Page 97 of Smuggler's Beauty

Remember who we are.

As the screen faded to black, Evelyn swiped a tear from her cheek. She flipped the tablet over.

Veronique was staring at her, rolling her mug in her hands.

“Did you have to do something to my voice? It sounds so . . .” She cleared her throat. “It’s effective.”

Veronique shook her head. “That was the least amount of editing we did. Just moved some stories around.”

“Lillian wants to upload this?”

“A few variations, yeah. Some shorter, just one story at a time.”

Evelyn’s heart started to race. It made her skin crawl to think about the entirety of the planet seeing this, listening to her voice. She had never wanted the spotlight.

No one said cleaning up your mess was going to be a good time, Evelyn.

It was easy to hide in her closet and play with electronics. But putting herself front and center, declaring that she was taking the crown from her father was starting to feel very, very real.

Every word out of her mouth would be scrutinized the minute she bled into that damn cup. Every action dissected and analyzed. The reality of everything she was positioning herself to do hit her, severing her grip on the denial she’d been clinging to.

For a brief moment, she realized she’d be living the opposite of the sort of life anyone on theDawnwould want to lead, but she quashed the thought. Her selfishness was the thing that had put her in this position in the first place. The cozy existence she’d retreated into here on theDawnwould be relegated to her fantasies. Evelyn was in no position to dream of keeping the life she was starting to love onboard. No position to dream about keeping Aiden, any of them, after they fulfilled their obligations. He may seem to adore her, but she had serious doubts that he’d adore being trapped on an unstable planet. She wouldn’t blame him. She wasn’t looking forward to it herself.

In order for Tanalia to have freedom, hers would have to vaporize — and that was assuming that all of Corvinia’s carefully orchestrated plans went off without a hitch, that she truly did have every aspect of her harebrained scheme finely tuned.

If it would help to oust Emil from power, it would be worth it. Sacrifices weren’t supposed to be painless.

With a sigh, Evelyn shoved the tablet back to Veronique. “When is she planning on starting the hack?”

Veronique grinned. “Right about now, actually. Do you want to watch her in action?”

Evelyn shook her head. “As thrilling as watching Lillian type and yell at L.I.N.D.A. sounds, I should probably do something more constructive.” She looked over Veronique’s shoulder. The lobby planters had been emptied, the dead vegetation fed into the recycler to make paper products. The soil looked freshly tilled. “How’s Cairn doing?”

“He’s fine. He had a brief meltdown, but he’s come around.”

“I don’t know if there’s enough pineapple-flavored confectionery in existence to apologize for ruining his work.”

Veronique snorted. “Once the shock wore off, he was very grateful you managed to boost the shields. The assessment he made once we got to the space station was worse than he’dcalculated in the midst of the attack. He wouldn’t have been able to make the jump if they’d got another shot in.”

The guilt she’d had gnawing away subsided a bit. Big picture, their lives were more important than any botanical display — no matter how lovingly tended. She flashed a weak smile.

Veronique pushed back her chair. “I’m going to go watch Lillian do her thing.”

Evelyn headed across the lobby and was surprised to find Aiden in the little storage room. He was sitting at her folding table, staring at her books, levitating an assortment of electronics. She took a moment to just appreciate the sight of him from the door.

No one should look that sexy in a button down.

She tapped on the doorframe as she entered, breaking his concentration. The objects remained aloft, and if she wasn’t mistaken, the speed at which they rotated in the air increased as he saw her in the doorway. The smile that spread across his face made Evelyn weak in the knees. She shoved away the thought that seeing that smile might be one of the sacrifices she was about to make.

“Hey there, dollface,” he said, reaching out a hand to her. She crossed the small space and let him pull her onto his lap.

“What are you doing in here? My whiteboard is way too small for you.”

He chuckled, tucking her waves behind her ear. “I was looking for you.”

Evelyn wondered if she’d ever stop getting butterflies when he did that hair thing. Probably not.

“Can you assess me? My levels of Amplification?” he asked. “I still feel pretty juiced.”