AllFreeNovel
Share Us
23
RHIANNON
I don't know how long I lay against Nikathy's chest like that, listening to the steady rattle of his breathing and feeling the coolness of the breeze brushing across my damp skin in the aftermath of what we'd done.
Somehow, I had allowed myself to get distracted from the battle. No, that wasn't quite right. I'd been looking for an excuse to distract myself. I wanted so badly for this fight to be over, and for the Patrol to retreat back to wherever they'd come from, that I'd found any excuse to keep my mind off of it. Had they come right down to the surface, I probably would have missed my shot altogether. But they hadn't, because Tayla, at least, was still keeping her wits about her and the other pilots were doing their jobs.
I cursed my stupidity under my breath as I pulled myself off of Nikathy, tugging my clothes back into place without looking up at him.
"I think it's best if I go. You don't need any further distractions.” His shoulders hunched as he hopped down from the back of the truck. It was absurd, really, to think that he was going to walk all the way down the mountain back to his estate. But my legs were leaden, and my throat was parched when I tried to call after him.
In the end, I let him go.
The problem was that I couldn't stop the way my body reacted whenever he was near. There was no shortage of physical desire between the two of us, but it wasn't enough to overcome the realities of our positions. They needed Nikathy, here, on Kychek. He had people to protect and businesses to run, and despite what he had told me, he was doing his best to take his duties seriously. As for me, the only option I'd ever had was rejoining Tayla and Adreax aboard the Titaness. Their battle was mine, too, and there was no way I was going to sit it out down here just so I could continue tasting Nikathy's affections.
But as I sat there alone, listening to the faint buzz of ships in the distance, and the sounds of the wind roiling over the hilltop, Nikathy's last words stung me. He hadn't said goodbye. He had dismissed himself with what amounted to a guilty excuse and left me sitting here all alone. I didn't know if he had meant for his words to be taken so harshly, or if he was merely trying not to make a scene, but the longer I dwelled on his tone and the severe way his steps had crunched in the gravel as he left me behind, the more I believed he was ashamed of me. He hadn't been cruel, but… now I could feel the familiar sensation of loneliness drawing down on me once more. Until I was back with my friends, I had no one here to count on.
I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand and made up my mind to put the whole thing behind me. If he could walk away from me just like that, I wasn't going to give him any more thought, either.
With nothing else to do, I started examining the cannon that I'd hauled all this way. It really was a magnificent contraption, and I was astonished to find that so many of its mechanical features appeared to be vast improvements over our human inventions. There was so much I could learn from it. I wanted to ask Nikathy a million questions about how it had been built and what he knew of its history. I wanted to show him how it could be improved even further. I quickly recovered and amended my thoughts. There was so much that I could take to Tayla and Adreax, things that would guarantee the Titaness was virtually unbeatable in the skies, and that had to be enough.
The sun was dropping behind some trees, and I could feel the coolness of the evening arriving. I huddled into the back of the truck, wrapping my arms around my knees and waiting. If the Patrol were coming, now would be the time. I had to keep my wits about me.
