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When he turned to pin a flat glare on her, she realized with bright, burning shame that she’d stared at his ass. She let her eyes fall, stumbling a few feet and depositing herself into another chair with her arms squished awkwardly behind her.
He reluctantly took his eyes off her, turning back to the screen and searching for his ship among the skyscrapers. The expression on his face narrowed. His frown deepened. She saw normal-ish teeth in there, and… a dark black tongue propped against them.
“It’s not there,” he eventually said, quietly confused.
She noticed the same. His ship wasn’t waiting where he’d left it.
He released an exasperated sigh. “Morwong must have taken it.” He toyed with the controls as she retreated into her terrorized thoughts.
Suddenly he pulled the metal shades down from the domed windows, turning her cockpit into the planetarium it was originally meant to be. The outpost and stars glittered all around their dark bubble. The cockpit proper was a circular, metal platform suspended among the cosmos.
For a moment, it took her breath away.
This was as close to being in space as she could get. She hadn’t opened those screens in endless months.
He interrupted her reverie. “We’re going to talk, but I need my ship back.” She watched him dial the merchant. Morwong’s voice barked over the speakers.
“Lucca, have you seen—”
“It’s Caligher,” he interrupted.
“Ah.” There was a stiff silence. “Where’s Lucca? You haven’t—”
“Right here,” she called.
“Where’s my ship?” Caligher demanded.
“That’s what I was worried about,” said Morwong. “Your ship’s gone.”
* * *
Stolen.
Caligher’s ship had been stolen while he was busy terrorizing humans. That was one more tally to add to Lucca’s crimes.
She watched him process this, sinking into a pit of guilt. His stare fell on the ruined fuel station for a long time. Morwong eventually sent up footage for Caligher to review. Noise danced around the background of chaos during the battle. At one point, Wingless suddenly lurched off its pedestal and shot for the stars.
It took them a few replays to identify Astyanax, the pirate, climbing onto Caligher’s ship. Lucca spotted it before they did, but she waited for them to come to that conclusion without her help. She didn’t think it would be welcome.
Caligher fell back into the chair, battling down annoyance. The Selkie didn’t fly half as fast as Wingless, and they would have to wait for shipments of fuel to give chase.
Caligher was as stuck with her as she was with him.
She said nothing. She didn’t get the idea that anything she said would help, and she was certain he hated her. She was terrified of what he would do with her—kill her? He seemed to hold off on it for the moment. But turn her over to be jailed or… whatever they did with stray humans?
That thought made her feel truly desperate. She would rather die than be thrown into that random, alien system.
His eyes fell on her and she froze. God, he was utterly terrifying. Beautiful, but tall, and powerful-looking. She felt him acutely—every breath, every movement. She felt him in her skin and bones.
“Do I need to worry about you trying anything?” he asked.
Oh. Oh, god, he wanted her to talk? “Trying anything?” Her voice was a breathless rasp.
“Such as throwing me off this ship and taking off,” he clarified.
She shook her head slowly. Her adrenaline was coursing hard and furious. Under that compounding scrutiny, she shifted nervously, attempting to take the pressure off her sore wrists.
“No?” he asked.
