This was another fun scene to write, with Sky rightfully being upset about being lied to about the bombs, while also immediately being more concerned about Jayd. As I mentioned a while back, I originally toyed with the idea of Ril’s story back on the ship being him finding and diffusing Jayd’s bombs, before I decided to make his story involve actual living adversaries instead. So it was fun to just write off the bombs entirely by making it a lie on Jayd’s part.

I hope the connection between Jayd and Sky feels earned. I knew I needed Jayd to have a change of heart and I feel like I got there between all their conversations, but I never know if I’m just too close to the story and not experiencing it the same way readers are. So I hope the gradual transition of Jayd viewing Sky as a job to be completed to a person to be protected is believable.