Page 65 of When the Universe Sings

Greabes huffed a laugh and sniffed. “If there’s anyone who would be strong enough, it would be her. She’s a fuckingdeilka.”

I couldn’t help but laugh with him. The comparison of Juniper to the fierce clawed beast that slunk in the forests of his home planet masquerading as a harmless furry creature was apt.

Rhiaon sat back on their heels with a sigh, running a hand over their face. “This is the best I can do here. She’s stable enough to be moved back to theKux.”

I slipped my arms beneath her back and legs, cradling her close to my chest. Xabhat rushed forward to tuck her arm against my chest where it’d fallen out when I lifted her. His bright blue eyes were sharp as they flicked back and forth between us.

“May the Maker bless and keep you. Both you and your youngmahsi.”I blinked at him but he only winked, touching two fingers between my brows before stepping back. “Thank you for the excitement. We haven’t had a fight like that in almost three cycles—we were due for some upgrades.”

Greabes huffed a laugh while lifting the bag of fluid higher over my shoulder as we made our way through the scrap metal and waiting ships. Xabhat’s crew picked through the wreckage now that it’d cooled down, scavenging for parts and any weapons they could find. Our cruiser sat farther behind the mangled remains of the ships. I couldn’t even mourn the loss of my own fighter, not when I had Juniper in my arms.

“I think we’re even now,” I said to Xab at the ramp of the cruiser.

He pursed his lips. “Even we might be, but you will always be welcome here.”

I dipped my head as he clapped me on the shoulder. “Thank you, my friend.”

We made our way up the ramp and I settled June tighter in my arms while Greabes primed the engines for take-off and Rhiaon checked her vitals.

“How did you manage to keep Crux from coming with you?” I asked.

The corner of Rhiaon’s mouth twitched as they straightened. “Shot him with a tranquilizer. He should be coming round about now.”

Of course. No doubt Kal would have been mostly feral by the time I’d left. I could only hope that returning her in one piece would be enough to assuage his temper. The last few weeks he’d spoken endlessly of finding a way to release June from her servitude—from destroying theDaskquahto robbing a Federation bank for bribes, it was all he could think of. Then again, it had been all I could think of too.

Even now the stone hummed in my pocket, content to be reunited with one of its own, a reminder the fight was not quite over. Not when there were still those out there who would take it and her from me.

“Soon we will be together in paradise,” I murmured to her in my old language, as I had that night I’d soothed her from her nightmare. “Soon we will walk beneath theorutrees hand in hand. And there will be no hunger, no pain, and no grief—only you and me.”

CHAPTER

FORTY-FIVE

The raysof early dawn rippled overhead.

My legs swung off the edge of my family’s platform as I rested back on my hands, watching the dappled light spill through the trees. The calling of theripabirds roosting in their nests tangled with the sounds of my village waking. Inside, my mother murmured to my father and above water rushed through one of the reserve basins to fill the pots in Kal’s home.

Warmth curled around my shoulders, heavy but nothing like the weight I’d been carrying in my chest for so many cycles. A shoulder pressed against mine and I sighed, leaning into him.

“How old would she have been now, your sister?” Asher murmured.

We had been talking for so long, I knew we had, but I couldn’t remember our conversation. All I knew was he’d been here with me in this place, his heart beating beside mine. There had been pain…but the pain was only a distant idea. Here I could see their faces so clearly: the gentle curve of my mother’s nose, the wide set of my father’s eyes, the haphazard dark brown curls of my sister.

Brynne. That had been her name.

“Fifteen.” I sighed, gazing up into the wide canopy above where I could just make out the handprints of our people. “This year when the leaves begin to turn, she would have made the climb.”

“I’m sorry.”

When I turned, I couldn’t quite see his face, backlit as it was by the dawn. There were things I needed to ask him and words we had to say, but I couldn’t find them. All I could do was place my hand over his, running my thumb across the raised ridges of his scars. “Thank you.”

His hand flipped up to take mine and he tugged me forward until I was wrapped in his embrace, head tucked beneath his chin. “It’s time to wake up.”

I frowned, twisting so I could still see the branches of my home tree spread around us. Lips pressed against my hair, his arms tightening around me. Here, nothing hurt. Here there was something I’d been dreaming for—longing for even. Something I could never put into words.

“It’s time to go.”

White-hot pain sliced through my bones and I pitched forward, eyes squeezing shut. A beeping pierced through the peaceful silence, a muttered curse, and the tang of blood washed across my tongue.