Page 31 of Gyft

“Of course you can,” the male says gently to Kyno, whose spikes drop in relief. “You and Brisa were signed up before your freelig went white and the color makes no difference in the play.”

Is it just me or does it appear that Bride is smiling wide at the professor?

“You’ll have a few more years in regular school before you’ll go to the castle to attend training.”

“I’m not sure I wanna.” Brisa scowls.

“You’ll change your mind by then,” Professor B’lacer says smoothly. “You’ll grow bored in regular school. You’ll want more exercise to adapt to your changing body. More training to satisfy your new strength and speed. But you don’t have to worry about it now. You’re just ninety seasons old.”

“Livva is twenty-four. Just a baby,” Brisa says.

Olivia smiles, locking her arm around Brisa. “To be fair, we count by years, not seasons. Oh, and we get four seasons a year, not as many as you do. Spring, summer, autumn and winter.”

“We count by the cold seasons. There are ten each annual year, but we don’t count the annual until it ends. So, these two”—hereaches out to ruffle the kids’ freelig— “are ninety until the end of the count, then they’ll jump to one hundred. And, our seasons are always like this, warm weather until the cold one hits.” The professor holds his arms out, making his well-formed physique pop. Does it seem like Bride’s gaze drifts there? “After twenty-four or so sun cycles, we have a cold season that lasts about seven sun cycles. It starts all over again.”

“So your sun cycles would be one of our days. Then you have a week of winter after a little more than a month later. Doesn’t the cold snap kill off your vegetation? Don’t mind all my questions. This is fascinating.”

“No, a... week isn’t long enough to kill our crops. Our planet has probably evolved differently than yours. If a cold season lasted... maybe three of your weeks, the plants might wither and die.”

I don’t like the way these two get along. Surely I should have been the one to explain the differences in our planets? To be fair, we just started understanding each other.

“An interesting theory. If we have an early winter, we tend to cover our plants for the colder nights to keep getting crop from them as long as possible. Our days are still quite warm. I’d love to learn more. I might have to attend school one of these days with the twins.”

A smile makes the professor look roguishly handsome, but I’m sure if he was faced with the deadlands, he’d squeal like a seedling. “We’ll learn just as much from you as you would from us.”

“Yes, Livva, yes! It would be so fun for you to come with us to school. Can it be soon?”

My stomach sinks. I can’t have Bride exposed to the professor. He’s too suave, too smooth, too impressive.

“Olivia hasn’t the time!” I snap. “She doesn’t live here. She must settle into her grand new home at the castle. Not everyone can live there, you know.”

“Well, later then,” Brisa says, looking at me like I’ve grown a second tail. They wander off with their precious Professor B’lacer.

Olivia is also staring at me like I grew another tail. “Well, that was awkward.”

“You’remybride. Not theirs.” I’m not sure who looks more surprised—Olivia or me. My words hit me just as hard as they hit her.

“I know,” she whispers and lifts herself up on her toes to kiss me.

In public.

No brichets.

And what do I do? I kiss her back like there’s no tomorrow. I kiss her back like I’m not the First Commander of the Kings Army. I kiss her like I’m not aware of people’s stares at the sight of a Commander kissing his alien bride.

His beautiful alien bride, because surely all these nosy commoners are jealous.

Chapter Thirteen

OLIVIA:

MY SWEET ALIEN husband is jealous. There are no other words for it.

“You weren’t being very nice to the poor professor,” I chide, though it’s teasing.

Gyft gulps, obviously well aware of the fact and maybe feeling guilty. “Do you want me to get him back here? Apologize?”

I tap my chin as I pretend to think about it. “Maybe.”

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