Page 58

“And you keep testing it.”

The answer came with enough dry amusement that she laughed.

This time the band remained cool.

Both of them noticed.

Dreven’s gaze dropped to her wrist for a moment before returning to her face. The humor faded, but the warmth remained.

“Council in one hour,” he said.

“I heard you the first time.”

“I was reminding you.”

“You mean ordering me.”

His brow lifted. “No. If I were ordering you, you would know.”

Kesta studied him.

There it was again—that glimpse of the commander underneath all the careful restraint. The male who had survived nearly three decades on this world had not become passive merely because he was trying not to treat her as property.

She found that realization unexpectedly reassuring.

“Fine,” she said. “I’ll come.”

Dreven inclined his head and started toward the door.

Kesta watched him take two steps before something occurred to her.

“Dreven.”

He turned.

She nodded toward his arm. “Try not to reopen that before the council.”

The corner of his mouth lifted. “Was that concern?”

“It was medical advice.”

“Of course.”

He left before she could think of a better answer.

Keth followed him, although his mechanical eye rotated back toward Kesta once before he disappeared through the doorway.

Tavi watched them go and then turned all four eyes—two natural, two lenses mounted on his scanner—toward her.

Kesta frowned. “What?”

“Nothing.”

“That expression is not nothing.”

“I am preserving my opportunity to remain alive.”

Sera made a soft sound beside the treatment table.