Page 75 of Skinwalker's Bane
“I have no idea.”
Adam kissed her. He didn’t tell her it would be all right, that everything would sort itself out, because she knew better than to expect miracles. Instead, he told her with his mouth and his hands and his hard, long body, that even if the worst happened, he would be there for her.
Chapter Nineteen
They both woke the next morning to darkness. It was a dark day rotation of the rotunda and it seemed to fit with Devin’s mood. She could hardly muster the enthusiasm to get out of bed and go print something to eat.
The promise of coffee did get her moving. Adam followed her silently out to the kitchen and sat in his usual chair, his hair even more tousled and his cheeks showing blond stubble. He looked just as drained as she felt.
He shook his head when she asked if she could print anything for him, his finger moving in an aimless motion over the surface of the table.
“Did you get any sleep last night?” Devin asked him.
“Not much,” he admitted, keeping his gaze down.
She put the coffee in front of him and sat to drink her own. The smell was lovely. Of all the foods they had brought with them from Terra, Devin thought that coffee was probably the one they could not possibly have left behind.
She pulled up a small screen and glanced at her messages. She had no real interest in them, yet she wanted to leave Adam alone. He was working on something in his mind and prodding him wouldn’t get him to talk about it until he was ready.
There was a message from Mina Rask. The dateline was in the early hours of last night, when Devin and Adam had been pretending to be asleep and wishing they could be.
The message was short.About Bishan. I cannot express how disappointed I am in you.
It wasn’t signed, which fit with the tenor of the note.
Devin stared at the single line, her heart thudding unhappily.
Adam must have sensed her sudden tension, for he sat up. She hadn’t blanked the screen. It was opaque and he would be able to see the message from where he was sitting. It was short enough that reading it backward wouldn’t challenge him.
Devin dismissed the screen with a shaking hand. “I guess you were right. Bishan lived up to his promise.” Her voice was shaking, too.
Adam watched her, his eyes narrowed. “How badly does losing the Dreamhawks sponsorship impact your chances in a general election?”
“This close to the election? There’s only a month left until Captain Owenshasto call an election, and she must schedule the election for some time in the three months after that. She won’t leave it until the end, though. Everyone is saying she will spring the election on the ship. Two or three days’ warning at the most. It will give everyone else who wants to run for election exactly no time to campaign, or for anyone in the ship to get to know us. Them,” she corrected herself grimly. “That’s why I have been trying to line up sponsorshipbeforethe announcement. All of us have, to try to get ahead of the announcement.” She found she was scratching at the live surface of the table, making the electronics blink and flash in response. “I can’t start all over again to find someone else. There’s no time left.”
Adam nodded. “Can you run without sponsors?”
“If I was personally rich, yes,” she said. “Others have done it before. No one who ran without official sponsors has won the Captain’s chair in over three hundred years, though. It was only in the early days of elections that people simply announced they wanted to run, then did some speeches and essays on the Forum and were considered serious candidates.”
“Even if you could afford it, you wouldn’t do it anyway, because the odds are too long?”
“It really does come down to statistics and math,” she admitted. She looked up and around the little room. “I’ll probably have to give up the house, too.” That seemed like more of a catastrophe than losing the election. Suddenly, she realized how much she loved this place.
She sighed.
Adam lurched to his feet and moved over to the counter and leaned on it. Then he turned back to face her with an air of decision. “Let us sponsor you,” he said flatly.
“Us?”
“Skinwalkers. The Institute. I know Noa would consider it and if she decides, then Haydn goes along with her and that’s all the people you have to worry about convincing you’re worth supporting.”
“But…” Devin drew in a slow, slow breath, fighting for calm and to find the words she needed. Her thoughts were fragmenting in surprise. “The Institute is part of the Wall district. There are dozens of possible candidates, if Noa really wanted to get into the election business….”
Adam’s hands tightened on the edge of the counter. His gaze grew stony. “You mean there are plenty of Plebians to pick from,” he said flatly.
“No, that’s not what I meant at all,” Devin cried, alarmed. “I meant, why would Noa pick me at all, when she could take her choice from among Wall candidates?”
“Right. Plebians,” he concluded and straightened, his shoulders stiff.
