Page 60 of Veiled Vixen

But then I get lost in the view.

The fucking view. I walk forward, unable to even process the threats that come spilling out of Veila’s mouth because I can’t quite believe what I’m seeing.

The thick, reinforced vacuum-grade plasti-glass dome starts at the floor, curves all the way up—several levels up—and allows me a full-on view of one side of the Harem Station ring.

But that’s not what has me breathless.

Because this ship—due to the nature of the top-level airlock on the outside of Harem—is positioned in such a way that looking from one side of the dome to the other affords a view of both of ALCOR’s gates.

I’ve seen them together before. When you enter the ALCOR Sector through one of the gates you can see the second gate immediately because they are positioned on opposite ends of Harem Station. And if you swing your ship around in the right way, you can see both of the gates at the same time.

Typically no one does that. So when you enter the sector you only see the gate you’re aiming at, and not both.

Right now, standing here in this dome, on this ship, in this dock, I can see them both at the same time and when I tip my head up I see the blobs of suns and the reddish-purple nebula that everyone calls the Seven Sisters. They are far, far away. Thousands and thousands of light years away.

When open the gates are fiery blue-violet rings with long, crackling tendrils of purple reaching out along the perimeter like flowing hair in zero-g. The inside of the gates are a deep, blue well of… well… no one really knows what the inside of a gate is made of. Space, for sure. But blue space, not black space. So some different kind of space.

Right now the gates are locked so they’re black on the inside. But the crackling perimeter is still lit up and there’s a bright beam of light shooting out from the main gate straight into the center of the far gate like a pathway.

Which I don’t recall ever seeing before.

Like ever.

But then again, I can’t recall a time since my brothers and I landed here that the gates have been locked.

They are never open for free passage. But they aren’t typically locked, either.

“Wow,” I say just as Veila’s metal spoon cracks against the side of my head. “For fuck’s sake!” I yell, turning to face her. “What the hell?”

“Why are you here, sneaking around my place?” She’s fuming. Like if she wasn’t wearing that stupid frumpy shirt and her hair wasn’t all messy, I’d be afraid of her.

But somehow, despite her blazing silver eyes, she can’t quite pull off the whole villainess thing. So I just kind of smirk at her and say, “Calm down, you silver freak. The bot let me in! I just told you that!”

She grits her teeth and sets her jaw, clearly unable to reconcile me invading her space.

“What are you doing? And why are you dressed like that?”

Her brows furrow in confusion. Then she looks down at herself, realizes she’s wearing her comfy clothes and someone just caught her in them, and then the rage is back. She picks up a long knife from the counter and points it at me. “Get out!”

But I’m not ready to get out. I need answers and maybe she doesn’t have all of them, but she has some. “What’s going on here? Is this ship your home?”

Her knife is shaky in her hand as she continues to point it at me. “Get. Out. Or I will cut your throat with this knife from across the room.”

I laugh.

But then the damn knife is hurling through the air at me and I just barely slide to the side in time for it to miss piercing my throat.

“Veila,” I yell.

But she’s already reaching for another knife and I’m ducking back into the stairwell and stumble down several steps to avoid being hit.

I regain my balance and yell, “Stop it! I’m not leaving until you tell me what the hell is going on!”

“Get out!”

“No. I’m not leaving! Just calm down!”

She doesn’t answer me. I wait it out. But the only thing I hear from the room above is loud heavy breathing. Hopefully this is her way of dialing her rage down to a more manageable level.