I wonder what she’s mind bombing him with this time.
Murmurs echo through the room and I glance at Jessica and Trench, but they look just as confused as everyone else.
“What is…?” Kilo asks.
Arc doesn’t answer. He stands, taking her with him and walks straight out the door into the garage.
“It’s time for us to go,” I say, looking at Drift and Kimba. “Anything else?”
“Not right this second, no.” She looks at the door again. “Everything okay?”
When I answer her, I look at Jessica. “Just the price of being an asshole.”
Risk follows me out and we stop beside them when the door to the outpost closes. Arc still holds her tight to him as he leans on the car, but they aren’t as intense.
“Sorry about that,” he says, and he means it.
“Don’t be. You needed to go and you went. We get it.”
Risk agrees, pulling them off the bubble roof and opening the car. “They’ll get over it.”
A flash of Arc’s hands around my throat makes me exhale sharply, but he doesn’t notice.
Something happens next time that eclipses this exit.
“We,” I say, switching to what I know will distract them from anything else, “have a few more days to pretend we don’t have any responsibilities. I think we can find a productive way to pass them.”
Chrys hums in agreement. “But we eat and feed Kissu first! I don’t want tohaveto take a break in the middle.”
As if when we get home, Kissu would let us go to bed without his supper anyway.
The ride passes quickly, anticipating ratcheting up in the bond. We’re lucky we don’t crash. Kissu wouldn’t forgive us.
Arc gives him a plate of raw meat, grass, and ilva eggs. “I will ask, but I don’t like the idea.”
He looks up at us, shaking his head. “Kissu would like to request live lizards for food. He misses hunting and is disappointed we don’t have any… vermin to take care of.”
“He wants us to let wild animals loose when there’s no door on our bedroom?” Chrys’ face scrunches and she hops up to sit on the counter. “I don’t know about that.”
I don’t either.
Arc glances from me to Risk and then says, “That’s four ‘probably not’s.”
“You’re going to have to give us a better pitch to win us over,” Chrys tells him.
He sneezes and turns back to his dinner.
Risk produces ours like he had it waiting.
“He did.” Arc leans close, raking his teeth across my neck and making me shiver. “He’s highly motivated.”
“Aren’t we all?”
Humor hits me like a weighted blanket.
Between the four of us, our emotions balance simply because each accounts for a quarter of the pull in our bond, but when all of us feel the same thing at the same time…
We manage to eat slowly enough that we won’t feel sick, but our plates stay on the table as Risk picks Chrys up. I look at Arc.
