Page 43 of Red Dragon’s Flame

“Nothing that would compromise your system,” she said hastily. “I was just—I wanted to see what you have here.”

Once a hacker, always a hacker. “I could have had a computer set up in your room. Or you could have done it from my room.”

She looked away. “You were busy. And anyway, I like it here. It’s nice. Cozy. And there are machines.”

“And no windows?”

She still didn’t look at him. “It’s stupid, right? I know they’re not even in this world.”

“No, not stupid. You’re brave and badass, but you’re still human.”

She gave a little laugh at that, without much humor in it. “Am I? I don’t know. And anyway, nobody else around here is, are they? They’re all superhuman, like you.”

He wasn’t sure what to say to that. He would have thought being around other non-ordinary-humans would be a relief to her, but maybe she just wanted to feel normal.

Or maybe she just needed to learn to feel at home with them.

He said, “I thought I could take you to meet some people, this morning.”

She kept typing. It was hard to read her expression, but it was definitely not ‘Hell, yeah, I wanna make friends.’

After a long silence he got the message. “But you don’t want to, do you.”

Her fingers went still.

Mikah waited, trying to make the silence non-judgmental.

Still looking at her hands, she said, “I’m bad at saying things. I offend people.”

Mikah laughed. “Seriously? Do you remember meeting Emon and Michelangela? And Zakerek? Hell, Zak’s favorite hobby is tactlessly offending people. You’ll fit right in.”

That got a tiny smile, quickly gone. “Okay then. I don’t want to meet all these people. You’re used to being in this big family that crowds around each other and eats off each other’s plates, and are always so… there.” She made a gesture right in front of her face.

“I’m used to being alone. I know I’m being ungrateful because everyone is trying to help me, but—can they kind of help me from farther away?”

Mikah bit his lip, not sure what she was trying to say, and not wanting to scare her off by being too smothering.

his dragon said.

She needs patience. But his seemed to go out the window when Devon was around, because he immediately asked, “What about me? Do you want me to be further away?”

“What? No!” She looked as if she’d surprised herself with the quickness of that answer, but it was what he wanted to hear. Mikah settled back against a server rack, not realizing until then how much he’d tensed up.

Devon said, “I like having you… with me.”

Mikah nodded. “I’ll tell the others you need space. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“Okay.” Shit. He’d already said that. Mikah pushed the tray towards her, feeling absurdly happy. “I brought breakfast. It’s probably cold, but I can warm it up.”

That got a little smirk, her confidence returning with a bound. “Got it covered, Hot Stuff.” She added cream and sugar to one of the cups of coffee, then picked it up and warmed it with her hands.

He smiled back at her, and warmed his own coffee. “So,” he said. “As chief administrator of this particular country, the security of our computer network falls under my responsibilities. I don’t suppose you’ll tell me what you’ve been doing?”

“You’re not going to arrest me, are you?”

“I’m pretty sure we can work something out. I’m bribable.”