Page 24

“Pastry prize for surviving being trapped by a freaky ship who hates her captain?” Monica held the bag out to Cass with one hand, while already packing the cutting torch with the other.

“Yum! Yes. I’m starving!” Cass grabbed an almond croissant and bit into it. Flakes scattered down her front and stuck to her lips. She brushed them off and groaned. “That’s obscene.”

Tambi collected her cinnamon roll from the top of the tablet. “Let’s debrief over food. Do a base reading and gather data.”

Doc fell into step beside Tambi, scanner still out, running a secondary check on Cass without being asked. Monica took the tool bag and the remaining coffees and headed up the corridor, humming to herself.

Cass turned back and gestured with her chin for me to wait. She leaned against the corridor wall, coffee in one hand, pastry in the other, still shimmering with gold residue. The adrenaline drained out of her as her shoulders sank, and there was a slight tremor in the hand holding the cup.

“You scared me.” I didn’t dress it up. She deserved the truth. I’d thought my ship was about to kill her.

“Yeah, I got the chills for a second, too, and I don’t scare easy.” She looked up. “If your ship wanted me dead, she had time to do it in that room. Whatever is in there, it’s not hostile. I think... it’s lonely. And maybe scared, too.”

“That’s a guess. Humans don’t bond to our tech.”

“Has any human ever tried to bond with one of your ships?”

“Well, no.”

“So, it could work?”

“Why would my ship want to bond with a human?”

“I’ll pretend I’m not insulted by that.” She grinned. “Maybe we can. Other alien tech is compatible. We’re not as advanced as some aliens who find us, but we accept neural implants, and we have those glasses that show way too much, but they give me a headache, so I don’t use them.”

“That’s different. Our ship bond is forever until death. You can remove your tech.” I brushed gold dust off her shoulder, needing an excuse to touch her.

“I don’t disagree. But I communicated with her. Not in words. The ship’s neural system responded to my touch. I calmed her the same way I’d calm any frightened thing.”

I stepped closer. Close enough to smell the sweet burned-sugar scent of resin on her skin, mixed in with her now, part of her, like my ship had marked its favorite.

“You’re covered in my ship,” I murmured.

“She started it.” Cass smiled, no fear in her eyes. “But I didn’t let go, and refused to let her freak me out. She almost won when shapes came out of the alcove, but we came to an agreement.”

I reached for her face to brush off more gold, giving her time to step back and laugh it off. My thumb found the line of her jaw, and my hand settled against her cheek.

Cass didn’t pull away.

I leaned in, and her breath moved across my mouth, her eyes closing before mine did. The corridor was quiet. Everything had gone still in a way the Hollow Chorus hadn’t managed since I’d signed the deed.

I wanted Cass’s mouth. I wanted it badly enough that keeping still cost me, a heat low in my gut, my pulse in my throat, my hand on her jaw the only point of contact when every nerve in my body demanded more.

Neither of us closed the gap.

Cass opened her eyes. She was close enough that I got the exact shade of blue, with flecks of gold that hadn’t been there before she’d met the Hollow Chorus. Was Cass changing because of the ship or was my ship changing because of her?

“You know, I need to go back in there.” Her voice was low, her gaze dipping to my mouth and back up to my eyes.

“It’s not safe.” I stroked my thumb against her soft skin.

“Rennick.” She put her free hand against my chest. “Whatever is in that room, the ship trusts me with it. I need to go back in and let it finish what it started.”

“The ship locked you inside. That could have been a test to see how vulnerable you are.”

“Yet I walked out on my own terms.” She tipped her chin up, and her mouth was right there. “Let me have this.”

Everything in me said no. The protectiveness hard-wired into my biology, the weeks of watching this ship fight anyone who got close, and scaring everyone else away.