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I was sore and stiff, but not broken. And the Chorus knew I was here. The walls pulsed a low, steady amber, warm to the touch.

“I’m glad to be back too,” I murmured. “Glad to be alive. You had a lot to do with that. I... I felt you in my head, didn’t I? We’re connected.”

The lights flickered and a soft hum had me sighing. It felt freakily weird but also completely right to have a ship inside my head.

The door opened, and Rennick walked in, carrying two glasses and a plate of food. He’d cleaned up, changed his shirt, but his hands told the story of what he’d done to save me.

He set a glass on the shelf beside me and sat on the edge of the bed. The mattress dipped, and the movement shifted my ribs enough to make me clench my jaw.

“Tambi unlocked the duress protocol and restored the accounts. She’s running a trace on the credential clone now.” His eyes tracked from the patch on my head, the wrap on my ribs, and the sleeve on my leg. “Doc says the hamstring needs two days before it’s fully functional.”

“Doc says a lot of things. Most of them with swear words attached. But she knows how to fix a broken body fast, so I always appreciate her.” I picked up the glass.

“That’s medicinal. From your crew.”

I sniffed it and grinned. The liquid was smooth and potent. It burned clean going down and left a nice buzz. “Why did you meet your uncle without telling us?”

His jaw tightened. “What did he do to you?”

“I asked first.”

After a pause, Rennick told me everything, and my blood simmered at the thought of losing the ship. Losing Rennick because his uncle hid a family shame rather than dealing with it legally.

“Now you.” Rennick sipped his drink, but the anger in his gaze revealed everything he didn’t say, so I skimmed the messy details, since he’d seen the damage inflicted on me.

I took another drink. “You want your uncle dead, don’t you?”

“Of course.” He didn’t hesitate.

“Same. But I have a better plan. We destroy him legally, publicly, and permanently.”

Rennick paused, considering the idea. “It would feel amazing to fuck up his precious reputation. That’s all he really cares about.”

“Murder sucks. Make him a social pariah, and he’ll never come near us again.”

His hand found my ankle, and his thumb traced a slow circle against the bone. The touch traveled up my leg and landed somewhere much higher, in a place I shouldn’t be thinking about when recovering from near death.

“How does it feel to be connected to the Hollow Chorus?” Rennick asked, way too casually, his gaze shifting away from me.

“Honestly? Fucking weird. The connection is... I don’t know how to describe it. This is a learning curve. She pulls back every time the contact gets too intense. The Chorus learned my limits before I did. She’s a good girl.”

His fingers tightened on my ankle. “This is unique. No Kelvane ship has ever bonded with a human. It could be dangerous.”

I sat up. The ribs protested, and I ignored them as I put my hand on his wrist. “I’m safe with her. Just like I am with you.”

His gaze traveled to my face. His eyes were dark with longing, and underneath the careful control was a hunger that wasn’t careful at all.

That was what I most desired. Ever since I’d realized that our fucking was much more than one night of lust. If my connection to the Hollow Chorus had bonded me to Rennick, I was terrified, but also excited. This desire was new, out of control, and I wanted to feel it every single second. And if our bonding was anything close to the neural flash dumped in my head, I needed to feel it over and over.

I pulled him down to me. Fuck the scariness. I was choosing him.

Rennick braced on the mattress, keeping his weight off me. His mouth stopped an inch from mine. “Your ribs.”

“Will survive.”

“Your head.”

“Works fine. Always has. Kiss me.”