“I won’t,” Kee said from my right. “Consider this a mutiny if you must, but I’m not abandoning you, no matter what you order.” She looked around at the Valoffs in the room, all of whom towered over her. “And if you all think you’re safe just because you have a telekinetic, then you don’t know us very well.”

Torran held up his hands in a placating gesture. “No one is going to die.”

“So we’re free to go?” I challenged.

He held my gaze even as he continued to stab me. “Not exactly.”

“Then that sounds exactly like we’re prisoners.” I shook my head as a bitter smile twisted my lips. “Very clever, getting us to lower our guard. Effective, too. I thought we were friends.” I’d thought Torran and I could be more, too, but I was bleeding enough without acknowledging another wound. My laugh was small and harsh, and it rang with the hurt buried deep in my soul. “Shows what I know.”

“Tavi,” Torran started.

I slashed a hand through the air. “No. You may address me as Captain Zarola or not at all.”

Something raw and bleak crossed his face before he bowed his head in acknowledgment. “Captain Zarola, it was not my intent to mislead you. I didn’t know about the empress’s plan until we returned.”

And still he’d kissed me. The knife of betrayal dug deeper, and I wanted to hurt him as much as I hurt. “You knew that you were to return with the hero of Rodeni.” I scoffed. “Surely you had some idea of my fate. And yet you promised me safe passage, knowing that it was a lie. You’ve lied to me from the beginning.”

Torran stiffened as if struck, but he didn’t deny my words. So much for the famed Valovian personal honor.

“If we rescue Cien,” Chira said, her voice fierce, “then the empress will let you go. Torran made her vow—”

“That’s enough,” Torran said.

Chira glared at him, but he stared her down. She dropped her eyes to the floor, though her expression remained furious.

Torran ran a hand down his face, then straightened. His expression turned cold and harsh, and it transformed him into the general who’d thwarted FHP forces again and again. The stark difference highlighted just how much he had relaxed around us in the past few days. Or at least how much he’d pretended to.

And I’d fallen for it. I bit my lip against the fresh wave of pain.

“FHP is denying all involvement,” Torran said at last. “They say that Commodore Morten was discharged over a year ago and that he doesn’t represent FHP interests.”

“Of course they are,” I muttered. They could be in it up to their eyeballs—and likely were—and they’d still deny everything. “What are the kidnappers demanding?”