Chapter 10
Nova
The first thing Nova did when she woke up was look out the window. Miran had left the shutters open, and to her relief, the storm was over. She could see the clear night sky.
“How do you feel?”
Miran’s question made her jump. She shifted her gaze to watch Miran jump up from his seat and rush to kneel at the side of the bed. She must’ve slept hard not to have woken when he got up from the bed.
“Fine, I think,” she said, sitting up. The moment she swung her legs over the edge of the bed, he reached for her ankle. The label had changed color. It was ready to be taken off.
Sitting back on his heels, he unwrapped the bandage and revealed an ankle without any swelling. The bruising was almost all gone, and when she flexed, there wasn’t even a twinge of pain.
She let out a relieved breath. “That’s perfect.”
He leaned his face close to her ankle, as if he could see through her skin and into the joint. “It looks much better.”
Tugging her foot out of his grip, she stood up to test her leg.
“Be careful,” he warned, holding his arms out as if to catch her. Was it weird that he kept his eyes on the floor? She pushed his arms out of the way and took a confident step past him.
“It feels great,” she said, bending her legs to test the ankle. It was only a little stiff. A walk around the room loosened it up.
“All better,” she announced.
Miran got up from the floor, still not looking at her, and tapped on his data bracelet. She expected him to be affectionate after they’d been intimate, but he was acting like she was a co-worker.
She didn’t like it.
Ignoring his odd behavior, she looked around the room. She noticed that the food box from earlier and the delivery section of the med box were both gone. The part of the med box that Miran got to keep was sitting on the floor next to his pile of gear.
Folded neatly on top of the med box was her wild-human costume and the Fielden clothes. Looking down, she became aware that she was walking around the room naked. She was so used to being partially dressed or fully undressed around other circus workers that she hadn't noticed.
Was that why he wasn't looking at her? Were the Hissa overly modest?
Striding over, she was pleasantly surprised to find that all her clothes had been cleaned and were free of sand. She didn’t feel like putting on the tight wild-human costume. Instead, she pulled on the loose-fitting Fielden cloak. It wasn’t until she had them on that she realized she’d been a little cold, and the light clothing was the perfect amount to be comfortable.
Turning around, she found Miran staring directly at her with a relieved look on his face. So it had been the clothes. Testing the theory further, she strode up to him and didn’t stop until she was almost touching him.
He raised his arms, as if he was about to embrace her, then dropped them and stepped back.
“We should talk,” he said.
Was there any sentence more loathed than that one?
Crossing her arms, she made sure her face was perfectly blank. She didn’t care what he was going to say. Their time together meant nothing to her. She was leaving anyway. Nothing he was about to say would bother her.
At least that’s what she told herself even as she fought back tears.
“I wish I was a less honorable man,” he began.
What did that even mean?
The door chimed at the same time his data bracelet sounded, interrupting whatever else he was going to say.
“I ordered food before you woke up,” he explained, striding to the door.
Out in the hall was the same Fielden that delivered the last food box. She handed over the new one and turned and left without another word.
