Page 34 of Hunting the Warlord's Daughter

He stood straighter. “Captain Rorkken assigned me to the initial landing team. First group down to the surface. I volunteered.”

She flushed with surprise. “Congratulations. I didn’t know…”

“I just found out—right before I saw you. I told him and Major Caro that I saw the pattern from the urn in a flashback. I can’t risk being pulled off the team because they think I’m sick.”

A note of challenge in his tone didn’t escape her notice.He wants you to pretend this never happened.She was his best friend. She cared about what happened to him. She was also Admiral Bandar’s XO. “Hiding your condition from our leadership puts me in a tight spot.” It made her complicit, and just as guilty, if anything were to happen on the mission.

“It’s just headaches. I can handle them. I haven’t suffered a seizure in ages.” He squinted at the papers, the countless scribbles, then dragged his hand over his face. “I was left for dead, Hadley. I was thrown out with the trash. When thePridefound me, I had a severe concussion, a ruptured spleen, massive internal bleeding, a broken jaw, broken ribs. I was blind in one eye and deaf for weeks.”

“I know. I saw thePride’s logs.” And had cried her eyes out afterward, imagining his broken body.

“I need to find out why I survived. Why I’m still here.”

“Because your nano-meds helped keep you alive. Because you were found by a wonderful, competent, caring crew who nursed you back to health.”

“They nursed a Wraith back to health. A Wraith on a mission he can’t remember.” Tendons in his jaw bunched. “I still feel the urgency to complete my assignment. I never told you. Everyday, it eats at me—finish it, finish it, now. Who stopped me? What was I up to when I was stopped? Why do I have knowledge of an ancient language that only religious experts know?” He splayed his hands, his eyes dark and wild and desperate for answers. “What did I do in my past that gained those secrets?”

“They were good things.”

“You don’t know that,” he snapped.

“I knowyou.”

“Well, I don’t. I don’t know me.” His tormented gaze searched her face. “I may have committed war crimes. Hadley, think of that. How will being in a relationship with a war criminal affect your career? How could I do that to you?” He shook his head. “Iwon’tdo that to you.”

She bit her lip. He was worried about her career, the long game, when in that moment all she was thinking about was her heart.

He reached for her, pulling her into a surprisinglyrock-solid embrace despite his condition. “I’m sorry.” His voice rumbled in his chest. “I don’t want to lose you.”

Lose her? She felt as if she were losinghim. “You won’t. How can you thinkthat?”

His silence was more troubling than his words.

CHAPTERNINETEEN

Golden houron Issenda lasted far longer than an hour. Its location—between two small suns: one, primary, and the other, distant—created an extended twilight. If Wren squinted hard enough through her deteriorating glasses, she could make out lumpy, conical peaks on the horizon. They reminded her of the castles she’d built with dribbled sand at the lakeshore as a little girl. The reddish hills, crisscrossed with plowed fields, wore tufts of trees like funny, feathered hats. The gravity was lighter here, putting a literal spring in her step—as if she could run and leap great distances.

Of course, there was no time to test the theory. It was to be a “stop-stock-up-and-go,” in Aral’s words. She’d dubbed it “supplies-eyes-and-goodbye.”

Dressed as homesteaders, they blended in with the others doing business at the outpost, one gravel road lined with shops. At the far end was a low, blocky gray building surrounded by tall, conical trees and a low rock wall, the clinic. Kaz took off in the other direction to see to provisioning theResiliencewith fresh supplies.

Despite feeling as light as a cloud, Wren struggled to keep up with Aral’s long strides. “I thought we were supposed to be staying under the radar.”

“We are. And we will. The sisters of the Hand of Sakkara are warrior-priestesses. As the reigning boxing priestess, you might find the competition daunting. If you do decide to move forward with a bout or two, do so after you get your eyes fixed. These are your last pair of glasses.”

She laughed. “Warrior priestesses? Breaking my glasses will be the least of my worries if they learn of my identity. I’m not talking about me. It’s you. You look poised to shoot someone.”

He gave her a side-eye. “Iampoised to shoot someone—ifanyone threatens us. The hope is that I won’t have to. It’s called deterrence.”

“Also known as menacing behavior in some languages.”

He rolled his shoulders and exhaled. “How’s this?”

“Better.”He looked exactly the same. Lethal. Except the lips she couldn’t stop daydreaming about had curved in the slightest of smiles.

His smile vanished as he scanned the tree-lined road ahead. “Twilight here is downright eerie.”

“It’s the shadows.” They seemed to creep across the ground, long and dark, crisscrossed with less obvious ones at an angle. “They look like fingers.”

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