And she doesn’t think she slept…
Kissu meets us at the door, and as soon as she has her coat off, she scritches between his ears, eliciting a deep, rumbling purr.
“I talked to a woman today who wants to meet you.”
He looks up at me.Why want wiffan?
“He wants to know why.”
“She works at a zurgle cafe.” She pauses to card her fingers through his ruff. “When she found out about you, well… I don’t think she believed me.”
No? Sisan no want.Kissu doesn’t look up at me, but I know he’s telling me, not Chrys.
“I think maybe we should worry about thatafterwe know what’s going on with you, okay?”
“Fine.” She sticks her tongue out at me and then shivers. “I don’t know how to get there, so someone is going to have to lead the way.”
Risk is the one who picks her up this time.
The lower levels are even colder, and she took off her shoes.
I let them go ahead of us, Kissu trailing close behind and pause to tell Shock, “She passed out at Margot’s.”
His brow ridges pinch. “I didn’t see that. It’s probably nothing,” Shock says, but he doesn’t think about ignoring it. Even if it isn't anything, that doesn’t mean that we aren’t going to check.
Risk sets her down in the upright diagnostic compartment. She looks tiny inside it, but she was not about to let him put her down on “that operating table.”
The system runs its checks, burbling and beeping away, but there’s nothing abnormal. Just lingering traces of whatever unknown drug…
“Shouldn’t that be out of her system by now?”
Risk shrugs. “I don’t know.”
He glares at the screen, reading and rereading the data, and an ugly memory slithers across my mind.
“Hey.” I wait for him to look up at me. “It’s okay to not know.”
When his shoulders drop and he stretches his neck muscles, I hear him curse in his mind. Because it used to not be okay. Not knowing used to be defiance. Defiance used to be met with punishment.
And sometimes, we forget to leave those things in the past.
CHAPTER
TWELVE
CHRYS
I watchthem for a long moment, wondering if it’s possible that they’ve forgotten I’m here.
That gets me a sharp look from Arc, but they keep talking—maybe arguing—in that language I don’t understand.
Kissu, at least, puts all his attention on me, and it’s fine that they don’t.
I’ve probably takentoomuch of their attention since I got here.
Head pressing against my waist while I pet him, Kissu pushes against me and for a moment, I think I might actually fall over.
When I laugh, that’s what makes them all finally look at me. I manage to save myself from toppling before they can swoop in.
