Page 29 of Shielded in the Shadows

“You’re most welcome.” Jarrix’s smile grew. “I’m useful on board a ship. If there’s anything else that might need work⁠—”

“Nothing does,” I said, cutting him off. “I keep my ship maintained. My livelihood and my life depend on it.”

“I can tell.” He followed me to my cabin, which was just behind the cockpit and across from the galley. “She is a very fine ship, and a true reflection of her remarkable captain.”

I wanted to stab him so he’d stop being so kind. I wasn’t used to kindness and it grated on my nerves. “Jarrix, stop with the compliments and flattery. It’s not that I’m not grateful for everything you did to help me get off Ghira Station alive and in one piece, but⁠—”

“Barely in one piece,” he growled, and started to reach for me as if he wanted to touch my arm before letting his hand drop back to his side. “I should have prevented that shoulder wound.”

“It’s my job to protect myself,” I shot back. “Not yours.”

He shook his head. “Fighting by your side is my privilege, Keela.”

“It is a privilege, and not one you’ve earned.” I started to cross my arms, then thought better of it when my shoulder twinged. “You don’t get to decide whether you’re my ally. That’s my choice. So is…whatever this is.” I waved my hand in the air between us.

“You know what this is. If my word wasn’t enough to convince you, then the evidence surely has.” His gaze was solemn now. “And I agree with you: it’s your choice.”

Of all the responses I was expecting, that wasn’t one of them.

“Fate or circumstances caused our paths to cross,” he continued, “and my physiology has identified a mutually advantageous, satisfying, and beneficial pairing. But we each have a choice in the matter. I made mine on Ghira Station. And when I say fighting at your side is the greatest privilege of my life, I mean it. I’m not trying to flatter you or manipulate your feelings. It is simply the truth.”

I rubbed my forehead. This blasted true mate business was giving me a headache.

“You need to dress and eat,” Jarrix said, his tone mild enough that I didn’t bristle…much. “This conversation can wait until you’re settled and have had a chance to process what happened on the station.”

“Fine. Just don’t crowd me.” I pressed my hand to the panel beside my cabin to unlock the door. “I’m going to be processing it for a while.”

“Take all the time you need. I’ll make us a meal while you change,” he said, still gently. “Processing is more easily done on a full stomach.”

He wasn’t wrong, but I had to establish some clear boundaries before he decided it was his job to wait on me hand and foot like I was some kind of princess.

“Ground rule number one for being aboard my ship.” I raised my index finger. “I make my own food.” I raised a second finger. “Ground rule number two: clean up after yourself. This is my home and I keep it tidy.”

“Of course, Captain.”

Oh, I liked it when he called me Captain. I turned around and marched into my cabin so he didn’t see my face heat, leaving him standing in the corridor as the doors closed between us.

I took my time getting ready—not because I was avoiding Jarrix, but because my thoughts were spinning in a dozen directions.

As I dressed, I kept seeing flashbacks of Calla’s picture in the file N’vera had shown me. I found myself going still with one leg in my jumpsuit and one still bare, or one boot fastened and the other in my hand.

Since we’d been sent to different training facilities the day after we were sold, I’d only seen my sister twice. Both times were in the halls backstage of an arena between battles. She hadn’t seen me watching her—or at least I didn’t think she did.

For gladiators, it was important not to let it be known if you had blood relations also in the circuit. Fights to the death between siblings were among the highest-grossing events for the promoters, and refusing to fight meant execution for both. How the fact we were sisters didn’t make it into our records, I didn’t know, but it was one of only a few lucky breaks either of us seemed to get during our long years in the arena.

Until I’d seen her Alliance Defense file photo, Calla was still not quite fifteen years old in my mind, which was how old she’d been the second and final time I’d seen her. Three months after that final sighting, I’d turned sixteen, bought my freedom from my stable master, and fled Ganai the same day to avoid the many opportunistic predators who targeted newly freed gladiators and turned them into soldiers in private armies—or worse. A team had even followed me out of my keeper’s office and attempted to kidnap me. The attack forced me to escape the planet without being able to contact Calla.

I’d tried to get a message to her many times during the following year, but either none made it through or she hadn’t been able to respond. And then it was too late—she’d turned sixteen and made her own escape from Ganai, disappearing into the vastness of space without a trace.

Until now.

With my jumpsuit pulled up to my waist and my heart racing, I gave in to curiosity and called up the coordinates I’d gotten from N’vera on the monitor in my cabin. The screen showed a small moon with enormous swirling storms and a purple atmosphere.

Iosa. I’d never heard of it. According to the file, it was a sparsely populated moon orbiting the planet Jakora, which was a well-known resort world just outside Alliance space. Unlike Jakora and several of its sister moons, Iosa had relatively few permanent residents due to its often violent weather. There were a few major cities, some small villages, and one interplanetary port where landings were reportedly dangerous due to the frequency of massive hurricanes.

The second set of coordinates N’vera provided specified a location on the coast of one of Iosa’s small continents, many kilometers from the nearest village. It would be a perfect place to live for those trying to avoid notice, like a presumed-dead human and her retired assassin mate.

I touched the image of Iosa on the screen and thought of Calla’s face as it had looked in her Defense file. I tried to picture a version of that woman living on this storm-ravaged moon. A lump formed in my throat. What was her life like? Was she loved? Was she happy?