“I did,” he said, his expression fierce.

“Yeah, he did,” Lexi and Eli agreed over the comm.

I ignored the peanut gallery. “So you can return to Valovia?” I asked. I was happy he had the option—truly, I was—but I’d hoped that maybe he’d hang around for a while longer. However, if he didn’t have to avoid Valovia, then there was no reason for him to bounce around the galaxy with us, especially not if he wanted to hunt Morten and the telekinetic.

“Yes,” he said slowly, his eyes on me.

I nodded and buried my hand in Luna’s soft fur. She purred at me, trying to soothe my frayed nerves, but it was a losing battle. I’d already told him he could stay. But staying meant giving up his life on Valovia, at least for a while, so it had to be his decision. I wouldn’t try to influence him, no matter how much I wanted to.

I returned my attention to my terminal. The empress might’ve said she would let us go, but I wouldn’t completely relax until we were through the wormhole. And maybe not until we reached Bastion, where Cien’s parents were supposed to meet us. Lotkez wouldn’t dare attack us at the busy FHP station.

As the wormhole got larger on-screen, Cien slipped into the bridge and climbed into his uncle’s lap. It seemed he, too, could feel the energy in the air and didn’t care for it.

Luna stretched, then leapt to the communications terminal and flopped over with her fluffy belly on display. Cien glanced up at Torran. When his uncle nodded, Cien reached out a tentative hand and stroked his fingers through Luna’s fur.

She purred and rolled over, her feet in the air, shamelessly angling for more petting.

Once again, I wondered just how smart she was because she kept the kid occupied all the way through the wormhole.

The bridge let out a collective breath as we popped back into human space. I checked the sensors and kept us on course out of the danger zone. There were a few ships waiting to traverse, but no armada waiting to turn us into tiny little pieces of debris.

Carrying the heir to the Valovian Empire into human space was a huge risk. The empress had let us go because of it, but if we lost Cien, she wouldn’t need any flimsy, manufactured excuse for war because we would have delivered the perfect one right to her door.

Lotkez came through behind us, and I felt the lightest brush of a mind against mine. I glanced at Torran and he raised an eyebrow. When I dipped my head, he whispered into my mind, “We need to change course.”

“Why?” I asked mentally. With practice, I was getting better at directing my thoughts his way.