“Remove. Micah’s. Shields,” I gritted out.
“No,” Leeloo sighed, sounding more exhausted than anything. “Before you opened fire on my city, Micah was working on removing the shields himself.”
Oh.
My mate had the nerve to look embarrassed, despite his impressive skills. “Yeah… Apparently,dissolvingshields is part of Eki Powers 101, but I’m struggling over here…”
“Isthatwhy I felt your panic?“ I carefully asked, accessing the piece of me inside him to gauge his true feelings on the situation.
More embarrassment, but no fear.
Good.
He dropped his gaze. “I started panicking when I realizedwewere the ones behaving like a threat to the Eki, not the other way around. Aaaaand you blowing shit up didn’t help.”
Not sorry.
“Rational thought is often overshadowed by protective instincts when one’s stellar collision is threatened.” Leeloo huffed before chuckling self-deprecatingly. “I should know.”
Wait.
I crossed my arms. “Next, you’ll be telling me the Eki invented stellar collisions.”
“Not invented, no… That would be our common ancestor.” When I squinted, they cocked their head. “Are you finally understanding, Zig-ee?”
I wasn’t. In fact, my thoughts were as confused and jumbled as they had been when Micah and I discovered the truth about Stellarians at The Knowledge.
Not the whole truth, apparently.
“Zig?” Micah’s familiar voice cut through my growing anxiety, just as it had then, and when I met his gaze, he smiled encouragingly.
Supporting me, as always.
Unconditionally.
“Idon’tunderstand,” I sighed before nodding at Leeloo. “But I’m willing to… listen.”
In the interest of playing nice.
You would think nothing could surprise me at this point when it came to learning about Stellarians, but sharing a common ancestor with the Eki was the most unexpected intel yet.
Assuming it’s even the truth…
32
ZIGGY
It was hard not to be suspicious of the alien seated across from me, especially as Micah was within their reach, still struggling to remove the shields they’d trapped him in.
“Ughhhh!” he exclaimed, dropping his head back with a groan. “Just when I think I’ve got it, I choke…”
Oh, sunshine.
Before I could offer encouragement, Leeloo beat me to it. “I am confident you can do this, My-kuh. Everything you need is already inside you.”
Micah’s gaze flickered to me before he mumbled, “Yeah… you’ve both said that.”
It wasn’t quite whatIhad said, but I wasn’t about to share my unique training methods with my opponent.
