“Ever?” Helen asks, hiccuping through her tears. “You swear you won’t leave me ever?”
“I swear,” I tell her. “No matter what happens, I’ll stick by your side, all right? I swear it on my blood.”
CHAPTER 11
HELEN
PRESENT DAY
“No matter what happens, I’ll stick by your side, all right? I swear it on my blood.”
I remember Mathiras’s promise from months ago as if it were yesterday. I remember how it felt to press against him and know that he was vowing to be at my side. That no matter what happened, I’d have a person in my life that was present at all times. He made that vow, and yet he’s been trying to break it for the last few days, and it hurts so much that my lungs feel tight.
Mathiras stares at me over the heads of the others, and I know he’s remembering his vow, too. I try to hide my hurt, so he doesn’t lash out at me for holding him to his promise when he clearly doesn’t want to.
“I made a promise to Helen,” Mathiras says softly. “If she wants to go with me, she can.”
Oh. Oh.
He remembered. I give him a beaming smile, so full of relief I could cry. Now we can go back to those nights on the mining station when we cuddled together for warmth and shared a bed and talked about nothing and everything for hours on end. I liked that time together. It felt strange to get my own bed again when we returned here to the Sister.
I’d rather share a bed with him.
“Wait, wait, wait,” Alice says, speaking up. “If it’s dangerous, I don’t think it’s a good idea for Helen to go with you.”
“It’s not a good idea,” Mathiras agrees. “But it’s what Helen wants. If she wants to come with me, I can use her as crew. She can help out around the ship—”
“I have a rolling pin,” I add cheerfully. I’m just so happy Mathiras is taking me. “I can fight.”
Jade grimaces. “Helen, honey, maybe this isn’t the best idea. You can go with me. I could use the company.” She gives me a bright-eyed, pleading look.
I’m tempted, because I do like spending time with Jade. But Mathiras promised he’d never leave me alone ever again, and if he’s remembering his promise, I want to stay with him. “I’m a capable adult. I want to stay on board the Little Sister and help. I can learn to shoot a blaster and drive the ship—”
“She can stay safely on board,” Mathiras says, cutting me off. “But having Helen with us isn’t the worst idea. If we have a qura’aki, it’s obvious that she’s cloned. We can say we were given her as a present and are looking to clone more from her genetic material and we need to find someone to take us up on it. It’s a good cover story.”
“It’s dangerous,” Alice points out.
“We can teach her to fight,” Adiron says, looking over at Jade. “I’ll take good care of her, babe. You won’t have to worry.”
“I have a rolling pin,” I point out again, since everyone seems to be forgetting that I’m armed now.
Everyone seems to be frowning in Mathiras’s direction, but his expression is resigned. “I know you guys don’t like it,” he says. “But I did promise Helen that I’d stay at her side at all times. I need to keep that promise to her. If you can convince her not to go, be my guests.” And he gestures at me.
Hmph. That’s not exactly the most supportive response, but it doesn’t matter. He’s not going to kick me off the Little Sister, so I’m staying. I look over at Alice, who’s got a grumpy expression on her face. She clearly doesn’t like this idea. “I’m an adult,” I say. “I can help out with the mission. I’m not pregnant, so I should be able to go, right?”
“She could come on the Scarlet Gaze with us,” Ruth offers. “Everyone here adores Helen and we’ve got plenty of room. Salvotore is here, too. Why not Helen?”
“Absolutely not,” Mathiras says quickly. “If she goes on this mission, she stays with me so I can keep an eye on her.”
Hmm. I do like the crew. They treat me like a normal person, not like I’m a helpless child. But… “I want to stay with Mathiras.”
Alice glances over at Jade.
Jade looks at Adiron.
Adiron purses his lips and studies me. “I can teach her how to fight. Take care of herself. And we all know Mathiras won’t touch her. Really, she’ll be safe. How many years did we have Zoey on the ship with no problems?”
“Uh, you forget that time we got boarded and I almost got snatched by slavers,” Zoey calls out from the Jabberwock’s comm screen.
“Wait, what? When was this?” snaps the male at her side. I think it’s her mate.