Page 66 of Meteor Storm

“Your superiors raise you?”

He nodded. “They raise us. Train us. When we’re old enough, we are placed in a unit. Sometimes, if contracts require, smaller units are absorbed into larger ones, but it is important that we function in a familiar group. It strengthens us.”

“So, your units are like family?”

“I don’t know this word like you know it. We are close, but only for the sake of more cohesive function. Usually, we remain with the same unit till the end.”

“So, where is yours?” I asked, not sure I wanted to know the answer.

Aside from his wandering eyes, Thilar showed no signs of emotion when he said, “They are gone. Our vessel was the Haak. It was ancient and formidable. The Haak and two other warships were dispatched to Ursa, a hostile quadrant that had been ravaged by war for many cycles. It had begun bleeding into territories that had no part in the conflict. So, the Hethkaar Collective paid a good sum to have us end the war.”

“Did you?”

“From what I’ve heard, yes. But my ship—my men—are gone. If Pek-Tol hadn’t brought me back, I would be, too. The shameful things I have done since that day, under no banner, purely for survival… some days I wish he hadn’t brought me back.”

Without thinking, I reached out and took Thilar’s hand. “I don’t wish that. If you hadn’t been there, I would not have lasted a day. The nozun would have torn me in half the moment I stepped foot in the game.”

His eyes darted to our connected grips and then he moved closer, a concerned expression streaked across his face as he squeezed my fingers. Suddenly, he had both my hands in his.

“I am sorry,” he said. “I was aware humans did not do well in the cold. I should have considered that you would take longer to recover from it, too.”

I hadn’t even thought that my fingers were still freezing.

He pressed my hands between his heated palms, slowly warming them. Heat rushed through me at once, driving the cold from more than just my fingers. I looked up, my pulse quickening the instant his gold-green eyes met mine. In the light, his oversized pupils had narrowed again into slitted shapes, beautiful and lethal all at once.

Glancing at his lips, I wondered what it would be like to kiss him. Did monrians kiss? Humans barely did. I wasn’t even sure I remembered how.

So why did I want to?

“Can I ask you something?” I said.

“Of course.”

“Why exactly did you need time away from me the past couple days?”

He paused, his head dropping momentarily. “I will need reconditioning after Mekah. Many things have clouded my judgement. You are one of those things.”

20: Thilar

“I will need reconditioning after Mekah,” I said. “Many things have clouded my judgement.” When I lifted my gaze and met Penny’s eyes, I felt the slightest skip in my pulse. “You are one of those things.”

Her brows furrowed at those words like she didn’t quite understand my meaning, but I was certain by then that I knew her words well. I said it right.

“I have done things solely to protect you, and I have had to forget myself to do it.”

“And that’s considered clouded judgement?”

I nodded my head once and in response, she straightened, rolling her shoulders back and smiling faintly.

“I see,” she said.

A long stretch of silence spread between us. Thoughts were zipping through her mind like a swarm of sun wasps. She started to tap her hands on her knees, her teeth gnawing at her bottom lip.

She was anxious.

Her scent had changed. There was a spicy sweetness to her now that set my senses ablaze.

Suddenly, she stood. “I should go back to my little, lonely wing of the ship.”