AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He’d reach me eventually, and by then, I would have Layla safely tucked away from his wandering hands.
Layla might not feel the same way with me as I did with her but that didn’t mean I would let Klem anywhere near her!
“Are all your squad… like Klem?” Layla asked.
“No, no, no,” I said, shaking my head.
“Oh, good,” Layla said with relief. “For a minute then, I thought—”
“You’ll see,” I said. “Some of them arereallystrange.”
After introducingLayla to the rest of the squad, I took her into the captain’s quarters to rest.
It was messy and there wasn’t a lot of space for her to sit, but it was better than being surrounded by sweaty soldiers.
I returned to the cockpit where the others had gathered.
By now, Klem had found someone to fix his back, although he continued to glare at me accusingly.
I told them what Layla had passed onto me, that we were against a gang of thieves and that we were to be careful in case they were professionals.
With how little I knew about them, it was best to play it safe.
“I’m going to get Layla to call their leader and inform him she has the Orb. We’ll follow her from a distance and get the drop on them when they least suspect.”
They nodded, understanding it wasn’t a tough mission, but one I didn’t feel capable of carrying out by myself.
Klem attempted to sneak past me but I hurried along the corridor to cut him off. “I’ll… uh… go check on her.”
And I turned my back on him and rushed away.
Yes, I thought. Better to keep Klem as far away from Layla as possible.
We might be old squad buddies but that might not count for much when a female caught your nostrils.
I knocked and entered the captain’s quarters, relieved to find Layla alone.
She sat on the edge of the bed and her tense shouldersrelaxed upon seeing me. “Oh, good,” she said. “For a minute there, I thought…”
That I might be Klem.
“He’s busy preparing for the mission,” I told her. “He won’t bother you for the rest of the journey.”
Layla nodded.
She had never seemed so down or beaten before.
I sat beside her and she leaned her head against my chest.
I wrapped my arms around her and felt the warmth of her against my scales.
“Thank you,” she said.
“For what?”
“For your help. You didn’t have to do this. A lot of people would have handed me to the Enforcers. Or worse.”
I stroked her hair.
