Kyla woke up the next morning hoping she wasn’t going to get a migraine.

It was a familiar feeling. She thought the same thing every morning as she opened her eyes. She’d close them again and mentally check her condition, making sure she didn’t feel parched and there wasn’t any sort of faint throbbing behind her right eye.

This morning, she experienced a familiar relief that her head seemed to be clear. Then she remembered what day it was.

She was leaving today. With Hall.

Nothing would be the same after this evening.

She hoped she was doing the right thing. It felt like the right thing, but sometimes feelings led one astray. There was nothing for her here, though. She’d never get to be anyone other than a younger sister.

She wanted to be a sister, but she also wanted to be a lot more.

She just didn’t know what yet.

Kyla lay in bed for a long time, trying to imagine where she’d be when she woke up tomorrow. She couldn’t picture it. Only twice in her life had she been off-planet, and both had been when she’d been a child and her parents had still been alive. Things had been a little looser with the Coalition then. They’d been able to go on vacation without worrying that the throne wouldn’t be gone when they returned.

She almost wished she was a child again, when the universe had still felt free.

Finally, she made herself get up, bathe, dress, and eat breakfast. She did all of it slowly, but when she was done it was still far too early to go see her sister.

She couldn’t say goodbye, but she had to at least see her today. It would probably be the last time she ever would.

To kill time until her sister woke up, she sat out on her terrace and looked out at the lush gardens and orchards of Evalon. They were manufactured to look and smell exactly as they did, but that didn’t mean they weren’t beautiful.

Other planets wouldn’t be nearly so beautiful.

Or maybe they would.

She sat in a daze until her maid came to tell her that her sister was now up and dressing. Kyla stood up and shook herself off, calming herself until her expression was bland and natural.

Then she walked down the hall to her sister’s suite.

As she’d been yesterday, Patrice was seated at her dressing table, brushing her hair. “Two mornings in a row,” she said in a lazy drawl. “What have I done to deserve this?”

“Nothing,” Kyla said, fighting back a shiver of anxiety. “I just wanted to see you, and this is the best time to catch you alone. I feel like we haven’t talked much lately.”

“That’s because all you want to do is nag.”

Kyla nodded at her sister’s significant glare. “I know. I’m just worried. But I’m not here to nag today. I promise.”

“Good. Because I’m honestly not in the mood.” Patrice turned her head, her eyes running up and down Kyla’s body as she pulled a chair closer to sit down. “You look different. Have you finally had sex?”

“What? No! Of course not.” Kyla kept her eyes wide and innocent, although she was startled and dismayed by her sister’s perceptiveness.

Patrice might be blind to a lot of things, but she’d always been astute about sex.

“Are you sure? You look…I don’t know. There’s a man, though, isn’t there?”

“Of course there’s not a man.”

“Don’t lie to me. I know better. Oh, it’s Tor, isn’t it?”

“No! It’s not Tor. We’re just friends!”

Patrice’s eyebrows drew together as she continued brushing her hair. “He would be a fine choice for a lover, but don’t get any ideas about a lifetime partner. You can’t have one, you know.”

“I know. Tor isn’t my lover!”

“It’s not a stable boy or a gardener, is it? That wouldn’t be appropriate at all. Someone you’ve seen in Court?”

“It’s no one! Would you stop?” Kyla hadn’t expected the conversation to go like this at all today, and she was rattled by how close Patrice was getting to the truth. “I’m lover-free, as always.”

Patrice chuckled. “No you’re not. But you don’t have to tell me, if you don’t want.”

“Patrice,” Kyla murmured, swallowing hard.

Patrice smiled, changing the mood between them. “You’ll tell me later.”

“Maybe. Not that there’s anything to tell.”

“Of course not.”

Kyla smiled too, feeling a swell of affection for her sister. They hadn’t always gotten along—and sometimes they fought viciously—but they were still sisters.

“I was thinking earlier,” Kyla began, following the line of her thoughts, “about when we took that vacation to the beach when we were kids. Remember? On Callison III?”

“Of course I remember that. I wish we could still do vacations. But it’s not safe to leave an empty throne these days.”

A throne could be dangerous in other ways too, but Kyla managed to hold back the urge to say so. “I know. But that was the only time we’ve ever seen an ocean.”

There were no oceans on Evalon—no large bodies of water of any kind.

“Those waves,” Patrice murmured, evidently caught up in the memory too. “They were terrifying.”

“But thrilling. I never knew water could be so powerful.”

“I didn’t find it all that thrilling. I was constantly having to pull you back so you didn’t go too far into the waves and get pulled out.”

Kyla closed her eyes. “That’s what I was thinking about this morning. Do you remember what you kept saying to me, when I asked you why I couldn’t go out any farther? Because I’m your sister. That’s why you stay with me. Hold my hand…”

“That’s what I’m here for,” Patrice said very softly, her voice breaking unexpectedly on the words.

A surge of emotion rocked Kyla, so suddenly and powerfully that she literally couldn’t breathe. She squeezed her eyes closed and swallowed over it until her throat finally relaxed.

When she could move again, she reached over and wrapped her arms around Patrice, giving her sister a quick, tight hug.

Patrice hugged her back before asking on a breathless laugh, “What’s gotten into you this morning?”

“Nothing,” Kyla said, surreptitiously wiping away a tear as she sat back into her chair. “It just feels like we’ve been arguing a lot lately, and I don’t like to do that.”

“Me either, believe it or not.”

Kyla sniffed, trying to cover for the grief she still felt. She was leaving tonight. She’d never see her sister again. It hurt so much it might have stopped her from leaving if it wouldn’t have hurt even more not to go.

Patrice was watching her closely now. “What’s going on? What’s wrong?”

Kyla was so tempted to tell her, to beg her to come with them, get away from this planet where they could both finally be free.

But Patrice didn’t want to be free. She would stop Kyla from going. And she might even stop Hall and Lenna from getting away. There was no way Kyla could take the risk.

“Nothing, really,” Kyla said at last. “It’s probably just that time in my cycle.”

“You know, there are injections you can take to avoid all those ups and downs.”

“I know. But messing with my hormones gives me migraines.”

“Everything gives you migraines.”

Kyla stood up, knowing she needed to leave now before she gave something away. “Speaking of, I think I’m getting one now.”

“Well, go take something and lie down. Maybe it will be gone in time for Court this evening.”

Kyla didn’t have a migraine, and she wasn’t going to be in Court this evening. But she murmured, “Hopefully. Maybe I can get rid of it quickly.”

Unable to stop herself, she reached over to take her sister’s hand before she left. She wanted to say something, but everything she might have said would reveal too much.

Patrice met her eyes, and then frowned in a slow confusion, as if still trying to figure out Kyla’s mood.

Kyla made herself walk away, but she didn’t release her sister’s hand immediately. She held onto it, letting Patrice’s palm slip out of hers as they drew part, until only their fingers were touching.

It hurt like a wound when their hands finally broke apart, but Kyla kept walking away.

She went back to her room, explaining to her maid that she had a migraine and wasn’t going to go out for the rest of the day.

She cried when she was finally alone. But the curtains were closed, the door was locked, and the lights were off in her room, so nobody saw.

***

Kyla spent the rest of the day in bed, partly to keep up appearances and partly because she had absolutely nothing to do.

She’d packed a small bag, but she couldn’t carry much with her. She was going to have to sneak out of the palace without anyone noticing, and they’d notice if she was lugging a trunk full of her worldly possessions.

The only things she owned that hurt to leave were the boots she’d only half-finished.

In her mind, as she waited, she played out the steps to her escape this evening. She would wait until Court was fully in session, everyone caught up in food and sex and wine. Then she’d sneak down the back staircase and tell the guard she was taking a walk.

He might think it was a strange, but he wouldn’t stop her. She was allowed to go wherever she wanted on the palace grounds. Then she would meet Hall at the head of the trail, where they’d arranged, and the two of them would walk toward the road that led from the main palace entrance. In the curve, before the guardhouse, they would jump on and hide with the smuggled cargo until they got to the launch port, where Lenna was waiting with the ship to fly them out of here.

A simple plan. And Hall was always able to use his gift if they were stopped or anything else went wrong.

It should work just fine, and in a few hours she would be gone, heading toward a completely different life.

She really hoped her sister wouldn’t do anything stupid in Court tonight. One day, she would go too far, and Kyla wouldn’t be around to help her out of trouble.

She pushed that thought from her mind. She’d done what she could. If Patrice wanted to run headlong toward danger, then Kyla couldn’t stop her.

She managed to hold out until it was dark outside and she could hear the Court revelries going on two floors below her. She sat up. Smoothed her hair. Put her boots on. Went to get her bag so it was just beside her.

Then she waited another hour until it was almost the appointed time. Finally, she stood up, so terrified now she was breathing raggedly.

She couldn’t believe it was finally time to go down and meet Hall.

It felt like someone else was doing it—using her body, leaving the suite of rooms she’d spent her entire life in, walking down the quiet hallway and then hurrying down the stairs.

She almost cried out in surprise when she nearly ran into someone coming up.

He stopped short before he plowed into her, and it took them both a minute to stabilize themselves and figure out who each other was.

It was Tor, she realized with a wave of relief. She saw the same relief on his face, although she didn’t understand it.

“Where are you going?” he asked. Then shook his head quickly, as if dispelling the thought. “No, it doesn’t matter. I was just coming to see you.”

“What?” She blinked. There was no normal situation in which Tor would ever come to her bedchambers. Something must be wrong.

“You need to get out of here,” he said quickly, urgency tight on his face. “Out of the palace. Off of Evalon. You need to get your sister and leave right now.”

Kyla blinked again. “What?”

“The Coalition knows about your sister’s…performances. There was a Coalition scout in Court tonight, and she did another one of her claims to be Empress. The scout will have already reported it. They’ll be sending a squad to arrest her. And you.”

“Me too?”

“You’re part of the royal family. They’ll need to clear the ranks completely, after what they’ll call an act of treason. Neither you nor your sister are safe.” He took her by the shoulders and gave her a little shake. “I’m sorry, Kyla, but you don’t have time to be shocked. You have to get out of here right now. If you’re arrested, you’ll be sent to a prison planet or banished on a planet dump. Either way, you’re not likely to survive more than a few days. Do you hear me?”

“Yes, yes.” She was almost dizzy from emotion and confusion. “But won’t the palace guards—”

“Try to protect you? Yes, of course. But they only have swords. It would be a massacre.”

Of course, it would. Kyla felt sick at the visual of their loyal guards being killed trying to protect them in a hopeless scenario. “But how do you know it was even a scout? How did the scout know to come?”

She stared up at him when he didn’t answer, and she saw a very brief expression flicker on his face.

She gasped. “You told them! You reported her!”

“Yes! Yes, I did.” He rubbed his eyes with a muffled voice. “I told you she had to stop doing that. She left me with no other choice.”

“But why—”

“Because I’m the Coalition liaison! What do you think I was doing off-world for so long? They were training me. Indoctrinating me. If I didn’t report it and they found out some other way, it would be a death-sentence for me. What the fuck else was I supposed to do? I’m risking my life right now by even telling you.”

“Okay,” she gasped. “Okay. I get it.” She was angry and betrayed and hurt at the same time, but she didn’t have time for any of those things. Hall would be waiting for her. He was. Right now. “Patrice is still in Court, isn’t she?”

“Yes. I’ll make up an emergency to get her out of there. That’s as much as I can do. You meet her and the two of you get out. Hire a ship at the launch port and get away as soon as you can.”

“But what about everyone else here? Will they be in trouble too?”

“Of course not. The Coalition will want to get rid of the royal blood but keep this place as a lucrative vacation spot. Everyone else will fall in line. If we don’t, they’ll threaten to decommission the habitation zone and the planet will turn back into a wasteland. Do you really think anyone on this planet is going to risk such a threat over traditions that don’t mean anything anymore? You and your sister are the only ones in real danger. Now, go. I’ll get your sister out of the throne room. I figure you have maybe an hour before they land their hop and get here from the launch port.”

“Okay.”

Tor raced down the stairs in the direction he’d come. He’d have to think of a really good excuse to convince Patrice to leave Court halfway through, but Kyla couldn’t worry about that right now.

Hall was waiting. And she’d have to tell him…something.

She wasn’t running, but she was walking fast as she left by the backdoor, waving at the guard, Iram, as if she were too distracted to explain her presence.

She’d barely made it into the shelter of the trees when she was grabbed by two strong hands.

“Where have you been? You scared the life out of me!” Hall’s hands were tight on her upper arms, and his face was slightly damp with perspiration in the moonlight.

“I’m sorry, but there’s a…a problem.” She could barely speak now. She wanted so much to just go with him as they’d planned, but then Patrice would be arrested.

She’d never survive a prison planet or a planet dump. She would be dead before even a few days passed.

“What’s going on?” Hall demanded.

As quickly and clearly as she could, Kyla explained what Tor had just told her. She ended with, “I can’t leave her to die, Hall. I just can’t.”

Hall covered his eyes with his hands and groaned loudly, as if furious with the universe for sending such complications. “What choice do you have? You can get out of here now. With me. Otherwise, you’re going to be arrested too. Do you know what happens in a Coalition prison? Do you want me to tell you?”

“No! I’m sorry. I know it’s terrible, but I can’t leave Patrice to face that. I have to go back for her.”

“We don’t have time. If a squad is on its way, then we’re already in trouble. We have to get out of here right now.”

“I can’t.” Kyla was close to tears now, but she knew exactly what she had to do—for the first time, without any doubts or questions.

“Kyla, please,” Hall said thickly. “She’s brought this on herself. She knew what she was doing, and she put you in danger too by doing it.”

“I know that. I know that.”

“But you’re still going to give up your only escape route for her? You’re going to give up your chance to be with me?”

Kyla was crying for real now, since she saw the harsh reality on Hall’s face. “I have to. I’m so sorry, but I have to go back for her. She’s my sister.”

“She doesn’t deserve this. Kyla, she doesn’t deserve this kind of loyalty and sacrifice.” His tone was bitter, rather than emotional, and his face had now become tightly controlled.

He’d lived a long time—surviving in a dangerous world. He knew how to let things go when necessary.

Kyla had always known this truth about him.

“I know you didn’t have much family,” she rasped. “But you had parents and a grandmother I thought you loved. What kind of a family did you have, if you only loved them when they deserved it? She’s my sister, Hall, and I’m not going to leave her to die.”

This seemed to finally get through to him. He jerked his head to the side and breathed deeply.

Kyla wiped her tears away and waited, not even breathing, although she already knew what he was going to say.

“I can’t go with you. I’ve got to get the cargo out and meet Lenna.”

“I know,” she said, managing to keep her voice from breaking. “I never expected you to come with me.

“I can’t risk my life—and Lenna’s—for—”

“I know,” Kyla interrupted. “You don’t have to justify it. No ties or commitments, remember? No shackles of any kind.”

It was the first time in the whole conversation when it felt like her words were just wrong.

“Damn it, Kyla,” Hall muttered, his face twisting painfully. “I can’t believe you’re doing this. I’m tempted to just—”

“Don’t you dare.” She recognized the expression on his face. “Don’t you dare force me to leave with you.”

He blew out a breath. “I won’t. But you’re just being—”

“We don’t have time for this. I’ve got to get back to Patrice. You go on.”

“I’ll wait at the launch port with Lenna for as long as we possibly can. If you and your sister can get there in time, we’ll take you both with us.”

She was surprised and gratified by the offer, since he would be risking harboring fugitives. “You’ll probably have to leave before we get there, but we’ll try. Thank you.” She gave him a little push. “Now go.”

Hall took one step away from her, but then he reached out to take her hand and squeeze it.

She almost choked on fear and grief and an emotion more powerful than any she’d ever experienced. “Thank you,” she said again, forcing the words out through a tightened throat. “For waking me up. For setting me free.”

He opened the connection between them for just a moment, and she was flooded with him, filling her completely. All of his own anger and sorrow and loss and appreciation and the same force of emotion she felt in herself.

“Thank you,” he murmured, “for setting me free too.”

He dropped her hand then and walked away, disappearing into the shadows of the woods.

Kyla turned and ran back toward the palace.

***

Hall knew the steps of their plan by heart. He could do them in his sleep. He had to, since he was so stunned and dazed at losing Kyla—before he’d ever really had her.

He should have known not to hope for too much. The universe had never given him anything easily—and never anything nearly so good as her.

He jumped onto the back of the transport, exactly as he’d planned, and the trip to the launch port went without incident.

Everything went perfectly. No one stopped them. No inspection. No sign of Coalition officials or the royal guard.

Except he’d left Kyla behind.

He should have just put her over his shoulder and carried her away with him. Or else touched her and changed her mind about going back into the palace.

He couldn’t have done that, though. He wanted her with him from her own free will.

She just cared more about her sister than she did about him.

It hurt. That truth. But it was no more than he should have expected. He’d gone into this, believing himself to be free and wanting to stay that way.

He didn’t feel free. He felt like he might vomit.

The feeling didn’t dispel as the transport turned into the launch port.

He froze, terrified when he saw a standard squad of soldiers disembarking from one of the gray Coalition military hops.

They didn’t turn toward him or the transport. They left the port and turned down the road that led toward the palace.

They were here to arrest Kyla and her sister.

There was no way she would be able to get past them and make her way here to him.

The blood left his face, and he was seriously afraid he might faint as he dropped down to the pavement in front of Lenna’s ship.

She’d lowered the cargo ramp and was walking down it, frowning and shaking her head. “That squad gave me a heart attack. I thought they were here for us.”

Hall opened his mouth but couldn’t speak.

Kyla was in trouble, and he’d just left her, abandoned her. He’d never considered himself a good man, but he hadn’t thought he was that.

“What’s the matter? You look sick.” Lenna walked over to stand beside him. “Where’s your girl?”

“She’s going to be arrested,” Hall managed to say. He didn’t recognize his own voice.

Lenna sucked in a breath and looked in the direction the squad had disappeared in. “Damn. Talk about bad timing. Damn.” She turned back to peer at his face. “I’m sorry. I know you fell for her hard.”

Hall cleared his throat. “Yeah. I…left her.”

“Well, you had to. What other choice did you have?”

Falling for her didn’t come close to describing how he felt for Kyla. He couldn’t believe he’d just walked away and left her alone.

She was in danger. She was in danger right now.

He’d lived his whole life trying to evade any sort of emotional shackles. He’d always assumed that was what it meant to be free.

He’d been wrong. About so many things.

About everything that mattered.

“Fuck,” he breathed, knowing what he had to do.

“Oh shit, Hall,” Lenna muttered, evidently watching his face closely. “Don’t do it.”

He straightened his shoulders and took a shuddering breath. “I’m sorry. I have to. I have to.”

“God save me from stupid love that makes you do such stupid things.” She spoke the words under her breath—like a prayer. Then she continued in her normal voice. “Okay. I’ll get the cargo loaded and wait for you as long as I can. But this is my life and my ship. If you’re not here in an hour, or if I see one sign of that Coalition squad, I’m going to have to take off. Without you.”

“Understood.” He touched her shoulder briefly. “Thanks.”

“Whatever,” Lenna grumbled. “You absolute idiot. Now go. Hurry up. I’m not going to wait for long.”

Hall took off at a run, keeping his eyes peeled for any sort of transport he could borrow to get him to the palace more quickly.

He was running toward a dangerous situation, one where there was only a slim chance of him getting out of unscathed.

But it was the first time he could remember feeling like he was actually free.