Skylar smiled sweetly.“That would do it.Are you going to attach to her?”
“Is reincarnation an option?”
Skylar froze.“I have no idea.I don’t know how you would do it, or even if you would survive the process.”
“Well, I have to get in before another consciousness is there.So, I am going to watch closely.”Delia smiled.“Like double dutch.”
Skylar said, “Tell your mother what you are trying to do.She needs to know if it doesn’t work.She needs to know where you will have gone.”
Delia blinked.“So, it might end me.”
“I have no idea.There is nothing in my weird brain to account for that.Mind you, I am not supposed to be able to do what I am doing.That is Chloe’s fault.”
Chloe grinned.“Yes, I have a dastardly plan that involves sleeping in moss and hanging on to our humanity.Call me a supervillain.”
Delia looked at her and grinned.“You are a supervillain.”
Chloe laughed.“I wonder if I had a moustache and twirled it, if it would deter Dytura.”
Skylar shook her head.“Nope.Your body is of minor interest, but it is your energy that is the huge draw.That’s what he’s after.”
“I know.I am at peace with that.”She shrugged.“I have been dead already.Not much scares me anymore.”
Delia paused.“I don’t remember being dead.I remember fear and then being in a room with others.”
Skylar smiled gently.“That was me.I was the room.”
“Yeah, I get that now, and then I heard my mom’s voice, and I knew I was where I was supposed to be again.”
The ladies smiled.Geri said, “It was just you two?”
“Yup.My dad dipped when I was little.She had some relationships, but she never brought them home.They were just to blow the cobwebs out.I was amazed that she let me go away to school and restricted herself to one check-in call every two weeks.Since it had been just us two, I always thought she would hold on tighter, but she sent me off with a speech about using everything I had learned to stand tall.I did.I used everything she taught me and everything I felt was right.They were usually the same thing.”
Geri nodded.“From what I knew of her after I met her, she acted for herself and for others.Her sense of humour made the days go fast.No matter how banged up we were, she could always crack a joke about it.She always keeps her spirits up.”
Delia nodded.“That is why I gave Aken-Var the cheat code.It would take forever otherwise.I don’t know how long I have here, so I need her happy.”
Skylar chuckled.“You do know that you are not attached to me at all, right?You are linked to Margo and are strictly running off her.As long as she lives, you live.”
Delia smiled.“Then, I am here for the next two hundred and fifty years.Thanks for that, Chloe.”
“No problem.You might want to tell the crew that Margo isn’t going to be returning to the command deck any time soon.We will probably be on Orexi before they come up for breath.”
Delia snorted.“If that’s what you want to call it.Yup.I will let them know if he hasn’t already.”
Skylar grinned as she left the recreation hall, and Chloe looked at her cousin.“She can totally get in there for another life.She’s already attached to her mother, so we will have to warn Margo that if Delia disappears, she hasn’t gone far.”
* * * *
Margo surfaced fromthe glowing hum of her exhausted body.She was wrapped in Aken-Var’s arms, and he was crooning softly to her.
She inhaled, and the scent of both of them was thick in the room.“So, that happened.”
He chuckled.“It certainly did.Several times.Woman, you are exhausting, and I am here for it.”
She laughed softly.“I am still remaining in my position on theFreedom Break.”
“Fine.”
