(Kaelen’s POV)
The magnetic restraints hiss open. Aria stays upright for one second, her arms hanging at her sides, then folds toward the platform with nothing left to hold her.
I move.
I force my way through the containment field. The shield burns my uniform into my skin. I catch Aria before her head strikes the platform.
She weighs almost nothing in my arms. "Aria." I tear the emergency stim-injector from my belt, the strongest in the Imperial arsenal, and drive it through her tunic into her heart.
"Stay with me. Please. Stay."
Her eyes open.
Hope makes me pull her closer. She is awake. She can see me and hear me.
Her gaze passes over my face without stopping.
Those deep-space violet eyes have the shape and shade I know from dreams and waking nightmares. Every shared memory has
