Page 27 of Adrift!
But the purple square she’d knitted—so reluctantly and roughly—wasright there, where he was always standing, centered between some clean glassware and a bottle of something she would’ve swigged if she thought it would calm her nerves.
No time. She just had to get back. To save the ship. To be with…Ikaryo.
No time to think about that either.
Rifling urgently through the under-bar cooler, she found the jar of cinder fruit seeds, grabbed it and the rag, and swung around to run back.
And choked on a shriek at the presence looming…
“Mariah,” she gasped. For a panicked heartbeat, the other woman had looked like a ghost, her flowing homemade dress a shroud of gray in the lowered lights of the salon.
Well, hopefullythatwasn’t a sign of things to come.
“What’s wrong?” Mariah cocked her head. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
Gulping back a hysterical laugh this time, Remy hugged the jar of seeds to her chest. “No ghosts.” Unless they all asphyxiated. “I just…needed to get these.”
“Okaaay.” Mariah glanced between the jar and the rag. “Seems a little random but… If you add a few more squares to your project, I think you’ll be a knitter yet.”
“Oh. Great. Yeah, I’m going to do that next.” Remy sidled toward the exit.
Mariah followed. “I was just sitting here contemplating the universe.”
“As one does,” Remy muttered.
“And I think you’re still hiding something.”
Remy forced herself to halt. Don’t panic the passengers, she reminded herself.
Wait, when had she started thinking of herself as part of the crew?
And to think she’d been trying so hard to distance herself from all of them.
“Hiding something?” She glanced down at her burden. “Nope. All right here. Ha ha.”
Oof. That sounded fake as hell.
“Hiding from yourself,” Mariah said.
Remy took a breath…then let it out very slowly. She’d seen Felicity practice those calming breaths all the time, and now Mariah did the same. Oh no, they were basically meditating while the ship choked to death.
“I am hiding something,” she admitted. “But I can’t talk about it now. I just…can’t even think about it yet. I just need a little more time, I think.”
Or, maybe, there wouldn’t be time.
Mariah gazed at her, the soft tiger eye brown sharpening. “We might be adrift,” she warned. “But the universe doesn’t wait.”
After another breath, Remy lifted her chin. “So I’ve heard.” She tried not to look frantic. “I really have to get going, but… Maybe later you could show me how to knit those flowers you mentioned?”
Mariah chuckled. “I don’t have to consult my cards to know you’re just trying to get away.”
“Yeah. But also…my boots could use a little more whimsy.”
Waving her away, Mariah turned back to the viewport. “Find me later if you’re serious. I’m not going anywhere.”
At the salon doors, Remy glanced back. The blackness of empty space loomed around the little knitting astrologist, as if the universe was contemplating her back.
Remy wrinkled her nose. Suddenly, all the bored and vaguely hostile audiences she’d played for didn’t seem so bad.
