Next to me, Trenton stiffened. “I was mostly concerned with Sienna and getting her out of there safely.”
Sterling held up his hands. “You guys brought down the Evander vessel and took prisoner most of the men who are now sleeping peacefully in cryo. I’m not here to judge. I’m just trying to get a sense of how many people we have to worry about showing up. Planning, that’s it.”
There was tension between Blaze and Sterling. I looked between them when Diana spoke fast. “You’re right, Sienna. They don’t get along. Old baggage that maybe someday they’ll make peace with.”
I hadn’t spoken aloud. Did Diana have some mind reading ability?
“I read it on your face. Just thought you might want to know you were right.”
Cash leaned over and kissed her cheek. “Might be one of those things you should have kept to yourself.”
She frowned. “I never know exactly what I should and shouldn’t say.”
Damian shrugged. “Say anything you want as long as you keep talking.”
There was a story in that, but I didn’t want to ask it right now. Instead, I focused on what Diana had said earlier. “I’m sure if they don’t get along, there’s a reason. Blaze is one of the best people I know.”
To my surprise, Sterling grinned. “Well, look at you, Blaze. She has your back in a major way. Never thought I’d see the day when the Commander would be hooked like you are. Good for you. It makes us human.”
“We were already human.” Blaze took a long drink of his water. “We just didn’t know it.”
Canyon picked up his drink and held it toward Blaze in a toast. “Cheers to that.”
The rest of the night went more smoothly. It was pretty much congenial, and despite having slept with Kellan for however long, by the end of dinner, I was yawning. Devil pushed his chair back and walked over to me.
“Come on. Let’s get you to bed.”
That sounded great. I just had no idea where that was. “Where am I staying?”
“We have rooms. In the main area. A family suite, as they call it. It’s comfortable, and I set you up to make sure you would be happy there.”
I rose from my seat. That meant a long walk back. It hadn’t seemed like such a long trek on the way over to Waverly’s house, but now on the return, I was going to feel every step. Still, I wouldn’t complain. I’d set out to do what I said I would do. I got us off the Evander ship, and even though we now had to silently lie to get what we needed, we had a plan that had a chance of working.
On our way out the door, I met the gazes of each of my guys. They weren’t any more comfortable than I was, and yet here we were in the thick of this. Maybe none of us would ever really know how to behave in these situations. It didn’t matter. Our ability to fit in mattered the least out of everything we did or didn’t do right now.
I’d never be the most popular girl in any room, and I didn’t think I wanted to be.
Still, Diana grinned, and I did the same back to her.
“Thank you,” I spoke to Waverly and Diana. They were being nothing but nice, and I couldn’t let whatever it was that always made me feel separate from everyone else make me be rude. They were kind. I would be the same.
After we left, we might never see each other again. A pang of sadness hit me. I’d have liked to know these women, to understand what made them who they were and why they would take in a stranger, feed her, and make sure she was comfortable.
“Sienna.” Waverly got to her feet. “If you need anything, I want you to know that however things seem now, Diana and I were both at one point lost in the universe. We did eventually figure out how to make our own homes. Yours can be here with us if that’s what you want.”
That was really, really nice of her to say that. “Thank you, Waverly.”
We were outright lying to these people. And for the first time, that bothered me. When we left here, we were going to undo what they had done to keep us all safe. We were going to open the black hole and, like a pointed arrow, shoot ourselves right at Evander until we could fix what they’d done to me.
Devil squeezed my hand. If he knew my thoughts, he didn’t say.
Wade cleared his throat. “Check your number before you go to bed. If it’s back to nine, please let me know.”
“I will.” Devil tugged me toward him, and we left the dinner.
The sun was setting outside, and it cast an orange glow on this strange planet. I shivered. Without the sun, it had gotten colder. Without a word about it, Dev pulled off his coat and wrapped me up in it. I looked like a child wearing my father’s clothing, that was how huge it was on me.
“So, how well did you know the Super Soldiers here?”
He sighed. “Well enough. As well as I knew anyone. I was not the person they wanted to be around. I was a rough commander. I believed in getting the job done no matter how we did that. To be fair, I had a pretty good track record for not getting my men killed.”
That was something. An important something. “Blaze seemed very tense.”
I could keep quiet about it, but everyone else knew what was going on. If they were eavesdropping, I doubted they’d get any new information from listening to me. Dev was quiet. I wondered if he’d answer me, and finally, he did. “Canyon and Rohan let Blaze think they were dead. Sterling? I don’t know all the details. But I think he’s angry at them, and they don’t like it. I don’t know. I don’t really care. I only care about what the rest of us will do from here. Not what mistakes we made back when we didn’t know better.” He paused. “Sienna, I really only care about you.”
6 The Dark Planets
The rooms turned out to be very comfortable. Very similar in a lot of ways to the rooms I’d had in the temple back home. They were small, with nothing special about them, but still we’d be comfortable. There were eight beds amongst the three bedrooms, with a main room and a bathroom. I supposed if we were going to spend any real time here, then I’d decorate it in some way like I had at home. Small touches of things that I could find and liked.
I bet people had done that here.
I looked around. “Where should I sleep?”
If Dev had arranged this, then I imagined he had a sense of how things were supposed to go. He pointed left, and I went into the room that had the biggest bed. In fact, it was the only one with a solo bed in the room. The others had two and one had three, which meant two of them would sometimes be bunking in the main room. But that was neither here nor there at the moment. I caught on pretty quickly with what he was thinking.
“I get this room and one of you stays with me?” I touched the bed. It was scratchy, but I wasn’t going to complain. Anything halfway soft would do after the bed in the med bay. My wrist still said eight, and as long as I didn’t inch up to nine, I supposed I wouldn’t have to go into the med bay here.
“If that’s okay. It also allows you to say no to any of us and be alone. It occurred to me that you’ve had very little ability to have privacy in a long time. You might like to sometimes be alone.”
I almost asked him how long we’d be here, but that was a problem question. Arguably, if we weren’t about to rob this place of its time thingy, then we would likely stay a while for sure. I ran a hand through my hair. “That’s thoughtful of you.”