A crackling noise erupted between them.
They jerked apart.
Adryel didn’t even realize she wasn’t touching the ground until he released her.
She gasped in shock.
Stron looked back and forth around them, and she realized they were wedged between two of the stalls in the marketplace. One of the vendors glanced at the two of them, and Stron glared at him.
The crackling went off again.
It was her communicator! The one that she’d gotten earlier from Graecey before they were marched out of the ship. She’d been wearing it tucked into her clothing for the last few days.
It hadn’t made a sound since she’d gotten it.
And Adryel was pretty sure she was going to strangle whoever was on that communicator.
How dare they interrupt a kiss like that one?
“What was that?” He asked.
Adryel wiggled the communicator, on a chain around her neck, out of the top of her outfit. It was glowing. Her eyes darted to Stron’s.
Then around the two of them at the other Kantenans who were staring. Evidently, it was much louder when it was out of her dress.
The charm went off again. “Adryel?” called a panicked female voice.
“What?” Adryel snapped into it.
Kantenans were turning and looking at them. Including the ones who’d been following them before.
Damn! She moved closer to Stron, if only to hide herself. Not that it would work. They’d made them already.
“Adryel?” Janae’s voice came through, gravelly and broken up.
“No, shh!” Adryel fired back. How did she turn this thing off?
“What is the matter?” Janae asked.
“Shh. No. Not now,” Adryel.
“Silence,” Stron snapped and grabbed the necklace. He squeezed the communicator, crumpling it in his hand. “You didn’t tell me you had a tracker!”
“I didn’t think about it,” she fired back.
“Come on, we have to hurry.”
21
STRON
She was wearing a tracker?
The whole time?
Stron wanted to scream.
But that would just bring more attention to them in the tunnels, and they needed to find a safe harbor.
