The lead that Kuruk and Cardo went to investigate turned out to be a brothel that Zaugustus was known to frequent. If anyone knew anything about him, where to find him, or where he sold his slaves, they weren't talking, even when persuaded with ten thousand credits. Apparently, the threat he posed to anyone who would speak against him was too great.
I'd have to go, break into their minds, and get what I could. If there was a pattern, maybe I could intercept him, get Rey, or at least find out what he'd done with her, and go from there.
I glanced up at the clock, as I took another drink, seeing that it was nearly midnight. I sighed, knowing I should go to sleep, but if I tried, I'd just lay there in the dark, alone with my racing thoughts. Where is she? Who has her? What am I not protecting her from? I have to find her I have to find her I have to find her
No, I was still too coherent to even try to sleep.
A flash of shimmering blue fabric caught my attention, and I looked at my open doorway to see Beau, her eyes closed as she danced to the music playing through her headphones. She probably had no idea I was here at this time of night, since we did our best to avoid each other.
We hadn't spoken since our conversation in the hallway, we hadn't even been in the same room. Though, I was aware that she'd been behaving, well, like a woman who'd been locked up her entire life and was now free to make her own decisions.
She did, and they were predictably terrible.
While I'd purposefully put up a barrier so that I wouldn't hear Rey's thoughts when we got married, I didn't care enough with Beau, and her unspoken chatter was endless.
I didn't want her, wasn't in the mental capacity to have any sort of relationship with her, but from the memories that lurked just under the surface of her mind, I'd never send her back to Cyrilla.
I'd always known that the practice of buying wives was disgusting, and I had wanted no part of it, I'd made that clear a number of times. The officials hadn't listened, and bought not one wife for me, but two, as it was in their authority to do so if a King hadn't taken a wife by a certain age. I was only now realizing just how disgusting the process was.
Girls who were intended to become Kings wives were locked up when they either got their first period, or turned twelve, whichever came first. From then forward, no men were allowed access to them, not even family members, until their wedding day, when they were handed off to their buyer. While in isolation, they were looked after, and guarded by women. The most disturbing of this, was that the girls weren't given an adequate education, and were gaslighted into thinking that wives were expected to tolerate marital rape and physical abuse. Then, if the child they were forced to conceive and carry happened to be a girl, she was destined to the same fate.
How a man, even one as cold and calculating as a King, could willingly do that to his own daughter was completely beyond me. It gave me a newfound hatred for Palpatine, and Beau's father. I may have been too much of a basket case to deal with her right now, but I still knew that she deserved better.
I sighed, bringing a hand up to rub my eyes. Ap'lek was asleep, the Bond between us was quiet and still, and Ushar had gotten back a few hours ago, his shadows coiling around him as he reported. They hadn't found much, and he was currently asleep in a bedroom upstairs, just in case I lost my shit again, though he would never admit that was the reason.
I'd picked the bottle of gin off of my desk, and moved to fill my glass, when a jolt of power blasted through me, a thousand needles stinging my chest as panic seized me.
Not just panic. No, this was worse. This was pure, unbridled terror and misery laced with confusion, all conglomerating into….darkness. Beautiful, mangled darkness that had no beginning and no end. Soothing, comforting, accepting and mine.
My power. My darkness. But, not from me.
Ice prickled in my veins as the bottle slipped from my grasp and shattered on the floor.
Rey.
I wrapped my power around hers, digging in, and followed it through the Bond, all the while screaming her name, begging her not to let go, to come back to me.
The darkness cleared, and I looked around the unfamiliar room I found myself in.
A choked sob had the hair on my arms standing on end, and I turned to meet the hazel eyes of my life, my love, and my wife.
We moved, me to her and her to me, crashing into each other, and I wrapped my arms around her, crushing her to me, as she began crying in earnest.
"Is it really you?" She asked, her words a sobbing, rippling jumble. I pulled away to kiss her temple, her hairline, her forehead, my hands going to either side of her face.
"It's me." I promised, tears I didn't know were falling making my voice thick. My eyes roamed over her, noting her injuries. "Where are you?"
"Kadavo" She said, her hands coming to my face. I noticed that her right palm and pinky finger were both cut, and the deep gashes had been crudely stitched with black thread.
"I'm on my way-" I said, but she clung to me.
"Kylo, please-" She begged, her eyes wild as her fingers gripped the fabric covering my shoulders. "Don't leave me."
I pulled her to me, holding her tightly against my chest, stroking her matted hair as she cried. Every sob that broke out of her was like a stab into my heart, every shake of her body tearing me to shreds. I didn't care who I had to go through, or how many wars it caused, I had to get to her.
She went utterly still in my arms and I could've sworn the blood in my veins reversed course.
"What?" I demanded.
"He's coming." She breathed, her hands tightly fisting the fabric of my shirt.
I pulled away enough to look at her, and the fear and hopelessness I found in her eyes shattered what was left of my soul. Her tears had washed clean streams down her dirty face, and she was panting, her panic and dread making my stomach turn. "Who?" I demanded. "Who's coming?"
She didn't answer, the color draining from her face, even her cracked lips bloodless. I looked behind me, where her gaze was locked, but saw nothing. "Rey, who is it?"
Her eyes shifted to mine at last. "I love you." She said, then my heart curdled in horror at her scream as she was ripped out of my arms. I serged for her, and she vanished, our connection in the Force severing completely.
I blinked, finding myself in my office again, and the air shuddered out of me in a low, broken heave. A guttural howl of undiluted agony and rage sounded out of my chest as my power detonated, sending splinters of wood and shards of glass flying as my desk turned to ash. The floor shifted as the main supports cracked, sending fractures up the walls, and across the ceiling.
A terrified shriek sounded from the ballroom as the door to my office was blown away, the walls crumbling to dust around it.
I don't know how long it lasted, or when the shield was thrown over me, protecting the palace from the waves of power and darkness that would've surely destroyed it. When I was able to regain control, I looked up to meet the worried eyes of Ushar and Ap'lek.
She was alive. I knew where she was. I had to get to her.
My hands were shaking, trembling so wildly that I balled them into fists to still them.
Ap'lek's brow furrowed, and I turned my head to look…
At the wrinkles and smudges of dirt on my shoulder.
"She's on Kadavo." I said, barely able to hear myself over the roaring in my ears. "I need you to get me there." I turned my eyes up to Ushar, who stood under the glow of the flickering emergency lights. "Right now."
"Kadavo is in Wild Space, I can't jump that far." He said. "I'll have Kuruk ready the Buzzard." And then he was gone.
Ap'lek put his arms under mine, and pulled me to my feet. I blinked, looking around at the chaos that had erupted around me, out of me, at the destruction that I'd caused.
"Was anyone caught in it?" I asked, then realization hit me before he could answer and I gripped the collar of his shirt. "Beau was in the ballroom."
"She was, but she's fine." He assured me.
I let out a shuddering breath and raked my fingers through my hair.
Ushar jumped to his side, his shadows gathering behind his shoulders as he put a hand on my shoulder, and we vanished, coming onto the Buzzard as Kuruk powered up the engines.