Page 239 of Sky’s Edge

She glared at him.

Then she bent to the bag at her feet and pulled out her tablet.

Before she even got resettled in her seat, Cormac plucked that out of her fingers too.

“Hey!” she snapped, more annoyed this time.

“You’ll scroll on that as well,” Cormac explained.

“You can’t tell me not to scroll,” she proclaimed.

“I can when it distresses you,” he fired back.

I could tell Gayle was in no mood to put up with Cormac’s version of thoughtful, so I decided to wade in before it got any more heated.

The soni-jet seated fourteen, it was long and narrow, the seats were comfortable but there wasn’t a lot of space, and we didn’t need a full-on row because none of us could escape it.

“What are you scrolling?” I asked.

Cormac answered for Gayle. “She’s obsessed with the tapes.”

Even I could descend into an epic scroll session from time to time, but life was full, so it was rare.

And I knew Gayle was the same way, so this was a surprise.

“Why are you obsessed with the tapes?” I asked Gayle.

She averted her eyes.

So again, Cormac answered for her. “She’s hit some shit algorithm where Edgians are bitching about you.”

Ah hells.

It was not lost on me they were still talking, as it wasn’t lost on me they’d never stop. Mira had sent me a few e-comms to give me a heads-up about it. Her team monitored them, of course, not as closely as they did in the Fall, but she wouldn’t be doing her job if they didn’t.

However, she’d managed to place a glowing article in a popular on-pane magazine. It came out today, perfect timing for me and Tanyn to officially appear together for the first time at the party tomorrow night.

This article, of course, even glowing, gave fodder for beings to like me, or dislike me more if that was their predilection.

And so it goes.

“I don’t care about that kind of thing,” I reminded her.

“Well, I do,” she replied.

I knew what was worrying her.

The beings of the Fall adored Laura. Her ratings started sky high and stayed that way. She was the most popular of all the royals, including Aleksei, who had been a favorite since he was born.

What was happening to me was new to Gayle.

Since she was loving and loyal, she didn’t like it.

“I love it that you worry about me,” I said. “But you know, even Laura is going to do something folks don’t like. Actually, she already has, and she survived it. We all have to get used to it.”

“And get used to ignoring it,” Cormac added.

Gayle turned on Cormac. “And you’re used to it? If so, how? Because Land’s Endians think you light the stars at night.”