The hours crept past both faster and slower than I wanted. I filled Luna’s water bowl and set out a heaping bowl of dry food. When she cocked her head at me, I said, “You have to stay here, my fluffy little friend. If I don’t come back, make a hellacious noise until someone comes and finds you, okay?”

She chirped at me, then leapt up onto the bed and curled into a ball, her nose tucked under her tail. If the worst happened, she would be fine for a few days until someone found her.

I gathered my gear and slipped from the room. Eli and Kee were in the hall. They had their mission faces on and I knew my expression matched theirs. When Lexi and Anja joined us, we headed for the workshop-garage, where we’d change into our armor and take a transport to the monitoring station.

“Everyone has their comm?” Kee asked.

One by one, we nodded. Our comm implants could be used in an emergency without requiring a separate device, but the range was extremely limited. By linking to a stand-alone comm, we could communicate over longer distances, even if we couldn’t tap into the Valovian networks.

We slipped into the workshop and found the Valoffs already inside. Torran had donned his armor, leaving the helmet open, but the others were in various states of dress. We joined them, shimmying into the black, close-fitting armor.

Once we were armored, we attached our weapons. Our guns wouldn’t connect to the attachment points built in to the Valovian armor, but my plas blade snapped right into place along my right thigh.

Our rifles were designed to be carried via a cross-body sling, but our pistols required holsters, so my team wrapped the same utility belts we’d used during training around our waists and called it good. We didn’t look very Valovian, but our movements would also give us away, so it wasn’t a big loss of surprise.

“Ready?” Torran asked once I had checked on each of my team members.

I wasn’t, but delaying wouldn’t make me any readier. “Yes.”

“Will you allow me to speak to you telepathically?”

I shivered at the memory of what he’d used his telepathy for earlier, then put it out of my mind. I didn’t have time for distractions, no matter how pleasant. Torran had asked every time we’d practiced, too, so I gave him the same answer. “Yes. Don’t read my thoughts.”

He smiled softly. “Your thoughts are your own.” I felt the lightest brush of his mind against mine. “Stay close to me tonight,” he said telepathically. “The life debt demands that I keep you safe. If you fight me, you’ll end up distracting us both.”

“I will try,” I murmured.

He stared at me for a long moment, then dipped his head in acknowledgment.