Hunter
Hunter was careful to arch his brows, widening his eyes and letting his jaw go slack just the tiniest amount. He had to give off the impression of being surprised.
But of course, he wasn't surprised at all. He'd known who she was for a while now. Days, even. Tracking her under the Queen's orders, trying to figure out her next move.
He'd never expected her to blow the damn palace to smithereens. He'd have hell to pay for that, he was sure, but he couldn't deny that he was impressed by the Princess. She'd shown more backbone than he expected.
And even though she'd made his job easy, even though he could deliver her straight to the Queen right now, there was more at stake here. He couldn't let her go without figuring out her plan.
"Snow..." he whispered, like he was awed with her presence. "You're alive? Everyone thought..."
He watched her fingers curl inward, flexing her hands into fists, but her face stayed even, neutral. "Well, now they can stop thinking that," she said, her syllables clipped, her voice tight.
"Wow," Hunter said, playing his role beautifully if he did say so himself. "It's an honor to have you on board, Princess."
She winced only a fraction — if he wasn't so used to looking for that kind of thing, he might not have seen it — and gave him a stiff nod. "Thank you."
Hunter leaned forward in his seat, his elbows on his knees his chin resting in his palms. "So where have you been all this time?" he asked, doing his best to sound enthralled.
"It doesn't matter," she said, her voice cracking as she cleared her throat. "I just couldn't stay there any longer."
Hunter nodded as if he understood. He did though. He didn't know the exact circumstances of what had driven the Princess from hiding, but he knew the Queen had found her and botched an assassination attempt. Now, she didn't want to take any chances. She wanted the Princess delivered to her in person. And Hunter was the delivery boy. He sat back, dropping his hands to his lap, his fingers digging into his knees at the thought of what would be done to her after she was delivered.
But that wasn't his worry. He had one job to do. And that job didn't involve thinking about what happened after a delivery. And if he wanted to stop being a delivery boy and ensure himself too valuable to be killed indiscriminately, there was only one course of action — impress the Queen enough that she promoted him.
To do that, he’d have to do more than bring down Snow White.
"People have hoped that you would return..." he said, giving her a once-over. He only vaguely remembered photos of the Princess as a child, her dark hair always in curls, her pale complexion set off by a rosy tint in her cheeks and freckles across her nose. It was difficult to merge the image of that smiling little girl with the wild woman who sat before him now, her hair tangled with leaves and twigs, her face smudged with dirt, a dark haunted look clouding her eyes. This was not the savior the Empire was expecting. She looked like she'd done nothing but live in the forest for months, her clothes ratty and filthy.
"Well, I have," she said, staring past him at the stars beyond.
Hunter blew out a heavy breath and leaned back in his chair, swiveling to follow her as she stood and walked toward the windscreen, her hands clasped behind her, the blaster left on her seat. Good, she was opening up to him, even if it was the oddest form of opening up he'd ever witnessed.
"So what was your plan, exactly?"
She turned to him, her forehead creasing. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, you torched the palace, right?" She said nothing, but her tight-lipped expression told him all he needed to know. "And then what? You didn't have an escape plan? Seems pretty lucky that I was there at all."
She folded her arms in front of her, her hip cocked in defiance. "I could've figured it out."
"Yeah, I'm sure. Stealing a ship without knowing how to fly?"
Her mouth opened and closed, her eyes wide. "I—" She dipped her head. "I guess I didn't think that far ahead. I was supposed to be long gone by the time the fire took hold, but..."
Hunter nodded. "It was a very pretty fire," he agreed.
She narrowed her eyes at him, almost like she was trying to determine if this was another joke or not. "That's not it... It doesn't matter. You're right. I'm lucky you were there."
Hunter sat back with a big grin. "And you tried to get rid of me."
Snow pressed her lips together so tight that they nearly disappeared and Hunter had to hold in a little frown of his own. She didn't joke, she didn't understand his attempts at humor or levity, he briefly wondered if the Princess was even human. But he remembered the force of the palace's explosion rocking the earth, sending her off balance, his hand reaching out to catch her by the arm, her skin soft and warm under his fingertips…
Definitely human.
"So, Princess, what's the plan?" he asked, swiveling back and forth in his chair as the ship sped off in an unspecified direction. He hadn't had a coordinate to point to, just 'away from here' had been good enough for the moment, but now that the guards were long behind them, he needed to pry her open to see what made her tick. He needed to know her plans. To know who else she'd involved with her schemes to take over the Empire.
He could navigate toward the palace, take her straight to the Queen, but after the destruction of the Summer Palace, he wasn’t sure delivering the Princess would be enough to save him from the Queen’s wrath. He’d much rather ensure his survival by delivering more than the Queen expected.
She crossed her arms, shielding herself from him, even subconsciously. He couldn't push her too far or she might never open up to him at all. "Why would I tell you?"
He didn't miss a beat. "I need to tell the ship to go somewhere? Unless you'd like me to just deposit you at the next planet we come to," he added.
Snow's eyes widened and he saw for the first time the depths of those dark pools, the intelligence sparkling there and the racing thoughts that flashed through her expression almost too quickly to see. She actually looked... frightened.
Hunter sighed and dragged his palm over his face with a frustrated groan. "Look, I'm just teasing you. Obviously I'm not going to leave you stranded on some deserted uninhabitable planet." The Queen wouldn’t like that one bit.
Snow looked away, the delicate muscles in her throat working as she swallowed. "You would if you were sane."
"We've already determined that I'm not. And since I helped you escape, I'm in this just as deep as you are. The Queen has no mercy, you know."
She nodded once, her jaw tight, her eyes focused on something far-off and invisible. "I know."
"So, the way I see it, you wouldn't have done what you did unless you had a plan to take her down for good. And that's probably my only way out of this mess, so... You know, I wanna help."
Her gaze snapped over to him, those dark shadowed eyes raking up and down his body, still slouched in the Captain's seat. She was trying to decide if she could trust him, he saw it and he tried to look as unassuming as possible. He focused on the one part of his statement that was true and tried to project an aura of honesty. Snow defeating the Queen probably was his only way out of the mess of his life, but he didn't think the poor girl stood a chance. Especially not since she'd already found herself caught in his spider's web. She didn't know it yet, but she'd walked straight into his trap and was already doomed.
A tiny part of Hunter wished it could be different. Wished that he had any faith of anyone being able to defeat the Queen, but he knew it was impossible. He knew how firm her grip on the Empire was. How determined she was to tighten that grip until no one under her rule even had the space to draw air into their lungs.
The best he could hope for was a better position in the Queen’s Empire. And that all started with the Princess.
Snow went back to her seat, holstering the blaster before she sank into it, drawing her feet up under her. "I'm afraid I don't really have a plan," she said, licking her lips to wet them, looking down at her hands folded in her lap.
Hunter blew out a long breath and shook his head. "Well, that's going to be a problem."