Page 196 of The Space Between Stars

That was a route she would not sail. Not with everything they’d already lost. Her chest ached worse than her fated leg. What if Mitek had been right? What if Calver was the one who had betrayed her? What if the Tera’thians had converted him and he was requesting her aid in Steila only to hand-deliver her to Cul’Mon?

Traitor.

The thought lanced talons into her gut.

Like their blood-father. Like Gelhard. Like… She looked at Mitek.

No point in wearing her emotions like a hat. They would not shield her from the burn.

“We move for the warehouse in Casowhatan. I take it Drogus is ahead of me in alerting border patrol and getting our papers in order?”

Mitek nodded. “All over it.”

She breathed in the salty sea air and let it out slowly. “Excellent.” She nearly vomited around the word.

Mitek moved beside her to stare out over the cliffs of Thaligan. His elbow jabbed at hers. “Remember the last time we were here?”

The smile that tugged at her unwilling lips was fake. “Yeah.” But the vice loosened around her chest. It had been more than a year ago. She and Mitek and Cam had scrambled up the cliffs. It had taken them almost an hour to get to an outcropping that vaulted over deep, rockless water.

“We were seeing who would chicken out, backflipping from the ledge. I was about hyperventilating, psyching myself up to do it. My heart was beating out my ears. You were already in the water, casual as a fucking fish, when Cam hit.”

She remembered. Dislocated shoulder. Burst eardrum.

Mitek chuckled. “Swam him to the rocks, you did. And you were screaming at him to stop being such a fucking baby while you popped his arm back into place.”

She snorted. It was almost genuine. “Well, I could hardly concentrate over his blubbering.”

“That was the first time I realized…”

Fankalo’s newfound levity crashed down. The way he was looking at her.

Dread pooled in her stomach. No no no, Mitek.

“You. Ahm. You were an amazing leader.” Mitek’s hand ran through his long black hair, straight as silk and littered with small braids. He gave her a weak grin that didn’t meet his eyes and turned away.

Mitek already knew she wouldn’t have him. That she couldn’t give him what he wanted. Why did that make her feel even worse?

Fankalo swallowed, and it felt like pushing a stone through her throat. If she were to do anything but dismiss him back to his station this instant, she’d be a fool. But with everything that was happening, she could hardly stand the thought of being alone.

She’d act a fool if it meant she didn’t have to think about Calver, abandoned to his fate without her aid, for even a heartbeat. She’d act a fool if it meant she and Mitek could be the way they used to. Her eyes lingered on the cliffside.

“Mitek. Do you want to…”

His gaze followed hers. “You bet your lucky ass I do.”

No ‘What about your leg?’ or ‘Sure you’ll make it?’ Just, “I’ll even let you get a headstart,” and that cocky grin of his.

He began pulling his tunic over his head. “But Drogus left this afternoon for Casowhatan?” As if he were genuinely concerned with order of command and hadn’t already made up his mind to goof off for the evening.

Fankalo shrugged and whistled up at the crow’s nest, Zeb’s old station. “Ay, Cam!” she screeched.

Mitek’s mouth fell open. Cam’s scraggly head peered down at her from the basket. She nearly missed his wind-muffled, “Captain?”

“Rapture’s in your charge for a span. Keep at anchor.”

A long pause. Then an enthusiastic, “Yes, Captain!”

Mitek cackled as they undressed to their underclothes, leaving the rest in a pile on the deck. They swung their bodies over the rail—Fankalo, minding her leg, at a dive and Mitek ass-first.