Chapter 9

Cora awoke to the dissonant sound of metal scraping against metal and then to the equally horrible sound of a Jorvlen's voice.

"Food!" the voice yelled, and Cora opened her eyes to see an ugly gray beast scowling at her, then at Levi, who was waking up beside her.

Cora suddenly realized she'd been curled up in Levi's arms all night, and they exchanged a smile. The Jorvlen rolled his eyes but said nothing before leaving.

Cora figured if the Jorvlens took two more seconds to think about it, they'd realize she and Levi didn't have much of a choice. The cell only had one cot, and the floor was made of cold, hard metal. Of course, they'd be sleeping together, even if they weren't sleeping together.

As Cora stretched awake and watched Levi collect the food tray that had been shoved into the cell, she realized they weren't quite doing that yet either.

Cora smiled as she caught herself. Yet. What a telling word. She felt a stirring in her lower body when she wondered with anticipation how soon it might be.

"I hope you like slop," Levi said as he came back with the food tray, laden with two piles of what looked like oozing gray oatmeal. It was entirely unappetizing, but Cora hadn't eaten since the Jorvlens picked her up the day before. She knew the same was true for Levi.

The slop would have to do.

She struggled to get the stuff down, and it seemed Levi did, too. But she knew they needed their strength.

"Again tonight?" she whispered after the Jorvlen had come back to collect the food tray.

Levi grinned. "If you're up for it."

"Absolutely," she replied.

He knew she meant the search for the stone, but she hoped he understood her second meaning. Pleasuring each other again tonight, exploration of each other's bodies, learning everything there was to know.

Regarding the detective work, Cora was more than up for it. She'd been waiting years for the chance to take down Umbrosis and the Jorvlens. She just never thought she'd be doing it from the inside. In some ways, getting kidnapped was the biggest breakthrough she'd had. Now she was finally in a position to make some real change and atone for letting Samantha down when she needed her most.

She finally had a partner to support her—someone who was as passionate about stopping the Jorvlens as she was and who had the skills to get it done. She had no doubt that together they'd be able to take down the whole operation.

As they snuck out of the cell that night, she felt a tightness in her chest and a sinking sensation in her gut urging her to stay close to Levi just in case anything happened. Only when she went to step in front of him as they approached the corner at the end of the hall did she consciously recognize it for what it was—fear.

Not fear that something would happen to her, but fear that if they were caught, she might lose him. Realizing it struck her in the heart. It was almost as scary as losing her parents and brother back on Egshur.

She managed to hold herself back from the urge to protect Levi, though, knowing he could take care of himself. But the moment had quelled any doubt she might have had about how much she cared for him, and that was terrifying in an entirely new way.

"In here?" came Levi's whisper as they moved toward a maintenance room not far from the office they'd broken into the night before.

Cora nodded. She'd gone back over all the files she'd stolen the night before, at least as much as would fit on the limited space on her comm. There wasn't a whole lot on the office computer after all—just general information about the stone and its properties, as well as some old files from when the Jorvlens last had their hands on the artifact. But she did find something else that was useful.

Some broken file paths pointed to the ship's mainframe, and her mission was to break in to get the information they needed. The easiest way was to go straight to the source.

They slipped into the maintenance room and shut the door quietly behind them. The place was a mess of pipes and cables jutting out from the walls, crisscrossing the room, and then disappearing into some other section of the wall.

"Look for a vent," Cora whispered.

The two of them used their comms as light sources, peering up into the ceiling amid the chaos of the ship's bowels.

"Here!" whispered Levi finally, pointing up.

Cora hurried to join him and grinned. "Give me a boost."

Levi gave her a look. It wasn't disapproval, not at all, but it implied he was worried about her. For a second, they looked into each other's eyes, and that creeping sense of fear came back into Cora's belly. They shared an unspoken acknowledgment that they both needed to get out of there unharmed. And most importantly, together.

A second later, though, Cora found herself climbing up into the vent shaft. Levi's strong arms hoisted her the rest of the way.

According to the map she'd found on the computer the night before, the mainframe should have been toward the bow of the ship and then on the second right. With both exhilaration and anxiety coursing through her, she cast one last look at Levi down the shaft before crawling toward the mainframe.

Sure enough, the hum of the ship's computer got louder and louder as she crawled down the vents. When she reached the mainframe, she smiled.

Shoving a hand in her pocket, Cora pulled out a minuscule jump drive she'd swiped from the office the night before. She plugged it into her comm and then plugged the comm into the mainframe via one of its stray cables.

A few taps on her comm got her all the files related to the Desolation Stone, which she transferred to the jump drive. As she waited for the information to transfer, she couldn't help but think of Levi back in the maintenance room.

It was unlikely that anyone would find him there, but every second that passed made the anxiety in her chest grow. She loved doing this with him, loved working together, loved risking everything for the sake of justice.

But the more time she spent with Levi, the more she recognized that some things felt riskier than others. And losing him was one of them.

When her comm beeped softly, alerting her that the transfer was done, Cora breathed a sigh of relief. She scrambled back down the vent shaft as fast as she could without making too much noise until she found herself peering back down at Levi's lovely dark hair.

He must have heard her coming, because he suddenly looked up, grinning.

"Miss me already?" he joked.

You have no idea, Cora thought. Instead, she asked for his hand to help her down. As she grasped it, a wave of relief washed over her, soothing her fears. There the two of them were. Still alive, still safe, and most of all, still together.