Instead of taking the lift that would take us closest to my office, I changed to one that opened up on the opposite side of deck two. I checked the time and slowed my steps, acting as if the crowd was blocking me or I was looking at the wares. Still Wyn didn’t say anything, remaining near my side. My tail quaked with the urge to coil around his. I wanted to draw him flush to my side, much as Camden had done, but I wasn’t allowed to.
Yet.
As if on cue, my inner fire unhelpfully whispered,Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. Soon.
I ignored it and led Wyn to the lift. It took several long moments for the door to open; it was jerky and not as smooth as it should be.
Wyn frowned. “I’ll need to put in a work order for this lift.”
“You can once we are at my office.”
He conceded with a tilt of his head.
We stepped inside, and the floor bounced beneath our combined weight. Once again he frowned, and I held my breath as I waited for him to insist we take another lift. He didn’t.
I pushed the button for deck two, and the doors took an eternity to close. The lift rose much slower than usual, and after only a handful of moments, it stopped with a shudder. The overhead lights shut off, leaving only emergency lighting.
“What’s going on?” Wyn asked, looking up.
I kept quiet, so as to not outright lie to him. I’d told many lies in my life, but I didn’t wish to lie to Wyn more than I had to.
He said, “NAID, why have we stopped?”
NAID did not respond.
Wyn pressed the emergency commlink and said, “This is Lieutenant Wyn with Commander Monqilcolnen. We are in lift six-four-jin, and we’ve stopped.”
A voice replied, "Lieutenant, that lift was scheduled for maintenance during this time. We sent out a shipwide blast.”
He closed his eyes, his tail flicking. “I didn’t check my notes today.”
“My apologies, Lieutenant and Commander. We have already shut the lift down and begun working. We cannot reinitialize yet.”
“Take your time,” I replied. “The fault is mine.”
Wyn glanced at me, but he didn’t contradict me.
“Thank you, Commander. We shall work as fast as we can. Would you like me to notify Captain Talvax?”
“Please.”
“Yes, Commander,” the voice said before disconnecting.
“We are stuck here,” Wyn said, his eyes on the floor, but his tail wiggled toward mine. My soul pounded in throbbing hope.
“Yes, we are.”
Chapter 17
An accidental outing.
I sat with my back against the lift wall, and Monqilcolnen was opposite of me. His head was leaning back against the wall, his eyes closed and his long hair a silver sheet around him. I took this opportunity to study him.
I’d thought about it before, but once again, I was struck by how attractive Monqilcolnen was. He was over ten cycles older than I, but age hadn’t touched him more than in the broadening of his shoulders and the strength of his muscles, though his long-sleeved uniform didn’t allow me to see much of them.
In this closed room with nowhere to go and nothing to do, my usual urge to run vanished like a puff of smoke in the wind. We, in this moment, were simply Monqilcolnen and Wyn, and it wasnice, though it was probably dangerous for me to think of him as such.
Still, I couldn’t help it.
