Skybound Hearts

I don't do charity. I don't do trust. And I definitely don't do rescuing pretty-faced imperial engineers who look like they've never seen a hard day's work in their life.

Yet here we are.

Elias Thorne was supposed to be cargo. The empire locked him in chains, and I was supposed to sell him, dump him, or use him. Easy choices. But then he opened his mouth. Turns out, he's not just some imperial lapdog-he's a runaway genius who built something the empire wants badly. Bad enough to chase him across the skies.

And now? Well. Now they're chasing me, too.

I should toss him overboard. Really, I should. But he's irritatingly useful, dangerously smart, and annoyingly attractive when he argues with me. My crew thinks he's a liability. I think he's a problem I should've dealt with before he got under my skin.

But when an old enemy of mine comes knocking-hard-we've got bigger problems. If we don't move fast, the empire is going to burn my ship, take my crew, and drag Elias back to whatever twisted lab they pulled him from.

So here's the plan:
• Don't fall for the prisoner.
• Don't let the prisoner fall for me.
• Definitely don't die in a sky battle against overwhelming odds.

Simple. Right?