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I hesitated in the doorway, then stepped inside and closed the door behind me. Without a word, I sat beside her, careful to leave space between us. For several moments, I just listened to her drag in ragged breaths.

"It's okay to be scared," I finally said, keeping my voice low.

She looked up, her eyes red-rimmed but dry. "I shouldn't be. I'm supposed to be an Assassin, but I keep thinking that I belong back in the Stacks, planning the theory of battles, not actually engaging in them." Her laugh was bitter. "Pretty cowardly, huh?"

"Not at all. Doing something even when it terrifies you is braver than running into battle after battle when you love fighting."

Morgan blinked at me, then a small smile curved her lips. "So, you're saying I'm braver than a Blade?"

"That's a given," I replied with complete seriousness, then allowed myself to return her smile.

She laughed then, and the sound sent unexpected heat through my chest. Our eyes met, and for a moment, everything else faded away. There was just the two of us sitting on the bed and laughing.

Then I remembered where we were. I stood, reluctantly breaking the moment. "I should get back. We’re heading into the nebula and?—“

The ship suddenly pitched to one side, throwing me back onto the bunk beside Morgan. The lights flickered as something slammed into the hull with enough force to make the entire vessel shudder. I knew in an instant that it wasn't the normal turbulence of the tractor beam or entering the nebula.

It was something else entirely.

Chapter

Thirty

Morgan

"Are we under attack?" I gasped, clutching Tivek's arm for support as the floor seemed to tilt beneath us.

"I don't know. It could be something in the nebula."

We scrambled to our feet and rushed back to the front of the ship, navigating the tilting corridor as the ship continued to pitch. By the time we arrived, everyone was gathered around Ariana and Sasha and holding themselves steady by gripping overhead bars. The two sisters were engaged in a rapid-fire exchange over the controls.

"—no choice but to set down," Ariana was saying.

Sasha nodded, pointing to a readout I couldn't decipher. "There. That planetoid has enough surface stability for both ships."

"We won't get back up without fixing the engines," Vyk cautioned.

"We're not getting anywhere with the ship in this condition," Ariana shot back. "And I'd rather be stranded on solid ground than playing bumper cars with an asteroid field.”

I peered through the viewscreen at the asteroid field and the barren, dusty planet on the other side of it. It was an uninviting world hidden under swirling nebula gases that painted the sky in eerie colors. But Ariana was right that it was better than the alternative.

The ship groaned in protest as Ariana wrestled the controls to set us down. I squeezed my eyes shut at one point, certain we were about to crash, but somehow she managed to bring us down next to the other Drexian vessel, which had already landed in a surprisingly graceful fashion.

"Nice landing," Sasha said after our ship settled with a final, bone-jarring thud.

Ariana flashed her a tired grin. "Could've been worse."

"Could've been a lot worse," Deklyn agreed, his voice unusually serious.

Relief flooded through me as the engines powered down. We were no longer floating helplessly in space. We had solid ground beneath us, barren as it might be, and the other ship was only meters away.

The two women continued their discussion of ship diagnostics, falling into an easy rapport that fascinated me. Watching them work together, I was struck by how seamlessly Sasha had integrated into our team. After all those months of planning her rescue, she was actually here.

No one could argue she wasn’t the worse for wear, but she was alive and helping us survive. It was hard not to be impressed by her tenacity. It was even harder not to want to feed her and wipe off every bit of grime that was a reminder of her captivity.

"What now?" I asked, turning to Tivek, who had been quietly observing from behind me.

"I should report to the admiral," he replied, his voice low. "You should come with me."