Tucked into the back corner is a doorway. Sticking my head inside, I pat around the wall until I hit something that turns on the light, revealing a small tiled room. I think it must be some kind of bathroom, but it’s completely empty, and except for some glowing tiles with alien squiggles, I have no idea how to work it.
“Stay in here.” I pull Skylar into the tiled room with me, where it takes me a hot minute to figure out the door. “Don’t come out, no matter what you hear, okay?” I bite down on my lip and hope any sounds we make won’t be amplified by the tile. “Keep your ears covered.”
The sound of a key scraping in the lock has my heart leaping up into my throat as I shut the door in her face. I barely have time to step away from the bathroom when the red door flies open, and a tall figure rushes inside, all but slamming the door shut behind him. For a full minute he stands there, neither of us moving. The only sound is that of our breathing, while the silence stretches between us until—
“Bela?” he whispers. The soft way my name rolls past his lips is familiar, and I’m surprised when the prick of tears stings the backs of my eyes.
“Treto?”
Then we’re both moving, crossing the distance as fast as our legs will take us until we crash together. One of his arms snakes around my waist while his other cups the back of my head, burying his long fingers in my thick hair. He lifts me off my feet and spins me as my arms go around his neck. I can’t stop grinning at his strange alien face, a face that no longer seems so strange or alien to me. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever been so glad to see a face in all my life.
“You came back!” I gasp, just before his mouth crashes onto mine and I sigh into his kiss.
The scales that cover his cheeks are soft. Softer than I expect, I think as I drag my fingertips over them. Meeting his lips with mine. Letting his tongue into my mouth to slide alongside mine.
His eyes are unfocused when I pull back from the kiss to smile at him, only he’s not smiling back. His eyes are locked on the side of my face, and suddenly I remember the scratch Madame Athea left earlier.
“What happened?” he growls, slowly tracing his thumb under the scratch, which makes me suck in a sharp breath at the sting. “Bela, what is this?”
“Let her go, youmonster!” a frantic voice shouts before I can answer him.
A hollowthunkechoes through the room, and his grip on me loosens until I start to slip. “OW! Wait, I—”
Pieces of shattered pottery rain down on me as Treto and I both drop to the floor, him unconscious and me on my knees beside him. Standing over us is Skylar, a half-broken vase held over her shoulder like a bat and a wild look in her eyes.
“Stop!” I hold my hands up, trying to protect him with my body. “He wasn’t hurting me. He—he’s the one who’s come to help us.”
Skylar’s already large eyes grow even wider as she looks down at the unconscious alien. The vase slips from her grip to crash at her feet, and her hands go to her mouth. “Oops.”
