Sharp inhales echo around the bay, including my own.
A tall woman leans in, angling a NanoSlate towards him. Her brown skin is freckled, her hair shaved low and shockinglywhite. My attention snags on her left eye; milky and framed by an ornate tattoo. The two confer for a moment. Suddenly, an image flashes across all the surrounding screens. It’s Julian and Maximus stowed away in the panic room; Julian pacing back and forth, wearing a murderous expression, whilst Maximus sits calmly, hands on his knees. I don’t think they even know there’s a camera. This isn’t footage that the other ship should have access to.
The man shrugs nonchalantly, stepping away from his crewmate. “You might as well get them to join us.”
“Who are you?” Beau demands.
“I’m Eduard, this is Mae.” He nods to the woman. “If you require confirmation, a comms should be coming through from Mr Gryphon right about now.”
His words are punctuated by the sharp jolt that goes through Tanisira’s shoulders. She glances down at her patch and fails to suppress her reaction. As her lips tighten, my stomach drops. Dominik knows I’m on the ship. My fear is matched by suspicion about these strangers.
Eduard scans our group with detachment. “We’ll set up on the bridge.”
Tanisira doesn’t comment, not even when the Securitas crew follows Eduard’s confident path towards the heart of the ship. Silence bites at the air as we stand, unsettled. Even Vee hasn’t moved an inch.
It’s Khrys who breaks the deadlock. “I’ll... go and let Julian and Maximus know it’s safe, I guess.”
Why would Dominik send Securitas after us?
Dev and Beau eye Tanisira, waiting for orders, but she glares at the floor, gaze distant. I can practically hear her thinking, cogs whirring as she parses the situation. But she doesn’t know Dominik; there’s more to come.
“It’s a little over twenty-four hours. How bad could it be?” Beau murmurs.
They’re careful not to let the captain hear them say that, but we still glance over our shoulders. Tanisira, understandably, is not in a good mood. No one is at the prospect of walking on eggshells around Securitas.
It’d been shaping up to be a bittersweet goodbye—now it’ll just be bitter.
I think of Vee’s words to me earlier:Dad doesn’t even like me.No child should feel like that, and it breaks my heart. I had tried not to intervene too much whenever Vee spent time with Dominik, but maybe I was overzealous. This whole time, Vee thought he couldn’t tell me.
He’s curled up now under Dev’s arm, both subdued and watchful in the galley. One by one, we’d all simply gravitated here. Julian stands guard at the door, jaw clenched so hard it looks painful—but Securitas have free range of the ship, and there’s nowhere they can’t get into if they wish.
Maximus and Khrys whisper furtively between themselves whilst Tanisira leans against the counter, a statue shrouded in isolation. I keep catching glances of her out of the corner of my eye, trying to decipher her expression, but it’s as unreadable as stone.
The door slides open and reveals Mae, slate in hand, eyebrow cocked. She lets her eyes roam over us all before coming to rest on Julian. The smile she gives him is patronising at best.
“Cute,” she says, in a voice like sandpaper.
Julian looks ready to tear her head off, but Tanisira shoulders him aside. I hadn’t even noticed her cross the room, and now she takes his place. Maximus takes hold of his brother and corrals him away, but Julian’s face is still thunderous.
“What do you want?” Tanisira asks, carefully emotionless.
Mae’s eyebrow still hasn’t dropped. She wears black from head to toe, nondescript and practical, but glaring against the white of her hair. In boots, she’s about the same height as Tanisira, if not a little taller. The two look well matched—if they were to come to blows—but that doesn’t make me feel better.
Mae turns her head a fraction before her eyes follow and pin me in place.
“Mr Gryphon wants to talk to you.”
“Fine.”
I assume she means on the bridge, but Tanisira doesn’t move out of the way. Instead, she pulls me to the side and makes eye contact with me for the first time since the cargo bay. I hate myself for the way my breath catches in my throat. Even now, I wish it could all be different. I want her hand at my elbow to migrate to my waist, want her to pull me in and promise me we can work something out. It’s ridiculous, stupid, especially because I’m the one who pushed her away last.
Tanisira gives no hint that she knows what’s racing through my mind. She’s all business right now: creased brow, piercing stare.
“Do you want me to come? I don’t like the idea of you alone with them.”
I peer at Mae over Tanisira’s shoulder and then back, shaking my head. Whatever Dominik wants, I doubt it bodes well for the captain; maybe I can minimise the damage by speaking to him alone. Tanisira looks like she’s going to argue, but I skirt around her and leave before she can declare this is a bad idea. And I know it is—know what men can do when they feel all-powerful and invincible—but the sad truth is that I’m the only person who ever knew Dominik. I just need to try and talk to him.
Mae saunters off ahead of me, and I hurry to keep up as Tanisira’s cursing fades away. Mae doesn’t so much as look at me again until we reach the bridge, where she steps aside and waves me ahead. Having expected her to follow me in, it takes me a second to notice there’s no one else here. It’s just me and, projected across the room, the face of a person I once loved.
