She sees my face, and she freezes. It takes her a moment to snap out of it and look back down at what she’s doing.
Nim trots in from the terrace and pushes between my ankles, winding herself around one leg, then the other, her scaled spine dragging across my shin. I step over her and set the trays on the table. She stops mid-wind, gives me a disapproving look, then hides under the table, where she settles with her head on her paws, as if she’s stalking something that might, or might not be food.
Esme pulls out a chair and points at it.
“Sit down and eat.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“You haven’t touched food in two days. That can’t be good for you.”
I remain on my feet and keep the table between us. Sitting at the table, with the smell of their cooking wafting around me, with Darina drying dishes and Nim sulking by my boots, would feel domestic, and nothing about me is domestic right now.
My tail won’t stay down. It keeps lifting on its own, curling up and forward over my head, until the stinger hangs in the air where both women can see it. I press it back, but it rises again. I know how it makes me look. There’s nothing I can do about it.
“I’ve made a decision,” I say.
Esme crosses her arms.
“Have you.”
“I’ll take you and Darina anywhere you want to go. Any city on Alia Terra. I’ll drive you to the portal, pay the fee, enter whatever destination you give me, and put enough money in your hands to keep you both fed and housed until you can stand on your own. Today. Now.”
Darina stops her cleaning but doesn’t yet turn around.
Esme stares at me.
“Today?”
“Yes. Pack what you need.”
“Anywhere we want to go,” she says slowly. “I know one city in the entire world, and I can’t go back to it. Where exactly am I supposed to tell you to take us?”
“There are human cities besides Concord. I’ll name every one I know, and you choose. If none of them suits you, we ask at the portal until one does.”
“Just like that.”
“Just like that.”
The shock on her face turns to anger.
“You can’t just kick me out.”
“I’m not kicking you out. I’m giving you what you asked for. Freedom.”
“Don’t use that word on me.” She comes around the table, toward me, and her voice rises with every step. “You told me I could stay as long as I needed. Now you’ve changed your mind? One moment, I can stay as long as I want, and the next, you’reloading me through a portal with money, so I’ll go quietly. What changed?”
She’s close now, closer than she should be. Her scent envelops me before I can brace against it – warm skin, kitchen soap and, underneath both,her. My cock hardens in my pants, and I angle my hips behind a chair. I hate myself for wanting her in the middle of a conversation about her future. Iloathemyself.
“Nothing changed,” I say. “It’s time, that’s all.”
“Time. You decided it’s time without asking me.” She turns toward the counter. “Darina, are you hearing this?”
Darina keeps her eyes on the spot she’s cleaning and says nothing.
Esme turns back to me.
“Is this about the way people looked at us in the city? Did someone order you to get rid of us?”
