Panic spiked high inside me, and I fumbled for my gun, too.
“Nadia!” Wyck’s voice bellowed from the main room.
“It’s Wyck!” I rushed to the door of the cabin.
Svetlana touched my shoulder in a gesture of caution.
“Be careful. You don’t know who might be with him.”
Wyck pushing the slab in was unusual. Normally, he’d roll it away, making little noise.
“Nadia! Are you there?” He slammed a hand into the panelling outside the cabin. The worry reverberating in his tone made my heart melt.
“He can smell you,” I said, moving to the door past Svetlana. “And he’s concerned for me.”
Svetlana stepped aside and got into a position, aiming her gun at the entrance. I placed my right hand on the screen to unlock it, holding the gun in my left hand, just in case.
The door slid open, and Wyck barged in.
“You okay?” he exhaled, grabbing me in a one-armed hug, his other hand balled into a fist, ready to strike. His roaming gaze fell on Svetlana, sliding to the gun she had trained on him. “What is she doing here?”
Chain rattling, Lesh leaped into the cabin, too, making Svetlana stagger out of his way. I pressed my hand to the screen of the lock again, sliding the door closed—leaving it open even for a few seconds unsettled me.
“Why is she here?” Wyck glowered at Svetlana, drawing me closer to his side.
She lowered her gun.
“I mean no harm to you or Nadia.”
“That remains to be seen,” he snapped reproachfully.
I jumped to her defence, “Svetlana learned about me and searched for me. She wanted to meet me. We’re from the same planet, Wyck. The only women here. We have a lot in common.”
“Your own kind can betray you, too,” he said gloomily.
My heart pinched with compassion. Family loyalty meant so much to Wyck. Yet I’d seen the errocks turn against him, because of me.
“I didn’t come to betray, to fight, or to argue.” Svetlana holstered her gun. Only then did Wyck unfold his fists. “I wanted to make sure Nadia was well and alive.”
“Keeping her well and alive is my job, not yours.” He glanced my way. “She is safe with me.”
Svetlana followed his eyes, carefully regarding both of us for a moment or two.
“I’m glad to hear that. Wyck...” She turned to face him fully. “I know you don’t like me much—”
“Don’t like?” he scoffed. “I hate you.” He put so much emphasis on that one word, it made me wonder if he did it as much for his own benefit as for hers. “Had I done the right thing as I was supposed to, you would’ve been long dead.”
“Wyck...” I took one of his large hands in mine. His body ridged with tension so strong it appeared to bleed into the air and vibrate between the three of us.
“Do you truly believe that killing me is the right thing to do?” Svetlana challenged him.
“That’s what the honor demands from me.”
“What honor would there be in murdering a woman who stood up for herself against her attacker? You know that the only reason Crux didn’t kill me first that day was because he wanted to use my life as a bargaining chip against Vrateus.”
“It doesn’t matter—”
“But it does. It makes all the difference, and you know it. You know there is a dissonance between what you’ve been taught and the way you really feel. That’s the reason why I’m still alive, why Vrateus believed that Nadia would be safe with you, and that’s why she is safe. Anyone else from your ‘family’ would’ve done to her the same horrible things that Crux wanted to do to me. Wouldn’t they?”
His chest heaving, Wyck flexed his arm tighter around my shoulders and remained silent.
Svetlana stepped closer and carefully placed her hand on his forearm.
“You’re not like them,” she said softly. “And that’s not a bad thing, Wyck.”
WE SAID GOODBYE TO Svetlana at the exit to the main corridor.
She glanced at the heavy slab that Wyck and I used to block the opening in the wall. The floor panels by the entrance had shattered and cracked from the impact of the slab when Wyck had shoved it forcefully on his way in.
“This could be done better,” Svetlana muttered. “We should make a sliding door here, with a proper lock or two.”
“How long would that take?” Wyck asked. His tone remained guarded when speaking to her. However, the open hostility had disappeared from his voice and his glare.