Page 57 of Stars in Halo

Her words trailed off, and she looked away, unable to meet his gaze.

Xion’s heart ached for her, but he didn’t push or question. Instead, he waited, letting her share her story when she was ready.

Eventually, she worked up the courage to continue. ‘They were taken from me. I lost them, and I’ve never been the same since.’

‘What the fokk, Katya? Tell me, how can I help? I’m the freakin’ head of security of a galactic organisation. I can -’

His words were interrupted by the trill of a call coming in on her wrist comm.

She glanced at her device, and Xion’s insides lurched even as his limbs locked.

All because of the expression on her face.

Of utter terror.

‘What’s wrong, woman?’ he rasped, his heart rate ratcheting.

She jerked her head to the view outside, fighting tears and panic. ’Everything, everything is wrong,’ she murmured.

She rushed from the bed and moved to the wardrobe, slipping on a sheathe dress and shoes.

He raked his eyes over her from head to toe, his entire body on alert. ‘What’s happening?’

Her eyes dipped, as did her chin, and with a sob, she plunged into the lounge area and headed to the suite’s front door.

He followed.

At the entrance, she hesitated for a moment and flashed her fokkin’ hot eyes back at him. Her irises flit to the corner of her eye as if she were speaking to someone via a neural node.

Her gaze tracked back to him, and he realised her expression was one of deep regret.

‘Sorry,’ she whispered. ‘I’m so very sorry, Xion.’

‘For what?’ he grunted, perplexed.

Suddenly, his neural node began to pulse with warning vibrations across his skull. His metanoids, which he’d set on the three guards a few days earlier, were sending proximity alerts.

He had no time to react before she turned her agonised eyes to him.

‘For this,’ came her small whisper under the pulsing internal klaxons.

The door to the hotel suite was wrenched away from Katya’s hands.

A phalanx of shadows rushed towards him.

He dropped his kahawa, which splashed all over the floor as he was hit with a barrage of electric shocks.

As the insane voltage surged through his body, Xion’s muscles convulsed involuntarily, his limbs jerking and contracting with each shock.

The world blurred around him, his vision fracturing into shards of light and darkness.

Katya stood in the doorway, her expression distressed as the scene unfolded.

He saw her step toward him, but one of the kinais pulled her back with rough disdain.

Her eyes locked on his, her regret palpable, her chest heaving with agitation, a stricken observer of the violent retribution being dealt to her lover.

Caught in a flex of electrical charge, Xion clenched his jaw as he tried to steady his breathing and push down the rising tide of panic threatening to consume him.

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