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“Think about it,” she entreats me.
I incline my head. “Fine. I’ll think about it. And Rossa? You haven’t mentioned that name to anyone else, have you?”
She frowns. “No.”
“Keep it that way.”
The captain leaves without another word but stops to pat my mate’s shoulder and bid her good luck handling me. Kaye follows her out with one last wave to Raina.
“I guess we’re back on the road again,” she says once we’re left alone.
“Is this what you wanted?” I ask. “Or did Kaye talk you into it?”
“I feel guilty saying it, but itiswhat I wanted,” Raina admits. “It felt selfish and cowardly to realize that. I think I need to get away, and I want us to spend time together outside of all this craziness. I’ve been running on automatic through this whole rescue attempt, and I need to slow down for a while. Will you help me slow down?”
I pull her toward me for a greedy kiss.
“It would be my pleasure.”
Despite the fact that we’re heading to a cramped, smelly metropolis, I couldn’t be happier. My mate is finally choosing me, seeing me as her home and her comfort. I feel hopeful for the future, something I haven’t felt in a very long time. Once Rossa frees Frankie, my Raina might feel the same. We could be together, and it won’t matter where.
CHAPTERTWENTY-NINE
RAINA
The jittersI felt when Dash and I infiltrated the slave auctions are nowhere to be found as Niko and I touch down in Station City and board a public transport craft to a government building. One might imagine that saving your friend’s life with the help of a pirate crew would be non-stop excitement, but apparently, there’s more paperwork and red tape than anything.
Niko explains the dizzying Alliance laws surrounding piracy and privateering while we wait in a virtual queue in the gray, ugly lobby of a hundred-floor building. I should be paying close attention, but my mind is elsewhere.
“The Alliance is an unwieldy conglomeration of governments, so processes like these are about as pleasant as kissing a Kippi,” he tells me.
It takes all of Station City’s daylight hours to get through his privateering paperwork. We’re bending the rules by filling it out while Captain Rossa is already jumping headlong into the restricted forklines. And as the registered privateer on the paperwork, Niko should technically be aboard the ship with them. When I ask him what the hell they’re going to do about that, he shrugs.
“They’ll probably just have another Kar’Kali impersonate me. Rossa has all my personal information anyway.”
We finally leave the offices as the illuminated dome arching above us is fading into a false sunset. It’s much more beautiful than what we saw on Lungfish Station. That dinky dome was supported by arches and affixed with harsh lightbulbs. In contrast, the fake sky here on Station City is a wonder in and of itself, changing color in swathes of light like a true atmosphere. I can’t help staring up at it, straining my eyes to catch some clue that it is an illusion.
“Now we wait,” Niko sighs. “We have to be on call in case there’s any trouble, so that we can go back into the office to resolve the issues. I can check the status of the request from my comm device.”
The ship we borrowed from Rossa is parked in a cheap lot on the ground level of the sprawling city. The capital of Alliance territory is a maze of streets populated by skyscrapers. It’s not known as the prettiest metropolis across the civilized galaxies, but it’s a fascinating sight to me, nonetheless. Because we have no schedule to adhere to now, we decide to walk home. I hold Niko’s hand, showing him how we humans interlace fingers, and we pick our way lazily across the city as it darkens.
“Will you accompany Kaye and Frankie when they return to your colony?” Every time he asks me a question that involves my leaving him, his eyes dart subtly away from my face. He’s trying to hide from me how much my answers mean to him.
“I’d like to.” I bump against his arm with my shoulder. “But you’re welcome to come with us too.”
He grins. “You’re sure you want me following you like a squawking little crow?”
“Crows aren’t little. And neither are you. But yes, I’m sure Kaye would agree we’d be happy to have the company. I know she’s still nervous about traveling in space. She’s jumpy, so your presence might soothe any fears she has about somehow being taken again.”
“Your friend seems more sensitive than you,” he points out. “I’m not under any illusions that all humans are alike, but how did it come to be that she left Earth for the colonies? Recently terraformed moons are not the height of comfort, and colony life can be harsh.”
“Kaye is strong in other ways. She’s a teacher—loves kids . . . She thought it would be rewarding to grow the community that we were trying to build on Twelve. As far as I know, part of why she left home is because of a divorce.” I realize as soon as I say it that he might not have a translation for the word. “She left a mate at home, broke off their relationship, because he wasn’t treating her right.”
His dark brows draw together. “How so? Is this common?”
“Very. And I don’t know. She doesn’t like to talk about it.”
“I think the winds of change might be calling my name,” I tell him. “Frankie and Kaye aren’t the only ones out there. Just the other night at that auction, there were dozens of people for sale.”
