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His arms circled her, one hand playing with one of the bracelets under her sleeve. No one else knew about them. Butshedid.
She swallowed thickly, trying not to let the reminder distract her. Her skin heated everywhere. Every single physical thing he did turned her on and she was getting to the point where it was stupid to deny it.
“What is it, then?” she pestered, still touching the little slit, searching for a response from him. “Your clitty?”
He bit back a grin.
“I wouldn’t play with that. That’s his barb,” Zoramia said, watching them pointedly. She pulled her finger away at once. “I have one too.”
Lucca decided that she’d rather not see it.
The conversation carried on and she settled back against Caligher. He was so solid and nice. ‘Your my person’ reeled through her thoughts.
The skyline to their right was upside-down—the city expanding up on the far side of the ravine—the empty pit of stars below. She took out her tablet to snap pictures of the view, then pulled Caligher in for a picture. He leaned in, confused yet compliant, and she snapped their first selfie together. She stared at it fondly.
She was finally starting to feel the happy warmth of the moment. Maybe shecouldhave a life here.
Slipping from his lap, she held up her tablet as she addressed the others. “Can I get a picture of you guys together? I promise it’s not for any weird human shenanigans.”
They crowded in close as she centered them in her viewfinder.
Snap.
Their faces showed on her screen, sharp in detail, shining in the spectrum of watery light. Everyone was just a little drunk.
She slipped the tablet into her pack and zipped it away.
“Traitor!” someone roared.
Lucca slowly realized someone was screaming at them. The border of the crowd bubbled outward, setting the stage for a confrontation. And Lucca was caught in the middle of it, singled out.
The music ground to a screeching halt.
Then she spotted him. Some tall Ternetzi man approached Caligher with murder in his eyes and an electric baton in hand. She cried out for Caligher to watch out.
“You hypocrite,” the stranger accused viciously. “You shoot us out of the sky for merelythinkingthe wordhuman—then you sit here and drink with one?”
He was talking about her. All sense of warmth and safety dried up as easily as that.
“Is that the spy?” He marched closer, lighting up with fury.
Lucca’s eyes locked with Caligher’s right before someone snatched her off her feet.
The bar exploded into chaos as they heaved her away violently. She released a blood-curdling scream that was swallowed in the clamor. She lost sight of Caligher.
Let me go.
So much like her nightmares. The ones where she shouted but her voice was swallowed up. Everything was noise—on every frequency.
She fought like she was drowning—physically felt the crowd bursting around them, suffocating her. The device in her ear fed in half-translations from every direction. It was agony.
With delayed comprehension, she realized where they were taking her.
No!she screamed.
Her voice didn’t register, not even to her ears. It was lost. Her thrashing fight didn’t register. This place was spiky, stony quicksand sucking her in—and in—and in.
The jumping pit came into view. They were going to kill her.
