Page 52 of Shadows of Stardust

Brivik wilts a little under Zandrel’s glare, his shoulders hunching forward, a sneer of his own twisting his reptilian lips.

“What do you want, Brivik?” Zandrel asks, and that sneer grows sharper.

“I can’t just be checking in on my favorite former subordinate and the human female who stole his heart?”

“I don’t particularly care what you do, and if that’s all, we’ll be headed back to—”

“I also need you to come to my office. Now.”

Beside me, something rumbles deep in Zandrel’s chest. Something that might almost be agrowlas I feel it vibrate through every place we’re touching.

“Why?”

“Because you didn’t complete your off-boarding in all the…excitementearlier this week. We’ll need you to turn in your staff credentials, hand over your crew-issued supplies, all of it.”

Another low rumble, though this one sounds more like annoyance. “Fine. Let’s get this over with.”

He drops his arm from my shoulder and reaches for my hand, but I take a step back.

Inspiration, desperate and reckless, strikes like the lightning that’s threatening in the low rumbles from the storm-clouds above.

Like he can smell that desperation and sense what I’m about to say before I say it, Zandrel reaches for my hand again.

But for once, I’m too quick for him, stepping lightly back and giving what I hope reads for Brivik like a teasing smile.

“You’re not going to make me waste my time coming with you to take care of paperwork, are you?”

“Roslyn,” Zandrel warns. “I—”

“Will see me later at the bungalow. I know you’re devoted to me, babe, but even we can take a breather every once in a while.”

He has nothing to say to that. Or, at least nothing he can say that won’t give us away.

Brivik’s still looking at us like he’s well aware of the lie we’re trying to uphold. There are still three hovers swirling slowly around us, capturing the scene, and there’s nothing Zandrel can do without tipping his hand.

Maybe he doesn’t care.

Maybe Ihavepushed him too far, and he’ll decide that none of this is worth it, that he’s done playing this game.

Idiot. I’m an idiot.

A riled up, pissed off idiot who’s been letting panic and desperation get the better of me since that night by the pool.

A hopeless, reckless idiot who knows I’m about at the end of my rope. All out of options.

Except this one.

I know it, and Zandrel knows it, and even if he can’t say a word to stop me without exposing us, the galaxies in his eyes do the talking for him.

Don’t, his hard stare says.Don’t you fucking dare.

Well, how about that? I earned one of those looks for myself, after all.

I take another step and give him a cheeky wave. “You boys have fun. I’ll see you later.”

And then I’m off down the path.

It takes everything in me not to break into a run. Thunder cracks louder and more insistent as the approaching storm draws near, and I swear I can feel the electricity of it firing through every synapse.

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