Page 88 of Phoenix's Last Heist
There’s something fierce in her again. Not rage, exactly—something colder. Something cleaner. Resolve.
When we reach the cruiser, my gut unclenches just a little. It’s still where we left it—sleek, scuffed, and blessedly flight-ready. Lyra stops at the bottom of the boarding ramp and looks back.
“This isn’t over,” she says, more to herself than to me.
“No,” I agree. “But it’s the beginning of the end. They’ll get him, Lyra. The Feds are onto him now.”
She nods and we board together, and for the first time in days, I feel like I can breathe.
23
lyra
A Place in the Sun
I can’t believeI made it out. Scratch that—I can’t believewemade it out.
The minute we made it into the cruiser, Orion set about cleaning and bandaging the worst of my injuries. He made me chug an entire bottle of water and sternly insisted I eat two protein bars, despite the fact that that’s all I ate during the days in my air duct hiding spot and the sight of them makes me want to hurl.
His attention to the care and keeping of me is both adorable and incredibly infuriating, but I suspect that’s because it’s been a very,verylong time since I’ve had someone caring for me in a purely selfless, generous kind of way.
Once my injuries and the worst of my malnourishment have been assuaged, Orion gathers what supplies he can so that I can take a very unceremonious sponge bath in the small cruiser’s cramped bathroom.
Sigh. My luxurious soak will have to wait, I suppose.
Though his attention has been entirely focused on my well-being, he’s been mostly silent since we rocketed through Ooneryx’s noxious atmosphere. The cruiser’s cabin is dim, the lights low like Ada set them that way so I can try to sleep. But I’m not asleep.
I don’t know if I’ll ever sleep soundly again.
We’re a couple days out from Xylothia now, finally slipping through void-dark space, nothing but stars in every direction. The idol is locked down in a secure cabinet in the cargo chamber behind me. Agent Vega is gone, and the compound is behind us. Brill is somewhere out there.
And Kraxis…Kraxis is dead. Orion killed him.For me.
The realization keeps catching in my chest and I’m ashamed to admit that it hurts. It shouldn’t—but it does. Not because I’m mourning the bastard, but because I’m having to confront the fact that if Orion hadn’t met me, his body count would be considerably less. His first day on my ship, he told me how much his people honored life and sacrifice and abhorred selfishness and violence. And yet…he snapped Kraxis’s neck. I watched it happen. I watched him make that choice steeped in absolute anger and hatred and certainty. Would he have, if he hadn’t met me? Have I completely ruined this upright, honorable Xylothian ranger just by being who I am—decidedly ahot fucking mess?
I wrap my arms tighter around myself and press my forehead to my knees, tucked up on the bench opposite the flight deck. Neither Ada nor Orion have spoken much since we left. I know they’re trying to give me space, which I’m both grateful for and miffed about. Orion’s just been sitting in the cockpit, checking our trajectory, murmuring quietly to Ada, trying not to look at me too long.
I wish he would. I wish hewouldn’t.Ugh.It’s possible my thoughts are the messiest they’ve ever been. And my heart? My heart’s worse.
I can still feel the warmth of Orion’s hands on my waist, still hear the rumble of his voice when he told me I was his mate. That word.Mate. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since—not for one second. It echoes in me louder than Kraxis’s last breath.Stars, how fucked up is that?I just witnessed the brutally violent death of one of the few constants in my life over the past 14 years and all I can think about is what the hot Xylothian said to me before he did it.Sorry, Kraxis, you piece of lizard shit. May the Death Goddess make your afterlife worse than the living hell you made mine.
Orion’s gaze keeps flicking to me when he thinks I’m not looking. The look in his eyes threatens to crack open my ribs and carve out my heart with how earnest and yearning it is.
Mate. What does that even mean to a Xylothian? Hell, what does that mean to a Velusian?
I know what it means to me, though—it means terrifying. It means permanent. It means giving up pieces of myself I’ve never let anyone touch. It means handing over my tether, auction or no. But I can’t stop thinking about the way he looked at me—like I belonged to him. Like he’d rend the galaxy in half to protect me, and weak, romantic, soft-hearted wimp that I am…I hate how much I want that. No one’severwanted me like that. Brill wanted to possess me, my lovers wanted me sexually, the Feds want me judicially, and Kraxis?Well.Kraxis just wanted me to bleed. Orion’s only ever wanted me forme.
The cabin rocks gently as the ship adjusts course. I glance up, and there he is—tall and too handsome for his own good, muscles stretched under a thin white tee-shirt, boots braced wide for balance. He catches my eye for a heartbeat, then turns his gaze to the console again.
He’s definitely a coward, but I’m definitely worse.
Because I’m the one who walked away from him first. I’m the one who said take the idol, save your people, go. And he did! Butnow he’s here. And I’m here. And the idol’s safe. And Brill is out there somewhere—but for tonight, at least, we’re free.
And still, he hasn’t said it again.
I sit up slowly. My voice sounds like gravel. “Orion.”
He turns instantly. “Yeah?”
