Page 37 of Fifth
Heat flooded her skin at Locus’s nod. “So be it,” he said.
Sixth’s eyes came back to her. “He stopped himself in the shower, when every instinct in his blood demanded otherwise.” The words made her cheeks burn hotter. How the hell did he know that? “He controlled it. That restraint tells me more than anything else.”
She froze, her face flaming with humiliation at how openly Sixth named what had happened in the shower. Her voice came small, broken. “Yes.”
“Good. Enforcers who cannot leash themselves are not given their ships back.”
Her head jerked toward Locus. The warning ought to have chilled her, but memory betrayed her—the wall at her back, his body pressed hard against hers, the heavy weight of him so close she had quivered with need. The thought curled heat in her bellyuntil her thighs pressed together under the table. And when she dared glance up, his eyes told her he had noticed. Of course hehad.
“Questions,” Sixth said. “Not all will be answered. Ask them anyway.”
Her voice wavered but held. “What do you want from me?”
“Presence. Clarity when you have it. Honesty when you do not.” His tone didn’t shift. “And truth from him as well.”
Locus’s reply came harsh. “I do not lie.”
“You omit,” Sixth countered. “Less now than before.” His words carried a dry edge, almost companionable. Amuscle ticked beside Locus’s mouth.
Hannah’s next question rose without thought. “If I choose him, what does that make me here?”
Locus answered first. “Mine. My ship becomes yours by extension, and we will be permitted to leave Apex’s domain and return to mine. With that, you gain standing among warriors, authority among crew.” His voice eased, quieter now. “And beyond all of that, you gain me. Entirely. My protection, my strength, my every heartbeat and breath bound to yours, not for a day but for all the days we are given.”
Sixth studied her as the words settled. “And if you do not choose him, you remain my guest. No door will close that should be open. No hand will touch you uninvited.”
Her breath faltered. Relief tangled with something she wouldn’tname. Couldn’t name.
Sixth stood. Motion alone drew her gaze. He braced his hands on the table and regarded her as if she were a chart with too many unknowns.
“You have already altered the outcome on the ground. You will alter it here. That is not burden. It is fact.” The silence thickened until the air seemed towait.
Then he spoke, voice even, cutting through her. “Tell me, little human. Are you ready to decide the fate of more than just yourself?”
Chapter 11
THE CHAMBERsealed around them with a soft hiss and caught Hannah’s reflection, held tight against Locus’s chest. Two nude figures in a clear cylinder made her tooseen.
As though hearing her silent concern, the glass clouded from the collarbones down, privacy lowering like a veil. The thin hum beneath her feet rose to a purr. Sterile light haloed everything, turning white into silver and shadows into softgray.
Warm mist unfurled from the ceiling. It kissed her scalp and slid down her spine. Threads of sound skimmed skin and hair, teasing grit from pores, lifting sweat and fear as if both were dirt that could be rinsed away. Her bruise faded while she watched. Purple drained to lavender, then to nothing. Rope burns smoothed. Scrapes erased. The small cut on her lip sealed. Her body looked like a memory of before, not the ledger of every hour since the slavers tookher.
Her hand lifted to her wrist out of habit. No roughness from her bindings met her fingers. Only new skin. She couldn’t tell if the relief or the grief in her throat was heavier.
“You are unmarked,” Locus said. “As it should be.”
His palm settled at the small of her back. He didn’t step away when a second current warmed the air and turned the mist bright. Asoft pressure touched the hollow behind her ear. She flinched and caught herself as a click sounded under skin. The translator woke with a crystalline chime that seemed to come from inside her head and then settled to a steady, nearly silenttone.
“Say something in your language,” she whispered, testing.
He tilted his head and obliged. “Do you understand me?”
She smiled, shaky but real. “Perfectly.”
“Good.”
A breath later another hiss grazed the base of her neck. Heat pulsed out through muscle and bone. The second pulse touched her hip. There was no sting. Only a bloom of warmth that dissolved like sugar in water.
“What are those?”
