Page 16 of Thexan

“That’s not the same as right.”

“No,” he said. “It is not.”

The honesty was not comforting, exactly, but it was better than another clipped answer.

I sat beside the cot, suddenly aware of how tired I was and how little room there was left for pretending this was still only a medical problem.

“He trusts me,” I said quietly.

“Yes.”

“And I used that.”

Thexan’s expression changed by almost nothing, but his focus sharpened. “You protected him from information he could not yet use safely.”

“That sounds like a convenient way to describe lying.”

“It is a precise way to describe timing.”

Despite everything, I almost laughed. Almost.

I rubbed my thumb once over the back of his hand, then realized I had done it and stopped. His attention dropped briefly to the movement before returning to my face.

“I can’t keep doing this in fragments,” I said. “Tanner found blood on the ridge. There are people hunting you. My settlement may be in danger. And whatever is happening between us is apparently important enough that your body starts failing when I move too far away.”

“It is important enough that my enemies would kill you if they understood it.”

The room seemed to narrow.

There it was.

Not another clipped answer chosen because he thought I could survive it. The truth.

The truth.

I held his gaze. “Then you need to stop protecting me from knowing things that can kill me.”

For the first time, he looked away.

Not far. Only enough that I understood the motion for what it was.

Conflict.

“I believed limited knowledge would reduce your risk,” he said.

“And does it?”

“No.” His answer came quietly, but without hesitation. “Not now.”

“Then tell me what we’re dealing with.”

His gaze returned to mine, and this time, when he spoke, the distance in him had changed shape.

“They are a kill unit,” he said. “Sent to retrieve or eliminate me before I reach anyone who could use what I know. If they discover this settlement sheltered me, they will not distinguish between combatant and civilian. If they identify you as connected to me, they will prioritize you.”

My fingers tightened around his without meaning to.

“Because I helped you?”