Page 65 of Rauf: Minotaur Mates

She drew her feet closer beneath the chair. “My family didn’t know I was leaving Earth. I told them after I’d already gone.”

“Not even Jason?”

She shook her head. “Especially not Jason. He would have come over and stayed until he’d talked me out of it. They all think they know what’s best for me. I wanted to do something without asking them first.” She picked at a patch of dried mud on her knee. “I thought if I was married and living here, they’d have to let me.”

I’d liked the idea of starting over myself. I’d even liked Julia when we’d met, despite how unhappy she was. We’d been sharing a room, and I’d wanted her to feel better about being here. I hadn’t realized how much she’d hated it.

“What did you tell him about Dezan?”

“That it wasn’t working. That I was lonely. I wanted my family, and I wanted to go home, and I’d made this huge mistake.” A flake of dirt came loose under her nail. She brushed it off her pants and kept looking at the spot it had left. “I cried through most of the call.”

“Did you tell Nezara you wanted to leave?”

Julia shook her head.

Nezara was sitting right outside. She’d found Julia somewhere to live after Dezan, and she could have helped her leave the planet. Julia hadn’t even asked.

I rubbed the back of my neck. “So Jason decided to come get you.”

“He doesn’t wait once he’s made up his mind. He just does things. When I saw him at Otho’s, he said we’d be home already if the auto-nav hadn’t failed.”

“He crashed the ship because he couldn’t fly it?”

“He wasn’t supposed to have to. The auto-nav was supposed to do it.” She lifted her head. “Teresa, he was lying there with his leg all bandaged up. They’d put him in restraints. He thought they were going to lock him up and keep me here.”

I looked at the fading bruise on her cheek. There’d been blood on her sleeve when we’d found her outside the clinic.

“And he punched you?”

Julia pressed her lips together, then winced and touched the place where the skin had split. “I told him to.”

I got up. The chair scraped across the floor behind me, and Julia pulled her hand away from her mouth.

“You told him to hit you?”

“He didn’t want to.” She reached for me again, but I was already stepping around the chair. “Please don’t go.”

I stopped beside the shelves. I’d cleaned blood off her face. I’d gone to get her tea while she sat there looking terrified, and all that time she’d known exactly where he’d gone. I didn’t want her touching me while I thought about that.

“You let me think he’d attacked you.”

“We needed to get him out. I told him Otho was helping, but he wouldn’t believe me. He was hurt, and he didn’t know any of them.”

“So you decided to help him escape.”

“He’s my brother.” She had both hands in her lap now. “I couldn’t leave him there.”

I put my hand against the shelf behind me. The edge pressed into my palm, and I loosened my grip. I could feel myself getting angrier, and I didn’t know how much more she still hadn’t told me.

“What did hitting you accomplish?”

“If they thought he’d hurt me, they wouldn’t think I’d helped. I could leave later and meet him.” Her eyes filled again. “He said it was a stupid idea.”

He’d done it anyway. I looked at her cheek and tried to remember why I’d volunteered for this.

“Maisie said you asked her to bring fruit.”

Julia didn’t answer. I waited beside the shelves until she looked up at me.