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My mouth opened, then closed again without producing words.

"A date," he clarified, as if I might have misunderstood. "If you're amenable."

I stared at him, trying to determine if he was serious. His expression was earnest, missing its usual mask of perfect neutrality.

"You want to call this a date?" I finally managed. "Stranded in space, eating terrible rations?"

"The circumstances aren't ideal," he admitted, "but the company is exceptional."

I narrowed my eyes. "You're not just…I mean, we're in a high-pressure situation. We’ve been in one intense situation after another during this mission. Is that why you kissed me, first in the dungeon and then in the med bay?”

A genuine smile spread across his face, transforming his features. "Morgan, if I were in the habit of kissing people simplybecause they were around during intense moments, I would have kissed the Admiral many times by now."

The mental image made me burst out laughing, tension unwinding from my shoulders. "Now there's a thought."

"One I'd rather not dwell on," Tivek said dryly. "The truth is, I've been intrigued by you since the first moment I saw you at the academy.”

“Really?”

“You are clever and observant,” he said, his eyes holding mine with an intensity that made my pulse quicken. “I noticed you almost immediately, and I have been observing you from afar.”

I felt heat creeping up my neck. "You have? I didn’t know.”

He sniffed. “Shadows are trained to conceal their interests and desires."

"And now?" I asked, suddenly bold. "Are you still concealing?"

His gaze was intense as he held mine. Then he looked away quickly and snapped his fingers. “I just remembered something.”

Chapter

Thirty-Six

Tivek

“Do all ships hide Drexian wine on board?” Morgan asked as she passed the pouch back to me, our fingers brushing in the exchange.

“Not all. We were lucky.” I’d found a few of the pouches tucked in the back of the supply cabinet, and we’d decided to open one of them. The wine wasn't the finest Drex had to offer, but it was potent enough to make the nervousness in her eyes fade.

I took a sip and let the tangy liquid cool my throat and warm my belly. The wine was doing an admirable job of making me feel less worried about our odds.

Morgan leaned back against the wall, her legs stretched out so that they almost reached mine. “Tell me what it's really like being a Shadow. Not the recruitment speech version."

I hesitated. Years of secrecy were difficult to overcome, even now.

“We’re stuck out here with little hope of being found unless we can get communications back up,” she reminded me with a playful nudge of her foot. "You might as well spill.”

It was hard to argue with that logic or deny her anything since it was my fault she was there. "What would you like to know?"

"Your most dangerous mission," she said immediately, eyes sparkling. "The one where you were absolutely sure you wouldn't make it out."

I took another sip of wine, considering. There were so many to choose from, each with its own particular flavor of peril. "There was the time I had to jump from a tower window into a storming sea.”

Her eyes widened. "How high?"

"High enough that I wasn't certain if the impact would kill me before I drowned," I admitted. "It was on Kronock-occupied Veridian. I'd been discovered accessing their command center, and the only exit was, well, down."

"What happened?" she asked, drawing her knees up to her chest, fully engaged.