I waver like I’m drunk. After her kiss, I feel like it. My body is burning up from rushed healing and need. “Maybe.”
Sefina chuckles, gets down, and turns to someone behind her. “Could you give me a hand?”
A man about her age, tainted with patchy Solcrue scales, extends Quris’ severed hand.
“Thanks.” Sefina takes the bloody limb and scans his fingerprints on a tablet.
The locks release, and I crumple to the floor with an embarrassing lack of control. I frantically hold my stomach and my chest where the worst injuries are to keep my parts inside my husk. “Ow.”
Sefina comes close and gets herself in position around my side to help me stand while the man takes my other side.
“Who is he?” I gasp, fearing who I’m trusting to get me upright.
“An acquaintance from my junker years,” she says, helping me up. “Now get your heavy ass on the hoverlift, so we can free Fracture.”
“Is he trustworthy?” I mumble.
“Usually not. Today, for now, he is.” Sefina taps the surface of a hoverlift that rises from the floor and helps me walk to it. “Grab the other travel case, Syth?”
The man collects everything he can that’s of any use and loads the humming platform.
I roll onto the platform, clutching my core, hoping it will hold for a little longer. So much of me is still sealing up that I’m not sure how much healing I’ll get done before all the fluid I just drank has already leaked out.
“Sefi?” I reach for her, needing reassurance this isn’t another nightmare. I don’t like the man she’s got with her. Nothing bad ever ends this easily. “Sefi?”
Why isn’t she answering me?
“Sefi!”
