“You’ve been running from death for so long, but now you want to turn around and sprint right back toward it,” he said angrily. “You have no idea what Nor is going to do to you when you land on Arcardius. She could kill you, Andi, or hell, with what she and Valen are capable of, I don’t know what horrors she might unleash on you. After all that you’ve been through, and all that’s been done to you in return, you finally have a chance to fade away from it all. To stay here. To be safe beneath Klaren’s protection, until the time is right, and then she’ll have an army of soldiers to keep you safe as she tries to pull the galaxy out from under Nor. Let her fight this battle. Not you. We could wait this all out, allow things to settle, live our lives the way we always hoped we could. You deserve to be free. You deserve to be at peace.”

“What you’re speaking of is a coward’s plan,” Andi growled. “I will never be at peace, Dextro. Not without them.”

“Just imagine that future, for even a moment,” Dex pleaded with her. “Walk away from this. Give yourself a chance at freedom.”

“There is no freedom, for any of us. Not if what Klaren says is true, if the Solis siblings open that Void. If I can help...if I can be a part of stopping that—”

“Do you even care about the galaxy, or is this still all about the girls?” Dex demanded.

He glanced away, his jaw tight. She couldn’t give him the answer he wanted, and she knew she was hurting him, but in this moment, she couldn’t help it. She was tired of keeping secrets, tired of holding back words that desperately needed to be said.

When Dex looked back at her, his face was full of such sadness that Andi wanted to look away, but he reached up and cupped her face softly in his hands. “I always believed we had a future together, you and me. I always believed it would be us against the world.”

For years, she’d longed to hear words like that from a man. And Dex had given them to her, time and again, since they had repaired their broken hearts back on Arcardius. Since they had forgiven each other’s sins. But tonight, his words filled her with a sadness so deep she could scarcely breathe.

“You’re asking me to choose,” Andi said. There came that familiar burn in the back of her throat, that hideous wetness threatening to slip from the corners of her eyes. “Please don’t make me choose. We could escape. We could go to Arcardius, together. You could help me, Dex. We could free the girls and get out of there as a crew.”