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“No… Shit, Kaia, you’ve been up for over a day. No wonder you’re on edge.”
Rule one of managing your rage as an uhyre: always, always get enough sleep. That went for tiny humans on a short fuse as well apparently.
“I tried.” She hunched.
“Is the bed shit?”
Kaia rolled her eyes. “No, it’s the most comfortable fucking thing. Maybe that’s why.”
That wasn’t why, and Orion knew it as soon as he saw it.
“What’s that?”
He jutted his chin toward the shot-glass next to the bed, stained with brown around the bottom edge.
“Just a drink I had. Was I not supposed to? Your dad said—”
Goddamn, she was clueless.
“It's not that.” He sat on the bed next to her, and she didn’t even have the strength to tense up like she usually did. “Ever had coffee before?”
Kaia offered him a tired glance. “No. Why?”
“Of course you can’t goddamn sleep.” He explained in a tone he’d just as readily use for a child. “Caffeine is a stimulant. It wakes you up. And if you’ve never had it before, it’ll be that much more effective.”
Kaia deflated. She threw herself back into the bed with a long, full exhale, her arms splayed wide as she lay limp. Seemed like giving her an explanation helped with the freakout, maybe. Her face swiveled his way, and she looked down her nose at him, seated near her hip.
“How long until it’s out of my system?”
“About twelve hours. You stop feeling the effects sooner. For you, I dunno. That thing doles out double shots.”
“What do I do until then?”
Orion shrugged. “I can get you a sleeping pill, but it’ll only fuck you up more. Better wait it out. Come on, you can rest in my cabin.”
Her expression hardened again. Wiry arms folded across her chest like a child preparing for a tantrum. “I want my own cabin.”
“You’re my fiancé, Kaia. My cabinisyour own cabin.”
She’d better not give him any lip about it, not after the fight he just had with his mother over this.
The girl propped herself up on her elbows. That little mouth opened to speak, then snapped shut again. And again. Finally, she found the words, and the courage to place her small hand over his in a move that was surely manipulation, but made his skin spark nonetheless. “Orion, I… I know I chose to come. But we barely know each other. It’ll take time.”
He was already shaking his head. “That’s not how it works. Your new role comes with responsibilities.”
He got up and filled another shot glass with H2O, smiling at the greedy glint in her eyes as he held it out to her. She looked like she wanted to argue, just for the sake of it, even as she stared at the water. She was so fucking difficult. What was her problem? But finally Kaia accepted it and took a small sip. The lines on her face softened as she swallowed.
“Responsibilities,” she muttered. “Like fucking you?”
He cocked an eyebrow. He wasn't thinking of demanding that on their first night onColossal, but she wasn’t wrong. “Eventually.”
“Don’t you have whores for that? A trail of willing addicts to stick your dick in?”
Orion hummed, not sure if he wanted to correct her. He realized she must think he was some monster, fucking whatever moves regardless of the side-effects. Maybe he didn’t need to tell her yet that his sexual partners were few preciselybecausehe wasn't interested in producing exorin-addicted hangalongs.
“That's none of your concern,” he said instead.
“You’re an uhyre.”
