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His eyes widened in understanding, and it was his turn to take on an apologetic expression.
“Oh, sorry about that.”
“Don’t be,” I said with a warm smile. “I was done and in the middle of washing my hands when you arrived. Have a seat! I’ll just go hang the towel and be right back.”
“Sure. Take your time,” Jaek said in a gentle tone.
I sauntered back to the hygiene room, trying to act like I didn’t have a care in the world. But as soon as I was no longer in his line of sight, I leaned against the wall and rested the back of my head on it. Closing my eyes, I took in a couple of deep breaths to regain my composure. It had been too much of a close call.
Forcing myself to straighten, I hung the towel on the rack and headed back into the room. My heart seized in my chest when I found Jaek standing near my plate, touching the side of my glass with the back of two fingers.
His eyes flicked up to lock with mine, his face unreadable for a fraction of a second. I clamped down on the panic trying to rob me of rational thinking as my mind raced to find an excuse as to why that might be. But Jaek’s expression suddenly changed, as if he’d flicked a switch.
“The juice isn’t cold. It seems that I was distracted and poured the second glass from a freshly made jug that didn’t have time to properly cool. Warm Etil juice isn’t very pleasant.”
“Oh… That’s not a problem. I can get some ice from the replicator,” I replied quickly.
“Yes,” Jaek said with a slow nod. “Ice would work.”
He gave me a strange smile and went to sit in his chair.
Feeling faint, I plastered a relaxed expression on my face as I replicated some ice and brought it to my glass. The whole time, I could feel Jaek’s stare weighing heavily on me. Although he had taken the blame for my drink being warm, I felt at a visceral level that I had not fooled him. Jakeknewwhat I had done.
Why wasn’t he calling me out? Would he rat me out to Deimos instead? Could this be the confirmation that he had indeed deliberately given me the information needed to nullify the effects of the drug?
“To new beginnings,” Jaek said, raising his glass.
“To new beginnings,” I repeated, raising my glass in turn.
We both drank. Watching Jaek empty his in one go prompted me to do the same. To my relief, not only did he not appear to have any issue with its taste, he proceeded to make small talk as we ate. I became restless as he stuck to very generic topics. It made me wonder if maybe I had been wrong about him guessing that I had tampered with our drinks. Then again, maybe my room was bugged. If he was aware of it, he wouldn’t speak freely.
Goddess, I hated walking blindly amidst so much uncertainty!
“Any updates on your patients?” I asked, eager to bring the discussion onto a more serious topic.
“They’re faring exactly how I wanted them to. In fact, they are exceeding my expectations,” Jaek said in a mysterious tone.
“Oh, that’s good to hear! How long do you expect it might take to know if they will make a full recovery?”
“Actually, they should leave us in a couple of days,” Jaek said with enthusiasm.
I felt myself blanche. What the fuck did he mean by “leave us”? I had to believe it wasn’t a gentler way of saying they’d be dead. But that couldn’t be if they were faring exactly how he wanted them to. Jaek was trying to cure them of what he believed to be a fatal disease.
But he doesn’t interact with the patients. He only gives the drug to the physician.
For all either of us knew, the crazy scientist treating Keran and his men was slowly killing them. In two days, we would have been here nine days—the time it normally took for victims to die.
“In a couple of days? Why?” I asked, trying to hide the fear wanting to choke me.
“We’ll be landing for the next—and hopefully last—information meeting with the others. According to Deimos, if all goes as planned, those who choose to return to Braxia will leave with us at that time, and our patients will be on their way home.”
“Withus? You mean all the other hybrids will be onboard this ship with us?” I asked, my heart soaring at that news, even as I panicked at the thought that time might be running out for Keran and his men.
“Yes, all of us reunited, like in the good ole days,” Jaek said with a smile, although it didn’t quite reach his eyes.
Silencing the sense of unease settling in the pit of my stomach, I opened my mouth to respond, but a gasp escaped me instead when the door chime went off. As was his wont, Deimos immediately opened it without waiting to be invited in. Judging by the disapproving—not to say outraged—expression on Jaek’s face, he did not appreciate such rudeness.
Before either of us could say anything, Deimos’s eyes began to glow, and he addressed us with his vibrating voice.
