“I’ll take care of those,” he said.

As he hunched over the rabbits a little while later, his dagger making quick work of the soft hide, Yarrow tended to a fire. His mind ruminated once again on all the horrible scenarios they might encounter when they found Ace, in part to avoid reliving the very real violence of the past few days. He paused, taking a deep breath to keep his hands from shaking.

Theo was busy sharpening sticks to skewer and roast the meat. He nodded at Zander, his eyes casting down at his blood-stained hands.

“You’re rather quick at that,” he said.

Zander nodded, his catastrophic line of thought momentarily ceasing. “Well, tanning was the family business, but we didn’t stick to cow hides. Me and my siblings used to catch rabbits all the time. My dad taught me to skin them so we could preserve the hide with the fur still on. They caught a decent price at market if you had enough of them. We ate a lot of rabbit stew growing up.”

Zander winked, his crooked smile a welcome sight to Theo and Yarrow, who’d traded several silent glances during their journey pertaining to Zander’s well-being. Alas, the two of them had watched him pull himself apart many times in the pursuit of his soulmate, in many different lives, though they didn’t remember that now. Still, on top of the deep worry they felt over Ace’s well-being, they shared a growing dread that should they fail to save her, Zander would unravel yet again.

After Zander skinned and cleaned the rabbits for cooking, he used his dagger to scrape the hides, rinsing it after every pass in the stream. As he sat on the ground by the water, the sun quickly dropping toward the horizon, he watched the water jump from the rocks up ahead, falling in a long wave to the stream below. He could make out the miniscule droplets that crested the top of the waterfall from where he sat, leaping outward before falling to the stream below. They looked like tiny little people jumping from the edge, waiting to see if they would fall or fly.

When he was satisfied with the hides, he cleaned off his dagger and moved to sit by the fire. He wasn’t sure what he’d do with the rabbit hides, but there was no use in wasting them, so he laid them out on a large stone near the fire to begin drying overnight. As he sat, Theo handed him a skewer of rabbit meat. Zander accepted it gratefully, then took a handful of watercress and stuffed it in his mouth.

The three companions ate quietly for a while.

“We’ll make it to Almogia tomorrow,” Yarrow said eventually. “We can gather supplies there, and information about Ignacio’s recent comings and goings.” Yarrow looked at Zander. “If Ignacio has returned home, he’ll have docked in Malaga, then passed through Almogia on the way to his estate. When Ace’s parents were alive, they did a lot of business in Almogia. I have an idea of who to talk to. If we’re lucky, we’ll make it to the Sanz estate before they have a chance to settle.”

And before they’ve had a chance to hurt her, Zander thought hopefully.

Yarrow tossed their empty skewer into the fire and tented their hands, their elbows on their knees.

“From Almogia, we’ll cross the limestone valley, keeping away from the main roads leading to the Sanz estate. We can camp in the valley until it’s late enough, then approach from the south, where there are no roads leading in. There’s a hill behind the estate that will serve as a lookout point until we’re ready to strike. From there, we’ll need to split up. There will be at least one servant entrance in the back, on the south side. The stables lie to the east, and storehouses to the west. Our best chance of escape will be to the northeast, on the main road leading in. We’ll need to find a way to position the horses near the road if we’re going to flee fast enough.”

Zander looked at the ground near Theo’s feet, where he’d drawn a rough approximation of Yarrow’s instructions in the dirt using his empty skewer. “I thought you’d only been there once?” Zander asked, looking at Yarrow in disbelief.

Yarrow looked at him as if the question was completely irrelevant. “I have.”

Zander looked at Theo, who shrugged as if he was used to Yarrow memorizing the exact layout of every place they’d ever been to. The firelight threw the bruises on his face into stark relief. Zander didn’t fail to notice how he winced when he shrugged, nor that he’d been clutching his shoulder since they sat down to eat. Worry churned in his gut, but he made a note of it and set it aside. There wasn’t much he could do for Theo now.

“What else should we expect from Lord Sanz?” Zander asked.

“One of two things,” Yarrow said. “One, he’ll be so wrapped up in the victory of finding Ace, so focused on extracting from her the location of her parents’ famed treasure, that he won’t expect us to come save her. If he’s as arrogant as I remember, this is likely. It should make it easy to cause a distraction and get her out of there. Two, he’s grown up slightly and realizes Ace is capable, as are her friends, and he will be prepared for us. In that case, our job will be more challenging.”

“The last time we saw Sanz, his estate was crawling with servants and guards,” Theo said. “You’d think he was a goddamned prince or something. By the looks of the ship he arrived on to fetch Ace, he’s given into the delusion and built himself an army. There’s a chance his men sailed away after they brought Sanz home. Maybe they’re looking for treasure, or small children they can steal candy from. Or, perhaps, they’re surrounding his estate as we speak.”

Zander heaved a great sigh, tossing his empty skewer in the fire atop the other two. He looked up at the dark night sky as if the answers to his questions were twinkling in the blanket of stars above his head. Seeing no revelations, he looked back at his fellow pirates.

He was tired, frustrated, in pain. The last few months had felt like years. He’d grown and changed in ways he didn’t know was possible. He’d found an enormous well of strength and determination inside him he didn’t know existed. He’d learned how to sail, how to swordfight, and how to rob a crew of merchants on the high seas without firing a single shot. And on top of all of that, he’d fallen deeply in love with a person he felt like he’d known for lifetimes, only to discover he barely knew her at all. He’d found a family, only to lose them.

If the last few months had felt like years, the last three days had felt like months. The pain of loss weighed on him, threatening to drag him into an abyss. But the absolute miracle that was Yarrow and Theo kept him going. He would not lose them, too.

Looking at them now, Zander could see the same heartbreak he felt in their eyes, the same bone-deep exhaustion. The same dogged determination.

“We’d better get some rest,” he said finally. “I’ll take first watch.”

Instead of protesting, Yarrow nodded, seeming to have finally succumbed to the need for sleep. Zander gazed into the fire as they slept, thinking about all of the ways he was going to make Ignacio pay for what he’d done to his family.

Once, he was a hunter. And she was not only his prey—she was the bane of his existence.

It had been years since he started chasing her. Every other bounty hunter in the galaxy had long since given up on her capture, elusive as she was. But not him. Not his team.

It was the three of them then—Zed, Teshva, and Yuna. It had been the three of them for decades. At one point they did this job for the money just like everyone else. They did it to survive. But somewhere along the way, finding her became like a calling, a quest that would define the purpose of their lives.

For him, it became an obsession.

They lived in an endlessly frustrating cycle of pursuit, moving from place to place in their starship, working small jobs. Without fail, they questioned the criminals they brought in for bounty, bargaining or threatening to gain hints as to her whereabouts. The tips were sometimes credible. But for years, every good tip brought them to her doorstep only for the trail to suddenly go cold, like she disappeared into thin air as soon as they entered the planet’s atmosphere.

He could see it was wearing on them. She had the biggest bounty on her head in The Directorate’s history. Catching her would change their lives forever. But it was more than that. It was like some invisible force connected them, pulling them across the universe behind her. With each near miss, the tension receded, then snapped painfully back into place when she escaped. It ground them down, breaking off bits and pieces of their souls like wind eroding stone.

Yuna and Teshva were nearing their breaking point. He could see they wanted to give up. The mission required them all to sacrifice things, to give up normal lives. They became the job. But they, at least, still had each other. They had something to live for, should they leave this life behind. He didn’t know who he was without the job.

He didn’t know who he was without her.

He sat looking at his partners across the table. They pushed their food back and forth across their plates, their eyes unfocused. Years ago, they would have been full of talk. The three of them would sit for hours after getting a tip, drinking and trading ideas about what their next step should be. It was like a game.

Today, it felt old. Stale. They could smell the looming disappointment.

Desperation curled around his torso like a snake as he thought of them leaving him.

“Maybe we could fix the ship,” he said.

Yuna and Teshva looked up at the same time.

“Hmm?” Yuna said.

“Maybe we could be faster. I could replace a few things, give her a tune-up. You never know, it could be just the edge we need.”

Teshva shrugged. “Tinker away. It can’t hurt anything.”

Yuna’s mouth turned up slightly at the corner. “I don’t know about that. You remember Okshvos, don’t you? The hyperspace booster?”

Zed rolled his eyes as Teshva’s shoulders shook with laughter.

“You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?” he asked Yuna.

“Spending our money on a defective heating coil someone painted and called a hyperspace booster?” Yuna said. “No, no I’m not, Z. Never.”

Teshva was doubled over in laughter now. “It improves jump speed by up to fifteen percent!” he said between laughs, mocking Zed.

“Ah, knock off, the both of you,” Zed said, grinning. He stood. “I’m going to start poking around and see what needs to be replaced. And then the two of you can go to Lfthos Market and spare me the trouble.”

“You mean spare you the embarrassment,” Yuna said. Zed pushed them playfully as he walked by, ruffling their hair in mock anger.

The ship’s engine room was normally loud and hot. Now, idle as they sat parked on one of The Directorate’s outpost planets, it was cool and quiet, bathed in a soft red glow from the reserve lights lining the ceiling. Zed retrieved his data pad and started taking notes.