Chapter 4

Levi loved the sound of Cora's laughter, even if it was more of a shy snicker than an actual guffaw right now. He hoped he'd get the chance to hear the unrestrained version at some point, though he couldn't exactly imagine the circumstances.

Maybe I can rescue her, he thought. Images of his heroics were already playing out in his mind, like so many of the stories his brothers had come back with after their own adventures. The thought was appealing. He figured maybe if he could help her, they could see how much they liked each other beyond their casual jailbird flirtation.

He was definitely getting ahead of himself, though, which became even more apparent when Cora interrupted his fantasies with a serious question.

"So, what's the Desolation Stone, exactly?" Cora asked.

The sobering question led his mind away from images of saving the day and getting the girl, and instead it plunged him into a somber recognition of the political, social, and environmental concerns that rested squarely on his shoulders.

"The Desolation Stone is an incredibly powerful artifact, dangerous if mishandled," he told her. "It was located in a private collection on Kona for a while, though who knows where it came from before that.

"I work with an agency called PAPS. Probe and Pursue Services, on Noxxa," he explained. "All my brothers do, actually. We run it together. We were called in to recover the stone after it was stolen from Kona. My older brother, Zyair, was working the case. He and his now-wife, Layla, discovered the Jorvlen had stolen it and were using it to build a weapon of mass destruction. We assume with the intention of destroying Lorr and doing to our planet what they did to their own—ravaging it of resources until there's barely anything left."

Levi could feel the righteous anger rising in him as he spoke, imagining his beautiful home planet transformed from the lush, diverse, forested place it was now to the desolate, burnt husk of a planet that was Jorvla. He couldn't bear the thought.

"So that's where it is now?" asked Cora, peering through his shield of anger and touching his heart with the softness of her voice. "Being turned into a weapon?"

He felt the rage ebb and took a deep breath as he continued.

"No. At least I hope not," he said, shaking his head. "Zyair and Layla managed to get the stone back before the Jorvlen could use it, and they left it in the care of my father. We thought it was safe there, but just a week ago it was stolen right out from under our noses. It has to be the Jorvlens again."

Cora nodded, apparently taking in the information, and Levi could see her thinking. He wondered what about. It almost looked like she was putting more pieces together than what he had given her, and he wondered if what she'd seen in the facility on Egshur might be part of the puzzle she was silently building in her mind.

"They've taken a lot of blows from us recently," he added, suddenly eager to feed her more information. "My other brother, Trigg, and his wife, Willow, basically blew the lid off the Jorvlen being behind the Umbrosis Corporation. You've heard of them, I'm sure."

Cora's face suddenly turned ashen, and she nodded slowly. It gave Levi the impression she'd more than heard of the criminal enterprise masquerading as a pharmaceutical company, but she didn't say anything.

"Well, that's the Jorvlens. They're not just transporting Motley. They're producing it. It basically runs their whole economy. Meanwhile, the rest of the galaxy is hooked on the stuff.

"Did you hear about the human trafficking case last year?" he asked again, wanting to fill Cora in on everything he knew. He got the feeling Cora was smart. Not only that, but she seemed interested.

Cora nodded once more.

"Well, that was another brother of mine, Dante, and his wife, Tinsley. They uncovered the Jorvlens' trafficking operation and that they were using Motley to sedate the kidnapped women. So, given our history, that's why the Jorvlens can't know who I am." He looked over his shoulder to make sure they weren't being overheard.

As he turned back to Cora, though, Levi suddenly realized he'd just spilled his most precious secret to a total stranger. He nearly kicked himself. Of all the stupid things to do to impress a girl, telling her he was the prince of a nation at war with their captors was probably the worst.

What if she used him as a bargaining chip to get herself out of the cell? That would have been the smart thing to do, he realized. Anyone looking for an easy escape would have sold him out in a second.

But the way she looked at him, her eyes soft but determined, told him it wasn't just bravado that had made him spill his secrets to her, or even try to impress her. Something that lived deeper within him told him it wasn't just okay to tell her this, but supremely important. His instincts as a warrior and royal would have kicked in if she was a danger. But he felt a different instinct with her, one he didn't recognize.

This time, her hand reached across the small space between them and comforted him. Her skin was soft and warm, and her hands were so tiny compared to his. For a moment it almost struck him as comical—her little human hand clasped around his, her white skin bright against his purple hue. But the more he looked, the more beautiful the interplay of their disparate hands became.

It told him with even greater certainty that he'd been right to tell her the truth.

"Don't worry," she said as if reading his fears. "Your secret's safe with me. I admire what you're doing, and I'm grateful to you for telling me."

She gave him a reassuring smile and squeezed his hand before drawing hers away again. He hadn't been sure earlier if his comforting hand had been entirely welcome, and now he wondered if she'd let him go out of the same uncertainty.

They'd shared a real vulnerability, both in exposing their secrets to each other and in offering the sweetest of salves—skin-to-skin contact. It made Levi think of that forbidden spot on Cora's neck that he'd craved just a little bit earlier.

"I'll get us out of here," he suddenly said, his earlier desire to rescue her buoyed by their deepened connection.

This time, though, visions of heroism weren't what spurred the impulse. Instead, it was the genuine desire to help her and the innate sense that she might be able to help him, too.

"How will we get out?" she asked, not as a challenge but out of curiosity. Levi saw she'd meant it when she said she was too curious for her own good sometimes.

He admired that in her, though. As an investigator himself, asking questions was his bread and butter, and he respected that Cora's mind worked in a similar way to his. He wanted nothing more than to feed her the information she obviously loved and observe how she synthesized it.

"When the ship lands, that'll be their weak point," he told her. "Anytime a prisoner is being moved from one place to another is the best time for an escape. The guards will be outside of their normal routine, and we won't be as securely held as we are now. All we'll need is a little distraction."

He winked, and Cora smiled, evidently impressed by his know-how. He just hoped when the time came, his plan worked.