In a way, she already did.
She didn’t get far and reached into her pocket to pull out the communicator from Harbin.
She held it in her hand.
Would he come for me if I called?
Would he come to take me away from here?
Strangely, she knew he would. He would come to get her from the palace and bring her back to his world.
She could not ask that of him.
Not today.
Bianca raced back to her room because she wanted to talk to him. Even if it was only for a few minutes. She doubted the Emperor would let her leave his presence without some kind of consequence.
The Emperor did not like being defied.
As soon as she crossed the threshold of her quarters, she put up every available lock she had. Though supposedly he had a key fob that would unlock any door in the palace, she still pushed a chair in front of the doorway to block any unpermitted entrances. Her apartment was in between Caoimhe’s and Eleanor’s rooms since she acted as a governess.
For good measure, she locked those doors as well.
After that, she slumped to the floor.
Tears poured down her cheeks.
At first, the emotions were unexpected. It was not the first time she had been struck in the last decade. Every time, she told herself that if it prevented the Emperor from taking out his anger on the girls, then it was worth it.
She never considered herself more than a shield for the girls.
Why today was different, she didn’t know.
It just was.
It was time for her to stand up and not let him knock her down again. She brushed the tears away and winced when she felt the bruising on her cheek. She got up and rummaged around her room to find the medical pack she put on those kinds of wounds to heal them overnight.
In her pocket, the little communicator buzzed.
She pulled it out.
There was something so soothing about seeing the little communicator coming to life.
She grinned as she flipped it on. Just knowing he’d reached out to her made any pain she felt from before disappear.
Harbin’s hologram materialized, and there he was, from the shoulders up. His square jaw and deep-set eyes defined his face.
Or perhaps that was the white eyes.
While startling when she’d first met him, she’d gotten so used to them now, she could not imagine him without them.
“Hi there,” she said, grinning at him.
A smile spread over his face, not a wide one, but a pleasant one. She’d quickly figured out that he was not as emotional as Terrans were. He kept many emotions in reserves—that was the cyborg programming.
However, he did have them.
And if he smiled at her, she knew he meant it.
