“Information is power.”
“Exactly. And I’m not ready to hand over all of ours just yet.”
They walked together through the gleaming corridors of Imperial power, a smuggler and a schoolteacher and a silver-skinned baby who might just hold the key to everything. It wasn’t the life she had imagined for herself. It wasn’t safe or simple or anything close to normal.
But as Doren’s hand found hers again, warm and steady, she realized she wouldn’t trade it for anything.
EPILOGUE
One year later…
Sherae’stwin moons hung low on the horizon as theVagabondbroke atmosphere, painting the ocean below in ribbons of silver and gold.
Doren adjusted the descent angle, his hands moving across the console in the automatic way of a pilot who’d made this approach dozens of times. Twelve months. That’s how long they’d been running this route—Pasfal Station to the Outer Reaches, back through Kaisarian space, and finally home to Sherae. The familiar rhythm of it still surprised him sometimes. Doren va Karr, the smuggler who’d spent fifteen years running from anything that resembled stability, had a home.
“Ari’s finally asleep.” Emma’s voice preceded her into the cockpit, warm and slightly tired. She slid into the copilot’s chair with the grace of someone who’d long since learned to navigate the ship’s narrow corridors. “I swear she gets more energetic every week.”
“She’s almost two. Apparently that’s what they do.”
“Did your research tell you that?”
“Faith’s children told me that. Repeatedly. Usually while climbing on me.”
She laughed, and the sound settled something in his chest the way it always did. He watched her from the corner of his eye as she gazed out at the approaching planet—the curve of her cheek, the way the console lights caught the dark waves of her hair. Beautiful. After twelve months of waking up beside her, he still hadn’t gotten used to it.
Probably never will.
“How long until we land?”
“Twenty minutes. I sent word ahead—Athtar’s preparing the guest house.”
“You mean our house.”
“That too.” He smiled at her. The small dwelling they’d claimed on Athtar’s property had started as a temporary arrangement, a place to stay between voyages. Somewhere along the way, it had become something else entirely. Emma had hung curtains. She’d planted flowers in containers by the door. She’d made it theirs in ways that still caught him off guard.
He’d never had a home before. Not really. The refugee ship had been survival. His father’s estate had been a place where he wasn’t wanted. TheVagabondhad been freedom, but a solitary kind—the freedom of having nothing to lose and no one to lose it with.
Now he had everything to lose.
And somehow, impossibly, that made him feel richer rather than more afraid.
“I was thinking,” she said, her voice carefully casual in a way that immediately caught his attention. “After this trip, maybe we could stay for a while. Longer than usual.”
“Longer?”
“A few months. Maybe more.” She wasn’t looking at him, her gaze fixed on the approaching coastline. “Ari’s getting old enough that the constant travel might not be good for her. She needs stability. Friends her own age. A chance to actually put down roots.”
His tail flicked against the console—an unconscious tell that he’d never been able to fully control around her. Something in her tone didn’t match the words. She wasn’t lying, exactly, but she wasn’t telling the whole truth either.
“We could do that,” he said carefully. “The trading route practically runs itself at this point. Rjmar could handle the Outer Reaches shipments, and the Imperial liaison?—”
“N’mar. Her name is N’mar.”
“—N’mar has been surprisingly not terrible about the reporting requirements. A few months on Sherae wouldn’t cause any problems.” He paused, watching her profile. “Is that really what this is about? Ari?”
Her hands twisted in her lap. A nervous gesture. His Emma, who had stared down an Imperial advisor without flinching, who had held a baby against her chest and dared the universe to take her, was nervous.
The descent alarm chimed, and he forced his attention back to the controls. Whatever was going on, it would have to wait until they were safely on the ground. But he didn’t miss the way her shoulders relaxed slightly when he let the subject drop.
