His response threw her off. “How do you mean?”

“Never mind. Coruscant isn’t exactly Jedi-friendly at the moment.”

“No. And this … isn’t sanctioned by the Order.”

Her response threw him off. He’d never known Aryn to buck orders.

“Really?”

“Really.”

“You’ll want to wait until the negotiations on Alderaan are completed, right? See how things shake out? In a week—”

“I can’t wait.”

“No? Why?”

She sat back in her chair as if to open some distance between them, room for a lie maybe. “I need to get something from the Temple.”

“What?”

“Something personal.”

He leaned forward, closing the gap between them, reducing the room for falsehoods. “Aryn, we haven’t seen each other in years. You show up out of a nebula and tell me you want my help to get to a world just conquered by the Empire and that getting you there isn’t sanctioned by the Jedi Order.”

He let her stew in that for a moment before continuing. “Maybe I want to help you. Maybe I can.”

She looked up at that, hope in her eyes.

“You were there for me when I went through a tough time. But I need to understand what’s really happening here.”

She smiled and shook her head. “I missed you and didn’t know it.”

He felt his cheeks warm and tried to hide his discomfiture. Of course, he could hide nothing from her. She would feel the warmth her words put in him.

She slid her chair forward and crossed her hands on the table. He was very conscious of how close her hands were to his. It seemed he had missed her, too.

“The attack killed someone I cared about.”

The sinking feeling he felt surprised him.

“A husband?” Could Jedi even marry? He didn’t know.

She shook her head. “My master. Ven Zallow.”

“I’m sorry.” He touched her hand in sympathy and it put such a charge through him that he pulled away. Surprisingly, he did not see pain in her expression, but anger.

“The Temple will have vids of the attack. I need to see how he died.”

“It could’ve been bombs, Aryn. Anything.”

She shook her head before he finished his sentence. “No. It was a Sith.”

“You know this?”

“I know it. And I want to see that Sith, know his name.”

Insight dawned. “You want to kill him.”

She did not gainsay it.

He blew out a whistle. “Blast, Aryn, I thought you’d come here to arrest me.”

“Arrest you? Why?”

“Never mind,” he said. “No wonder the Order didn’t sanction your going to Coruscant. What would this do to the peace negotiations? You’re talking about assassinating someone.”