ADRYEL
"I need to get you back?—"
"Do you even want us here?" The words came out before she could stop them.
He stopped walking. Turned to look at her fully for the first time since they'd left Khalzin's room.
"Not if it jeopardizes the safety and security of our world."
The words landed like a door closing. Flat and final and completely rehearsed. She'd heard that tone before — officials, guards, people with something to protect who'd decided she wasn't worth the trouble.
She crossed her arms.
"So that's it. It's all about your world, huh?"
Her hands were shaking. She was aware of it and furious about it. She balled them into fists anyway, because she wasn't going to let him see it. She wasn't scared. She was angry, which was a completely different thing, and she needed him to understand that.
"I'm a Gol-Vett. It is part of my duty to protect my world and my people. I have no larger duty than to that position."
There it was. The armor that had nothing to do with bone ridges.
"Then why were you even there? Why were you going to even try to mate with one of us?"
Something shifted behind his eyes. Just briefly.
"Because Khalzin asked me to."
She looked at him for a long moment. Read the flatness of it. The way he didn't elaborate, didn't dress it up.
"But you didn't think it would work, did you?"
He opened his mouth.
"Don't even say anything. You don't have to. I can tell just by looking at you." She'd gotten good at reading people who didn't want to be read. It was how she'd survived. "You had no faith in this at all."
"And with good reason," he said. "Look at the chaos. The casualty list grows by the hour."
"Great, there's a few less red skinned humanoids in the world. Darn."
He closed the distance between them in two strides, stopping close enough that she had to tilt her chin up to hold his gaze. She didn't step back.
"And from the Galactic Alliance. There's how many of your people here? An entire ship's staff, plus the contestants? They're dying too, by much larger numbers so far than our people. And I fear that none of you will get off this planet safely."
That landed differently than she expected. She'd been ready for cold. She wasn't ready for the weight behind it.
"Not if we don't figure this out."
"If I don't figure this out."
She put her hand on his arm. "If we don't."
He looked down at her hand. Then he covered it with his, and the warmth of it caught her off guard.
"I'm not letting anything happen to you," he said.
"And I'm not going to let anything happen to you, either." She tilted her head, letting the smile come because she'd earned it. "I'm way smaller than you. I can sneak into all kinds of places. Hear and see things that I shouldn't."
"Why does that not surprise me?"
