What price did Ulric have to pay for the easy life he led? Were there secrets he kept from others? Things he’d rather no one else knew about? It didn’t matter, because it didn’t change anything. Alex couldn’t accept his proposal, no matter what. She belonged in the darkness of space, free to roam and explore.

Alone.

Anteris was now nothing more than a gray dot in the rearview monitor to her left. No bigger than the multitude of shiny stars surrounding her in the dark edge of space.

As she absently reached for the bronze key dangling from her leather choker, she cursed herself. Damn!It wasn’t where it was supposed to be. She’d probably forgotten the choker in Ulric’s bedroom. Her good luck charm was sitting in someone else’s home. No wonder everything had been going wrong since she left Ulric’s side.

She took a deep breath. Calm down, there’s no need to worry. I’m sure Ulric has already found it and is keeping it safe for me.Besides, she would return to Anteris soon enough.

The emergency lights suddenly flashed on the dashboard in front of her. Out of nowhere, everything seemed to be flashing red and green-mingling together. To have so many lights from several components blink rapidly was bad news. Alex had overhauled her ship only weeks ago, even splurged on paying a professional cleaner to make the exterior gleam. Now, everything seemed to be failing.

That wasn’t technically possible.

The ship was old, but mostly reliable.

Alex secured the seatbelt over her shoulders and around her hips. She swiveled in her seat, rolling it forward to take manual control of Promise. Most of the time, cruising on automatic did the job after she programmed the destination codes, but not with everything blinking. It had been a while since she’d completely taken over the wheel.