“Yeah,” Andi said with a sigh. “That, too. But that’s Klaren’s job. She said she had it covered. Not all battles are ours to face, Dex. We didn’t break this galaxy. In many ways, Klaren did. Let her help put it back together again.”

“And we believe her?”

Andi finally looked at Dex. “Do we have any other choice?”

He stood, pulling her up with him so that they could see the stars more clearly. “Do you remember when we first danced together?”

“Dex,” she groaned. “Now is not the time.”

“Now is the perfect time,” he insisted.

Because he suddenly felt like he was seeing her for the very last time. Her stormy eyes, her cautious smile, her fearlessness as she stood in the face of adversity and refused to blink or look away.

Dex reached out and took her braid gently in his hands, unwinding it so that her hair fell around her face. “So beautiful,” he said softly.

She smiled at him, wrapped in the starlight shining behind her. Dex stepped forward, sweeping her into his arms. When he spun her, she laughed, eyes annoyed at first as she stopped again before him, as if he were only playing a joke.

But when she saw the expression on his face, she stopped.

“What’s wrong?”

Dex shook his head. “I just want to remember this. I want to remember you, every part.”

“We’re going to survive this, Dex,” she said, so much certainty in her eyes.

“I know,” he said. And in this moment, he wanted to believe it. He leaned forward, guiding her toward the viewport to kiss her.

But at the last second she spun, pressing him up against the viewport instead, her palms splayed against the glass on either side of his face, as if she were touching the stars.

“Godstars, Androma,” he breathed. “I don’t know how I got so lucky to love you.”

She smiled. “I don’t think luck has anything to do with it.”

Then she kissed him like she never had before. Deeply, and fiercely, until their breaths were one and their heartbeats were like one cadence beating in time. Dex’s hands found their way beneath her shirt. Her hands were moving across his body, too, searching. Her tongue found his, and he gasped for a breath as she...

“So this is how you strategize for battle,” a voice said.

Dex and Andi broke apart, him cursing, her looking like she wanted to tear Soyina’s head off.

“We’re closing in on the Phelexos System, so Arachnid wants to chat,” the woman said. She smiled knowingly at Dex and Andi. “Take a moment to collect yourselves. Now isn’t really the time for...this.”

“Now is always the time,” Dex said.