Page 15 of For the Strange and Surprising

“I’ll be sure to thank her in the morning,” I say, more to myself than anyone else.

He sneers at me. “I think I’d prefer if you stayed far away from her until we know where you came from.”

I just grin at him, unable to find a single care about what he thinks of me or where I came from. He’ll figure out that I’m not lying when I leave, when I finally get to go home.

“Could you find it in your heart to do one last, tiny favor for me?” I ask in a sullen voice, making sure my eyes are slightly downcast.

I see Talodus smile while shaking his head, so I know that he sees through me.

“What’s that?” Ecaeris questions dismissively, ready to throw me out as soon as he can.

“Would you kindly check the beach where the guards found me? I left something important there.”

His brows pinch together, not following why I would ask for that. “And what should I be looking for exactly?”

“Any of the fucks I could have given you. I feel like I had more when I started swimming toward the shore earlier.”

The prince glares at me, and I shrug.

“If they aren’t on the beach, then they probably sank somewhere in the hundreds of yards that I had to swim to get to land. You’re more than welcome to check with the huge fucking octopus that was chasing me, too.”

5

Adelaide

Ecaeris had stormed away, muttering under his breath before he slammed the door to the medical bay. Talodus and Imryll grinned at each other, but stayed silent.

“Aren’t you supposed to tell me to stop being mean to your friend?”

I can’t help my curiosity. They seem elated at seeing him so frazzled. It confuses me.

“Probably,” Talodus responds, rubbing a scarred hand over the top of his head.

“We could,” Imryll concedes. “But it’s interesting when someone pushes him. He isn’t used to being challenged.”

“Connak is the only one who can really get under his skin,” Talodus says before walking farther into the room.

He closes the thin door behind him and comes to stand on my left side, offering me his hand. When I stare at it, he winces as he admits, “It hurts.”

It takes me a second to realize that he means the crab berry leaf juice that Imryll is opening.

“Right.”

I’m not looking forward to it, but it has to be easier to deal with than being stitched up without any kind of numbing agent. I stand by my decision.

Imryll grimaces. “Maybe lie down? Get comfortable?”

That’s not a good sign, but I do stretch out on the strange table, keeping my right arm flat at my side so that he can access it. I even grab Talodus’s hand, hating myself for depending on people. Especially people who I don’t know.

Or maybe not.

It’s always worse when you depend on the people you’re supposed to be able to lean on, only for them to let you down.

At least I don’t know these people. So if they let me down, I’m not stuck in disappointment.

“Ready?” Imryll asks, breaking my train of thought.

“No,” I confess. “Just do it.”