Page 25 of Alien Assassin's Heir

Later, after the courier slinks back into the night and the tower goes quiet, I retreat to my hideout.

It’s a cave in the rockface just outside the boundary grid, covered by an old heat-dampener tarp and sensor scramblers. Inside, I’ve cobbled together a workspace from smuggler junk, stolen parts, and a couple of Helios scrapboxes.

It smells like oil and regret.

I sit at the console and log the courier’s activity with minimal notes. My fingers pause over the terminal.

Should I report the Helios breach?

Targen would flip his spines. He’d send in a sweep team, maybe even target Luna if he thinks she’s been compromised.

I clench my jaw.

Not yet.

I close the file and push the terminal away.

The quiet wraps around me, thick and cold.

I pull an old logbook from under the bench—real paper, ancient thing. Stolen from a Helios freighter two years ago. The pages are yellowed, the binding cracked.

I flip to a blank page.

And I draw.

Claws careful, strokes light. Just like she taught me once, years ago, when we were tangled in sheets and soft light and hope.

I don’t need reference.

Her face lives behind my eyes.

The curve of her jaw. The shape of her eyes. The mouth that used to smile when I said something stupid. The lines I put there when I broke everything.

I sketch her hair, loose and wind-blown.

Her shoulders, small and strong.

Her expression—sad, tired, still beautiful.

When I’m done, I stare at it for a long time.

My throat aches.

Like I’ve swallowed fire.

She deserves peace. Not this. Not me hovering outside her life like a shadow waiting to devour it.

I tear the page from the binding.

Light it with my claw.

Watch it curl and blacken until nothing’s left but ash.

I am not that man anymore.

I can’t be.

The sky splitslike old leather—thin, ragged, scorched by propulsion wash as a dark wedge streaks across the clouds. I glance up from the rock shelf, eyes narrowing. The Coalition skiff cuts a lean path above the outer valley, black hull glinting dully in the dying light, red sigils flaring faint along its belly.