“Are you sure about this, Seth? The last time you ran away, Prince Kalvoxrencol didn’t react well,” NAID said, lips pinched.
“Difference, I’m not leaving the ship.”
“True,” she said slowly. “And why are you running?”
Kal’s words from last night repeated on a never-ending loop. He loved me. Helovedme. “I need space.”
“Right. Space. Sure. That’s not a lie or anything. Have you tried talking to him? Prince cares about you a great deal.”
That was the problem.
As I stepped out of my room, I was extremely quiet because I didn’t want to wake Kal. Last night had been awkward, and I didn’t have a response this morning either. I couldn’t even think about Kal’s words without breaking into a cold sweat.
I had no idea where to go, but I needed space. To be able to think without hurting him like I probably had last night.
I headed to the garden and crept to the access hatch I’d hidden in before. I rested against the window, staring out into space. My thoughts swirled around Kal and his confession.
No one had told me they loved me in years. Not my grandparents. Not Analise. Not Travis. Not Vince. No one. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d heard it. Probably not since my mother had died.
Kal had said the words like they cost nothing. Like they were easy.
When he said it, a blind terror had filled me. Even thinking about his confession made alarms screech in my head, and I didn’t know why.
I buried all thoughts of the powerful yet terrifying words and forced myself to focus on our game. It was much easier to plan the next phase than think about what might happen.
“Seth?” I asked, knocking on his door. “My Seth. Please.” Apparently, we weren’t going to talk about this.
“NAID?”
“Yes, Prince?” she asked, appearing as a human. More often than not now, she used the old human woman’s appearance, even on other parts of the ship. The scientists were beyondthrilled at this show of independence. My father had asked me to oversee the project while I was on the Admiral Ven, though I didn’t do much more than check in with Doctor Qinlin occasionally and read reports about NAID’s coding during her and Seth’s conversations.
“Where is Seth?”
“I don’t know.”
“What?” I asked, breath freezing in my lungs.
“He did not take his touchstone. When I did my last internal sensor sweep, he didn’t register.”
“Why didn’t you notify me immediately?” I demanded. Where was he?
“Seth is on the ship. I simply don’t know where he is.”
I wanted to order Talvax to search the ship until Seth was found, but he’d left his touchstone behind on purpose. I took a deep breath and forced myself to sit down. Seth was safe, theoretically. The ship wasn’t crime free, but he should be fine.
“If he appears on your scanners, notify me,” I ordered.
“Good job. Edith Smith would be proud.”
“Who?”
“A human woman who makes inspirational videos. I wear her face. I’m proud of you too,” she whispered before disappearing.
I snorted. Not tracking Seth down might be a small show of trust, but it felt horrible.
Hunger finally drove me to leave my nook. The marketplace was considerably busier this time. I kept to the side as much as possible, winding through the crowd. I had to take several deepbreaths as people of many different types swelled around me. At one point, the crowd grew so oppressive, I had to fight back the urge to puke and forge forward.
When I finally reached the elevator, I was alone. I slapped the button and the floor jolted, rising to the third floor. Our door loomed before me and sweat dripped down my back. I wanted to turn around and flee.
