The boy smiled, and nothing could have surprised Caledonia more. He crouched down so that he was as close to her eye level as his hulking form allowed, giving Caledonia a clear look at his face. Rusty-brown eyes shone against the faint bronze blush of his skin, and a few tendrils from the long brown braid down his back curled around wide cheekbones. Like the other boy, a single orange scar bisected the tan skin of his upper arm.

“You mean Pine. Yes. I’m bigger than Pine. And everyone here.” He flashed another smile. “How are you feeling?”

She felt worse than when she’d first opened her eyes. Her body was on fire, and every breath added fuel to the flames. She felt utterly weak. But he didn’t need to know any of that. “I’ll live,” she said.

He nodded. “That was our conclusion as well. Triple patched your wound after you tore your stiches with your little jog yesterday. You slept straight through. A normal person? We would have assumed you were done for. But we were pretty sure you’d pull through the night. She wrapped your ankle as well. It’s a little less serious than the stab wound.”

Caledonia cataloged each new piece of information. He was a Bullet, but he wasn’t talking like one. And they’d worked hard to keep her alive. She wasn’t exactly ready to be dead, but what motivation could they possibly have for saving her life?

“Keep still.” He swept one hand over her legs without touching them. She hadn’t even realized that she’d been moving them. “I get the sense that’s hard for you. Soon I think we’ll have something to speed your healing along. Otherwise, you’ll be cot-bound for a long while yet.”

He spoke with command, the kind that came with the confidence of leadership, and he had yet to threaten her overtly. Even his physical presence, while anything but subtle, was somehow nonaggressive. It left Caledonia uneasy, unbalanced.

“How long have I been here?”

“Eight days,” he said apologetically. “Like I said, you’ve had a fever, and medtech isn’t exactly easy to keep around.”

Caledonia barely heard his words. Eight days? Without thinking, she heaved her body up. “My ship,” she said. “What happened to my—”

The fire that sliced her body left her speechless, and her vision went white for several long seconds. Strong hands caught her just beneath her shoulder blades and gently lowered her onto the cot.

“We don’t know,” he said, in a tone that promised more answers. “They left the bay before the Fiveson’s fleet arrived, and that was the last we saw of them.” He released her and sat back on his heels with a heavy sigh. “We found you and your tow and that’s it. Damned if you haven’t been fighting since we hauled you in, Red.”