The comment had been spur of the moment, but I wouldn’t have offered, even teasingly, if I didn’t mean it. I nodded. “You risked your life and position to get us out. And while it was your fault that we were on Valovia in the first place, I believe that you didn’t know we’d be in mortal danger from the empress. So, yeah, if you need a place to crash, you’ll always have one with us.”

He put his left arm over his bruised chest and bowed from the waist.

Once he straightened, I said, “I would like to help you chase Morten, too, but I can’t make the decision on my own. The FHP has already fucked us over, and I won’t put my crew back in their sights without permission.”

Torran cupped my cheek, his thumb brushing a burning path across my skin. “I understand. I’m glad that you would consider it at all.”

I stared at him for a long moment, then made my decision. “I need you to swear that you will never repeat what I’m about to tell you, to anyone, for any reason.”

He once again crossed his chest with his left arm. “I swear it, on my honor.”

“The FHP invaded Rodeni with too few troops and too much ambition,” I started, voice rough. “Rather than fortifying a forward base, Command spread us too thin. We kept fighting a losing battle while we waited for backup that never arrived. Then we received intel about an inbound Valovian strike group.”

Torran’s jaw clenched before he nodded. “Those were my troops.”

“There was no time to retreat. All of the FHP forces were going to be slaughtered. I volunteered for a last-ditch attack on what I thought was the Valovian command center, and despite my protests, my squad came with me.”

Dread and anger and grief churned in my stomach as the memories rose, but I forced the words out. “A transport got us to the edge of the small city, then we worked our way closer on foot. We didn’t see a single person, so we thought that everyone had been evacuated.”

“They were all hiding in the strongest central building, waiting for rescue.”

I nodded, throat tight. “We planted the charges, amazed that we’d made it, that it had been so easy. Then I saw the little boy.” My night-vision helmet had washed the color from his Valovian eyes, but his face was burned into my memory.