Page 106 of Command

Alina’s muscles coiled, but before she could do anything Threxin was already tearing himself away from her, his back crashing loudly against the wall on the opposite side of the bed. He launched himself to the floor, backing away to the very edge of the room. Scrambling as far from her as he could in the confines of the tiny cabin.

Something froze deep in Alina’s chest. She scrambled upright, yanking the quilt from the edge of the bed and covering herself with it.

Threxin stared at her, panting, one hand gripping his temple. He shook his head violently. Alina jumped as he slammed a fist into the wall behind him, his face twisted into a terrible grimace.

She knew what it was now—the limiter, holding him back.

An uhyre on a leash.

Alina was on the verge of tears as she gathered herself. For a few seconds, she let herself be scared and see the monsterfrom all those childhood stories. The one who had just been inside her… wasstillinside her. She swallowed, exorin still tangy on her tongue.

Then her allotted moment of selfishness was over. She wrapped the quilt around herself and crawled slowly off the bed, suppressing a wince at the pain between her legs.

“Threxin,” Alina crooned softly, searching his face for traces of the man behind this lost thing he appeared to be now.

He shook his head again and shoved the heels of his hands into his eye sockets. He recoiled against the wall as she approached, but Alina didn’t stop. She moved slowly, quietly, each step closer a tiny victory until she could reach out her hand and put it on her uhyre’s chest. He shivered beneath her fingers.

“Does it still hurt?” she asked, mentally cataloguing everything she thought she could remember from her medkit, searching for something that might help.

She thought she knew.

“Wait,” she said, and padded over to her hydrastation. She still had some rations left from the day. She fished out her stash of peppermint tea… another soothing mechanism that didn’t really help her anxiety all that much but was better than nothing. She popped a bag into a shot glass and filled it with hot water.

“It can’t be boiling,” she said as she prepared the drink. “Boiling burns it, see?”

She glanced over her shoulder and found Threxin staring at her, his eyes still blank but at least tracking her movements.

God, it hurts.

The thought was for her body too, but really it was just that her heart had been stabbed. But Threxin needed her, and it was not the time to fall apart.

“Sit.” She motioned to the bed, and when Threxinhesitated she sighed and stepped back. “Please. I won’t come close, don’t worry.”

He sat, and she held out the tea, not coming closer as she waited for him to take the glass. When he did, she sat in her plastic chair, ignoring the ache in her belly when her body folded into the position.

Threxin stared at the shot glass in his hands. Alina had expected him to protest and say his kind doesn’t drink.

Instead, he brought the tea to his lips and downed it in one quick gulp.

That… wasn’t really the idea, but it was better than nothing. She wished she hadn’t smoked all his hak.

“Alina Argoud. My limiter…” His apertures were nonexistent slits in his skin, tight and withdrawn like the rest of him. “Something went wrong.”

“Does it still hurt?” Alina asked again.

“It always hurts,” he muttered, shaking his head. “Lately it always. Shoqing. Hurts.”

She yearned to be able to do something. Help make it better somehow. But Alina was no medic and certainly no engineer. She had no idea what to do in this situation.

“Can we… can we find a way to improve it? You found a way to improve our jump drive. Surely an implant…”

Threxin flicked his fingers, dismissing her. Apparently it was not the time for helpful suggestions.

Alina wrung her hands, then decided to take a chance. She rose from her seat and came to him. He tensed visibly, but permitted her to be at his side on the bed.

What was the point of the vaccine if this is still keeping us apart?

“Can you stay here tonight? With me?”

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