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“Alright, love?” she asked, reaching over and giving my hand a squeeze after I’d strapped in.
“I am. I will be. It’s fine,” I said.
As Valeria started pushing buttons to get everything booted up for the flight, I pulled forward against my seat’s straps.
I hated that I did it, but I couldn’t help myself.
I leaned forward to look out the ship’s front viewscreen. So that I could see Errok.
I caught a glimpse of him just as he was mounting his braxilk. He leapt up with easy, impressive power. But then, he faltered. When he landed on the braxilk’s back, just for the briefest slice of a moment, he hunched forward, his hand flying to his chest.
I undid my straps and jumped up before I even realized I’d moved.
“Hold on. Stop. Can you please let me off?”
Valeria’s head snapped back to me, her dark eyes wide with surprise over the back of her pilot’s seat.
“Why? Is everything alright?”
“Yes. No. Honestly, I have no idea.” I grabbed my pack and then walked to the front of the shuttle. I jerked my chin towards Gahn Errok’s figure outside on the sunlit stone. “Someone needs to make sure that idiot doesn’t die on his flight back.”
“But that doesn’t have to be you,” Valeria pointed out. “We can send a Sea Sand man to accompany him. From what I understand, a braxilk can carry two adult alien riders. Probably not a Bitter Sea warrior, but a Sea Sand guy should be fine.”
I snorted mirthlessly.
“Yeah, right. How do you think that would realistically go?” Errok would probably try to drop an assigned male chaperone into some spiky death valley the first chance that he got.
Valeria watched me carefully for a long moment before speaking. “You’re not responsible for him, you know. He’s a big boy. He can sort himself out. And if something actually went wrong while you were flying with him, do you really think you’d be able to help him alone out there in the mountains?”
Even though she was absolutely right, her comment stung a little. The idea that I’d be useless to him if he ran into trouble kind of hurt.
But it didn’t change my mind.
“Yeah, well, I’m also a big girl,” I said. “This is what I’ve decided.”
An odd expression tightened Valeria’s mouth. I couldn’t tell if it was an anxious grimace...
Or she was trying to hide a smile.
“Alright, then. I won’t stop you. He’s your-”
I knew that she had been about to say, “He’s your mate,” before tactfully stopping herself.
“He’s your... Patient,” she course-corrected. “And, from what I’ve seen, he seems strong enough for the journey back. I know Priya’s ridden with Lerokan on his braxilk quite a bit and it seems safe enough. And Oxriel is in Errok’s territory, too, so that will be another familiar face for you when you get there.”
Priya.Excitement warmed me when I realized I’d be seeing her sooner rather than later, now that I’d decided to go back to Errok’s territory. She was currently living there with Errok’s brother, her mate Lerokan. It would be nice to see Oxriel, too.
“Alright. We’re going to stop at the settlement site to set a few things up,” Valeria said. “But we’ll join you in Errok’s mountains soon after that. A few days at most.”
“That’s fine,” I said. I gave her a quick goodbye hug, then hugged Taylor, Nasrin, Tilly, and Fiona. Both Nasrin and Tilly tried to talk me out of going, but Fiona started droning on, yet again, about thevibe,and she distracted everyone enough with her nonsense for me to slip back out the shuttle door unnoticed.
Well, mostly unnoticed.
One persondefinitelynoticed me.
Errok.
