Even up to the last moment, Kira didn’t know which he would choose.
It wasn’t until Lothos straightened to his full height and turned to address his companion that Kira silently released the breath she was holding.
“She fell,” Lothos said in a bored tone.
“She’s dead then.Untrained, she’s little better than a human.There’s no way she would have survived.”
Lothos didn’t correct him and soon there were sounds of them moving away.
Kira waited until she couldn’t hear anything before starting her climb up.She slipped, nearly falling a couple of times before she got one leg hooked over the edge.After much squirming, grunting and a few curses against Lothos’s family line thrown in for good measure, Kira finally rolled onto the floor of the shipping yard and lay there catching her breath.
The sound of crunching intruded.
Confused, Kira looked around until she spotted the person squatting on top of one of the nearby shipping containers.
“Talon?”Kira lifted up onto her elbows.“What are you doing here?”
The oshota broke off another piece of galaxy lollypop with his teeth and chewed loudly.“Finn called.Asked me to keep an eye on you.”
Kira started to nod but stopped.“How long were you watching?”
“From about the time you fell over the railing.”
“I didn’t fall; I jumped,” Kira defended.“You didn’t at any point during the last few minutes think I could use a hand?”
“You looked like you had everything under control.”
Kira glanced around the wreckage of the shipping yard with a dumbfounded expression.This was what he thought “under control” looked like?
Talon finished his galaxy lollypop and rose, stepping off the container to land with a hard thump a second later.“I didn’t think anyone could be more of a reckless idiot than your father, but I was wrong.Congratulations, sword.Consider me officially impressed.”
“Gee, thanks,” Kira said dryly.
“Anytime.”
The sound of Graydon calling for her came from the next row.
“Over here!”she shouted.
Talon walked over to stand beside her as Graydon and his oshota came into view.“Just so I’m tracking, how much of what just happened are we planning to keep from the emperor’s Face?”
Kira shot him a quick, irritated look before focusing on Graydon.“You be quiet.I’ll handle it.”
“Understood, sword,” Talon murmured.
He stepped back, putting Kira at the forefront to give her the appearance of being in charge.
Kira aimed a tremulous smile at Graydon.“So…some fun things happened.”
Before she could explain further, Graydon swept her into a tight hug.There was a tremble in his hands that betrayed how worried he’d been.
After a moment of hesitation, Kira hugged him back and pressed her face into the side of his neck, inhaling deeply as she found comfort in his scent.
“You almost died,” Graydon whispered.
“Yeah.”
She had.
