It was the evidence I needed that proved this escape was for real and he wasn’t only trying to trick me into another trap.
I was still angry at him—more than angry—I was disgusted by what he’d done to me and his only child.
But at the same time, I couldn’t deny the unrelenting waves of pure love I felt for him. The need to be cuddled in his arms, the need for him to hold me the way he had those handful of times we shared intimate moments in a tiny cell.
If this was to be our last moment together, I wanted them to mean something. I wanted them to be special.
There was plenty of time for sorrow and anger and regret—the rest of my life—whether that was just a few hours or the next fifty years.
I put those destructive emotions aside and took his face in my hands.
He blinked, his vision shifting from his plan, and looked at me.
He saw me—really saw me.
His cold expression broke and the warmth shone through. He took my face in his hands and we leaned into each other, hugging closely.
We didn’t say a word. We didn’t need to.
We brushed our faces against each other, his lips caressing mine, against the softness of my cheeks. He must have tasted my tears. He kissed them as they fell, halting their tracks down my face.
My eyes were closed, and so were his. We took this moment, this delicious moment that would serve us well in the years to come—assuming we still had years left to live.
“I love you,” I said.
I didn’t need to say it, as he must have known how I felt about him. It was more a need for him to hear me say those words, for him to drink them in and remember so there was no doubt in his mind about how I felt toward him.
“I love you too,” he said.
“Come with me,” I said, biting back the bile that rose to my throat.
I always told myself I would never let a man treat me the way he had and hang around for him to treat me like it again. But the situation had changed and my heart still belonged to him, no matter how much I might try to convince myself I no longer loved him.
“I can’t,” he said, and he genuinely looked sorry for it to have to be that way. “They might let you and the baby go but they would never stop hunting me. In their eyes, I would be a betrayer. Krial would never let that stand.”
I whined and cuddled up closer to him.
“I don’t want to leave you.”
“But you will. It’s better this way.”
He pulled back from me and ran a hand through my hair.
“The scientists are still working in the lab,” he said softly. “We can’t creep like this. It will make them too suspicious. You need to stand up straight and look ahead as if you’re resigned to me taking you up the stairs. They’re never in on Krial’s plans and should ignore us for the most part.”
I assumed my new posture, standing with my back straight and chin raised.
“Good,” Trayem said.
He took a deep breath and reached for the handle. He pressed it and, not giving the scientists a single look or moment of his time, led me up the stairs that fed directly into Krial’s apartment.
I noticed one of the scientists stop to look at me as I ascended the stairs. I was certain it was Junic but I wouldn’t look her in the eye. She might recognize my fear. Her eyes followed me as we ascended the stairs.
We reached the top and Trayem listened to the scientists below. None followed us.
Then he reached for the door handle that would take us into the apartment. He eased it open just a crack and peered through it to the room beyond.
It was dark and I couldn’t make out anything but darkness and shadows.
Trayem gave me a nod, took my hand, and led me inside.
He shut the door silently behind us and crossed the front room.
It was pitch black and I couldn’t make out much of the interior. I had never been in this room before and it was all new to me.
With the moonlight streaming through the large windows at the back of the room, I could pick out the skeletal outline of some of the items.
The room was arranged into sections. A large coffee table sat in the middle with a pair of sofas on either side, and a small number of chairs arranged around the outside. A large desk had been pushed against the wall on the right. They were very comfortable surroundings that could only be the supervisor’s quarters.
Trayem either had better eyesight than me or had memorized the layout of the room already.
I stumbled in the pitch darkness as we crossed the space one step at a time.
I hindered him, feeling at the darkness with my feet before giving up and following Trayem, trusting he knew his way through this invisible assault course.
We approached a doorway at the far end of the room.
Outside the broad windows, I could make out what we were heading towards. The shuttlecraft sat parked on the outstretched metal arm of the launch pad.
The means to escape had been this close the entire time?
Was that how Ivy had escaped with her fated mate?
I recalled the story of how a shuttlecraft took off soon after they were declared missing.
Could this be my means of escape too?
Trayem came to an abrupt stop and I bumped into him. He spun around and placed a hand over my mouth to prevent me from making a sound.
His face was so close, almost pressed against the other side of his hand.
He stood there, listening, straining to hear something I hadn’t, or perhaps couldn’t.
He even stopped breathing as it was causing too much noise.
Then I heard it.
A rustling of clothing.
It
