Page 64

TERESA

“She’s not talking to me,” Nezara sighed as she came out of the makeshift interrogation room in city hall. New Knossos didn’t have a lot of crime, and there weren’t any police. The bulls handled issues amongst themselves and the mayor stepped in when things crossed a line.

Korfas wasn’t really sure what to do with Julia and Jason. A fight outside the tavern? That was easy enough to handle. Someone stole some figs from Kazan’s orchard? No problem. But a human man crash-landing, killing goats, and causing chaos?

Yeah, no one was sure how to handle the issue.

“Korfas and Rauf are still in with Jason.” Korfas had wanted to do the interrogation alone, but Rauf insisted on accompanying him. I wasn’t sure who was the most likely in the room to get punched. “Do you want me to talk to her?” I wasn’t official; I didn’t have any standing on this planet. But Julia was my friend… sort of. Maybe she’d open up to me.

Nezara lowered herself onto the bench beside the door. She sat for a moment with her hands resting on her knees, looking at the floor.

“I can’t guarantee the constant happiness of my brides; I’m not a goddess. But to have her be so dissatisfied with the program that she called for help? No one is a prisoner here.”

“We don’t know exactly what happened.” I almost put a calming hand on Nezara’s broad shoulder, but stopped myself. Something about the woman felt untouchable in a way I couldn’t explain. She was so put together, so composed, that seeing her at her wit’s end was alarming.

“Then, yes, I think you should go in and try and find out.”

I opened the door before I could reconsider volunteering.

The interrogation room was a closet. A minotaur-sized closet, which meant there was plenty of room for two human women even with the shelves taking up one wall. Boxes had been pushed aside to make space for two chairs. Julia sat in the one farthest from the door, her feet tucked onto its lower rung. Her wrists were free.

I pulled the door closed and went toward her. There was still dirt on the knees of her pants, and she’d rubbed her eyes until the skin around them was red. I hadn’t liked tripping her out by the ship. Looking at her now didn’t make me feel any better about it.

Julia slumped so much in her seat when she saw me come in she looked like she was melting. “Are you going to execute me?”

“What? Of course not!” I pulled the other chair closer and sat down. “Julia, nobody’s asked me to do anything except talk to you.”

“This all got out of hand. I’m so sorry.” She reached for me, and I let her take my hand. Her fingers were cold. I’d come in here ready to be angry with her, but she looked so frightened that I wanted to get her out of this room.

I couldn’t do that without knowing what she’d helped Jason do.

“How about you tell me what happened?”

Julia glanced at the door behind me. There was no window, and I was sitting between her and the only way out. I shifted my chair to the side. This was an unfortunate place to convince a woman she wasn’t a prisoner.

I squeezed Julia’s hand. “I believe you when you say there’s been some sort of misunderstanding, but don’t you think it would help if you cleared things up? When did you realize Jason was here?”

She rubbed beneath one eye with her free hand. “Honestly, not until Drev brought him to Otho’s. We’d had a call when things were bad with Dezan but then he wouldn’t respond. I guess he was on his way here and didn’t want me to stop him. Or something.”

“Yeah?” I waited. She’d stopped rubbing her eye and was watching me now, still holding on to my hand.

“You have to understand, Jason wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

I let go of her. “He was shooting a blaster at Rauf and Korfas. He pointed one at me.”

“Only because he was scared!” She sat forward, close enough that our knees touched.

I moved back. I’d been scared too, crouching in the dirt while he drove away with her. I wanted to ask whether she’d thought about that at all. But if we started arguing over her brother now, Nezara could spend the rest of the day outside that door waiting for an explanation.

“I’m sure Rauf and Korfas were really intimidating.”

“I don’t know how you can stand it.” Her gaze went to the door again. Rauf was somewhere down the hall questioning her brother. He’d also helped pull that same brother out of a cave and sent him to a doctor.

“I’m not afraid of Rauf.” I rested my hands on my own knees. Julia looked at them for a moment before leaning back in her chair.

“I just want to go home.”

“Then tell me what happened and we’ll see what we can do.”