Page 18 of The Last Hunt

Maeve grabbed the blanket from the ground and wrapped it around herself before sitting down hard on the bench seat behind her. She leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees, her hands over her face. They were going to be rescued. They weren’t going to die.

Utter relief hit Maeve hard. She leaned back, her eyes closed.

“Thank fuck,” she groaned. When she opened her eyes, Aethon was looking at her with a strange expression. “What?” she demanded.

He shrugged, his mouth a thin line, then he picked up his clothes from the deck and started to dress. “I told you we weren’t going to die,” he said.

“Yeah, well I didn’t believe you,” Maeve replied. She got up and gathered her own clothes, dressing quickly. By the time they each pulled their jackets on and looked at each other again, Aethon’s gaze was guarded.

Maeve thought about what they’d shared the night before. She didn’t know if she regretted it or not. But regardless, it couldn’t happen again. Maeve knew she couldn’t sleep with Aethon again and keep her feelings out of it. She was already too attached to him. And attachments were liabilities. Just another weakness for criminals or convicts to exploit. And though Maeve had been tested to her very limits over the past seven days, she knew she wasn’t weak.

“Listen,” she said, resting her hands on her hips. “What we did last night -”

“Can’t happen again,” Aethon said, finishing her sentence. His jaw was tight. “I’m aware.”

Maeve felt a pang in her chest that she ignored. “I think we should just keep it between us.”

“I’m not one to kiss and tell, Bladesy,” Aethon replied, his voice flinty.

“Right,” she snapped. “It was just desperation. Physical desire. Nothing more.”

“We thought we were going to die,” Aethon added.

“I thought you said you didn’t think we were going to die,” Maeve said slowly.

“I lied,” Aethon replied gruffly.

For some reason the thought that Aethon had lied about anything he’d said last night felt like a knife in the gut to Maeve. She inhaled sharply.

“Fine,” she said. “Well. That’s that.”

Aethon nodded.

An hour later, the freighter had captured their pod in a tractor beam and pulled them close enough to link a docking port. Maeve had led the way from the pod to the freighter, Aethon trailing behind.

Now, Maeve pulls herself into the present and swallows hard. It’s been four years since she and Aethon spent that week in the escape pod. She leans forward and rubs her hands across her face.

“Oh Maevey,” TAI sighs. “You said that story wasn’t romantic - but it was!”

“I don’t know what was romantic about it,” Maeve snaps. “Besides the fact that we had sex. We were in a life or death situation. Whatever I felt, it wasn’t real.”

She stands up and stalks back through the Archer, sitting down in her captain’s chair again.

“What about all the times he called you chrissah?” TAI asks. “As sweet as a peach.”

“He was just saying that, TAI,” Maeve sighs. “He didn’t mean it.”

“Oh I don’t know -”

“Give it a rest,” Maeve groans. When TAI is silent, Maeve examines the starbase now visible out her viewscreen. It’s huge and hourglass shaped, with tiny ships surrounding it, coming and going like bees to a hive.

Maeve pulls up a digital map on the screen. And in the corner is a little dot representing the Menace, trailing her at a distance.

Chapter 6

The First Hunt

Aethon