Page 100 of Shielded in the Shadows

Byx’s gaze focused on Jarrix’s mended wings. He scowled, which was a truly terrifying sight on his enormous face. “You had trouble, I see.”

“Only a reasonable amount,” Jarrix replied with a grin that showed his fangs. “The other guy looks much, much worse. In fact…” He leaned closer and lowered his voice to a conspiratorial volume. “Zwee ate him.”

Byx’s laugh rolled through the bay like thunder. “Excellent! I have always said every ship needs a gorga.”

“We’re very fond of ours.” I patted Felina’s silky, furry back and finally extricated myself from her embrace. “Per your request, we’ve returned more or less in the same condition we were in when we left, and your ship didn’t get so much as a scratch.”

“Good to hear, good to hear.” He rubbed two of his upper tentacles together in glee. “I’m pleased to see the journey was a success and your troubles have been resolved.”

“Most of them,” I agreed. I didn’t glance at the bag containing the orb, but I did hold up the datachip. “Speaking of which, I’ve come into possession of this little item. My scans show it’s clean of trackers or explosives, but we need a secure place to access whatever’s on it.”

“I have just the facility to assist you.” Byx gestured grandly with his largest tentacle at the doorway leading from the bay. “If you’ll come with us, I’ll have all your possessions and Zwee transported directly to your vessel. Unless you plan to stay with us a while?”

“We have an urgent matter to attend to now that the bounty matter is settled,” Jarrix said, falling into step next to me as we followed Byx and Felina down a long corridor and away from the noise of the docking bay. “But we plan to return to the outpost as soon as we can.”

“I am so glad,” Felina said, smiling at me. She and Byx were walking side by side with one of her clawed hands cradled in the curled tip of his smallest tentacle. “I would welcome comms from you at any time, my sweet friend.”

“I feel the same,” I said around an unexpected lump in my throat. Jarrix squeezed my hand.

Byx led our group to a secure control center deep inside the station. Felina stayed in an outer room while the three of us ventured into the inner chamber.

“A bio-lock,” Byx mused, studying the datachip in my palm. “Coded to your DNA, I expect?”

“Correct.” I looked around the room. “Where should I place it once it’s unlocked?”

He indicated a slot in the control panel. “Here. It will be held until we exit the room and then accessed. These computers are isolated and do not connect to any other systems inside or outside of the station. The room is heavily blast-proof and will be sealed. Whatever is on the datachip will not be stored in any way on this equipment. It will only appear either on the screens in the outer room or on a datapad that you can dispose of or take with you—whichever you prefer.”

Since I truly had no inkling what might be on the datachip, it was probably safest not to let anyone else see it before I did—not even Byx or Felina. “A datapad would be best,” I said.

What was I about to find? Another message from Leomer? Some other unwanted bit of information about my past? Something about Marcila, a woman I hadn’t thought about in more than a decade until Vinian’s use of the word scrap dredged up memories of the day Calla and I had been sold? Truly, it could be anything, or nothing. Really what I cared about most at the moment was accessing it without endangering anyone, especially our friends.

Jarrix rested his hand on my lower back. Through our bond, I sensed his calm reassurance.

I removed the datachip from its case, pricked the tip of my index finger on the point of my dagger, and touched my blood to the tiny scanner on the chip. The scanner immediately lit up orange as the datachip unlocked.

That orange glow was a final confirmation of who and what Leomer had claimed to be. Despite my distrustful nature, my gut had told me who he was even before he’d given his name in the recording. That the bio-lock had opened by matching our shared DNA left no room for argument.

I slipped the datachip into the slot Byx had pointed out and we filed back out of the secured area.

As the doors locked and sealed behind us, Byx handed me a datapad before joining Felina on the far of the outer room to give us privacy.

Jarrix bent and pressed a kiss to my temple. “Would you like me to step away?” he murmured. “It is purely your choice. I will not be offended.”

Back on Saistea, if the circumstances hadn’t required Jarrix to remain close as my backup and I’d known Orqiel planned to subject me to a recording of Leomer introducing himself and confessing his sins, I would have asked Jarrix to let me view the hologram alone. But with the benefit of hindsight, I was grateful I hadn’t known, and that Jarrix had been there for me when I’d needed him.

Having him at my side had done more than make the intolerable tolerable. The way he’d slipped his arms under mine, so steady and unyielding, and braced me against the onslaught of Leomer’s appearance and tale, meant more than I could have put into words. He couldn’t take those hits in my stead, but he made sure I didn’t go down when they landed.

“Stay,” I said. “Please.”

He stood behind me once again, wrapped his arms around my middle, and folded his wings close on either side of us to form what felt like a kind of upright nest.

I took a few deep breaths to let his heat and scent and reassurance settle my stomach, and then I tapped the necessary sequence of commands on the datapad screen to access the datachip’s contents. Behind the sealed doors and out of sight, the chip lowered into the input slot.

Scanning…the datapad read.

We waited for more than two minutes for the scans to finish. When no dangers were detected, the word Accessing appeared. Finally, rows and columns of numbers and text filled the screen.

It took me several seconds to understand what I was seeing. Utter shock left me numb. Jarrix was stunned as well, but my mate found his voice sooner than I did.