“This is true.I do wish to become an arrak.”
Ambition she understood.“If you have a goal and work hard toward it, then realizing it is a question of time.”
“You believe this?”
“As long as I can remember, I have wanted to be a doctor.Everything I did was with this in mind.”All those hours…wasted.
“Being blind did not stop you?”
“It did for a while.It took me months to leave my bed.Nothing mattered.I had to learn who I was without the goal driving me.It had defined me for so long.”She folded her arms around her waist, wishing Nenn was close enough for a hug.“My friends fell away, leaving me alone with my parents who had, for most of my life, shown me less affection than my brother.”She sniffed while flicking aside a fresh outpouring of tears.
“I miss my mother,” Ulvus said, breaking the silence and reminding her that she wasn’t alone, not even on a spaceship heading far from all she’d known.
“I miss my dad.”She smiled.“We make quite the pair.”
“We are not mates,” Ulvus snapped.
“Of course not.It means we share a commonality.”She harrumphed, wanting to say, ‘Well, not with that attitude.’But she didn’t want him to think she was hoping for a dalliance when she had something wonderful starting with Nenn.
Her heart skipped a beat.It had been so long since she last experienced the excitement of the chase.She almost huffed at that thought.Chase?The man had good and proper claimed her in her bed just an hour ago.
“Tiny, Aehort wants to speak with you,” Vaen said, his grouchy tone a clear tell.
She swallowed.Why would Aehort want to see her?
“Stand.Rise.Take one step,” Ulvus said.
She touched air then his hand he must have thrown out to help her.“Thank you,” she said and pushed to her feet.
Veering toward Vaen’s voice, she pictured in her mind’s eye that he waited at the doorway to the wide passage leading to the bridge—left with the galley to the right.She trailed his breathing and stopped when his footsteps did.Cold bands wrapped around her wrist and drew her into a room charged with static and filled with muted beeps.
“Thank you, Tinika, for coming.Riermus aac Vaen Arrak, you may leave.”
“As you command, Aehort Uz.”
She waited until Vaen’s heavy tread faded while she relived every moment with the Qaldreths to recall revealing her name, ever.“You know my real name.”She offered a smile to hide her nervousness then sighed when she realized her fingers twitched—grabbing and releasing the hem of her shirt.
“I do.”Aehort’s voice warmed.“I anticipate a little…interest when we arrive in Certorth.”
“Where’s that?”She peered in his direction, making out a tall, fuzzy shape.
“Ivoy’s mother city, the home to the Senate.Come.”He clasped her hand, lacing his cold fingers through hers.“Humans are limited by their reliance on the physical.I have been in Vic’s mind.With you, I would like to try something, if I may?”
“Of course,” Tiny said despite a slight throbbing behind her left eye.Try what?Physical?She scowled, winced when her heartbeat pounded her temple, then forced herself to relax.
A burn brushed across her forehead.She would’ve thought Aehort touched her, but the sensation was hot and tingly.
“Close your eyes.What do you smell, hear…sense?”
She did as asked, more out of curiosity than a fear of the man everyone on this ship revered.“Electricity in the air.Many machines whirring and humming.”She angled her head to better listen.“You make no sound.No breathing or movement that I can track.The smells are quite clinical—not chemical but cleansed.There’s a hint of burnt steak which I’m told is normal.”
“And your peripherals?”
She concentrated, sensing nothing but Aehort looming over her.“I’m not standing near anything except you.”
“Good.”He tapped her temple.
Light flashed, scorching then cool.In a nano second, images flooded her mind.She stood at the center of them.Before her was her face, familiar yet older than she remembered with faint lines around her eyes and mouth.The white of her eyes was as startling as her unkempt purple hair.And what was she wearing?Pink Zebra-printed leggings with a neon-blue baggy shirt?Mom had promised her that all her clothes were in interchangeable grays and blacks.She froze.No, this is what I’ve been wearing all this time?Her cheeks burned, embarrassment striking when it was too late to do anything about it.
