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Its communication functions had been disabled by a Jorvlen blocker, but luckily everything else still worked, including the electronic lock-picking software Levi had installed.
He grinned up at Cora before tapping on his wrist comm for a second and running the lock-picking program. Cora leaned over, catching a glimpse of the screen, and grinning.
“I should have guessed,” she whispered.
A small, almost imperceptible chime rang out from Levi’s wrist comm, alerting him that the deactivation code had been cracked. Levi grinned, pressing the confirmation button. The wide strip of glowing bars that had served as the door to the cell suddenly disappeared.
He shot Cora another grin. “Stay close,” he whispered before stepping out the door.
Cora followed right behind him, and they snuck down the hallway with Levi peering around the corner to make sure the coast was clear. Sure enough, the hallway was empty and silent, and he shot Cora a grin.
She smiled back, and they both crept forward into the hallway. Levi didn’t know exactly where they were heading, or even what they were looking for necessarily, but he figured there had to be some information somewhere on the ship. Something that could tell them where they were holding the Desolation Stone.
He remembered Zyair’s stories from his mission to retrieve the stone. Zyair and Layla had overheard conversations about the stone’s whereabouts that only happened because they were sneaking around on some Jorvlen ship. Maybe Levi would get the same lucky break.
As they crept down the corridor, Levi decided to start checking rooms, hoping to come across something useful. He motioned to Cora to play lookout as he inched open the first door on his right. It was a lavatory—entirely uninteresting and unpleasant to boot.
The next door was a bunk room, and he just barely managed to close the door before someone stirred from sleep. The last thing they needed was a bunk full of angry, groggy Jorvlens on their tails. Levi decided they’d better get out of there just in case. He grabbed Cora’s hand, and they scurried into an adjacent corridor.
He stopped dead as they rounded the corner when he caught sight of a sliver of light spilling out from a partially open door halfway down the hall.
Turning to Cora, he made a gesture to stay quiet. She nodded, and the two of them crept stealthily forward, approaching the door slowly and silently.
For a long time, they heard no sound from inside. Levi thought the room might be empty, and the light had been kept on by accident. His heart was racing as he crept a little further forward, peering around the doorjamb and into the room.
What he saw made him jump back. The room was an office of some kind. Sitting in the center of the room at a desk facing a wall was a Jorvlen soldier. From the glimpse Levi got of his uniform, he appeared highly ranked, and Levi hoped to the gods he hadn’t seen him.
The room remained silent, though. As Levi tried to hold his breath outside the office door, the soft sound of fingers tapping on holo-keys reached his ears. The Jorvlen must have been engrossed enough in his work not to notice Levi.
Suddenly, the rustle of papers met Levi’s ears, along with the scrape of a chair being pushed back. Levi turned, grabbing Cora’s arm again and running back down the hall before the Jorvlen exited the office.
They ran all the way back to the cell, and Levi locked the door behind them. The glowing bars found their way back into place, making it look as if they’d never left.
“What did you see?” asked Cora once they’d caught their breath.
“An office and a Jorvlen soldier inside. He might have been a colonel or a general—pretty high up from what I saw,” he told her. “I bet that computer has what we’re looking for.”
Cora nodded. “We need to get back into that room as soon as we can,” she told him. “I’m sure I can get into that computer.”
He nodded back. Even though they hadn’t recovered anything concrete, he felt like they were already on their way to helping save Lorr, and Cora was the missing piece of the puzzle in making it happen.
He gazed at her, admiring her shining brown eyes, her flushed cheeks pink from running, and the way her chest heaved from the physical commotion.
“You really are something. You know?” he mused.
This time he didn’t backpedal. Cora blushed, her cheeks glowing redder than before, but she didn’t avert her gaze.
“So are you,” she said, her voice low.
It wasn’t an obligatory empty compliment but a sign that she felt the same way he felt about her.
Without thinking, Levi raised his hand to the soft skin of her cheek. As he cupped her face, his fingers instantly found their way to that soft spot on her neck that he had dreamed about practically since the moment he met her. He still longed to kiss it, but first, his eyes glanced down to her lips. He saw they were parting softly, as if she were longing to kiss him, too. Before he knew it, he was pressing his lips to hers, and she was kissing him back.
The softness and warmth of her mouth set his whole body alight, and everything else melted away—the holding cell, the Jorvlens, the ship, even the mission.
For the moment, all he felt was her.
Chapter 7
