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He frowned. “For?”
“For…before. When I iced you out.” Her eyes fell to her lap, where her short nails were digging into her knees. “It wasn’t your fault.”
“I know I’ve asked this already, but what in the Nines happened?”
“I thought–” She paused, taking a deep breath. “I thought you were going to take the credit for the whole wireless-humidity idea. Pretend like it’s yours.”
Curious. She’d answered his question, but Nazyn was even more confused. “Why in the Nines would you believe that?”
“It’s happened before and when you were talking in the lobby and just saidsomeone, not my name, I thought that’s what you were doing too,” she said, her voice sad. “That doesn’t make it right, but that’s what happened.”
When she looked back up at him, past shadows crowded her gaze. Nazyn had the strange instinct to stranglesomeone–preferably the someone who had hurt Darcy. “Who was it?”
She laughed, but it sounded pained. “I call him The Asshole. The worst ex-boyfriend anyone could have.”
Yes, Nazyn definitely had the urge to strangle the man. He clenched his fists underneath the table, trying to keep his face as calm as possible. “Deruzians don’t take kindly to theft, of property, beings or ideas. I would never do that.”
“You don’t seem like the type. But thanks for saying it anyway.” She tilted her chin toward him. “So we’re cool?”
“Yes. We’re too cool,” Nazyn said, looking around them. “It feels like it should be warmer.”
“Come now, we’re in the mountains,” Elias said from behind them, sitting at his own table. “You wouldn’t think it with all these tropical plants around. But they tried to make the room feel more “natural” for the tech exposition on Sunday.”
“Wait.” Darcy turned around. “This is where we’ll present our gadgets? And the plants are staying?”
“Yes, and I don’t get it. I know, I know. You can’t judge taste.” Elias rolled his eyes. “But I’m old, I have earned the right to not understand trends.”
Nazyn froze. Nines-damn it.
Beside him, Darcy inhaled sharply. “Shit.”
At the same time, they exchanged a worried look. If this is where they had to reveal their hologram and there will be plants around…that needed watering–that was an issue.
“We have a problem,” Nazyn whispered.
“Yes,” Darcy said. “What the hell are we going to do?”
“We’ll find a way,” Nazyn said, not believing his own words. Not right now, when the plan was falling apart. But theywouldfix it. There had to be–
As if to mock him, the trench around the stage began shooting out slender streams of water, in a mesmerizing dance, as the presenter announced the next speaker. They had a blasted fountain in here, too.
The Nines were sending a message and Nazyn heard it loud and clear.
They were, as the humans said,screwed.
11
DARCY
“What if we really,reallybegged them to remove the plants andnotturn on the fountain?” Darcy said as they made their way up the snowy path. Thank the Universe they’d hastily gone back to their room before the trek; Darcy had replaced her stilettos with her favorite pair of boots. She should have changed her skirt, too, but they’d been in a rush.
Nazyn had put on a coat that probably weighed as much as her and made him look even bigger.
Darcy was sad to see that perfectly tailored suit of his covered up, but he still looked gorgeous. With his horns towering above the snowy mounds flanking the path, almost touching the ends of the frosty fir branches, he looked like an explorer who came to conquer a new world.
“Deruzians don’t beg,” he said, his own breath turning to vapor in the cold. Nazyn grimaced at it; then again, he’d been grimacing since they'd left the event room and didn’t seem like he was planning to stop anytime soon. “And we absolutely can’t give anyone a hint that there's such a big issue with the device. Alien Inc.’s goals of launching it would crumble.”
“What’s with the secrecy?” Darcy’s skirt tightened around her knees as she jumped over an icy rock. Definitely should have worn pants. “You didn’t want to hash this out in our room. You insisted we go out in the middle of the wilderness. We’re hiding this humidity problem. It’s weird.”
