Brynna sets her sandwich down. “Fieri got me docked to Eluni’s ship and had to rush off because you were dying. I heard all about your suicide mission.”
My Inferno curls up and hides in my chest like it knows this is bad. Our mate should not have to worry about us beingblind-ragereckless.
I turn my attention to the staff working out on the race grounds. Warm fingers slip inside mine.
“I would’ve tried the same if I had your kind of power. But you’re right, it’s not worth the sacrifice to let that kind of pain pull us under. So no more of that shit. Got it?”
“I just did what I had to do.”
“But now you have a bigger team. Including me. We punch Talhuskins out together.”
I try not to laugh, but the urge is too strong.
“What?”
“I was trying to makeyoufeel better.”
She leans back and looks more at ease. “I lived alone with my thoughts for years. I can handle a lot.”
“Wild save,” Corzin says as he and Sky pass us to sit at another booth. “Thought that egg was a goner.”
I did too. “Thanks.”
“Quite the talented tail,” Brynna adds between bites of her sandwich. “I see how it can be useful.”
As we eat, I begin to miss the heat of her fingers against mine. So I sneak my tail under the table and curl it up her leg.
Brynna pauses and looks up at me. “Is that you?”
I look away, then roll my eyes skyward. “Whatever do you mean?”
She tilts her head and smirks. “Freaked me out for a second. I thought it was a snake or something. Probably because we have the creatures tour next.”
“Probably.” I finish my food and adjust my wings.
“Uncomfortable?” she asks.
“Booths are not made for those of us with wings. They are kind of smashed against the cushions. We prefer benches.”
Brynna stuffs the last of her food in her mouth, grabs her bottle of water, and motions me up.
“You don’t have to make yourself miserable just to appease me,” I say. “Really. Please don’t. We can stay.”
“Are you kidding?” she finishes chewing as we walk to the area of the creature tour. “This is just normal life. I snag a few minutes to eat, shove food in my cheeks, then I work on it as I keep repairing the hydropump or the transformer bank for the seed cold storage isolation shield.” She lifts her hands in helplessness. “I’m alone. All. The. Time.”
She only half-listens to the automated replays as we enter the zoo filled with animals of all kinds from planets throughout the galaxy. Brynna squats by a little pink lizard with gooey fingers that crawl out around its face. “Hey, little fucker. Wish you weren’t so cute because you sting like a bitch.”
“You’re familiar with that?” I ask.
“A lot of these, actually,” she remarks. “Another facet of agriculture is understanding pests, the critters that can harm crops: bugs, reptiles, mammals, big and small. Some species come to me for genetic variations that will endure better. I don’t modify plants because I believe natural selection is critical to thehealthiest plants surviving. Plus, what if the only kind of plant that doesn’t get eaten by the bugs is the one that’s genetically modified to not have seeds? It’s doomed if it’s not synthetically propagated.Thatterrifies me. So I have to work with aliens on how to control and eliminate pests from their fields instead of altering the crop.”
“That makes sense, I guess.” I haven’t seen as many creatures as she appears to have, but I point to one from Earth that I know. “Neon-backed camel spider. May have been bitten by one of those while I served my time here.”
“Oof, yeah. Those can be deadly.” She admires a spiny black creature from Hellsvian. “Why did you fight on Earth’s forces?”
“As a show of good faith to the federation. We needed all the help we could get after we fled the Talhuskin’s homeworld. For every one of us who served, we had an Earth squad protect and train our homeworld. Sidius and the others fought, too. We were sent in only for special tactical missions, and we worked with some insane human soldiers who definitely had a death wish.
“The things they could dream up to compensate where they didn’t have Infernos or other powerful sparks inside them still amazes me. I honestly didn’t want to return home. But Mother Cinuska called for us when the Talhuskins started to become more of a problem. Us orphans are automatically put into military service because we are not the critical family assets needed to preserve our kind. We’re allowed to mate. Encouraged to. But we are soldiers first.”
