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Back Love Code Save as PDF
Chapters (32)
  1. Cover
  2. LOVE CODE
  3. CONTENTS
  4. About the Book
  5. Dedication
  6. Copyright Page
  7. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  8. [  1  ]
  9. [  2  ]
  10. [  3  ]
  11. [  4  ]
  12. [  5  ]
  13. [  6  ]
  14. [  7  ]
  15. [  8  ]
  16. [  9  ]
  17. [  10  ]
  18. [  11  ]
  19. [  12  ]
  20. [  13  ]
  21. [  14  ]
  22. [  15  ]
  23. [  16  ]
  24. [  17  ]
  25. [  18  ]
  26. [  19  ]
  27. [  20  ]
  28. [  21  ]
  29. [  22  ]
  30. [  23  ]
  31. [  24  ]
  32. AUTHOR’S NOTE

That shouldn’t feel like a such a compliment, but it steadied her anyway. This is why I left home. To keep such a precious person safe. I couldn’t let anyone hurt him. She didn’t know what fate awaited him if the bounty hunter caught up to them, but it certainly wouldn’t be kind. Most often, anti-AI activists destroyed beings like Helix, wanting no trace left in the universe.

Can’t you see? She wanted to scream at the unknown hunter. All beings contain the capacity for good and evil. It all comes down to choices.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“Don’t thank me for this. Just lean on me for a while before we make the big leap into the unknown.” Humor touched his voice as he let his chest touch hers, the softest of intimacies, though it wasn’t a sexual overture. Just comfort.

“For me, that’s everything,” she admitted. “In my whole life, I’ve never left Tiralan. That’s all I know.”

“Then we’re finally on the same level.” She heard satisfaction in his tone. “You don’t know and what I knew, I’ve forgotten. We can figure it out together.”

It sounded like he hoped this journey would draw them closer together, but Qalu doubted that. There would be others captivated by him, and she didn’t know if he would want to include her in his love group, once he realized there were many other options. The responsible thing to do would be to step back and encourage him to make those connections. If he received lots of love from those around him, soon he’d understand that she had been convenient and that their arrangement had never been meant to last.

It hurts so much. How can I bear it? How can I ever bear it?

This was a new beginning for him, but to her, it felt like the end of everything.

Maybe one day I can quietly go home, tell my mothers that I wasn’t cut out for the nomadic life, and resume my work. But even that prospect held little allure. She’d learned how lovely it could be to share her life with someone—the right someone—and now she wanted more.

But the best sort of love meant doing what was right for someone else. No matter how painful.

[  11  ]

I am on a ship at the mercy of strangers.