He leans back in his chair, draping his arm over the one next to him. It’s almost as if he’s trying to put as much space between us as possible, not acknowledging me until his eyes flick toward me quickly before returning to her.
“Both of you?”
“Ineed to talk to you. But she needs to be here too,” she says.
“I’m listening,” he rumbles.
She leans over the edge of the table, lowering her voice despite being the only ones in the room. “Remember what we were talking about before? About the thing you said no to?”
“I’m not sure why she needs to be here to continue that conversation, Signee.” A flicker of anger is his only tell before his face falls back into the stoic mask he wears daily.
“Trust me, Cap, she does. You remember, right?” she urges.
His eyes don’t leave her as he answers. “I do.”
“I need you to reconsider.”
“I’m not changing my mind, Sig,” he says.
“I think you might.” She looks at me, her eyes shining full of hope that what I have to say will change his mind. “What did you tell me last night?”
His stare slowly shifts to me, as if he’s having to pull it away and it isn’t going without a fight. I squirm in my seat, readjusting and clearing my throat before I speak. Getting him to understand the risk of inaction and ignoring time is crucial togetting back to Dane, and I’m already going in at a disadvantage. He doesn’t want to change his mind.
And he’s a stubborn asshole, so I really need to convince him.
“The dust is almost gone.”
Weston’s eyes flash to Sig before settling back on me as he shifts forward in his seat, leaning his distracting forearms on either side of his plate.
I have his attention now, his desire to pretend I’m not part of this conversation disintegrating quickly. It’s the next part that is the most important, more so than the dust being almost gone. The next thing I say should convince him, because it is the true deciding factor for all of us being stranded on Dawnlin for a timeless eternity.
I hold his gaze as I say firmly, “Dane doesn’t know how to replenish it.”
Tension pulls between the three of us as the words settle. Weston’s face hardens and a muscle in his jaw ticks as we sit in silence, waiting for him to say something.
“How do you know this?” he says, his voice gruff, his words cut short.
“Dane told me,” I say and shoot him a look, “before you took me.”
That probably wasn’t the smartest way to answer, at least for the progression of my plan, but I couldn’t help it. I wanted to take a stab at him, reminding him of what he did, the life he upended, and the risk that he potentially put everyone in.
If I hadn’t been captured, if I had been back at camp, I may have been able to help Dane find an answer by now. The reality of being trapped here may have just been a fleeting worry if we discovered how to replenish the dust. Since Weston captured me, though, Dane’s focus has been entirely on getting me back. I hope he realizes how much his actions have affected his goal.
Weston breathes through his nose and his eyes fall down to the table.
“See, Cap?” Sig says, pushing harder, taking her opportunity to make him see the urgency. “We need to do something now.”
Ignoring her completely, he looks back up at me, his teal eyes piercing. “What made you tell Sig?”
The question catches me off guard. Why does it matter what made me tell Sig? Why is he not focused on the actual information? Is this a test of some kind, trying to feel me out to see if I’m telling the truth?
“Huh?” I say. I can hear Edmond in the back of my mind, scolding me for my very unregal response.
“You’ve been here for weeks. What made you tell her? Why bring this up now?”
I shrug. The last thing I want is for the conversation to feel planted, but just as I expected, he seems wary. I hate how much he can read me, like he knows my every move. It’s almost as if we’re using the same arsenal of tools against each other with every battle that we fight, and waiting for the other to surrender first.
“Sig and I were talking as we searched,” I say. I refuse to give him any details about the rest of the conversation. He doesn’t need to know I asked if he was with anyone, or has ever been. I can’t even believe I asked it myself, and I try to ignore the little feelings the question still stirs up deep inside me.
