Never Hide Your Heart
"Never Hide Your Heart"
She had sworn she would never return.
The world itself seemed to breathe temptation. Every neon street pulsed like a heartbeat. Every laugh was louder, every touch lingered longer, every emotion refused to stay contained. It was the planet where Katarine Ryiah had first discovered how easy it was to stop fighting herself... and the place where she had lost more than she ever admitted.
Yet here she was.
Again.
Perhaps that was the cruelest joke of all. She had spent years believing her greatest failure lay behind her. Instead, she'd simply walked back into it willingly. Ever since crossing paths with Mikhail Shorn, the galaxy had become something unrecognizable. The Jedi felt impossibly distant now, like a life abandoned somewhere beyond the stars. She was still AWOL, another name added to the Order's growing list of disappointments, and with every passing day the thought of returning became less real.
The bass from the club hammered through her chest, drowning out every lingering doubt. Black lights washed across the crowded dance floor, turning streaks of fluorescent paint into living constellations. Splashes of glowing blue, violet, and electric pink covered her bare arms, traced across her collarbones, and streaked over the tiny white dress that shimmered beneath the ultraviolet glow until she seemed almost ethereal.
She laughed a genuine, carefree laugh that would have horrified the woman she'd once been.
Drinks had blurred together hours ago. Maybe days. Time had become meaningless somewhere between their reunion and whatever this endless celebration had transformed into. Every pulse of music fed the euphoria humming beneath her skin, and somewhere underneath it all was that familiar whisper she'd stopped pretending to ignore.
The Force.
Not balanced.
Not peaceful.
Wild.
Ecstatic.
Hungry.
Katarine threw her head back as another wave of music crashed over the crowd, closing her eyes while she surrendered herself completely to the rhythm. Around her, bodies moved in synchronized chaos beneath the ultraviolet haze, but for one fleeting moment it felt as though the entire galaxy had narrowed to this single dance floor.
To this single night.
To him.
And despite knowing exactly where this road had led before...
She couldn't bring herself to care.
