Good.
They exited the medical bay into the corridor.It was curved, like everything on this station, the walls a soft white that glowed with ambient light.
“There,” he said, pointing to a door directly across the hall.
“Thank you, Captain Obvious,” she muttered.
Palming the door open, she stepped inside.It was a standard utilitarian bathroom… clean, metallic, smelling faintly of antiseptic.When the door slid shut, locking Raaevik out, she leaned her forehead against the cool metal and exhaled a long, shaky breath.
Turning, she caught sight of herself in the mirror above the sink.God.She wassucha mess.Her hair was a disaster, a dark halo of frizz escaping the tie she’d hastily put in before the gym, and her face was flushed.
“Get it together, Emily,” she whispered to her reflection.
Splashing cold water on her face, she let the shock of it ground her.Then she used the facilities, washed her hands, and took three deep, centering breaths.
Okay.She could do this.She could go back out there, finish her hour of observation, and then go back to her quarters and pretend what had happened… hadn’t.
Drying her hands, she hit the door release.The panel slid open in front of her, and she stepped out into the corridor.“Okay, I’m done.You can stop lurking now?—”
The words died in her throat.
Raaevik wasn’t looking at her.He stood with his back to her, his body angled slightly away, and his attention fixed on something further down the curved hallway.
She peered around his broad shoulder and followed his gaze, wondering what had enthralled him so completely.
About twenty yards away, a heavy security door was sliding shut.It wasn’t like the other doors in this sector; it was thicker, darker, marked with symbols that even without translation screamed Restricted Access.
A man had just stepped out of it.
Daaynal.The Emperor.
He was alone… no guards, no entourage, and he wasn’t wearing the formal leathers and crown she’d seen him in before.Instead, he was dressed in a simple black tunic and trousers, his long dark hair loose around his shoulders.
But it wasn’t his clothes that caught her attention.It was his face.
The man who had welcomed her with such polished charisma looked… spent.
His shoulders were hunched, and exhaustion sat in the lines around his mouth.He leaned back against the closed door for a second, eyes shut, one palm braced to the metal.He looked like he couldn’t bear to leave.
Daaynal took a breath and then pushed himself off the door.Rolling his shoulders, he lifted his chin, and in the span of a heartbeat, the Emperor was back.Turning, he walked away down the corridor, disappearing around the curve without ever looking back.
Raaevik exhaled.Then he turned around and looked down at her, his expression blank.
“Are you finished?”he asked.
She blinked, trying to clear the image.“I… yes.”
“Then we return to Kellat.”He gestured toward the medical bay door.
“What is down there?”She nodded toward the secure door.
Raaevik’s eyes narrowed slightly.“That is a restricted medical wing.High-security stasis units.It does not concern you.”
“The Emperor was there.”
“The Emperor is everywhere on his station,” he said flatly.“It is his domain.Come.”
He ushered her back into the exam room with a hand on her shoulder that was firm enough to be a warning.She climbed back onto the oversized bed, her mind racing.
