“Oh my God. You almost made a friend!”
“You’re the fucking worst,” he grumbles, knocking my arm away.
We’re greeted by sunshine the next morning, but that doesn’t seem to cure the ennui going around the Dagger. There haven’t been any major developments since the salt mine extraction. No missions. Nobroadcasts. No big plans. It appears both sides have retreated to reassess and strategize, and the Mods on the mountain are tired of being cooped up. Me, especially. I’m so restless, I feel like I’m going to crawl out of my own skin.
“I hate lulls,” Karra declares at breakfast, speaking everyone’s thoughts.
“Lulllll,” Mako repeats, overenunciating the word. “I like that word a lot.”
Everyone stares at him.
“What?” He shrugs his enormous shoulders. “It’s a fun word to say. Lull.”
Henley leans back in his chair. “I don’t mind the downtime.”
“Of course you don’t. You spend it hopping from bed to bed,” Karra accuses.
“Right, because you and Gray aren’t screwing every chance you get,” he says.
“I wish,” she mutters under her breath.
I don’t think anyone else hears her, but she’s sitting beside me, so I do. Trouble in paradise? I never pry about Gray’s love life, but it didn’t seem like it was suffering. There was another party in the cave a few days ago, and his tongue was in Karra’s mouth the entire time.
I catch a flash of pink in my peripheral vision. A second later, Raven Persimmons walks past, holding her dinner tray.
“Raven, wait,” Mako calls after her.
Her dainty shoulders go rigid. Slowly, she turns toward our table. “What?”
“I think maybe it’s time we bury the hatchet, keen?”
His gracious tone brings a flicker of suspicion to her eyes. “Really.”
“Really.”
“What’s the catch?”
He folds his huge arms across his huge chest. “I’m a firm believer that every friendship begins with honesty. So if you’re the one who stole my gold chocolate—”
“Arghhhh!” With a high-pitched shriek of frustration, Raven stomps off, her pink hair swinging behind her.
“You need to let this go, brother,” drawls Henley.
“Never,” Mako vows.
Luisa and Evlynne join us at the table, setting down their breakfast trays. Evlynne’s eyes flick in my direction, but for once, they’re not rife with hostility. Maybe because Xavier isn’t sitting with us this morning. He and Poppy are on their own, sipping their coffee and playing a new card game that Poppy taught him last night. Fiona is nowhere in sight, otherwise she’d probably drag the teenager away from the evil lieutenant, kicking and screaming.
“You know what we should do?” Karra suggests, running a hand through her long black hair. “Sneak off the base and go to Heath’s End.”
I raise a brow. “Is that even possible?” Heath’s End is a small island in the southwest, not far from Ward V. Most citizens save up Lux credits for years and use their leisure passes just to go there. I’ve never been, but I heard it’s a tropical paradise.
“It is if we can convince one of our pilots to take us…” Karra bats her eyelashes at Evlynne.
“Absolutely not,” Evlynne says.
“Hen?” Karra pleads.
Henley grins. “Nope. I’m not risking Adrienne’s wrath.”
