“I mean, you could reintroduce me….”
“Kotti.”
She turned away from Val and rolled her eyes. “I’mkidding, jeez. We can wait until after the tour.”
I really wanted to find that rock to die under now. I squirmed under her sweaty arm. “You’re sticky.”
“Andyou’rehaunting this bulkhead like a ghost. C’mon, we’re working, we’re notdead.”
I sipped my sweet drink. “Joke’s on you. I’m definitely dead inside.”
She laughed and unwound her arm from my shoulder. “C’mon. One dance.”
“I’m observing,” I said.
“Then you can observe from the dance floor.” Kotti snatched my drink, drained it, and then deposited it on the table beside us. I made a squawk of anger, but she simply took my hand and pulled me into the crowd of dancers.
I felt a cold sweat break out on my back. “Wait a minute—”
“Life doesn’t start in a minute, it startsnow, Ardent Quay,” Kotti chastised, pulling me into the twisting mass of people, to the very center—ofcourseshe’d drag me to the center—and raising our hands into the air. She shimmied her shoulders, moving back and forth. Kotti was ridiculous, and too loud, and toomuch. She was everything I never was.
“What’ll everyone think?” I asked, hugging my armsto my sides and looking around. “We’re supposed to be working—”
Kotti rolled her eyes. “You’re not going to get in trouble for one dance, Arie. C’mon, loosen up!” Then she pulled my hand into the air again, smiling so wide her eyes glittered. “Shake off your duty, and forget all the people watching, and celebrate that you arehere. And how impossible is that?”
That in all the ships in all the worlds in all the galaxy, I had been born into this family, to find this crew, this best friend? I wasn’t sure if I believed in fate, or predestiny, but I liked to think that the Force pushed and pulled across space and time, uniting people like stars colliding.
I closed my eyes and let out a long breath.
Okay—if I could go into Coruscant alone and get a serial and run away from First Order goons…
I could dance, too.
So I shucked off the mantle of Ardent Quay for a song and danced.
After three songs and a brief musical interlude, Kotti shouted that she was thirsty and left me for the bar. With my eyes closed, I nodded at her to go and kept dancing. The thump of the bass reminded me of the sound of my heart earlier today, pumping through my ears, the shriek of synths like blaster bolts—
I popped my eyes open. My heart beat hard and fearful in my throat.
“I feel silly,” I mumbled to myself.
“Allow me to be silly with you then,” said a familiar voice before someone placed a hand gently on my lower back and a tall, lanky figure slipped up beside me, yellow seasonal uniform ill-fitting and creased in the wrong places. He smiled. His silver-white hair glimmered with purple and blue hues from the party lights, and his black eyes gleamed.
Trouble, in the flesh.
CHAPTER TEN
The Dance
“Sian!”I cried, and quickly darted my eyes around, but no one was paying attention. I reined in my surprise and hissed, “What are you doing here?”
In reply, he took one of my hands, his other still steady on my lower back. “Dancing,obviously.”
“You know what I mean.”
“I was bored,” he lamented, “and youdidgive me this uniform.”
“For emergencies only!”
