Page 73 of Alien Assassin's Heir

CHAPTER 21

LUNA

The safehouse is quieter than it has any right to be. Outside, the canyon wind rattles the metal shutters and carries the dry grit of Arkosh’s night air, but inside all I can hear is laughter—soft, unguarded, full of sunlight even though the moons have already risen.

Solie’s laughter.

I lean against the doorframe, arms folded, and watch.

Kraj is crouched on the floor, that massive frame folded down as small as it can go. His claws are curled inward, tucked against his palms so they don’t look sharp or dangerous. Solie has a stack of carved wooden blocks—Vale must’ve scavenged them from some trader—and she’s making towers only to giggle as Kraj deliberately knocks them down with exaggerated horror.

“Oh no!” he groans, pitching his voice into a deep rumble that makes the floorboards vibrate. He throws his head back like a toppled beast, tail curling around him dramatically. “The mighty fortress has fallen! Who can rebuild it?”

Solie squeals and claps her little hands, her golden eyes glowing in the lamplight. “Me! I can!”

I bite down on my lip so hard I taste copper. My chest aches, not from pain but from something so raw it’s almost unbearable.

Because in all the years I knew him, all the nights tangled in sheets or days walking under foreign suns, I’ve never seen Kraj smile the way he does now. Not the sly grin of a spy working an angle. Not the wolfish smirk of a soldier who thinks he’s invincible.

This is softer. Smaller. Reverent.

Like he can’t believe what he’s holding in his hands.

And God help me, it makes me want to believe too.

But there’s tension coiled under it. I can see it in the lines of his shoulders, the way his jaw tightens when he thinks I’m not looking. The storm is building behind his eyes, quiet but certain, and I know enough of storms to recognize their weight.

I push away from the doorway and step closer. The old floor groans under me, and his head turns slightly, his golden gaze flicking up to find me.

For a second, it feels like three years have fallen away. Like it’s just us again, him looking at me like I’m the only steady thing in a galaxy at war.

But then Solie’s block tower crashes again and she shrieks with laughter, and the moment shatters.

I crouch beside them, brushing a stray lock of hair from Solie’s forehead. “Careful, firefly,” I murmur. “Don’t let him trick you into doing all the hard work.”

Kraj huffs a low laugh, deep in his chest. “She’s smarter than both of us. She knows exactly what she’s doing.”

Solie beams, proud, before losing herself in rebuilding the tower.

I let her focus on that before turning to him, lowering my voice so it won’t carry to her small, curious ears. “What are you planning, Kraj?”

His expression shifts—just slightly, but enough. The softness lingers, but something harder glints beneath it. He looks at mefor a long time, and the silence is heavy, pressing down until I feel my lungs tighten.

His answer comes. Simple. Final.

“I’m making sure no one ever touches either of you again.”

My breath catches. I want to believe him—want to sink into those words and let them wrap around me like a shield. The way he says it, like it’s a vow carved in stone, shakes something loose inside me.

But belief doesn’t come easy anymore. Not when I remember the files hidden in his kit. The orders he’s carried out. The silence that damned him more than any confession could.

“What does that mean?” I whisper.

His eyes stay on Solie, watching her tiny hands stack block on block. His voice is low, controlled. “It means I do what I have to. The Coalition. The Combine. The Alliance. Doesn’t matter who. They don’t get to take what’s mine.”

The words should scare me. They should send me running for the farthest corner of the galaxy.

But all I feel is the echo of his certainty, thrumming through the air like a pulse.