Page 41 of The Garnet Daughter
“You don’t mind sharing the space with me again?” I hedge because asking him to stay with me seems like too much.
He shakes his head. “I will let Ferren and 99 know you are tired and we can go to their med bay tomorrow, speak of the council meeting and such things.”
I thank him and try to push past the almost awkward pressure filling the room. We have been on this ship alone together more times than I can remember, but for reasons I’m unsure of, this time it feels different.
He must realize it too, because he starts busying himself and avoiding my direction as he taps through a data pad. “I’ve already been tasked to repair some electrical systems on the defensive line around the city.”
I yawn and hop down from the table, determined to keep some sense of normalcy between us. “Hopefully it goes better than the beacon did.”
“Let’s hope,” he mutters.
“I’m going to go rest.”
He perks up like he is nervous. “Do you think you will fold in your sleep again? Should we?—”
“No. Both times we folded the space between, I was fully awake. I don’t think I will get stuck somewhere at least.”
He makes big eyes at me like he isn’t convinced but then goes back to sending the message to the others.
I prepare to attempt the ladder to the second level, adjusting myself to do so one-handed.
“Calliape.” He pauses until I turn to face him. “You will have any privacy you need on my ship . . . as always. That part hasn’t changed between us.”
In the morning, I fold us to the landing dock, just outside the large Viathan ship Ferren and 99 are temporarily calling home. The structure juts up in the sky, taller than most of the buildings that surround it in the massive courtyard.
August holds onto me carefully as we arrive, his hands controlled and stiff as if refusing to conform to the curves of my body. He nods at a number of the commanders posted on either side of the open ramp leading into the belly of the ship. I saw the fleet from afar on Viathan, but walking up the enormous ramp of one is a humbling experience, my mind not able to understand how something this large can be made.
Inside, we are guided down several halls, passing more Viathans who seem focused on their tasks as always. We reach a set of doors open to a large room, one that seems to be off-limits to anyone moving through the corridors around it.
“Hello, Calliape,” the commander posted at the entrance says in a familiar tone.
“Oh, hello, Commander Wesley.” I smile at him politely after glancing at his breastplate.
“You look well.” There’s a friendly smile in his voice.
Once Ferren’s bodyguard on Viathan, he never gave her cause to say a bad thing about him, and I have always found him kind. When he was posted outside the safe house while August traveled to Frith to bring Selene here, he was pleasant but politely declined the many games of cards I offered to pass the time.
“Hello, Wesley, shame we cannot comment on how you are looking,” August snips.
“August,” Commander Wesley replies flatly.
I forgot how much August protested him staying with me, how worried he was when he came back and we had acquainted ourselves better even if it were merely a job posting for him.
When I spot 99 inside the Viathan version of a gathering room, I push August’s arm forward, not wanting to hear them go back and forth.
“Ferren is on her way.” He points down a branching hallway.
I break away, leaving August to speak with 99 alone, and walk down the hall to see a smiling Ferren walking out of a small bedroom.
“Hi!” she calls and hugs me.
For a brief moment, I forget the trouble between us she is painfully unaware of, the one that will break her heart and the friendship we have built.
I smile flatly and glance back at August, who watches us even as 99 tries to show him something on the data pad between them.
“They will be a while. 99 wanted to ask August his thoughts on the locked First Son ship.”
“Locked ship?”
