beside me jerks me back into my body.

Zandrel grabs my hand and hauls me closer to his side. I almost lose my shit and throw what I’m sure would be a very ineffective punch before I remember.

Lovers. We’re supposed to be lovers.

We’re supposed to have fallen for each other so hard and so fast. We’re supposed to be in so deep that we couldn’t keep away from one another.

My stomach rolls, but I manage to keep myself from hurling into the sand. I lean lightly into his side and screw the corners of my lips up into what I hope is a dreamy half-smile.

My skin crawls in every place we’re touching.

Where his long, claw-tipped fingers twine with mine. Where my arm brushes against the cool, ominous rasp of his armored plates, a reminder of just how much physical advantage he has over me.

A physical advantage that was very much on display tonight when he yanked me down from that fence. I’ve known it since the moment I first saw him—how severely outmatched I am—and that was before I knew what he was.

Aux. Zandrel is fucking Aux.

News about the wider universe was scarce on Severin, but there was endless chatter about other planets’ militaries in the barracks and the passenger bays of transports when I was with the Sol Alliance. Whispers about where we might be stationednext or what kind of deals the Alliance cut that would send us light-years away from home.

The Aux was always somewhere in the orbit of those conversations.

A massive mercenary company with wide-ranging influence across the sector. Its soldiers, legendary. Its power, unrivaled, at least among fighting forces for hire.

And I’m about to shack up with one of those super-soldiers.

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