“Is that what that is?” Finch asks as his tentacles continue to prod at his chest. “Feels a bit like indigestion.”
“Are you sure that’s what it is?” Jack pipes up. “Might just be a side effect of—”
It’s protection, you bunch of gorgeous dummies. We don’t want anything like this to happen again. I was dead. Felt thelight calling me all the way. You’re lucky I turned my back on it, said no way, siree.
My legs aren’t quite up to holding me up, and I stumble back to lean against the wall.
“There are five of you,” Reva says again.
We established that.
“But I can only see four,” she continues.
“So... where’s Torin?”
Chapter 23
Reva
Well, fuck.
I barely know what to do with myself. Not while there are so many thoughts and sensations zinging through me. And most of them don’t even belong to me.
It worked. I can tell that, even without slipping on my skin. Because I can hear Noush. She’s back.
You’re welcome.
I can hear her all the time now, and not just while I’m wearing her skin and we’re sharing a body.
Well, that’s going to be fun.
I can’t mind too much because I have missed her. The great, ragged hole in my chest is gone, and while I feel a bedraggled mess right now, it’s the kind of mess that’ll be fixed by a good night’s sleep. It’s a different feeling from the bone-deep fatigue that even endless sleep would do nothing to fix.
I fixed us, so we never have to be separated again, Noush tells me.
Uh huh. And the mate bonds? Tying us to every male in the vicinity?I pause as a terrible thought hits me.It is just these five, right? Because Frannie specifically told me she had no desire to be our mate and I don’t see her that way, nor do I see the rest of the crew either—
Calm down. It’s just the males here.She pauses for a moment, and I can just imagine her throwing her head back coquettishly.You’re welcome.
I roll my eyes at her. Everything is such a mess that I don’t have time to argue it’s not a good thing to force a mate bond onto people. How she managed to do that, I have no idea. And whether it’s something we can undo is something I’ll have to worry about later.
It’s not,she huffs.
Please, please just shut up talking for one moment and let me think.
She huffs again, but actually does as I ask for once. Probably because despite her insistence that this is a good thing, she’s also aware that we have a dozen other issues currently battling for top spot.
Like, where is Torin? And why is there a blinding column of light shooting right up to the ceiling?
I really hope it ends at the roof, or we’re going to have a lot of grumpy crewmembers woken up, because the light is absolutely dazzling.
What are you talking about?Noush interrupts my train of thought, unable to stay silent for long.Torin’s right there.
My view of the room isn’t great, on account of the light that forces my eyes away every time I glance anywhere close to it. I can just make out Kit and Jack, who seem to be locked in an argument that’s being hissed under their breaths. Captain Finch is inspecting the light source. And Torin—
Is nowhere.
I know you don’t have eyes or a head right now, but Torin seriously isn’t here. I head toward the door.Maybe he got blasted out of the room when we all got thrown backward.
