Page 5 of He Will Always Love Me

Then I pause, watching the confusion wash over her face. Her expression, I’m sure, mirrors my own.

Why would you say that? You’ve known her all of twenty minutes. Where did that come from?

“I mean, humans. Humans do that. It’s a common trait among your people,” I offer. By this point, I don’t even know if I’m lying or not. If that’s what I meant to say, I’m not sure why it came out the way that it did.

But I’m not about to look stupid in front of a human casino worker.

“Start thinking about how you’re going to prove your use around here,” I snarl. “If you can’t pull your weight, I’ll put you off the ship myself. Better hope you have some skills.”

With that, I storm out of the room before I do anything else foolish.

I try to pretend I don’t even remember she’s there for a few hours, as I go through our stolen goods and my team and I toast the haul. Even Renari finally shows up and smiles at our success, though he still has a stubborn pout on his face.

No one even mentions the girl, but my mind keeps drifting back to her anyway. I can’t help it. There’s something about her that I can’t quite put my finger on, but it’s both compelling and consuming.

Finally, when most of the crew has gone to bed for the night, and the remainder is busy working, I head to the kitchen to make her a simple dinner. She may be my prisoner, but I know humans will starve quickly without nourishment. That’s something I’d rather avoid, or all this effort will have been for nothing.

When I unlock the door to her room, carrying a tray with dried and spiced erkey slices and hagaberry sauce, she’s laying on the plastic mattress and staring up at the ceiling.

She barely moves her head as her eyes slide my way. “Thank you,” she whispers quietly. The mattress crinkles loudly with the motion.

“You’ll need energy when the work begins,” I say gruffly. I shove the tray beside her on the bed and force myself to walk back out though a part of me wants to interrogate her. I want to know everything about her, but I’m not even sure what questions I should be asking.

For three days, I ignore her until late at night, almost as if just to prove I can. For three days, the itch to see her consumes my thoughts and I try to pretend it doesn’t. For three days, when I finally do see her, I find myself mesmerized in her presence and have to back out of the room almost as quickly as I came into it.

If I believed in the old urban legends of magic or witches, I’d think she had to be one.

“Why don’t we take her somewhere and sell her?” Renari hisses on the third day as I latch the door to her cabin once again. He seems to be just as fixated as the human as I am, but his interest is quickly growing aggravating and wearing on my nerves.

“We can set the course someplace close and just get rid of her, simple as that. Or is she here as a dinner guest now?” His tone is frustrated, but there’s a hint of mockery underneath that makes my temper boil.

“You overstep, Renari,” I warn.

“This obsession is beneath you, Karvex. We have more important goals.”

I draw myself to my full height, but something in his words strikes me. Do we? Breaking the human down seems like the highest priority to me now, but I can’t put my finger on why. Deep inside me, it’s as if I know she has a secret, and I can’t release her until I know what it is.

But I have no explanation for this. She’s a mere casino girl from the planet Gur. What useful knowledge could she possibly have? Her skill is surely primarily focused on how to mix a proper drink. Fun but hardly life-changing.

“I’ll handle her how I see fit. You’d do good to mind your own role here and worry less about hers,” I tell him, wanting to drown out the question that lingers in my own mind.

Namely, why every so often when our eyes meet, I feel as though she’s holding a piece of me in her hands and refuses to give it back. I can’t even recognize the part she’s stolen, but it’s mine and I want it.

She’s mine. I shake that voice away, watching as Renari stomps off in frustration.

Something in my soul wants to show her exactly that. The fact that she is mine, in a way anyone could easily see. It’s so obvious to me that I sometimes think the others must notice. When I’m near her, it’s like something long forgotten has clicked into place. She’s mine, and I cannot allow what’s mine to slip through my fingers.

Maybe he’s right. You can’t just keep her locked up and doing nothing. It’s not that I care about her feelings, but the other men in my crew will start to wonder. I have to give her a job, same as everyone else on the ship. I’ll have to pick it carefully, though. As a prisoner, she can’t have too much freedom.

I push open the door one more time. She jumps in surprise, not expecting me so soon. Up until now, I’ve only arrived to bring her food once or twice a day.

“You’re back,” she announces flatly. She doesn’t hide her face this time, and I sneer. I’ve been too soft on her while I deliberated what to do with her next, and her fear is fading.

I’ll fix that.

“Come to my room,” I demand, moving to unbind her legs from the chair she’s strapped to.

She pales.

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