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“You can start tomorrow at 1500. Report to the same deployment station, and we’ll get you situated with the same gear. Dismissed.” He gets up to sit back at his desk.
Tonight? But that means I won’t be able to see Tania until after I’m done with the test. I wish I would have gotten her number or something. How will I contact her now?
I head back to the barracks when an idea pops into my head.
I’ll leave a note for her at the library. I’ll tell her to meet me somewhere else at a specific time, and I’ll make sure to be there.
It doesn’t sound like a great plan, but it’s the only option I have. If I leave now, I can make it to town by early morning. Then, I’ll come back, sleep for a few hours, and report for the test.
Along the way, I grab a Floutus flower. I’ve always admired their fiery beauty, and given how Tania loved the jungle, I imagine she’ll appreciate the gesture.
I wrap the note around the stem and use a small band to hold it in place. The band is a little flimsy, but it should hold.
As I reach the library, the town is eerily quiet. I can see the stars so clearly above. I can make out most of the constellations. I try to pinpoint Glimner, but I’m not sure where it is in the night sky.
I put the flower on top of the return box. I have some sap in my pocket, so I use that to secure it to the wall. I can only hope that it will stay here until Tania arrives.
I double-check the flower and the note to make sure they won’t fall off or blow away in the breeze.
Now, it’s up to fate to determine if we’ll see each other again.
CHAPTER 9
TANIA
“Tania, I’m so relieved.” Alice won’t stop hugging me. “I thought you were done for, I really did.” Her arms wrap me in yet another embrace. I don’t mind, though. For a moment in that jungle, I thought I was done for too.
“Thank the stars I ran into Garet. If he hadn’t come along, I might have been food for the next hungry Craccus.”
Maz was kind enough to send Alice to pick me up in one of his hover limos. Sitting in the back this time, it felt surreal to think how close I’d come to perishing.
“I can’t even imagine how scared you must have been,” she says, shaking her head. “It must have been awful.”
My thoughts jump to Garet, caressing my skin in the night air of the jungle. The cool sweat on our entangled bodies. The feel of his teal scales on my fingertips as he parted my mouth with his tongue.
“Er–yes. It was awful.” Alice drops her arms and eyes me seriously. That’s the thing about best friends, the things we communicate in a language only we understand.
“Speaking of tall, teal, and sexy,” she says, clearing her throat for effect. “Are you gonna tell me about it?”
“Where do I start? There I was, alone in the jungle, lost in a bramble patch. I’d given up, Alice, really I had, and this guy came out of nowhere. He could’ve left me for dead.”
“I'm glad he didn’t,” she says as Maz’s hunting lodge comes into view.
“How has madam taken it?” I truly wonder if Sathior registered my disappearance at all.
“Don’t even get me started on her,” she miffs. “She’s turning into him. Yesterday she wore flannel, it was so hard not to take a picture. I could set us up for life with literally one shot.”
“Don’t. She’s got lawyers for days. Besides, you know her rules. No men, no kids, no talking about what goes on. ” I see the disappointment in Alice’s face.
One tiny picture of Sathior Havari in a flannel shirt and synth jeans would be enough to make our lives forever. But I don’t want it like that. I want to make great things happen with what I can do.
Like watching Garet in that jungle. I want to make art from the tiny pieces of everything around me. He’s like that, like an artist using his body and every element in his sphere as a medium.
The driver’s partition lowers as the car swings into the driveway of the hunting lodge. “We’re here ladies. I will assist you.”
“I don’t know if I want to go back. Does that sound crazy?” I ask her.
“Speaking of crazy. Wait till you get a peek at today’s outfit.”
