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Closing off the hatch and scaling around Wingless, he set his sights on the garage.Yes. Jump. No, not that way! You’re going the wrong way.
Ignoring his impulses, his muscles sprang tight and his spine warmed with lightning as he launched himself through the soundless realm. Various obstacles cut across his path, but he kept his eyes on the landing—always sensing Lucca’s presence at his back.
Her ship felt like unfiltered sunlight on his nerves.
His feet hit the floor of the garage landing and he steadied himself with his tail. The dense atmospheric bubble hit him like a thunderclap—urgent, noisy, frenetic,tight.
The glare of overhead lights filled his blood with sharp adrenaline. For a long moment he stood frozen, squeezing his fist and adjusting to the drastic sensations.
There was a never-ending pain under the plated carapace covering his body. Healwaysfelt the fit of his exoskeleton. Like a metal sleeve with sharp joints and edges. Caligher’s body had changed underneath, growing somewhat wrong.
“Caligher.”
Morwong crossed the floor to him with his tablet in hand, eyes darting around for Wingless. The merchant kept trying to get his hands on Caligher’s ship and it wasn’t happening. “Your target is quite charming.”
“Please don’t call her that.” Caligher grimaced, rubbing his shoulder. “I’m trying not to scare her away.”
“But you hunted her down, didn’t you?”
“It’s not like that.”
His brows cranked high.
“Fine, I went looking for her. But she’s not atarget,” he stressed. Morwong’s stare was hard and accusing. “I only went after her because she flew off in some random direction, and it’s a good thing I did because she got herself stuck.”
“Right…” Morwong trailed off.
Caligher had searched for those pirates for well over an inner year, and he’d had no luck. They’d hidden so well that he’d started to question his talents. Was he slipping? Was he… old?
Lucca had drawn them out long enough for him to catch up at last—but the moment she’d spoken, he stopped giving a fuck about the pirates and it was as if he’d just discovered what women were.
He’d rounded up the pirates only to find her gone, and then he’d simply… acted. Without thought. He put the barest amount of care into securing his prisoners before chasing the pink ship’s trail.
Morwong was quiet. His eyes were fixed on the open void like he was thinking about Caligher’s ship… but his demeanor was slightly off.
“What’s wrong?” Caligher asked.
“Mmm?”
“You look like something’s wrong.”
He hesitated. “Let’s move to my office.”
That gave Caligher pause. All he wanted was to get a drink, update his bounty list, and find a way to talk Lucca into following him around the sun before she realized everything that was wrong with him. But looking at Morwong, he got the impression that something serious had happened.
You better not be fucking with me again,Caligher thought. “You’re not taking my ship in.”
Morwong’s eyes narrowed before he turned away, motioning for Caligher to follow.
* * *
“I’m sending the updated bounty list to your ship,” Morwong said, nestled behind his computer station. Caligher used to be half his size. Now Morwong was half Caligher’s size, and they still hadn’t found their bearings in the relationship.
“There have been complaints about the researcher-turned-pirate Astyanax,” said Morwong. “His latest hobby is hijacking ships—so take care if you approach. He’s dangerous.”
“Dangerous?” Caligher gave him a bored look.
The rough red exoskeleton covering Morwong’s stalky body shifted noisily with his irritation, making aclack-clack-clacknoise. The fault lines in his shell gave a pulsing glow as he spoke.
