AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER SEVEN
FIONA
I sleep in Taln’s arms, his breath tethering me to the moment.
My body jerks me awake a few times—even in the haze of a powerful orgasm, my body seems to recognize when I’m in danger even though I’m doing my best not to think about it.There aren’t enough orgasms to stop me from remembering what we’re going into, and I don’t really get to sleep until there are only a few hours left to sleep.
When I wake up, I’m alone.
I’m still not used to this ship, so it takes me a few seconds to orient myself. At least the room smells like sex.Taln must have gotten up to tend to some of his daily tasks on the ship, or maybe to talk with Ryker.
I guess some things never change.
I check my reflection as I brush my hair and try to smooth the creases that have formed in my gown from sleeping, then close my eyes as I try to gather my courage. We’re flying into danger, yet there’s very little I dread more than going to the cockpit to talk to Kye.
He’s still angry. But regardless of how he feels about me—regardless of how I feel about him—we need him for this war.
And I need to make sure he’s onboard.
The doors swish open as I leave Taln’s quarters, my hands fisted at my sides. I’m leading people into war. I can’t just balk at this because it’s a conversation I can’t face.
The walk to the cockpit is both too long and not long enough. I want to get this over with at the same time that I never want it to happen. I’ve been giving Kye plenty of space in our days on Alamancia, but now we’re getting down to the wire, and it’s time to deal with the enmity that still simmers between us.
The door to the cockpit is open. I can hear Gliss whistling a tune I don’t recognize inside. Kye is chatting quietly with her. When the doors open to let me in, they both stop talking.
“Your Highness,” Gliss says as she looks at me. I think she can’t decide if she should curtsy. Kye probably spoke to her about earthly customs, and now she doesn’t know which ones she should include in her mannerisms. I really don’t want her to; I’m going to have to talk to her about this later.
“Your Highness,” Kye echoes, heavy irony in his voice.
Oh, great. So this is how it’s going to be.
“Fiona is fine, Gliss. Could you give us a few minutes?” I say, forcing myself to smile at her. Her presence still feels like an intrusion. I actually really like her; she’s funny, and it’s nice to have someone who isn’t so serious all the time on the ship. Even then, I can’t help but feel a little jealous.
Kye and I used to be friends. Over everything else, even when things got weird around us, Kye was the one who got it.
He has family on earth. Friends, a life. Now I can’t talk to him about it. I can’t talk to him about anything. So when I see Gliss, despite it being childish, I can’t help but feel a stab of jealousy.
Gliss steps out of the cockpit and I sit on a chair next to him, brushing my hair back over my shoulder. “Good morning,” I say.
He looks up at me and nods. He looks different now. The metal on his extremities is darker, more reflective. I don’t know much about his upgrades, but they’re supposed to be lighter and easier to handle.
He notices me staring. “You can touch me, if you want,” he says. “I’m sure it feels different.”
“Are you sure?”
“It’s your ship,” he says.
I bite down the urge to argue with him. This feels like an olive branch, so I extend my hand instead and gingerly touch the outline of his arm. “It’s smooth,” I say. “It was smooth before, but this feels like it’s been sanded down.”
“It’s way lighter,” he replies. “I can probably swim a lot faster now.”
When I look up at his face, I can see he’s smiling. Still, his smile doesn’t quite seem to reach his eyes. “Have you tried yet?”
“No,” he says. “No chance to go to the pool when we’re on a mission.”
I laugh. It’s perfunctory. This is awkward.
“You’re not here for show and tell, Fiona,” he says after a few seconds of tense silence. “What do you need?”
