“Tyff.” She stepped over to him and put a hand on his chest. “Only you can find her.”
“What?”
“The link between you is your best chance. I know you’re closer to her now than you were before, but you can still open your heart even further. If you can trust yourself, you can find her.”
“Trust,” he echoed, unsure. Of course he trusted himself! He didn’t know what she was getting at.
“You don’t trust others because you think you should have seen the attacks coming,” she said, softly. “You’ve lost faith in your own instincts.” She took a step back, gesturing at the door.
“Trust your heart, Tyff, and go. Only you can find her.”
Tyff didn’t know what to say, but he felt inspired. He struggled for words, but Dawn just shook her head and waved.
Tyff hurried from the room, thinking of Renay and how much he wanted to hold her. He thought about her love and how she trusted him without thought.
Immediately, he turned toward the cargo bay and began to jog.
Chapter Thirty
When she could finally open her eyes, Renay found herself cramped into a tiny corner, her wrists and ankles tied. She was sitting up with her head propped on the wall. When she tried to swallow, the gag got in her way and she almost choked. Her newly healed ribs and right knee were burning with agony from the harsh treatment.
She blinked, the low light making her vision hazy. She saw Luke nearby, crouched in the corner. He was looking at a small device, frowning and muttering to himself. When he looked up and saw her staring at him, his face twisted like a five-year-old about to have a tantrum.
“You,” he whined. “Why did you have to come along right now? This wasn’t the plan!”
Renay shook her head, not sure what she was denying, except that it was the only response she could make.
“What the fuck am I supposed to do with you? Huh?” he asked, standing up. He started to pace in front of her, gesturing emphatically with his hands. “This is going to screw everything up. I can’t blow the ship until everyone is on board.”
Her eyes nearly bugged out of her head and she choked on the gag again in her eagerness to talk.
Blow the ship? What the hell?
“I mean, you were so nice and everything. I appreciate that. The Preor who took care of us yesterday were really nice, too.” His eyes had taken on a dreamy look, his hand gently stroking his chin. “I got a really good look at the best places to hide the micro bombs. Then today, you had us working in the actual room where the ceremony will be held.” He shook his head, smiling broadly.
“All the Preor. All the mates. Conveniently packed into one room. There might be a few left in the Tower, but who cares? Once the ship is gone and the few hundred up here are gone with it, they’ll be stuck. We can pick them off and the threat will be over.”
Renay tried to talk again, wishing she could just stop. Every time she tried, her teeth dug into the grimy fabric and her throat closed on nothing.
I guess this is why they call it a gag.
“The Ujal are okay,” Luke said, conversationally. “You barely notice them. They stay under the radar, quite literally, but the Preor…” He shook his heads dramatically. “They are hanging over your head constantly. Big wings, big claws, big teeth, big—”
He stopped suddenly and turned on her, his eyes like glowing flint.
“You would know all about that though. Wouldn’t you? You’re a Preor mate, so you’d know all about their giant cocks. What’s it like? Huh? Is that why you can’t ever go back to a human after? Too much length? Can’t get a feel for a real man anymore?”
Renay stared at him in shock. Whatever she had been expecting, he had just taken a sudden and violent turn away from it.
This is about fucking penis envy?
Renay didn’t usually swear, but this was the perfect moment. Besides, it was only in her head.
“What the fuck am I going to do,” he whined. “I have to hide you somewhere. I have to wait for them all to get here. If I blow the ship now, my mission is a failure!”
Your mission is already a failure. They won’t go ahead with the ceremony until they find you and kick your ass up one side and down the other.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he muttered, clutching his temples. “I don’t know what to do! I thought if I went out on my own, I could impress her. I just wanted her to like me. I mean, even if I didn’t live through it, Hazel would look up into the sky and see the ship turning into a ball of dust. She’d say, ‘Luke did that.’ She’d be so happy.” He stood up, glaring at Renay.
She literally had no idea what he was talking about. Just as Luke took a step toward her, she felt a strange, heavy numbness around her temples. At first, she thought it was just the gag, but then she started to see flashes of the cargo bay from different perspectives.
It’s Tyff!
She knew it. She could feel it in a place even deeper than her heart, something that tugged on her soul. They were open to each other now, fully and completely open.
Hearts as one.
She looked up at Luke and made some noise through the gag. He stopped in front of her with his hands on his hips, glaring.
“Oh, what? You want to talk now? Why should I let you? You had to come along and fuck up everything. I should just fucking kill you.”
She kept making noises and nodding as hard as she could. She could sense Tyff getting closer, and in the twinned vision she could see Luke’s back.
He’s close.
“What do you want to say? Huh?” Luke taunted, enjoying himself. “You want to apologize? Beg for mercy? Well, you can forget it. The Preor have none for us, so why should I have any for you?”
She could see Tyff over Luke’s shoulder now and she tried to laugh, hurting herself as she tried to suck air through the gag again. Luke actually screamed when he saw the dark shadow looming over his shoulder, but he didn’t have time to suffer. Tyff punched him hard in the back of the neck and he hit the concrete with a loud crack.
“Renay.” He knelt in front of her, pulling the gag from her mouth. He tore apart the ropes on her wrists and feet with one sharp tug and pulled her into his lap.
“Tyff,” she whispered, stroking his face. They were fully linked. She could feel it. Tyff had a smile on his face wider than she had ever seen.
“You found me by listening to your heart,” she murmured, tears in her eyes. He nodded.
“Dawn helped me, again. I had never considered looking inside myself for the answer, but it was there all along.” He closed his eyes briefly.
“I couldn’t trust myself, my own judgment. I was terrified that if I took the job of War Master, terrible things would happen under my watch, and I couldn’t bear to make that kind of mistake. I had to accept that my distrust of humans was actually part of the fact I didn’t trust myself.”
“And now you do?” She stroked his face, gently.
He grinned. “Now, I trust myself to do my best. It’s all anyone can do. I trust that everyone I meet must be innocent until proven guilty, and it’s wrong to force my issues on others. I can’t let my doubts cloud my judgment.”
Renay giggled. “Somebody get this guy a psych degree.”