He wasn’t sure what he was looking for. Food sounded good, and somewhere to sleep without risk of being pickpocketed or kidnapped or killed. The maintenance tunnels underneath Nevaeh, where the orphans and runaways lived, smelled, and it was hard to sleep when you were constantly surrounded by people who wanted to steal from you and sell you to a diamond mine. But why would some lady captain and her partner want to take him on? “Is . . . there a catch?”

“No catch. I just thought you looked miserable enough for me to offer,” the captain admitted, and added after a thought, “Perhaps you could change your stars.”

His eyes widened. Change his stars—even though he had already seen his fate. He hadn’t thought of trying to change them. “Who are you?”

The captain smirked and outstretched her hand. “Siege, and this is my wife, Talle.”

Jax hesitated for a moment and then took her hand. “Jax,” he replied, “and I’ll be the best pilot you’ve ever seen.”

Captain Siege was the only person he had ever confided in—the only person who really knew him, down to the bone, and never said a word. She pushed him to be better. To be different.

To change his stars.

But that was a dream. It had to be. He didn’t fly starships. In no past, in no present, in no future. All fates flowed in a river of time, and it was impossible to swim against that kind of current.

He was so tired from trying.

He was so, so tired.

“Darling,” the voice said, and he felt lips press against his cheek. There was a sigh, and a warmth spread into him like dye in water. “I know it hurts, and I know you don’t want to be here—but we need you a little while longer. The Iron Shrine in Zenteli is burning, and the Great Dark is getting closer and we need you.” Then, quieter, “Robb needs you.”

Robb.

Dark curly hair and kind blue eyes and a smile that cut to the bone. A boy who always looked sad when he thought no one was looking, and liked to lace their hands together, one finger at a time, with so much care Jax could cry. Robb, who had found out about his curse and didn’t care. Robb, who never once mentioned how they could never kiss lips to lips, or touch skin to skin, and loved him nonetheless. Robb, who accepted him while not knowing he was the C’zar and all the baggage that came with it.

He wanted to hear his voice again—just once more. He wanted to tell him what ma’alor meant. He needed to.

“He’s in trouble, darling,” Siege said, because Jax knew it was Siege, from her rough cadence and her soft words. He knew her voice as well as he did his own mother’s. “And you need to wake up.”

The warmth spread through his body, numbing the hunger in his bones. It was light, but a different kind. A light as hot and bright as the sun. It drew him back to the surface, to the edges of his skin, and gave him the strength to open his eyes.