Raul being quiet was strange.
Alexa swirled her cup.
She missed the company. She can’t believe why.I don’t even like Raul.But now that she’d spent the last cycle in silence, she missed noise, missed the sound of a human voice, missed conversation. She glanced around the lounge, hating that even here, she was alone.
Pigeon was right. Space takes a toll.
There’s no noise, nolife, out in space. The sounds of air pressure and steam vents were all she had to keep her company. Maybe she should play music in the menagerie during the day… Maybe music would help. Alexa thumbed her vitamin D pill before putting it in her mouth, swallowing it down with her cold coffee.
She was even braving running into Daniels for company. She wasn’t afraid of him—they hadn’t spoken since the incident—but she also didn’t want to rehash the threats. As for Hysterian, Alexa was certain he wouldn’t be wandering into the lounge.
She hadn’t encountered him either since he had returned with the vaccines. Their strange interaction replayed in her head often. The terror of almost being caught, the way he’d studied her, and the confusion she felt when his eyes glowed and his brow slickened with sweat. It had all happened so fast.
The whole encounter had been unusual.
His eyes… In all the years she chased Hysterian, she had never seen his eyes glow teal. He’d always had dark, glistening, malicious eyes in her imagination. She recalled one of the strippers she’d questioned outside Dimes mentioning his eyes…
‘They glow bright when he’s worked up.’
Alexa sighed. What had worked him up? She didn’t think she’d given herself away.My heart was pounding but that wouldn’t affect him.Would it?
Cyborgs were calculating beings. His eyes left her with questions she was afraid of answering.Raul said he was defective.
Alexa chewed on her bottom lip and then cursed for caring at all. If he was defective, that was good for her. She was more than willing to put thedefectivething out of his misery.
Defective might make it easier for her to find a way to kill him.
But his eyes had been beautiful in that moment. So beautiful that she couldn’t stop thinking about them, and why they’d become that way. She wanted to see them again, and she hated it. When she dreamed last night, it had been about his eyes, and how mesmerizing they were, not the cold-blooded killing machine that needed to be unplugged.
She ran her hands over her hair.If only it was that easy!
At least it’s not hot.She couldn’t suffer being in a space bubble that was warm on top of everything else. Alexa gathered the loose strands of her hair and redid her bun.
“Morning,” Pigeon grunted as he walked into the lounge.
Alexa dropped her hands and sat up, excited to see Pigeon. Pigeon was her favorite. “Morning.”
He yawned and grabbed a cup of coffee, joining her. His presence brought her comfort.
“You getting used to this life yet?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
He laughed, taking a sip. “Not convincing at all, Dear, but still good to hear. I’d be better off myself if Daniels and Horace didn’t snore all night long. You’d think they’re trying to power the damned ship at night.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. Raul snores too.”
Pigeon peered at her over his cup. “You look like you could use better rest too?”
Idle talk. Any other day, Alexa would’ve shut it down or found a way out of it, but today she welcomed it.
“I’m plenty rested,” she said. “The coffee is terrible, though.”
“Isn’t it? I call it barely drinkable scum. You’re lucky you’ve managed to get some rest. The transition can be brutal.”
“I guess so.” Alexa looked down at her drink.
“You okay?”
