Brightly Burning(88)

Moments later, I understood the nature of this kindness. My friends had come to say goodbye. Jatinder, Navid, Joy, George, Jon, each one approached my cell in turn, apologies for my situation and regrets tumbling past their lips. I held it together for the first three, but I lost it with George, who started crying immediately, setting me off.

“I’m so mad at you, Stel. Doing the right thing and saving everyone at your own expense. I only just got you back.”

“I didn’t save everyone.” I licked salty moisture from my lips.

“Damn near enough. Why did you have to go off-ship like that? You should have stayed here with me.”

“I had to go,” I said. “It’s hard to explain . . .”

“Because you’ve been keeping things from me.”

Was he really choosing now to fight with me?

“And it’s my fault,” he quickly said, cutting me off in my anger. “I pulled away. Got too wrapped up in my own stuff. I’m sorry.”

“No, no, I’m glad you’re happy. With Joy. Don’t let go of that. Love is—” I cut myself off. There was nowhere to go that wouldn’t feel saccharine and wholly unlike me. “I went because I had to find out what happened to Hugo. Fairfax. I love him.”

And now I’d die for it. I choked on anguish, the tears welling up fresh.

“We’ll tell the children you went down to Earth, so they don’t know what happened,” he said, grasping at my fingers through the bars. “I love you, Stella.”

I nodded, pushing him away. “I love you, too. Empire orphans forever.”

“Empire orphans forever.”

And then he was gone. Jon handed me a handkerchief through the bars, a move so practical that I had to laugh.

“Thank you,” I said, dabbing at my cheeks.

“I’ll want that back, you know,” he said.

“You’re terrible at goodbyes.”

“Yep. I’m too angry about all of this to be sentimental. You’ll thank me later for not weighing you down with another emotional goodbye. See? You’ve already stopped crying.”

“Would that there weren’t bars between us right now. I’d hit you,” I managed with a laugh. “But seriously,” I brought my voice low, “give me a proper goodbye. One last moment of honesty. No jokes.”

He met me close to the bars, kissing my fingers that gripped tight to the metal.

“You are extraordinary, Stella. We won’t let them win. Remember that.”

“Will you look for him? Down there? For me?”

“I will. Now dry your eyes.” He left me wholly unsatisfied, waving on his way out the door.

“You should have ended with the ginger,” Callum said. I glared at him until he turned away.


The guard shift changed once more, putting us at eighteen hours. I couldn’t sleep. I kept staring at the door, expecting Mason to storm in at any minute, announcing that the airlock was fixed and we would be departing shortly. With each minute and hour that passed by, my insides knotted tighter. I blinked back images of Hugo, imagined so vividly that he was present, that I could hear his voice in my ear, whispering that he loved me.

I shook away the delusion, closing my eyes, thankful for the black. I could not manage any more of Hugo’s face.

I jarred awake at a series of sharp snaps in my ear, blinking my eyes into focus to find the female guard hovering close. It was dark again, like there’d been another power cut.

“Get up. We have to go. Now.”

She hauled me up by my arms, pulling me out of my cell. My body was seized with fear; I stumbled, but her firm grip of my arm kept me upright.

“Follow me closely, and keep up the pace,” she said, creeping along the pitch-black corridor toward the stairs.

“Aren’t you going to handcuff me?”

She stopped at the juncture between two passageways, shaking her head. “That’ll slow us down. You’re being rescued, if that’s not clear.”

My stomach swooped with tentative elation. “You’re letting me go?” She wasn’t even the nice guard. “I don’t even know your name.”

“Do you need to know my name for me to rescue you? Because we’re wasting time.”

“No, sorry, I—?I’m just in shock.” I hurried along after her, taking the stairs two at a time.

“It’s Meredith,” she said as we arrived breathless at the loading bay a few minutes later. All primary lighting was off, but a collection of emergency lamps lit the space in an eerie glow. I could see figures hustling bags into the Ingram’s hold. Two of them rushed up to us, voices hushed.

“Oh, thank God, Stel.” George engulfed me in a hug, and as soon as he released me, I smacked him in the shoulder.

“You let me blubber like that when you knew I was being rescued!”

“I didn’t know,” George said. “Jon only just told me.”

“I wasn’t sure it was going to work out,” Jon said, nodding at Meredith. “Though I owe George here for tipping me off that Meredith looked familiar, from the orphan transport. Gave me an idea.”

“Thanks for the spot,” Meredith said. “And frex Mason.” She jogged off to the Ingram.

“What is going on?” I rounded on Jon.